Paul I would really recommend going to a 40mm or smaller. The 50mm scopes are overkill for the shooting range and magnification you are telling me you want. It is just a lot of extra weight and bulk.
The ranges that you are talking about do not really need ballistic reticles, but they will help as long as you understand how they work. I have a Leupold VX3 with the B and C reticle and also, a Bushnell Elite with a ballistic reticle. Both are real great scopes.
The thing that many do not understand about those types of reticles, is that they may not exactly fit your ballistic profile. If you want to be exact with them, shoot your load over a chrono, then sight in your rifle for 200 yards (or whatever you want). Next, on the highest power, shoot each line at 100 yards to see how far up the target the hole is for that line. Take that data to the G-7(or any other good one)ballistics program and you can figure out what distance each line is exact for.
In my opinion, there is no reason to use the secondary lines unless you use it on the scope's top power. Anything closer will be close enough to use the primary crosshair and so the secondary aiming points are irrelevant. I see no purpose in having a high-powered scope to shoot long range and then use it on a lower power just because the factory says it fits the profile at that magnification. It defeats the purpose of the higher magnification.
I have personally never used the dial scopes, as I always felt that anything that you are twisting all the time, can eventually fail. I know friends that use them and like them, however.
This horse is probably already dead... but what the heck.
I've used ballistic reticules from Burris, Leupold, Zeiss, Nikon and others. Most of the ballisitc reticules are more or less the same. 2nd Focal plane with tick marks for range, and maybe windage marks. It's all relative. The only way to be sure that a reticule will match is to shoot it at each mark as far out as you can.
I have shot turret systems and ballistic reticules out to (or past)800yds. Hands down I prefer turrets. Which ever way you decide to go, Spend LOTS of time at the range with it. Rookie mistakes happen. Math+Stress=Errors. I've done it all... Turned turrets the wrong way, incorrect math, re-zeroed my windage turret the wrong way, wrong magnification on the scope, wrong mark on the reticule... ... ... Get the shakes out at the range. Add stress at the range if you can. Do everything you can to make those mistakes at the range instead of in the field.
