First off - check out this site; it is a part of SWFA, and deals in trade-ins and sells scopes at a reduced price that are either used, or been demo'ed, which means that they are like new.
Quality optics and accessories from Leupold, Bushnell, Burris, Nikon and more!
I traded in an IOR 2-12x32 scope to them for a TA31HG ACOG. They listed the ACOG as "Demo-A", which is supposed to mean that it has been opened, but never mounted or used, and in like new condition... and when it arrived, it was exactly what it was supposed to be. Good place to deal with.
As for a good long range scope in the $1K range, check out the Trijicon Accupoint 5-20x50mm, 30mm tube, illuminated mil-dot. Trijicon uses excellent glass, great optical clarity and resolution, their scopes are tough as nails, and best of all, it NEVER needs batteries, and works night and day!
Another good brand to check into is IOR Valdada (Valdada is just the U.S. importer). IOR is a relatively small optics manufacturer in Romania, and makes lots of military scopes, and they buy their glass lenses from Schott Glasswerk in Germany, which means the glass is usually better than Leupold's top end, and is similar to Nightforce. The 3-18x model is extremely popular, but be aware, it has a 35mm maintube, which means ring and mounts are a little harder to find, and the scope is HUGE, and HEAVY. It becomes worth it when you can adjust zero to 1000 yards without having to use an inclined base.
If there's any way possible though, save up the extra cash and get yourself a Nightforce 3-15x50... They are outstanding! And in my opinion, the 3-15x magnification range is the most useful range out there... Works as well deer hunting at 50-100 yards as it does punching paper at 1200 yards.
Realistically, you can target shoot at 1000 with a 10x scope - and a 14/16x just makes it easy lol... 20-32x is just getting too much like a mini-telescope for me LOL... unless you are vised into a sturdy bench, the crosshairs are much too difficult to steady at 24x+ to be useful for anything but benchrest shooting, but, to each his own! Good luck!
