Thank you gentlemen, for the compliments and the welcome.
One point I would add is that the 3-9x would be a better choice for flatter shooting cartridges like the .270, .308, .30-06, etc. and the 1.5-4x for the 30-30, .35 Rem and the like, since the extra magnification would not really be of benefit at shorter ranges. And at very short ranges, 3x might pose a blurry picture that 1.5x wouldn't. Another caveat is that the wider the range of magnification, usually the greater the tradeoff in specs like eye relief, field of view, etc. For instance, the eye relief will typically decrease with increasing magnification. So match your scope, rifle and cartridge chambering to the type of hunting you will do.
Example of Tradeoffs: I have a Burris 2-7X Handgun scope for a scout setup with my 444. It has ample eye relief across the entire range (11-21" eye relief @ 2x magnification and 11-18"@7x mag) ... the tradeoff? ... The 2-7x handgun scope has a much narrower field of view at 100' (21' field of view @ 2x and 7'fov @7x mag) than a Burris 2-7x Short Mag scope (32'@2x and 14'@7x).
WileyCoyote also brought up another good point when he pointed you to Bushnell's website: Bushnell has a really good list of definitions of all the scope specs on their website. All those scope specs can be rather daunting to a newcomer to scopes. Incidentally, I also have a Bushnell Banner that I just purchased from Midway ... haven't decided which rifle will get that puppy yet. Probably my BLR in .358W or maybe my Marlin 336 in .35 Rem ... decisions, decisions
