For many of us in the specialty pistol game, it’s not out of the ordinary to stick a rifle scope on top of a specialty pistol. There are custom shops which can “zoom” scopes as well as change their eye relief, but it’s often not necessary. With sufficient form and pistol weight, we can run rifle scopes on top with their relatively short eye relief. Scout scopes are another option, and of course, the incredibly small market of pistol scopes.

For me, the Leupold VX3 2-8x handgun scope is my minimum expectation for zoom capability in handguns. I have put a VX3i 4.5-14x rifle scope on top of a couple handguns here and there as well. I just stuck a Bushnell 4-16x Engage on top of one of my Savage Strikers.

I don’t mind a red dot, but for 150-200yrds, the red dot is a considerable hindrance compared to a scope.