Ok, that is the type of information I was looking for. When you are talking a scope of that power with those features you probably will not find a decent one for that kind of money. Now if you were talking a simple 3-9x40 or something, or even a fixed 6x then you could probably get away with it. The banners are decent scopes for the price, especially for a typical hunting scope.
However when you get into the higher powers the cheaper scopes get a bit iffy. High power optics with adjustable parallax for sub 300 dollar prices are hard to find. While you might be able to see through them and possibly hit what you are aiming at I doubt they will do everything you want them to do well. Those features are just a lot to ask from a scope in that price point is all. Sub $200 scopes barely cut it with average magnification and few features. Once you double the power and add some fancy features they had to cut corners somewhere in order to hit that price point
. And that will usually be with optics and quality control.
I'll be honest I don't think you really need a scope that big either, you might be better off getting a bit less power and spending the money on a slightly better scope. I recently bought a .243 as well and put a 4-16 power scope on it. Just to see what it would it would do I put a stuffed animal about the size of a woodchuck in a field 300 yards away. I could see the animal well enough to hit it at 8 power. I could see it better at 16 power, but it was extremely hard to hold the crosshairs on the target. I used to have a 6.5-20 on a 17HMR and I never really needed that much power either.
And the other draw back is at that high of a magnification mirage becomes a big issue, especially looking long distance across a field. And the less lens quality you have the worse that is going to be.
I recently purchased a Mueller scope and I am pretty happy with it. I got the 4-16x50 tactical with illuminated mildots. Cost me 225 at gander mountain. It looks pretty darn nice for the price I paid for it. I compared it to a 420 dollar nikon monarch and while the monarch was better, it wasn't that much better. They have a 3-10x44 Tac II now that is supposed to have even better optics in it. The only down side is no adjustable parallax. And I just looked and Cabela's has a 3200 elite in a 3-10x40 for a little over 200 bucks. I would suggest that over a high powered banner for not much less any day of the weak. As a matter of fact if I had seen that when I was looking I may have gotten that instead of the mueller I got.
The Dusk to Dawn scopes are pretty decent for the money, but I couldn't recommend one at that power. I feel the scope I bought is a bit "cheap" for what it is.
Only my opinions and I would pick the banner over any of the simmons scopes right now though. Maybe an aetec if they still make them.
Paul