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Contender pistol 14' barrel cal 17 hmr shooting 200 yds max.
Should I get a pistol scope in the 4 to 6 power range or a red dot sight?. Thanks

200 might be stretching it for a red dot.

4x scope. I use one to shoot silhouettes at 200 meters and it works just fine. A red dot likely would not do as well as a scope at that distance, but still should be usable if the dot size is small enough.

A rifle scope would work well with the .17 HMR. I am considering a Vortex scout scope that has about 10 inches of eye relief for use on a Contender. My Nikon 2.5-8 pistol scope loses eye relief as I increase the power. A straight power pistol scope in 4x would work fine for general targets, but it will be hard to shoot good groups with it. A 2-6x would be a good choice for extended range. I have four Contender pistol barrels and have a 2x, 2.5x, 4x, and 2.5-8 scopes on them.

If you can afford it go with a Leupold 2 1/2-8X32. Otherwise I would get a Bushnell 2-6X.

Handgun scopes are always a compromise for me. If they are high enough power to shoot small groups or use on small distant targets they have limited eye relief and small fields of view. 2x for big game hunting at moderate ranges work well. I have a Burris 10x on a 223 Contender and it shoots very small groups at the range but trying to get and keep it quickly on target can be a struggle. The Leupold 2.5-8x is probably the best if you need more power.