Personally, for the size, weight and money that they’re charging for the Vortex 6x, there are certain applications where it makes sense, but overall, I would say that it’ probably going to be a very, very niche optic and a niche application.

The TMS Tactical Magnifier is one of the most affordable 3x magnifiers available today. And although it comes at a great price, it is certainly not cheap or flimsy. The TMS Tactical features elevation and windage adjustments to re-center the dot after adding a magnifier. This TMS Tactical Magnifier works extremely well with any standard AR red dot. Magnifiers obviously magnify your sight picture, bringing distant targets into close-up detail. However, magnifiers also enlarge your red dot reticle. Put a 3x magnifier in front of your 4 MOA red dot, and it turns into a massive 12 MOA dot. That isn’t exactly conducive to precision shooting.A magnifier also allows you to co-witness your red dot with your gun’s iron sights. That’s something a low-powered variable optic can’t do. A final note here, the red dot in your red dot sights is considered “enlarged” for target acquisition and eye relief, meaning its much larger than what a reticle would be in a highly magnified scope. When pairing a red dot with a magnifier, the magnifier is simply using the red dot and enhancing its magnification, despite the fact that the red dot reticle is optimized for 1x magnification power. Just like when you zoom in on a photo you took with a phone camera, the picture gets highly distorted and blurry. Magnification levels that are too drastic will actually result in that red dot crowding out the sight picture entirely, making the duo pretty much useless! Glass Coatings Explained

This 3x magnifier has a hard-coat-anodized, machined-aluminum construction. It is o-ring sealed and nitrogen purged for reliable fogproof, waterproof performance. Honestly, the Vortex VMX-3T is perfectly capable of dealing with pretty much anything you can dish out. The center of the magnifier is 42mm tall, and it lines up well with my Aimpoint Pro. If you’re unsure about the UTG Magnifier’s compatibility with your red dot, measure the sight from the base to the middle of the glass, approximately where you think the red dot is. If that number is 42mm, it should work.Unlike traditional scopes that come in tons of different magnification ranges, red dot magnifiers have a far more limited magnification range. Because of this, you shouldn’t expect to hit ultra-long-range targets, even with a red dot magnifier. Waterproof (IPX8) - O-ring seals prevent moisture, dust and debris from penetrating the holographic sight for reliable performance in all environments. Yes, you can probably still reach out to several hundred yards with a red dot (like with the Holosun HS510C), but it’s difficult to do so with precision and accuracy. Speaking about field of view, though, on the 6x magnifier, it’s actually quite good, coming in at 19.1 feet, which is around I believe 4.5 degrees or so, but that is actually going to be compatible with some very nice LPVO’s top end at 6x, so what that means personally is that, even though it’s 6x, it’s not particularly tight, for instance, it’s comparable to a 3x magnifier, I believe this one here has 38.6 or something like that field of view at 3x, so the 19.1 is, again, very comparable at 6x.

My Review: From some of the best marksmen to the people patrolling the streets and keeping society safe, Aimpoint is the optical solution you choose when reliability and performance are of the utmost importance. Yup, just like any other scope, your lenses will likely be coated with a bunch of goodies that on a magnifier, are both important to have, but also important to work together with what’s on the original unmagnified optical system you’re using. The better and more present the coatings are, the more expensive the magnifier will be! On top of it all, the PA 3x proves to be a good magnifier. It brings a great field of view and feels pretty light at 7.9-ounces. The only downside is no IP rating. That said, it’s been durable in my use. I believe in the “buy once cry once” mantra. It’s important to buy a product that delivers the quality you need, when you need it, with durability that won’t have you spending extra for repairs or replacements. As with almost everything in life, a middle ground is what you likely want to go for here. In the world of magnifiers, I’d say look for magnification levels of 3x up to 7x with objective lenses of roughly 15mm to 28mm. Magnifiers with higher magnification levels and massive lenses generally do not perform very well, take up too much space, are too distracting to use with a red dot, and would better suit you to simply just use a scope at that point.

Vortex Micro 3x22mm Magnifier Unavailable & Discontinued Models

This is what they consider to be a micro magnifier and it’s not really all that micro, as you can probably tell, for instance it is about double the size of the 3x micro, even though it’s not double the weight, it’s only about 3.5 ounces heavier because the body itself is a little bit chunky, it’s a little bit more slim-lined if you will, and it is going to be actually a fairly similar size to the Holosun HM 3x magnifier. There’s almost no glare when I’m shooting and its clarity is incredibly helpful when zeroing my red dot sight. Fully Multi-Coated - Anti-reflective coatings on all airto-glass surfaces provide increased light transmission for greater clarity and low-light performance. In fact, I have the Aimpoint PRO mounted on my Ruger AR-556 and whenever I go hunting, I pair it with the Vortex VMX-3T magnifier. Usually I always buy my own mounts; however, I chose to give this one a try and I have loved it so far.