RE: Who makes the best "cheap scope"
I'd recommend that you look at the Bushnell Trophy, 3-9x40 for under $90. I've got one of these, plus a 4-12x40, and for the money they are great. The optics are decent, not as good as Zeiss or Leupold but not at all bad either.The resettable fingertip adjustments are great - - I like the finger adjusts better than the ones on my Zeiss Conquests.
The Bushnell Elites are better yet, for more money, but the optics are quite good on these.