New scope

[lightshooter]

Do you want sfp or ffp?
I've had a Steiner t5xi 5-25 for a few years on my target rifle. It's super bright German glass but a bit of chromatic abberation. I've looked through scopes twice is value that are darker and not as sharp. Turrets are always repeatable although this scope had a rough start. It's about twice your budget tho and ffp.
I recently bought the p4xi 4-16 which is within your budget, also ffp. I haven't put it through it's paces yet but seem to be very well made. So that would be my recommendation or the swfa is supposed to very good, Bushnell elite, all ffp recommendations.
If you're wanting sfp they tend to be a lot cheaper so you could afford a couple of the Nightforce models.

 

[GMHVAC]

For pure"value" it's pretty hard to beat my two Nikon scopes.
For my .308 a 4X12 BDC Prostaff; for my 300 WM a 4X16 BDC Monarch 3 (includes parallax adjustment). About $300-$350 each. Obviously not a Zeiss or Swavorski, but they work just fine and they are durable and include a lifetime replacement guarantee. Also Nikon's "Spot On" ballistics app works great, for me anyway.

I'm with you on the Nikon. But my pick is the FX1000 with FFP zero stop. 6-24 x 50 mm. I stumbled across this puppy was I was trying to get some cost savings and I can honestly say it's sweet. It's in the $700 range and it's really a $1200 scope. I'm not sure why it is a a cheap as it is but it tracks awesome. Glass is clear. But it only has 60 moa adjustment for elevation which is why it may cost less. That may be an issue but it took my 6.5 CM out to 1100 yds without holding for more elevation. I'm a believer in Nikon now. And that is coming from a " night force" guy.