Thread: Spend money on a spotting scope or buy a scope with higher magnification?

Wanting a sanity check here to find out if my logic is flawed.

I have a 7mm-08 with a cheap Niko Sterling 3-9x40 scope attached. It came with the rifle when I bought it and it works fine for my purposes in the bush. However when sighting it in and for general target shooting I have a hard time seeing the holes in targets at 100 yards.

I have recently acquired a 308 which I plan to use mainly for range shooting as it's cheaper to feed. It came without a scope so I need to buy one. I don't plan on shooting super long distances, as long as I can see where I've hit at 200 - 300 yards tops then great.

In an ideal world I'd buy a good quality scope for the Howa and a good quality spotting scope to see where I'm hitting. However it's not an ideal world and funds are limited. The cheap spotting scopes I've tried in the past were terrible and almost not even worth using IMO. It seems to be a case of "buy once, cry once" with them.

I am wondering if I could get away with buying a scope that has high magnification so that I can see holes in targets instead of buying a separate spotting scope. Thoughts, opinions, similar experiences anyone?