Go prostaff if you go Nikon at or under $300. They're the newest generation of Nikon scopes. The older gen Buckmasters are clear, adjust consistently and have good depth of field, but are only multicoated and the 4.5-14x and 6-18x have the "looking down a toilet paper tube" effect that optics people refer to as a small apparent field of view (probably caused by the same aperture stop that gives the good depth of field, making it easy to side focus quickly). The Prostaff rimfire EFR might also be worth looking at, though it's only a 3-9x.
The V16 is just barely in that price range on sale. Other than short eye relief, they're pretty good glass and have great adjustments (sames as used on the older Bushnell 4200 elite target models and the Clearidge scopes).
