You don't need to spend 3-6 hundred dollars to get a good hunting scope. If you can afford it by all means do it, but from the sounds of it you can't. Going from a savage package deal to getting a 600 dollar Leupold scope is a pretty big leap. If you are looking for a varmint rig or target rig with lots of magnification then I would say yes, 300 is about where they start to get good. But for a low powered hunting scope you can find some very decent scopes in the 150-200 dollar range.

I have never been a believer in the spend as much on the scope as you did the rifle concept. Just makes no sense to me considering the large range of gun prices out there. If I am getting a gun to deer hunt with and I go with a Stevens or Mossberg for around 250-300 dollars then I should get a 300 dollar scope. If I get a nicer rifle for say $1500 for the same purpose I now need to get a scope that costs more than a grand? That just makes no sense to me. The more expensive rifle is just going to be more pretty than the cheaper one, the performance is going to be virtually the same.

like I said if you can afford it go for it, but if you can't don't beat yourself up over it.

Going from a Tasco to a higher end Zeiss or Swarovski is a HUGE leap in price and quality. There are tons of scopes inbetween there that are perfectly suitable for large game hunting. Lets be honest here, if you had over $1000 dollars to spend on a rifle and scope you wouldn't be looking at Savage package deals or the Remington 770.

Paul