Halfbaked,

You're on fire alright !


"Hunt like you mean it" I'm a Burris guy also

There are many very good scope choices out there. For general purpose hunting at short to medium ranges, a 3-9 X 40 is quite satisfactory. Get the best quality glass you can afford. Reticle choices are personal and very dependent on shooting specifics (range, low light???, illuminated or not, etc). I would not worry about parallax correction until you get over 12 X at the top. Do you hunt in nasty weather? If so, consider a scope with some sort of lens coating like Bushnell Rainguard.

I have both a Fullfield II & Bushnell 4200 (both 3-9x40) and I'd go with the 4200. I think Cabela's has them on sale for $180.00.

I would stay away from high magnification.You really don't need anything over 3-9 at least for hunting.

i mean ya can, but ya ever tried that at 600? i aint sayin it isnt possible, but it sure is more ethical, imo, to use whats available to get the best possible shot on the animal, vs a center mass, possibly gut shot deer that never gets found..(i could go find 50 stories on this site right now of never recovered deer usually not as long of a shot)

I just purchased a Minox ZA5 3-15x42 for the 7mm-08 I plan on buying.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/minox.pl?page=66020

Very true but, IMO, most hunters (especially newbies) have no business attempting 600 yards shots on live big game.

true, but he said he got his 1st real gun?

Very few people should be shooting anything but paper or steel out at 600 yards because most will not have practiced and shot the hundreds of shots needed to be doing it. I would rather have too much magnification in a scope than not enough for the one time you might need it. All mine have been 3x9, but I just bought a Leupold VXI on sale at Cabelas and I went with the 4-12 for my Sako .243 as I'm well into my 60s and am needing all the help I can get for these poor old eyes of mine! The OP lives in Kansas and he may find the higher magnification handy for some of the longer shots he might get out there.

No amount of magnification will make you a better shot unless your vision is shot.Even then your skill level is what it is.Practice,practice,practice!