I have used both the tao1 nsn and m68 cco in my military career but never hunted animals and never used a 3x with the aimpoint. I like the idea of a dot for close and swing over mag if i need it, but what would you do? Doubt i would need a real scope in Texas.
I hunt mainly in East texas, I have a scope on a few hunting rifles and a few without. Just depends on what and where I'm hunting. All my buddies that hunt west Texas don't use anything without a scope.
It doesn't sound like you have much deer hunting experience. To expand on what SC-TX said, Even if meat hunting, you need to be able to tell the difference between a cull buck and a young quality buck (the latter of which needs to be left to mature), or a button buck and a doe, etc. Your optics requirements will also be dictated by where you'll be hunting. Even hunting under feeders at 100 yards dictates at least 6x.
And by your question, it sounds like you plan on hunting with an AR? What caliber?
Please don't use a rifle scope to evaluate game. "Don't point the gun at anything you don't want to destroy". Use binos for that. If you can shoot 4 MOA with the scope it's plenty accurate for deer and hogs.
But a real scope is nice for getting precision hits.