Need a scope

[30-06]

i just bought a bushnell elite 3200 3-9x40 for my tikka and i love it. paid 250$ and it's by far better than the 100$ scopes i use to use thats forsure

[Knobbies]

Here's a follow-up question: I've done a bit of research thanks to all the suggestions, and I'm seeing a lot of these "BDC" reticules with extra crosshairs for bullet drop at extended ranges. Stupid question: are these extra crosshairs adjustable?

[open-sights]

There are two different ways to make reticles, one is a wire reticle, basically it's a wire thats welded into a fitting and inserted into the tube between the erector set and the eyepiece. The other way of doing it is to have an etched lens, more common with the BDC type reticles and the illuminated style. Both are equal in performance, both are fixed, neither is able to move, however some manufacturers extend features that would help with caliber and/or range.

[brian]

So what's the difference between, say, Bushnell's Banner Dusk & Dawn for $100, and something like a Zeiss Conquest for $1000? And more importantly, as a novice hunter with a WWII era .303, is it a difference I should be concerned with?

Optics are all about lens quality and good lenses cost money. It doesn't matter whether it is camera lenses, rifle scopes, spotting scopes, binoculars or anything with magnification. The scope is your rifles eyes. You could have the most accurate rifle in the world, if the scope malfunctions in the field, it won't hit what your aiming at. Cheap scopes are generally less well made with cheaper lenses that react poorly in low light situations, they are less clear, more prone to not holding their zero under recoil or by being banged and dinged, and they are also generally more susceptible to fogging up. If you buy a decent reliable scope, you'll probably keep it when you sell the cheap gun.