I’ll say if I were gonna go cheap, I’d get a good used Nikon, for 125-175.00.
They still made decent scopes. I like used leupold’s myself, but I wouldn’t classify them as cheap. I could take 6-700.00 and buy a dang good used deer killing set up. How about no cheap rings and bases?

I remember the good ol days of chasing my tail with a 7400, see through rings, and a world class. I wasted a lot of shells!

I have a Simmons Pro 50. Been camoed . glass is clear. FREE ! if it will help you out

I've had good luck with the Athlon scopes. The Neos line is the cheapest. I have owned 3 or 4 with no issues.

^^^^
This

If all you can afford is a $200 scope, it would be really hard to beat a Redfield Revolution. Made in the USA by Leupold.

If you can afford more, your options increase. We do spend more, but all we do is hunt. My wife and I don't own a boat any more, don't go to Disney, to the beach, or on cruises, and we rarely eat out.

We do have some great optics, and enjoy our out of state hunting trips. Those put great meat on the table.

There is a point of diminishing returns with scopes but that cut off isn't at 250 dollars. For that price you can get a scope that will hold zero and maybe won't fog up on you. But you are not going to get good low light performance from a scope in that price range. Trust me I am no elitist scope snob. If there was a 250 dollar scope that was as good as any of the more expensive scopes out there I'd have one on every rifle I own and be damned glad to save the money. Back in my younger broke days I had scopes like Nikon Prostaffs and Bushnell Banner Dusk & Dawn. Sorry but they cannot hang with the Zeiss, Swarovski, and upper end Leupolds I use now.

I’m a cheap bastage and the most expensive scopes I have are my Nikon manarchs. I have buckmasters and prostaffs also. I also have a bushnell elite 3200, banner dusk to dawn, and a vortex diamondback. I killed the 2 bucks this season with a pro staff and the dusk to dawn. Not deer were on cloudy afternoons and within a minute or 2 of the end of “legal” shooting time. The 10pt I killed was with my AR 7.62x39 with the dusk to dawn scope. I could barely see movement with my eyes but could see him plenty good enough to tell he was a really good buck at a little over 100yds. I said all that to say that my cheats scopes will let me see deer later then I could “legally” shoot one. You know if the time on my watch was wrong by 10 mins or so.

I've used mueller, nikon and bushnell low end stuff that works great. Way better than the best there was 20 years ago.

Geno. Sorry man but Zeiss, Swarovski, Kahles, Leica, and schmidt and bender were all here 20 years ago and none of those scopes, not even in the most expensive model today can even touch what these scopes were 20 years ago.

I paid around $275 for a Meopta Optika5 2-10x42 and I think it’s fantastic for the price. Got it from sport optics in Louisiana.

There are main measures of quality (actually, lots more,but 2 "main") First, there is the sharpness, return to zero, optical clarity, lack of distortion at the edges, low light/coatings, etc. There, modern Asian grinding and coating certainly is far ahead of premium European quality from a couple of decades ago.
But.......then there is the hundreds of rounds fired, miles traveled, guns dropped, guns moved from freezing to indoors thousands of times, hunted in mist, fog, rain, etc, etc. For that, I'll take my 20 yo Leupold or Zeiss, not to mention Swaro, all day long. I'm legally blind without glasses, and I'm well aware that all that extra glass makes me lose sight quickly at dust, but I'll take the older glass over modern cost cutting construction techniques, thank you. I bet you CAN see better than me through a $250 scope. I bet you won't be carrying it in 20 years, either.

Dvor has Burris Fullfield E1 3-9x40 on sale for less than $150. Excellent scope and not made in China.

Much much much better than any cheap ($100) Chinese scope.

I hav pretty quality scopes on my guns - but if u want cheap - i had a buddy that had a world class tasco that was decent

I would go with something nicer - meopta makes great scope for $$ - but if u want to go cheap 3x9x50 world class tasco you can get for $75 😀 and it will work

I can afford a quality scope but don’t want to go that route. The rifle is more or less a loaner and I don’t care to spend more money than needed for a scope on it. The main purpose of having this rifle and for a kid that doesn’t have their own when they come to the hunting club.

Vortex Crossfire II would be a good option too...I've killed a lot of deer with one that would now be well past legal shooting light after the rule change.

Explaining it that way doghouse - I understand where u coming from and don’t blame u - I prob do same w a loaner

There’s always a bunch of used scopes for sale over on the Campfire website. Go there and buy a good one at a used price.

Yea, they don’t come around here very much.

My son killed a bunch of deer with a 3x9x50 banner dusk till dawn on his rifle. I gave it to a fellow on here. Now his daughter is killing deer with it. They are well worth what you pay for them