Anything over 9x is too much magnification with too little field of view. It's more about the size and weight of a scope on a hunting rifle anyway. The higher the magnification, the smaller the field of view will be and the heavier the scope.
"...go with a red dot..." Dots are usually too big. A 3 MOA dot will cover the entire black at 100 yards.
Nikon Monarch 3 4-16x42mm, good glass, multiple reticles to chose from, will get you out to 400m and beyond no prob and costs less than $500 before shipping. Widely available at most gun stores in Canada.
I decided to go with a VX-3 in 3.5-10x40mm Duplex .......



























