[fabsroman]

Evan,

I almost spit my Coke up while reading your post.

I haven't switched a single scope on any of my guns since I bought them.

I bought the Ruger .300 Win after graduating undergrad and bought the Burris Signature 4-12x for it at the same time. That was my first rifle purchase and it hurt the pocket book. The next batch of rifles didn't come until 6 years later and they consisted of the Ruger MkIIvt .220 Swift, a Ruger Mini 30, and a Ruger 10/22. The .270 I have was purchased by my dad a couple of years ago. The reason I use 3-9x scopes on the guns mentioned above is because they will not be used for any long range shooting.

While I believe in getting out there and hunting regardless of the equipment I have, I also believe in buying the best equipment that I can afford at the time I buy it.

Sure, it didn't feel good parting with the $400+ for those scopes, but I have not been dissappointed by any of them. The next rifle I get will probably be the Ruger MkIIvt .25-06 and I will definitely get a Black Diamond for it. I would like to make that rifle my main hunting rifle because I think it will work just fine on groundhogs and whitetails alike.

The current scopes on my rifles will stay there until the rifle or scope is broken or I die.

At the end of the day, if all I could afford was a 3-9x scope, I would have been out hunting with it and I am sure it would have done just fine because I love the ones I have on my slug guns, muzzleloader, etc.