Zach I have no experiance at all with the Cabalas scopes. I bought a Weaver 44/40 6.5-20 AO for right at $200 to go on my custom savage striker and so far I have been impressed. I have only fored 20 rounds so far so I have no idea how it will hold up. I have not done any tracking tests yet and that may have to wait until it warms up a little but I do plan on more tests. So far I have spent an evening with it, a Weaver grand slam 6.5-20 and a Leupold 4.5-14 vari x III checking low light viewing and was very impressed with it for the money. At the range like I said, only 20 rounds fired but several of those were hits on a 17" steel plate at 500 yds and 3 rounds on paper in just over 3 inches at the same distance. The grand slam has a little better optics and is still in your price range. It has been on my Kimber .223 for a few years and has worked fine helping produce several .5" - .6" groups at 100 yds and shoots well to 300 yds. I haven't went farther with that one.
Just a couple of options.
One other thing you didn't say your hunting conditions. (wide open west, large fields, open hardwoods, etc.) You also did not say your view of "long range shooting" 300yds, 500 yds 1000 yds.? Out to 500 for informal shooting a good scope in the 4-14 range like drdougrx mentioned would work fine and be better for hunting.
Bruce
Bruce
