Rifle Scopes Recommend me a Scope, $500 budget

[yz kid 69]

Me and my father are building our first Long range rifle, we bought a Remington 700 varmint .308.

We have $650 for a scope, rings and base. The scope that caught my eye was the Sightron SII 6-24x 42mm mil dot (Is this scope 1st or 2nd focal plane?).

Anyone have any other suggestions for a $500ish budget? looking for no bigger then a 44mm objective(would like to use low rings), as much magnification as possible (My father does not have the best eyes) and a NON illuminated reticle. Would prefer a 30mm body over 1 inch but not a deal breaker. last but not least we do want a target dot reticle, we would prefer mil dot but would settle for a standard reticle.

We would like a 100 Yard zero. Our local range allows shooting up to 300 yards so that's as far as we will shoot until we move out of this state sometime next year where we will start shooting at further distances.

Thank you all in advance, I am a long time lurker of this forum but I look forward to gaining knowledge and contributing to this great forum!

P.S. Feel free to share rings and Base recommendations as well.

 

[N0mad]

Bushnell 3-12x44 ET w/G2DMR First Focal Plane $500 - $600 lightly used or a SWFA SS 10x44 $300 new
EGW, Badger, Seekins, Vortex

 

[VYD]

A ton of mid-end options for $500 and under...SWFA, Vortex Viper, etc...

 

[Outdoorsman9]

Viper HS-T 4-16x44 is an awesome scope and can be found new for under $600

 

[patrol120]

I am not a Vortex koolaid drinker, but I have been very impressed with both the Viper HS-Ts that I have had, both the Midway 5-15 and the current 4-16x.

 

[ballistic1]

Zeiss has some good deals on their closeout conquest line going currently.
Conquest has a 1" tube but the glass is outstanding for it's price point.
Several Vendors here on the Hide carry them.

 

[Captain Kirk]

Went through a tough financial spell a few years back and ended up using a Falcon Menace 4-14. I was border line ashamed to show up to matches with it, but it fit the budget and had the features I needed (FFP, good mil based reticle, mil turrets). It had one catastrophic failure but was replaced under warranty. For $400-500 its hard to find a optic with decent turrets that track and decent glass, the Falcon seemed to be decent and got me through a year of tactical matches. A fixed SWFA may be a god choice as well.

 

[goosed]

You don't need to stick with a 44mm objective to use "Low rings". Seekins low rings can be used with a 50mm objective in most cases. I would highly recommend not paying any attention to whether a set is listed as low, med, high, etc. as actual height varies between manufactures. Focus on the measured height of the rings instead.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about your ring height till much later(unless you need to use a specific height? reason?). Choose your scope and base first, then use this ring height calculator to find the rings to give you the lowest mounting height possible.