This is an interesting question because it is not clear which one is the most important and it is also not clear which constitutes medium range for you.
When I was going through this exact decision process, I decided that on a lightweight AR-15 I have I want to have some magnification available. I practice with this gun and routinely shoot out to a few hundred yards.
I ended up putting Elcan Spectre OS 4x on it with 45 deg offset iron sight for close range. I found that to be the fastest combination for me. Another option would be to have a secondary red dot, which also worked well. This is my SHTF gun, so I wasn't going to compromise on this one. This whole sighting system can be had for $1500 to $1800.
With the AR-10, my engagement range is not all that much longer, so a similar combination would also work. In a perfect world, I would put Minox ZP8 1-8x24 on it, but that is outside my budget and likely yours as well.
What I did was sort of a "poor man's 1x/10x": I took a SWFA 10x42HD riflescope and mounted a Meopta Meosight III red dot on it at a 45 deg angle via a TPS CORA ring. That combination runs right around $1200, I think.
That having been said, a friend of mine just bought a LMT MWS in 308 and since he does not have a 1x requirement, I put a Burris XTR II 2-10x42 on it. It is a very nice scope for about $1k and I am frankly a little surprised by how good it is for the money both in terms of the features and their execution.
Either way, that leaves you with about $2k for a long range scope.
Oddly enough, my primary long range rifle is a first gen DTA SRS with a 338LM barrel. This rifle has seen just about every scope mounted on it. At the moment, I have a first gen Steiner Military 4-16x50 on it and it is a good match. That having been said, if you plan to do ELR or something along those lines, a 5-25x56 or similar is not a bad idea. I would take a very close look at Steiner T5Xi 5-25x56. The Steiner T5Xi had a bit of a rough start, but it looks like they have worked out their issues. The one I am looking at is very good.
If you can stretch your budget for this scope a little, for around $2500 Vortex Razor Gen II 4.5-27x56 is very good. If you are looking for the best bang for the buck, the first Gen Vortex Razor HD 5-20x50 went down in price since the Gen 2 came out and can be had for $1500 to $1700. That is an excellent deal on an excellent scope.
ILya
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