red dot magnifier vs. 2-7x32?

[lazyengineer]

I have a few as that is my main hunting scope power for most of the hunting I do.

Favorite that is no longer made Kahles that I can and have used 22 cal bullet hole in a target as an aiming point.
Several Nikons, good scopes just no longer made.
Leupold Firedot is a pretty good one with center red dot but not too bright to affect vision like a lot are at night or dawn and dusk.
Vortex, have a few PSTs that are ok but not as clear as the ones above.
an old Burris Short mag scope stays on my 350 Remington Magnum

I have had a 2.5 to 10 set at the bottom end when my one "long" opening a coyote stepped out in. Quick shot with the Grendel and dead yote at 237 yards. I have killed hogs at out to just over 400 yards with a 2X7 Nikon on the Grendel as well. Learn your scope and holds on game with it and it can be done through practice.

The Kahles stays on one of my favorite rifles a Remington 788 in 7mm-08. I have used that on shots on deer and hogs to about 350 yards all one shot kills so far.

My first rifle scope back in 79 was a Weaver V7W 2-7 wide view. Unfortunately it lost its seal on a whitetai hunt one rainy day in Mississippi. Deer came through close by and when I looked through the scope it was almost half full of water, took the 40ish yard shot and killed the deer, last shot fired with that scope in use. Went to a 3X9 scope on it but did not like as well so put anothe 2X7 on it when I got the Kahles used.

You could say I like 2X7 scopes

My eyes do not play well with any of the red dots I have tried for years I would get a starburst, that is gone after 5 eye surgeries for the most part but still get distortion tailing off to one side with the red dot at least with my dominate eye. So I much prefer scopes.

Thanks for the detailed answer. I agree and share your take. I imagine we are of the same line of thought that the appeal of 6.5 Grendel is the maximization of power and performance capable within the light and handy AR15 rifle frame. It is a remarkable round, and one day I'd love to meet Bill Alexander to get his story on not just the development, but also the far more difficult task of successful commercialization - it's a very cool round.

To topic, being an optimized size&weight to performance package, IMHO benefits from an equally optimized optics package, to get the most out of it's CQB capability and longer range capability at the same time. It's a remarkable round that's fantastic for AR15 run and gun, and then drop down and 600 yard engagement, and highly effective at doing stuff when it gets there. At present, I run either a light 2.5X CQB scope that's fixed and it's a very good field glass, that easily runs out to 25-200 yards very well, and I've run out to 500 yards, but stuff is a bit small as you might guess then; it won't really give the full potential of the destance capability of 6.5 Grendel. So I also run a 2.5-10X scope on a 20". It's great for 600 yard shooting and even 1000 yard, but it's also heavy. The glass goes to 2.5X and has the same 2.5X reticle as my fixed 2.5X CQB rig does, which is handy. But it's also so heavy, that it doesn't really give the full potential of 6.5 Grendel being a light-weight handy weapon system package.

The 2-7X glass has the potential to be the in-between compromise to allow a light package that gives a broader span of usage. From what I can tell, 2-7's are from a former era, where they are all SFP with simple cross hair reticle. After spending some time on gong-ranges and running Strelok pro, which gives overlay of impact points on an image of your scope reticle and it's drop markings, I'm kind of hooked on that concept now. I can't find a light weight 2-7X with FFP and a drop reticle today. But the quest continues!

Note, they do have 1-6x FFP scopes with such, and I guess remain best option right now if one wants a drop grid to index off of at distance. But to date, most of them seem heavy, and have tiny objective lens, which gives me a doubt for dusk light gathering capability, which is the most imporant time of the day in field scope usage, in my own usage of such at least. This is one reason I like the 2-7x package, is most tend to have a larger light gathering piece of glass in the front.

So! I keep looking; and much appreciate your extensive reply sir!