Red Dot Recommendations For Astigmatism

[AyBlinken]

Was doing some shopping for red dots for my pistol, and during research I came across a few comments about astigmatism causing issues. Makes me hesitant to pick one up if it's not gonna work well for me. Are there any optics that are astigmatism friendly?

Didn't seem to find a whole lot of info about it for pistol optics, mostly rifle related stuff and scopes.

 

[candcallen]

The dots just seem fuzzy with astigmatism.

Find a place that has samples from eotech and aimpoint and look thru them. If you can deal with what you see you will be fine.

My eotech always seem fuzzy but my sig romeo's are less noticeable. A dot versus more complex retical.

 

[A1Oni]

Was doing some shopping for red dots for my pistol, and during research I came across a few comments about astigmatism causing issues. Makes me hesitant to pick one up if it's not gonna work well for me. Are there any optics that are astigmatism friendly?

Didn't seem to find a whole lot of info about it for pistol optics, mostly rifle related stuff and scopes.

prism sights and LPVOs are really nice for my astigmatic eyes, but im not sure of many pistol dots that have an actual reticle.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Here is a thread to peruse while waiting for replies...

Overcoming The Challenges Of Astigmatism - Part 1

Overcoming The Challenges Of Astigmatism Part 1 In 2013, as a member of Triple Canopy's WPPS program I was on the range just having arrived to the U.S. embassy compound (Baghdad, Iraq). We were zeroing and qualifying with our rifles. When I looked through the red dot sight I saw something...

www.texasguntalk.com

 

[Sasquatch]

Yes - but they're all Holosun made.

Holosun's dots give you options - they offer simple dot (2 or 3MOA, IIRC), a circle-only (35MOA) and a circle-dot (2MOA dot inside a 35MOA circle that looks just like EO Tech's reticle) and they partnered with Primary Arms to offer a version of their site with the ACSS Vulcan - which is a chevron inside a 200MOA ring, that is only partially visible when the sight is not properly aligned.

I have a 507K on my carry gun, and wound up with the circle-dot (the 507 series lets you change from dot, to circle, to circle dot)

I'm still trying to decide myself on if I want a standard 507C, or the 507C with the ACSS reticle. The lines that form the chevron on the ACSS reticle are easier on my own eyes than a simple dot, though the circle dot style reticles are a lot less fuzzy than just a dot too.

There are no American or European sights made, that I know of, that offer similar reticles. Trijicon gives you varied dot sizes, or a solid triangle. I'm not a fan of the solid triangle, personally. Your mileage may vary there.

Aimpoint only offers a dot.

Leopold only offers a dot.

Crimson Trace, Shield, and Swamp Fox, IIRC also only offer dots.

Funny thing - when the linked thread above was made, I hadn't been diagnosed with astigmatism, but by my birthday a few months later, I was. I noticed my RDS was fuzzy on all but the dimmest settings. The brighter the dot, the worse the starburst / squiggle effect would get. Red or green dot, didn't matter.

Higher quality glass does minimize the effect - an Aimpoint is less blurry than a Vortex or Holosun stand alone dot, but I still get a starburst effect. The lines on the circle-dot or chevrons don't blur like a dot only does.

 

[Sasquatch]

This is the reticle setup on my carry pistol. The dot is not nearly this large in the window when the gun is pressed out just to arms length for me - but the further away the sight gets, the larger the reticle is in the window. The closer it moves to your eye, the smaller in the window it gets.

 

[gll]

The only pistol red dot I have is the Primary Arms (Holosun) ACSS Vulcan. I like it, and think the chevron distorts less (for me) than the dots on my rifles.

 

[Darqhelmet]

Everyone is going to be different so you need to look through the optic yourself. I see a small cluster off dots with a tail falling off to the right. My buddy sees a crescent, another friend sees the more you know shooting star, wife sees a perfect circle. All depends on your eyes.

 

[studenygreg]

I have an astigmatism and red/green/gold dots all look like a star burst . I go no larger than 2moa on dots and lower the brightness. For me dot sights are for defensive purposes under 200 yards. Even with the burst effect I can make consistent hits at those distances. If you are shooting for accuracy or groups at the range then get something else.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[AyBlinken]

Lot's of good info here, much appreciated. Sounds like there are at least some options out there, guess it's time to hit some stores and see what works.

I think my astigmatism is more of a starburst, at least thats usually what I see with HID headlights and bright LED. I've seen a couple people mention that contact lenses can help, so I can always try that.

