Unlike you, I have had several variable scopes cost me game animals, though not because they were set on the "wrong" magnification. Instead they failed in various ways, and no, none were cheap scopes. All were in the $500-$1000 range.
And I bet a few of them were not even Leupolds...
To all gunmaker critics- "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.."- Teddy Roosevelt
