Rifle Scopes Red Dots and Astigmatism

[Kwilm]

Guys with Astigmatism - have any of you found a red dot that’s not blurry? I’ve tried Delta Point, RMR, Sig and Eotech amd they are all blurry. I’ve got an Aimpoint PRO coming to see how that looks for me.

It pisses me off because I’m only 35 and my 60+ Year old Uncles and Dad have no problem seeing a clear dot/reticle out of the same optic but at least I got the good looks lol.

The LPVO Vortex pst, razor, Steiner and Kahles (all in the 1-4 / 1-8 range scopes are great and they may just be what I have to stick with. I just really want a red dot to work for a small package AR.

I was just hoping someone has had the same issue and has a magic answer (other than corrective surgery)

 

[srt-4_uk]

The holosun 510C is easily the sharpest to me. I've used trijicon, aimpoint, eotech, leupold, burris, and primary arms. Holosun just works for my eyes.
Have you looked at the Vortex Spitfire? True 1x and day bright. Kinda heavy compared to a micro red dot but it has etched glass and its cheap.

 

[Kwilm]

Thanks for the input. I had tried a spitfire a while back with the same outcome. I’ll try the holosun out sometime.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

I have the same issue though not too bad; I've found the smaller the dot, the better it is. The Shield RMS works best to my eyes, but mileage varies.

 

[DavidK]

Thanks for the input. I had tried a spitfire a while back with the same outcome. I’ll try the holosun out sometime.

The Spitfire is 1x scope with an etched retile, not a red dot. It will not star like a red dot

 

[Kwilm]

Really? I guess I’ll have to give it another try. It had been 4-5 years since I have looked through one.

 

[ddavis]

I have astigmatism and it causes starburst but nothing I can't live with. I've kind of moved away from RDS through the years for various reasons. I have a Spitfire that I really like. The illumination hasn't worked on it for a while but I haven't bothered to send it in because I really never need illumination. I REALLY want to try a Trijicon TA44 because it's super compact, lightweight and should have fail-proof illumination. While not true 1x (it's 1.5) I don't think it would slow you down. I've never seen one in person and also never seen one used for sale so I'll just have to keep saving my pennies.

-Dan

 

[srt-4_uk]

A spitfire was blurry? Did you adjust the eyepiece?

Really? I guess I’ll have to give it another try. It had been 4-5 years since I have looked through one.

I think you are thinking of the Strikefire.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Do you wear glasses? If not, you could get some "safety" glasses for shooting that takes out some/all of the astigmatism.

 

[Kwilm]

A spitfire was blurry? Did you adjust the eyepiece?

I think you are thinking of the Strikefire.

I just looked at pic of them both. Your exactly right.

 

[bunsen27]

@Kwilm due to your astigmatism you should probably look at a prism sight/scope.

In a 1x configuration Vortex offers the Sptfire AR Prism, Burris offers the AR-1X, and Primary Arms has the SLx-P1.

 

[pmclaine]

Its a red dot.....

Eye, dot, target, press......

Its not meant to be studied.

Sorry if that seems abrupt, I got sucky eyes and after being issued a RDS recently, and it being my first experience with them Im impressed how "sloppy" I can be yet on the target sizes they are designed for they work really well.

If I want "tight" its a scope.

If I want hits, its a red dot. You dont even have to have the objective cap open. Just put the dot on the image from your other eye and go.

 

[CavReconScout]

I too have astigmatism and had to give up my preferred Aimpoint micros because the dots turned into comas. I now run low powered variable optics on my work rifles. The only dot that still looks round to me is a 4 moa full size Aimpoint with the illumination dialed down. I haven't tried the PRO so I can't comment on that one. YMMV.

 

[MK20]

I have it and you may really want to try the Aimpoint as mentioned above. I have had decent success with it.

For LPVO, definitely look at the Steiner P4xi. It has an etched reticle but also has a 1 or 2 moa center red dot that is aimpoint bright. It really doesn't comet much at all for me. And the 1x is a pretty damn true 1x. Hands down best all purpose optic on the market right now until you get to Nightforce cost levels.

 

[pmclaine]

I too have astigmatism and had to give up my preferred Aimpoint micros because the dots turned into comas. I now run low powered variable optics on my work rifles. The only dot that still looks round to me is a 4 moa full size Aimpoint with the illumination dialed down. I haven't tried the PRO so I can't comment on that one. YMMV.

I use the PRO and do so without my low mag prescription.

Thing works fantastic on steel. I dial it down at distance or when I want accuracy than power it up for short distance/speed.

What gives me problems is ACOGs and the lack of ability to adjust the ocular diopter for my RX. Glasses only glass.

 

[Flyingbullseye]

I've the same problem and tried all of them first, something you'll probably have to do if you can. I ended up with aimpoint and love it. I did notice that with the magnifier the dot becomes sharper, give that a try with the red dot.

