For reasons y'all don't care about, my vision isn't the best anymore.  I'm NOT looking to make some sort of battle rifle that I need to trust my life with.  I have an AR pistol with a Primary Arms red dot on.  I take it to the range to have some fun.  But even out at 100 yards I have difficulty seeing the target as well as I'd like to... and as well as I could just 4 years ago.

I've never delved into the world of magnifiers and don't have a frame of reference to know how much varying amount of magnification help.  I saw the UTG Magnifier on amazon and wondered if it might be an option for me try.  I have some amazon points so it won't cost me anything.

Knowing this is just for range use, would this be worth my time?  Would it be a total waste of $50.00 in points?

It seems like a waste to save up for something like a 1-4, or a 1-6, for a 10.5" pistol.

I'd appreciate y'all's thoughts on this.

Sorry.  I'm sure this has been looked at before.  I looked through the threads and don't fully understand the search function on this forum.

Yes it would be a waste of $50.00.  I’ve gone through probably 3 of them.  The seals break in short order, condensation forms rendering the optic un useable.

Vortex sells a really good one for a darn good price.  I have one and mount with several thousand rounds behind it.  GOOD magnifiers are great, but with the availability of variable powered illuminated reticle scopes they are obsolete.

I just saw your hesitation about putting a variable optic on your pistol:  I have used a variable on a pistol and it works great!  I don’t run one on my pistol right now because of the increased weight.  You will add the same weight with a magnifier as well.

Second the Vortex. It's probably the cheapest I would go for a magnifier.

Depends on your intended use. Are you going to be shooting no more than 200yds ish? Or do you intended on stretch its legs? I'd argue that in this day and age, the LVPOs have really come up in quality. Unless you really like the FOV granted by something like an Eotech, these days I'd have no problem with an LVPO if it means I can put rounds more accurately on target at 4/6/8x.

Get a primary arms

This! The LER 3x is a great low price magnifier.

Yup, I'm a fan of utg. But the only thing close to optics I'd recommend are their lights/lasers.

Had a flashlight/bulldot laser hold up strong on a Mossberg shockwave with a few hundred slugs.

Primary Arms/Vortex seem like the best budget magnifiers.

Well you guys have given me something to think about.  Before I go further I just need to make clear if it wasn't earlier... I don't have the money for any of these.  But I use an amazon card and build up points so I need to buy something I can get from amazon.  So selection will be limited.

Let's keep on the magnifier track first.

You guys mentioned PA.  On amazon there are two.  One is $70.00 and one is $100.

The $100.00 one says it is a long eye relief and the other doesn't mention that.  Forgive me for being so new to this, but how much does that matter?

How much more would I be out for a decent mount for it?

Now let's explore the variable optic.

I just thought this would be overkill so I didn't even give this any thought.  The range I go to has steel targets set up at 100, 200 and 300 yards.  I regularly go for the 100 yard targets.  Vision keeps me from the others.  But if I could see them, I would go for them.  Hence thinking a magnifier would help.

But if the weight of a red dot plus magnifier is basically the same as a variable scope then the magnifier doesn't really hold an advantage.  And if I'm going to have to spend $100.00 on a magnifier plus money for a mount... then I'm basically at the cost of a scope when all is said and done.  What are my downsides?

Main downside I personally have is I currently have $100.00 in points at amazon.  The only variable optic I see on amazon I'm familiar with the the PA 1-6x ACSS.  It'd probably be another 6 months before I can have enough points to pick one up.  I can wait if that's my best option.  But it'd be nice to have something sooner.

Interested to read your thoughts.