I like to handgun hunt but I have noticed with several scopes that you sacrifice usable daylight with long eye relief. It makes sense that light would "leak" out given the extended arm length or scout scope position. From my calculations I give up about 10 minutes dawn and dusk (20 minutes per day) vs a rifle scope. I have never heard of this openly mentioned by scope manufacturers.

There's no doubt in my mind that you're right. I was on a hunt a couple of seasons ago where I'm pretty sure the difference in light that you describe cost me a deer.

Of course, nobody said that handgun hunting would be easy.

Sad to say but phsics of the scope lead to that, kinda unavoidable. One of the things you give u for a scoped handgun

Yep
Notices the same thing and with a scout setup.

I have up on using scopes on handguns and went to a red dot and finally back to open sights.

If I want to hunt with a pistol I will keep it within a bout 30 yards, past that or low light I use a rifle.

those 10 minute windows are the most valuable yet we keep getting told we need a scout rifle in our safes.