Buy a good used Schmidt Bender, I think they are superior to even the VX6, the downside is the weight. Most 30mm scopes are heavy, but if tree stand hunting who cares?
This is not intended or directed at you Sako, but I used to buy and drink that koolaid myself, so much in fact, that I bought a S&B Summit with plex reticle. I've also had the luxury of guiding loads of hunters over the past 12 years, several of whom had some sort of S&B besides the summit. My take is they have superb build quality and glass....as good as it gets. The duplex reticle's suck, so much in fact that my then 50 yr old eyes "lost" the reticle at dark thirty, especially with a brushy background. I also did not find them to be the most user friendly scope around. I liked my VX3 much more than the summit in that area as well as in regards to the reticle. They real deal killer for me was having them side by side with Big Al's Leupold VX-II, at dusk-thirty, while our hunter was going to shoot a 185" muley buck. I could have just as easily killed that buck with the Leupy as the S&B.
S&B's are world class stuff for sure, but pricing is beyond ridiculous, they're relatively heavy, they can malfunction like anything else, and for everyday hunting I deem them no better than lots of other scopes at 1/2 the $$ or much less money. I find the VX3 and VX6 to be fantastic hunting scopes. I guess when they start breaking I will feel differently. That hasn't happened yet though. I still abide by the "to each his own" idea.
