I have a Nikon prostaff on my slug gun and muzzleloader, and it's handled the abuse of hunting for several season's and still shoot's dead on. The glass is very clear for the price. I put a bushnell 4200 3-9x40 on my brothers 7mm mag, and for the price it's a great scope. Very clear glass. and almost as nice as my Leupold vx3's. I would look at Nikon's and the 4200 in your price range, I don't think you can go wrong with either.
I got a buckmasters 4.5-14 for my 700 and I love it, at dusk when I look through the scope it looks a bit lighter than it actually is where as other scopes I have are crap in low light conditions. As far as holding zero go spend some $$ on some nice rings and mount it as low as you can to the rifle, I wasnt to happy with some of the ones I have done myself so I took mine to gun connection and bought some rings and had it mounted there at the store correctly.