When I read through the original post, I must have mis-read the scope info as 7 - 24x. As others have stated, 7 - 42x is completely
unnecessary/inappropriate for the intended use. Maxing out at 12 to 16x, as long as it's really good glass, is enough magnification.
With your optics budget, I personally wouldn't be looking at Leupold (and I own 5 of them ). The 10x MK4 will work fine, especially
while you're still figuring out what you're doing. A Kestrel and ballistic calculator are much more important than increased magnification.