This is the reticle setup on my carry pistol. The dot is not nearly this large in the window when the gun is pressed out just to arms length for me - but the further away the sight gets, the larger the reticle is in the window. The closer it moves to your eye, the smaller in the window it gets.

I really like the look of that reticle, didn't know they had those for pistols.

 

[Sasquatch]

Lot's of good info here, much appreciated. Sounds like there are at least some options out there, guess it's time to hit some stores and see what works.

I think my astigmatism is more of a starburst, at least thats usually what I see with HID headlights and bright LED. I've seen a couple people mention that contact lenses can help, so I can always try that.



I really like the look of that reticle, didn't know they had those for pistols.

Holosun is the only maker I know that has this reticle for a pistol, they run about $300 new.

 

[TheEnabler]

As already mentioned, it varies by person. For me, pretty much any dot looks like a starfish. I've found that green dots on lower brightness are better but really the only ones that don't flare for me are prisms.

For my handguns I went through a few different options from the Romeo 1 to the Trijicon RMRcc and the only ones that aren't too horrible are the Holosuns. I run the 507k-gr on my P365xl and it's not too bad.

For AR and PCCs I go with either LPVOs which still blur a bit but at least have an etched reticle, or the Vortex Spitfire and the new PA prisms (both in green) and those work pretty well. Have the Holosun 510C-GR on my Banshees and those have been pretty good, probably the best non-prism sights for my particular 'stig.

While I had hoped higher-end RDSs would be clearer, the Comp M5 was one of the worst offenders, so that was an expensive experiment. I'll echo the advice of others and suggest you try them out in a store because what works for me might not for you, but be warned that they often look different with differences in ambient lighting.

Also, polarized lenses seem to mitigate the flare a bit. gl

 

[AyBlinken]

The Holosun brand frequently gets mentioned in the astigmatism discussions I've found, as usual the good stuff is always expensive. Feels like I'm about to go down a red dot rabbit hole.

 

[Sasquatch]

The Holosun brand frequently gets mentioned in the astigmatism discussions I've found, as usual the good stuff is always expensive. Feels like I'm about to go down a red dot rabbit hole.

Welcome to the club

 

[Darqhelmet]

The one thing that you might want to try too is a holographic sight. They aren’t going to work for a pistol but they will work for rifles. So your will be looking at eotechs or the vortex UH1.

 

[Darqhelmet]

And then to not clutter the other post the best old school reflex that did not give me any issues at all but is easy to wash out in bright light the grand daddy of all reflex sights BUT EMP proof.

Trijicon Reflex:

Trijicon® Reflex 1x24 Dual Illuminated Sight | Trijicon®

6.5 MOA Amber Dot Reticle, Reflex Base , No Mount

www.trijicon.com

We ran these in carry handle mounts to co - witnesses with our irons. The triangle is perfect to me. The point is infinitely small and you zero it at 36 yards where as you put the middle on anything else for snap shots.

 

[Geezer]

I have Sig, Primary Arms and, Vortex red dot sights. The brighter the dot, the bigger the "splash" I get. I keep the dot brightness as low as possible and I can use them fine.

 

[studenygreg]

Ive looked through several RDS and don't really see a difference between any of them in terms of clarity of the dot. I've been meaning to go to a ship and look at a bunch side by side as well as holographic sights and prisms.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[Sasquatch]

And then to not clutter the other post the best old school reflex that did not give me any issues at all but is easy to wash out in bright light the grand daddy of all reflex sights BUT EMP proof.

Trijicon Reflex:

Trijicon® Reflex 1x24 Dual Illuminated Sight | Trijicon®

6.5 MOA Amber Dot Reticle, Reflex Base , No Mount

www.trijicon.com

We ran these in carry handle mounts to co - witnesses with our irons. The triangle is perfect to me. The point is infinitely small and you zero it at 36 yards where as you put the middle on anything else for snap shots.

Meprolight is pushing their similar version of that sight again - I was surprised to see them for sale, brand new.

 

[Darqhelmet]

Meprolight is pushing their similar version of that sight again - I was surprised to see them for sale, brand new.

I keep looking at those as the old Trijicon are my favorite reflex sight and Trijicon stopped making them. I know IDF uses them on their rifles and let’s all be honest IDF well umm is actively using sights in a bright environment. It is an older tech that does not get as bright. BUT you will have zero artifacting/starbrusting/etc.