tasco red dot from Canadian Tire. $50 well spent
I'll second that. BTW, only $39.95 at my local CTC store!
When you take one out of the package, you'll be surprised. I expected it to be a cheap piece of crap, but I was amazed at how heavy & solid it was. Mounted up well on my Marauder 10/22, easy to zero, held dead on through the 300 rounds I blasted through it. Dot illumination seems plenty bright, even though I was shooting almost directly into the sun (the benchrest guys were giving up because, even with the sunshades on their scopes, they were getting too much glare). I never had to even max out the illumination - I used the 8 and 9 settings (they go up to 11) until the sun got less intense, then 6 or 7 worked fine. If you read the reviews on this one, guys are using them on big-bore rifles with heavy recoil, through thousands of rounds, with no problems at all.
The only downside is that the dot is a little big for over-100-yd. shooting. For 50 yards or less, it's great. Target acquisition is fast & easy.
I would have been happy with it if I'd had to pay twice as much for it - the quality is that good.
One thing to remember - there are two versions of the 30mm Tasco unit - the 30 mm BKRD30 (the one I got, which fits the Picatinny rails on my Marauder) and the BKRD3022, which fits smaller, .22 receiver grooves (3/8", I think?).
They're the same scope, just with different intended mounts. Make sure to get the right one for your mounts.
Of course, I
would like to have an Aimpoint, but I can't justify spending $500-$1000 on one for a .22 plinking rifle...