My take is it's all up to you, I inherited my dad's 3 rifle's when he passed and they all had cheap a$$ tasco's, bushnell'sand I can't begin to tell you how many deer he has taken over the years with them and they are still holding a zero today. I personally like to stay in the mid range to get the lifetime warranty, the last one I bought was a Nikon Monarch 5-20X44around $400 that has a lifetime warranty, if anything happens to it I will send it back and get another.