Take it for what its worth.... But I would look at Leupold way before Vortex... If you take a look through this site, you will find a vast amount of threads about the failings of Vortex scopes. Particularly anything below the PST line.

As far as red dot goes, that's up to you and where/what kind of hunting you do. I live in OR and the hunting we do here is mostly thick timber with the occasional longer shot up to about 200 yards. I use a Savage 111 in 30-06 with a Leupold VX-2 (4-12x40) and find it to be perfect for either application.

Just my .02