 

[RFutch]

I have the same problem with red dots. I just bought a crossfire red dot that only has a 2 moa dot. My thinking is when it "blooms" it will still be just a 4 moa dot lol.

 

[gnochi]

I got LASIK, and went from being able to use red dots to not being able to use red dots. The starbursts make the dot appear ~3x larger and unpredictably off-center.

I can’t tell you about what will work, but I can tell you that LASIK/PRK aren't it.

I do have better luck with scope reticle illumination and holosights, though...

 

[shoot4fun]

Sorry but I have the same issue. A starburst effect and never see it perfectly round. But, to make things worse, I am color weak and the red dots all wash out in sunshine of against certain other colors.

 

[AbbyKatt]

Have you tried a green dot? I have a friend that also did an exhausted search of various red dots due to similar problems. A green dot optic worked much better for him.

 

[Cheyenne Bodie]

Eotech is the best for astigmatism in the opinion of myself and a few other people I know when we compared some side by side one day. MRO/Patrol isn't really that bad, but the parallax was doo-doo. The RMR was really bad for me personally but others said it didn't seem terrible which makes me think it's somewhat individual person dependant. Comp M4 was almost good except for pretty bad starbursting, but at least wasn't as grainy to me as the others. For me the dot/reticles aren't blurry they are grainy and starbursts, so maybe YMMV.

I'd say an etched reticle is going to be your best bet. LPVO with a big eyebox seems like a good idea, that's what I use instead of a red dot.

 

[nn8734]

I second the Eotech route as I also have astigmatism and my aimpoint dots all look flattened and stretched. Switched to an Eotech XPS 3-2 and love the additional hold over points on the eotech reticles vs the single dot.

Eotech reticles also work nicely with the Aimpoint 3x magnifier.

 

[samson7x]

Have you tried a green dot? I have a friend that also did an exhausted search of various red dots due to similar problems. A green dot optic worked much better for him.

This. Green MRO and RMR works much better for me.

 

[Flyingbullseye]

Eotech is the best for astigmatism in the opinion of myself and a few other people I know when we compared some side by side one day. MRO/Patrol isn't really that bad, but the parallax was doo-doo. The RMR was really bad for me personally but others said it didn't seem terrible which makes me think it's somewhat individual person dependant. Comp M4 was almost good except for pretty bad starbursting, but at least wasn't as grainy to me as the others. For me the dot/reticles aren't blurry they are grainy and starbursts, so maybe YMMV.

I'd say an etched reticle is going to be your best bet. LPVO with a big eyebox seems like a good idea, that's what I use instead of a red dot.

My experience was just the opposite. The eotech reticle was slightly blurred for me while the aimpoint dot is much sharper. Up until I tried both I had favored eotech but my astigmatism favored aimpoint.

 

[Tim_WNC]

I went with the Primary Arms 1x Prism https://www.primaryarms.com/pa-1x-compact-prism-scope-with-acss-cyclops-reticle-fde

It's the bee's knees for me compared to any RDS. Don't let the "ACSS ranging" or BDC reticle be a selling point on the 1x, it's so small to be unusable as designed. BUT, as an RDS replacement it rocks.

 

[NukeMan]

MRO has worked fine for me. I have contacts that are for a astigmatism though.

 

[chevy_man]

A simple set of polarized glasses fix the image for me. I see a "starburst" without glasses, have fine vision otherwise. Put on a set of Oakley's (just happens that I like open framed glasses and they're easy to come by) and the dot turns into a crisp perfect circle. I bought a set of Oakley shooting glasses for sporting clays with the pink lens's and they also make the dot look perfect.


I do notice that I can't wear any sort of cheap safety or shooting glasses. Anything not polarized or having a shitty lens design throws off my depth perception and gives me horrible eye strain leading to headaches.

I figure polarized half-jackets or actual shooting glasses at $200/pair are still cheaper than my wifes $600 prescription glasses.


I shoot fastest with an eotech. I don't know why, but that big circle is so easy for my brain. I was loosing 5-10 seconds easy per stage with a LPVO and spark II red dot (ran the same stages back to back 4-5 times with each optic before I tore down the setup after the match).

Green would dim it for some, as most people are more sensitive to red light than green.

 

[34SF]

Polarized glasses was the trick for me. I shoot Aim Point and EOTECH and without the polarized glasses, the red dots/circles are all "hairy." Low power works best for me but not others. My hard learned lesson was quality glass. It didn't work for me unless it was real glass and not cheap quality. Best for me was Nikon shades but somebody liked them more than me and boosted them off the range bench. Expensive lesson. Maui Jim are pretty good too if you can get over the pink (to me) hue for off the shelf. I also had a set of prescriptions made to compensate for my LASIK halos and found that the off the shelf glasses work better. My eye doc let me bring my sight in to see if there was something easy as we went through an exam which may be another option for you. Didn't work for me; the dialed in prescription make the sight clear but the target and everything else was crap. I'm really pissed that in the 21st century, I can't get my bionic eyes like what was promised on the Jetsons!.

