I have a Monarch X Tactical 2.5-10X44 that I bought in 2005 for about $1000. The Monarch Gold was the follow-on model I believe, and it was about the same price. Those are excellent scopes and mine has seen a lot of shooting (competition) and hunting (when I used to do that.) It's never had a problem and I still have it. It is built solid and the glass is nice.
I have another Monarch that's a little older, a 6.5-20X44, which is extremely nice also. The Monarch line was top notch, just not top tier.
