Scope, or Red Dot on my pistol?
 

Had bunches of rifle scopes so I know what they can provide. But I'm wanting to mount some optics on my .308 pistol that will give me fast target acquisition, and not be more scope/red dot than you need for a 150-200 yard shot.
So given the optics with proper eye relief, what do you think is my best choice. Again, my most important attribute would be to see my target for a fast, accurate shot.
I'd like to hear about brands and models too. Never put a scope/red dot on a pistol.

The deer barrel on my Contender has a 2X Leupold on it. The FOV on higher powers is too narrow for me to use quickly and at 100 - 150 yards the 2X is enough power for me. The red dot on some scopes subtends to cover too much of the target for my liking.

So a fixed power . . .. nice. I have read that the red dot doesn't work so well at distance because the dot tends to cover up your target. Not good. I'm leaning towards a scope with say a 20" eye relief, but was hoping to be talked out of the red dot idea I guess.

I had a 2 X 7 on it for a little while and did not like it at all. Some guys really like them but both the eye relief and the FOV bothered me. The subtension of the crosshairs of a scope is tiny compared to any of the red dot style scopes that I have seen, and I do like to see my target.

Under 100 yards red dots are great. Over that distance and I think scopes work better.

For 200 yard shots I would not want a red Dot
.

I've never seen one that would work well at 200 yards. Not saying they don't exist .

I've just not seen one

-Jake

With your 308 pistol I would go with a scope. Like mentioned above the red dot takes up too much space at longer distances. I've hunted with a T/C Contender in 7-30 Waters for years and it had a Burris 2-7 on it. The only timeI used the 7x was on the range. All the deer I took with that combo the scope was on 2x and that was more than enough. I did have a multi reticle "red dot" on my S&W29 that saw a couple seasons but put the open sights back on it. The only gun I have a red dot type sight on now is my turkey gun.

Depends. If you are shooting above 150+ yards, definitely go with a scope. If you're doing CQB or anything below 100 yards, red dot sight would work great!

It's just my preference, but I don't like 2x power scopes for any shooting beyond 50 yards. The majority of the optics I use on my hunting handguns are Nikon Force XR 2.5-8x variables. You can turn them down to 2.5x for the wide field of view, or crank them up to 8x power for 100+ yard shots. They're built tough and hold their zero despite all the abuse I've put them through, from heavy recoiling loads to accidentally banging them against something. Additionally, they have a BDC reticle you can easily map out with their SpotOn software if you know the specifics of your load. I've tried it on a few different guns and loads, and the software's incredibly accurate from my experience.

The only downside is that the eye relief changes quite a bit when zooming in from 2.5x to 8x. At 2.5x, it's about arm length on me, but at 8x it's much closer. That doesn't bother me, since if I'm using it at 8x power, I've got the handgun resting on something solid and can lean in closer to it.