You need a scope and "most" of your shots are 100 yds or less ?
Frankly, in the $300 range, the world is full of good scopes.
Are you hunting from a stand or hunting on foot, tracking or still hunting ? That matters, particularly if many of your shots are at running animals.
For running animals, a scope with lots of eye box, that fore and aft leeway, helps as does a bold reticle. The best I know of is the 4X Leupold w/ the custom shop installled German #1 reticle. It also works so well in bad light, it will work at night.
That assuming your eyes function at well enough to use a scope at night. It's very common for us to loose some of our night vision as we age.
A 50mm scope will not make up for lack of night vision. But any halfway decent scope with a 40mm objective and the magnification turned down to 3-4X should give almost anyone a nice bright image to shoot with during twilight.
If you are going to try out a scope in a store, go to one with a stock that allows customers to mount the scope and try it that way. Trying to hand hold a rifle scope never taught me much about any rifle scope. E
