WHile my preferred choice is the Zeiss COnquest (got two) I would recommend that you check out the Bushnell Trophy 3-9x40. You can get these through Midway for well under 100 bucks and they are very satisfactory. I have one perched on my relatively new 700 BDL .30-06. I like the re-settable fingertip click adjusts, and the optics are reasonably good, GREAT for the price. For optics that are really nice in an affordable package check out the Bushnell Elite 3200 and 4200. The same Chuck Hawks page that trailer refers to will gove you a summary of these as well. The 3200 is about 200 bucks and the optics come close to my Zeiss for much less money.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/scoping_out.htm