I am way behind on this post, as I just now saw it for the first time. But the topic really intrigued me. It is very interesting to me to see everyone’s opinions on what caliber is best, let alone top three calibers to cover every need. So I am posting the three that I have to let you all...
I am a huge fan of Athlon scopes. I own 4 of them. The Midas TAC would fall in your price range and it is a fabulaous scope. I put mine on my 22-250 and I use it for plinking and rock chucks in the spring. I promise you won't be disappointed in your Athlon.
I wanted to thank you all for your help in getting me powder and load info in such a short time a couple weeks ago. I ended up using 68.6 grains of RL23. It gave me 3085 fps and just over .5moa groups. And to top it off I was able to get a first round shot on target at a mile the other day...