Buy more glass than needed theory?

If I'm shopping for a budget scope, most reviewers online will say that the glass gets darker and less clear at the highest magnifications. Would it not then be prudent to purchase a higher magnification than needed so that you can use the magnification you wanted and not lose clarity?

Example. I want a 6-24 magnification. I then purchase an 8-34 so that I can set it to the 24 magnification and have better optics / clarity than if I had purchased the 24 magnification and maxed it out. 

Thoughts?

Also, will any generic 50mm sun shade fit the Athlon Argos 50mm?
 
Magnification is ONE variable. I think your logic seems logical but other factors may come into play so you would have to do a side by side. I’ve found that budget scopes always disappoint me . But that’s just my experience . I don’t think you need to spend $2000 to get a “good” scope but $200 is probably going to fail to satisfy. Often it’s not the “glass’” that’s the problem it’s the mechanics 
 
JUST TRUST your own eyes.

I'm really shocked at how many people OBVIOUSLY don't really have good eyesight based on said clarity assessments on many scopes mentioned.

Always buy from return for REFUND friendly dealers.

Just buy any scope you like and choose at least 10 to 20 of them (all different scopes) to plan on returning 8 or 9 or 18 or 19 for refund just remember you aren't actually spending 20 grand or even as little as 10 grand because you are cherry picking the ONE or TWO that YOUR EYES like the best and find what was the best value for your money comparing all 10 to 20 different scopes side by side at one time.

If you simply got bad eyesight then pretty much any overpriced crappy scope would be nice for your eyes. Even at maximum power you probably won't see the crap bluriness milkiness and chromatic aberrations anyway.

It's NOT WORTH buying a piece of crap scope at ANY PRICE that's not clear all the way to max power. IMHO WHATS THE USE?

THAT mentality you should go buy the Leaper UTG full size SWAT 8-32X56 from DVOR for $130 (best sale I seen for it in 2020 at DVOR) at least its glass is decent at 24x however the 4.5-27x50 A6s are CLEAR and BRIGHT all the way to it's max 27x and very nice eyebox at all magnification from minimum to maximum.

Its how ALL SCOPES SHOULD BE. IMHO.

Actually go buy the $60 Aliexpress 10-40x56 30mm it's piece of crap scope that's like the $130 DVOR UTG but at least it's priced accordingly and at least it's clearer than the UTG SWAT at 24x but no way at 40x. Effectively a 10x - 24x scope.


 
I wouldn't buy 10 scopes from a friendly dealer, I would buy 10 from someone that you don't like, since this will have a pretty big impact on their business. And if you do buy a bunch of scopes intending to return most of them, don't tell your friends about it. They will have a much lower opinion about the kind of person that you are.

In answer to the original question, on my lower end, high mag scopes I typically run them lower than the max. So my Aeon 10-40 I usually set to 30. Falcon T50 I set to 40. I don't notice much benefit with the scopes that max out at 24-32x. If the scope has decent glass, it will usually be clear and bright to the full mag until you start going past 35x, at least in my experience.
 
Odoyle isn't as dumb as he looks! He makes an excellent point about your personal eyesight being THE key factor in how any scope will appear to you.

Trial and error is the best possible way to determine what suits you personally. I've had two detached retinas, RK and Lasix surgery in my lifetime. My vision started out at 20/400 in one eye and 20/800 in the left eye. The surgeries corrected me to 20/20 both times, but such results will fade over time, to some greater or lessor degree. Yet, I use a 4-16X UTG scope and I can adjust it to quite bright at top power.

I used to own a 5-25X Mueller scope...weighed almost as much as the gun. It did get dimmer to me at high magnification. However, unless you are shooting competition, there's no need to go with that much magnification.



Kindly 'Ol Uncle Hoot
 
I’ll say what other have said... it does depend on your eyes and how it appears to you. I think you only figure it out by trying them out. I too fish through the recommendations to start, but please don’t go into it thinking that you are going to be able to just purchase the perfect scope the first time. 

When I started rimfire seriously, I thought I would find the perfect one first, and now I’ve tried many. You will find that you like a one scopes overall but maybe you hate the reticle, or you hate FFP/SFP, or the turrets could be better, or the resolution doesn’t well for your eyes. There are many things to say you personally might have an issue with. I haven’t liked $3000 scopes, but have like $100 scopes, but completely different purposes.

There are plenty of scopes that are well loved by people, but I haven’t been able to get to work well with my eyesight. I would never say that you don’t need more than “x” for an air rifle, because our uses may be completely different. The guy trying to hit a can at 20 yards and the guy trying to see a 1/4 dot at 50 yards are aiming for different goals. 

Keep paying attention to the details of what you like and don’t like, and keep asking specific questions, and hopefully you will find a few options you really like.
 
JUST TRUST your own eyes.

I'm really shocked at how many people OBVIOUSLY don't really have good eyesight based on said clarity assessments on many scopes.

If you simply got bad eyesight then pretty much any overpriced crappy scope would be nice for your eyes. Even at maximum power you probably won't see the crap bluriness milkiness and chromatic aberrations anyway.




It's the EXACT opposite YoDoyle, you have it wrong. If one has waning eyesight fantastic scopes in the $3000-$4000 range still look very nice, just not pristine anymore. It's the cheap scopes with poor glass that look horrible now when before they were barely acceptable with perfect eyesight. The - as you say "bluriness milkiness" was always there in most cheap scopes but now its worse with old eyes.

CA has somewhat to do with what colors one's eyes pick up easier, I hardly noticed it when I had 20/15 vision. Don't confuse IQ with CA. A good example is the Kahles 6-24's which had very good glass but many people didn't like the CA in them. A guy I knew had one and I couldn't see the CA that he could, this was about 9 years ago when I was still winning long range events. 

That being said a scope should be chosen for many reasons, especially its "feature set" based off the specific use the end user has in mind, not just if the glass is nice. 
 
Best to hands-on try all possibilities and keep what YOUR eyes like and just return the rest. Don't get stuck with any scope that your eyes hate and can't enjoy looking through all day long stress free.

I even returned Schmidt and Benders and a Tier1 Leupold that didn't work for MY eyes.

Believe it or not even the $68 refurb (Walmart) Centerpoint 3-12x44 PLT BDC 30mm SFP doesn't stress out my eyes.
 
Best to hands-on try all possibilities and keep what YOUR eyes like and just return the rest. Don't get stuck with any scope that your eyes hate and can't enjoy looking through all day long stress free.

I even returned Schmidt and Benders and a Tier1 Leupold that didn't work for MY eyes.

Believe it or not even the $68 refurb (Walmart) Centerpoint 3-12x44 PLT BDC 30mm SFP doesn't stress out my eyes.

I can't imagine a real S&B straining someones eyes unless something was wrong with it??!! Though about 12 years ago a friend had a fixed parallax 3-12 S&B that had good glass but not the great IQ of all the other S&B's I've looked through. For more than a decade the S&B PM2 5-25x56 was the highest grade scope that money could buy, also the most popular scope for tactical matches, and it's still near the top right now. 

Leupold has always lagged a bit.

C'mon YO, Centerpoint shouldn't even be in the same post "tier 1" is mentioned????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!