Scope options?

First of all, IMHO dump the red dot idea. Batteries go dead at the worst times, the brightness is never right for the conditions, you have to turn it on... If you don't want a regular scope, check out the Trijicon Reflex II dot type. It uses a tridium light source and fiber optics. No batteries, no brightness control. I have three and they are wonderful. They increase brightness with the fiber optic gathering light in bright light, and even in total darkness, the tridium source makes the dot visible. Trijicon also makes dot scopes in 2x I think. But, they are not my choice in a hunting handgun, for rapid shooting they are fine, but I like to really place my shots with hunting guns. All of my hunting handguns, .44 mag, .454, .45-70, .50 AK, wear the excellent and never fails Leupold 2x EER in SSK TSOB 4 ring mounts (.44 is a RH and of course, uses 2 rings). Only the .309 JDJ wears more power, and it a Leupold 2.5-8x EER. For the .44 magnum, 2x will give you all the power you will ever need. More power will decrease your FOV tremendously and will make close and fast shots much more difficult on large game. A 2x scope will allow shots on deer sized game well beyond the range of the .44 magnum, which IMO is a 100 yard gun at best. For target work, again, 2x will allow you to do anything you really need to do. I shoot my .50 AK out to 300 yards with its 2x Leupold with no problems whatsoever. You just use a slightly larger bullseye.