I want to thank you guys for the great advise.. Although differing slightly I'm beginning to get an underlying feeling that everyone is saying that the 3 x 9 is a good size for hunting with the .308 and that I should get some experience under my belt before shelling out the big $ on a high magnification scope that I may never need.
Believe me when I say that I have lots of other things to spend my gun budget on other than a scope that I don't really need! :-)
The Burris 3x9 is a pretty reasonable price. You can get them below $200 if you look around.
I do really need to build the varmint rifle.. but I will probably use that for Coyote hunting. I live in the San Diego area so semi desert hunting is a reality. The other varmint I go after is rabbit.. but I recon the 12GA is probably better.
I do have a .22 Ruger 10/22 that I actually bought this past Christmas to teach my kids to shoot. But its really there rifle and I don't want to put a scope on it yet because I want to teach them to shoot with iron sites first.
So that brings me back to the AR15 varmint rifle that I'm building. I actually have 5 stripped lowers sitting in my safe.. so I feel the need is for a small caliber varmint rifle.
So I'm thinking of a plan.. please let me know what you think.
I could buy another Burris 3x9 which is a good budget scope and fit that onto the new AR varmint
I could spend a couple of seasons more hunting Deer with the .308 and Coyotes weith the AR and Rabbit with the shotgun.
If after a bit more experience I feel that I need a bit more magnification in either the .308 or the AR then I get something stronger and put the Burris 3x9 that I take off onto my kids .22 Ruger 10/22
If I need to replace both then I'm only $200 in the hole on the 2nd Burris and I can either keep it or sell it? or even put it on a 2nd AR varmint if my kids want one for hunting.
Does that sound like a reasonable plan?
Thanks again!