Looking at a reflex or red-dot sight for my 45-70 (main use of hunting)and wondering what the practical differences/advantages are between the "scope" style red-dot sights verses the "open style" sights. By "scope" style, I mean those with a full tube and "open style" I mean those with a single lens of glass mounted at a slight angle in an aluminum housing.

Based on Zee's experiences/recommendation, I put a vortex venom (open style) with manual/automatic 3moa dot on my friends glock. In auto mode it is always too bright, but on manual mode you can turn it down so the bloom disappears and the dot shrinks to 3 moa and it seemed to shoot quite well. I was shooting it at 175 yard steel and surprised how easy it was to a acquire and hold a (rather) precise target with the 3moa dot. It made me think that 150 yard hunting with a red-dot was realistic.

This would be for hunting and pre-season practice with shots ranging from 20-100 (maybe 150, but unlikely) yards on deer or larger game in a mix of open and wooded land from a stand with a rest of sorts. I've been using leupold 2.5-8 which works well, but it is difficult to acquire the deer in when shooting across a field into a wooded north facing hillside.

Thanks!

For a reflex-type sight, I like the Ultradot L/T. I like the tube-type sights like the Ultradot 30 in that they seem to be a little tougher as all of the parts are internal and protected a bit better form the elements and hard objects. However, they both work well. Here is the L/T:



And a tube-type Ultradot:

+1 for the UltraDot tube style.

I really like the FastFire3 on my .454 SRH. Target acquisition is fast and the low profile sight is easy to carry.

X2 on the Ultra Dot, I use the Match Dot on my revolvers.

I have a tube type (TRS-25 that will be replaced with a Venom when funds are available)on my 617 and a Venom on my 686. I find the dot much easier to pick up on the Venom. I have some tube types on air rifles and they work very well as the cheek weld allows the dot to be found easily. I just wish someone would make a smaller dot size for sights like the Venom for hunting, also a lower brightness setting would be nice of the late evening and night.

we run the ultra dot 30mm tubes ,I like the tube style because I install the butler creak lens covers for the snowy /rainy hunts.

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I ended up at a outdoor store today and looked over what they had to offer, I tried two vortex models (venom and viper) and found very little difference between the two. The manual brightness adjustability on both is great and really make the 6vs2moa a non issue. You can turn the intensity down so far it they look the same. I looked at other options and was the pointed to the sig romeo4c with a 2moa dot and 65moa circle around it. After acquiring a target with each at arms length, the Romeo was the clear winner for me. The large circle made it super easy to find and center the dot and get on target. I will post first impressions after I shoot it.
Thanks again!

Quick thoughts on the Romeo4c red dot sight by sig.
Tube style model, 22mm I believe. 65 moa circle around a 2 moa dot. At arms length, the circle fills about 75% of the field of view. At closer distances to the eye the circle shrinks. I still find it much easier and faster to acquire the dot compared to a naked dot. Very nice range of brightness adjustability, including levels that would be best described as night compatible and useless in daylight. Several other shooters have commented that the large circle helps them focus on the dot and they felt it helped them shoot better. I have no doubt that it will be easy to shoot minute of deer at 150 yards given a solid shooting position, but I didn't shoot that far this weekend. The dot is very crisp and round with no bloom at lower intensities. I'm looking forward to a lot of practice, but I think that shooting with both eyes open will work well in the mixed cover I hunt. I have read reviews that say it is very similar to an off brand scope that is much cheaper.