 

[mongoosesnipe]

bad news: the dot flaring or changing shape is unavoidable with astigmatism if you were corrective glasses it should help significantly but you may still see a star burst or irregular shape by the nature of red dots reflective operation you are going to have issues

goodnews: the flaring or comma shape doesn't have to negatively affect your shooting if you zero on the top of the comma it will be zeroed correctly for your eyes at range and in close just put the comma on the target

that said you may want to look into a prism sight or a lpvo though you will have a limited eye relief for both compared to the infinite eye box you get with a red dot

 

[34SF]

Been my observation that glasses do it better because of the different grinds and focus points. HOWEVER, there are bifocal contacts that me make a difference. The eye surgery may not get it all either. I had RPK or PRK (whatever the Army could do) and had 20/20 in daylight. At night everything had halos; streetlights, headlights, instrument cluster lights so I paid for LASIK with the topography process and had 20/15 for years. No halos. Now, after 20 years, my sight is slowing. I'm still 20/20 but I have halos. For practical pistol it makes no difference. For anything that has an illuminated sight, I used the polarized glasses. I could go without them for short range or room clearing type stuff but for anything with distance, the red is too "hairy" and increased eye fatigue. Some guys I shoot with work with the dots cranked up but they also get headaches faster.

 

[acudaowner]

not sure if its the same thing I had to turn my brightness down a little to keep the dot from breaking up or splitting into some warped star with a tail . Its still a little off but easier to work around with for me at least . good luck and I hope there is a affordable easy solution that works for you.

 

[mongoosesnipe]

i'm not sure about the contacts i have only a slight astigmatism in my right eye it gets correction with my glasses and i don't have much flare but my contacts don't correct f or the astigmatism as it is so minor as to not effect my normal sight i am very near sighted i usually just use my glasses on the range since i need safety glasses anyway

 

[ThePretzel]

I have some minor astigmatism in my eye, but not terrible enough to make red dots ordinarily unusable. I have found, similar to others, that polarized glasses and lower brightness settings tend to help.

 

[Dolomite_Supafly]

Red dots look like a semi colon to me. Like this ;. I hate it because I have a lot of red dots but all seem to be the same way.

I have been told that an etched reticle 1x scope works with an astigmatism.

 

[hlee]

Green would dim it for some, as most people are more sensitive to red light than green.

People are more sensitive to green light than red, on average. The peak sensitivity in normal ambient light (averaged across “red“ and “green” cones) is 550 nm, which is a yellow-green color. This is why a green laser pointer appears substantially brighter than a red laser pointer, when the power of the lasers are equal.

Graph of photo sensitivity for light sensing cells in the human eye. Note that the L cone is what we typically refer to as the “red cone.” Note also that the peak sensitivity is not “red.”

 

[308pirate]

Instead of shopping for different red dots, just get some corrective lenses that fix your astigmatism.

Find an optometrist that listens when you explain what vision needs to do when you shoot.

 

[308pirate]

Guys with Astigmatism - have any of you found a red dot that’s not blurry? I’ve tried Delta Point, RMR, Sig and Eotech amd they are all blurry. I’ve got an Aimpoint PRO coming to see how that looks for me.

It pisses me off because I’m only 35 and my 60+ Year old Uncles and Dad have no problem seeing a clear dot/reticle out of the same optic but at least I got the good looks lol.

The LPVO Vortex pst, razor, Steiner and Kahles (all in the 1-4 / 1-8 range scopes are great and they may just be what I have to stick with. I just really want a red dot to work for a small package AR.

I was just hoping someone has had the same issue and has a magic answer (other than corrective surgery)

You need glasses. Or corrective surgery.

There are no other options if you want to use a reflex sight.

 

[drewthebrave]

I wear glasses or contacts 100% of the time, but my astigmatism causes some red dots to bloom slightly even with corrective lenses. The EOTech red dots were the least affected, while the tube style optics bloomed more noticeably. For red dot ranges (within 250 yards) I still hold center mass and shoot about as well with my blurry Aimpoint as I did with my sharp EOTech. For anything beyond that, I'm using magnified optics which aren't affected by my astigmatism.

If you can't correct your astigmatism with lenses, perhaps you'll be better off with a prism optic with an etched reticle.

 

[srt-4_uk]

The etched reticle on the Spitfire solves the problem, but its not exactly 1x which bothers me much more than the distorted red dot.

You need to adjust the diopter setting.