Been a long time lurker here, and want to begin by saying thanks for the wealth of information collected on this site. I've been a handgun shooter most of my life, but am finally getting into the rifle over the last few years. I've been shooting a lot of rimfire at my indoor range on simulated distance targets, but that's been all iron sights.

So this month I was able to pick up a used Stevens 200 in 223 with the goal of getting to the range and getting some good trigger time this spring and summer. So I'm shopping for optics and thought I'd seek some suggestions. I'd like to learn the mil-dot system, so I've been looking at mil-dot optics along the lines of the Bushnell Elite 10x42 or others around that range. I see SWFA has the Vortex Crossfire available on the cheap right now as well, but have seem some mixed reviews on them and am not sure if that's worth consideration or not. I think I'd like to stay around the $300 mark and spend the rest of my money getting out to shoot, so I'd appreciate feedback on these optics or suggestions about others that might fit that criteria.