RE: scopes
Sightron SII and looks they have an SIII out now as well.
Burris Signature
Bushnell 4200
All have excellent optics.
The only real advantages Leupold has is eye relief and light weight going for them. Their vari xIII optics are not noticeably better than the others and are surpassed by a few.
Check out the long range hunting website. They discuss many other brands of European scopes that are very nice scopes but are not well publicised with some interesting reticle options.