Some may be your personal preference and some will depend on what and how you are hunting. Are you deer hunting? Are you hunting primarily from a stand or do a fair amount of walking? Are you likely to see game at 100 yards and less, maybe running that you might like to shoot at?
- You don't need a ballistic turret to dial in clicks - you can take caps off the good european scopes and do your clicks if you want (very repeatable). If you were shooting a lot at really long range and many different distances, you'd probably want the ballistic turret. They are big and bulky and get in the way at times if you are are a walking hunter at all. Either way you can dial up and down, but you really would only need that for around 500. You could about aim dead-on for 300+ yards and 10-12" high at 400 - so you'd rarely need to "click" in adjustments
- As backwoods83 mentioned, you could get a ballistic type reticle with a few hash marks to use for longer distances. Just keep in mind, there is almost always some type of compromise - the thinner, more complex reticles are great for different drops, but that can slow you down if all you want to do is quickly aim and shoot, or the thin lines can get lost in real dim conditions unless you have an illuminated reticle. Again, depends on what and how you hunt...
- You could use a "normal" scope and "normal/plex" reticle and again, really only need an aid one the rare occasions you were shooting closer to 500 (hold over, click, use the bottom of the plex reticle etc.)
If you are always on a stand and have lots of time, something like a 6.5-20 may be fine. I walk and hunt too, and sometimes need to be able to quickly acquire an animal running or close up, or in thick timber. I'd never want 6.5x for my min. mangnification. I like at least 3x or 4x so you can "find em" quickly. Also, 20x is nice I guess, especially for prarie dogs etc. but for deer-size game guys have been using 3x9 for many years out to 500. Something like a 3-12, 4-16 etc may be good...depends what you're hunting and how you hunt. My 3-12 is totally adequate out to 700yds+ for larger game.
No offense to any other posters, but when you said BEST - Zeiss Conquest and Sightron aren't it - they are good, but they aren't $2000 Zeiss/Swaro good. I have a Zeiss Conquest on a light-weight hunting rifle and it is good/acceptable. It is NO WHERE NEAR the same quality in looks or feel to it's $2k relatives or my Swaro. It has Zeiss's name on it, and it's good, but you are talking apples and oranges compared to the better 30mm tube models. If you change your description to a "good scope at a good price or trying to save some money" then it's a different story, but none of these $1k and less scopes will hold a candle to those 2x their price in a good european scope. If you have the coin - you won't regret the purchase.
