Astigmatism & RDS

[Ghog]

I’m 65 and have to use progressive glasses to function normally. Obviously it is difficult to see correctly shooting a handgun. I would like to try a red dot but want opinions if a larger dot such as 6moa vs 3moa might be best for my astigmatism. Personal comparison would be great but not possible. I do realize could have a problem with either but would like to improve my chances. Suggestions ?

[BlueSky]

I am a decade+ older and dealing with astigmatism. I wear hard line trifocals and with the red dot, use only the top lens, distance correction, for shooting. With irons I would have to tilt the head back to get mid range correction for the sights (not good) or work with a blurred sight picture (not good). With red dots the focus issue goes away. You are just using distance correction, but then astigmatism is the issue. I have tried a couple of red dots and am committed.

Trijicon RM06 type 1 with the smaller dot worked OK. The dot looked like a cluster of grapes hanging towards 5 o'clock. Brightness is a factor. More bright, more grapes. Learn your cluster.
Trijicon RM06 type 2 with 3.25 dot, MUCH better. Dot is a bit fuzzy but the grapes are not an issue. This is what I carry now and it just works very well.
Tried a Holosun 507C-GR to see if it might be better. Green dot and circle. Did not work at all for me. Astigmatism caused me to see two distinct images offset about 10 MOA, the dimmer one in the 4 o'clock direction. Did not work at all, just a big blurred blob.

So, for me, the RM06 type 2 is the fix. But progressives will add another factor. The hard line trifocals are better for me.

Good luck.

[Paul D]

I have had good luck with a 3 MOA dot or smaller. To my eyes it looks like a bright hot comet with a small tail. If you turn up the power a little, it will look like a 6 MOA dot which is popular with regular dot shooters.

[YVK]

There's a decent amount of individual variability. We all see grapes and comets, question is how much. Years ago, when RDS were rifles thing only, I was sure I did better with smaller dot. I preferred Eotech over Aimpoint. These days and when shooting pistols, I like 5-6 min dots. So far I have used single correction glasses, no bi or variables, and have been ok with the results.
One point to mention: depending on lighting conditions, even folks without astigmatism will fractured dots. To sort this out, make sure you're checking the dots out both indoors and outdoors against low sun.

[O4L]

I switched from a regular red dot to a 1x prism scope. Problem solved.

[evi1joe]

I got the 8MOA circle (2MOA thick line) from Holosun to compare against a normal holosun (2moa dot with 32moa thin circle) and an RMR06.2 (3.25MOA).

My astigmatism changes throughout the day depending on many things--how much have I read online, how late is it, etc.
What I found was that I'd often see a "double-dot"--a secondary dot would appear just above and to the right of the actual dot. What's odd is that sometimes it was BRIGHTER, leading me to think it was the actual dot. I only found out it wasn't by looking through a small hole--as the hole got smaller, it was the top dot that would fade away.

In the end, the LARGER dots annoyed me more than the tiny ones. Conversely, I've read for other people, that they get the SAME amount of "fuzz" or distorition on either size, so it's less noticeable on the larger dots. But for me, the tiny dot is easily useable 90% of the time, and late at night, when I'm tired, it's still plenty useable.

REMEMBER never to look at the dot itself, but only at the target.

[Erick Gelhaus]

My stigmatisms kick in with Aimpoints - though I have my work around.

I haven't had stigmatism issues with any of the PMOs I've used - Trij RMR v 1 & 2, Leupold DPP, and Aimpoint P1 Acro - going back a few years. Also, I prefer the 3pt something size dots.

[mrozowjj]

The bad news I have for you is you probably are going to have to try a lot of dots yourself to see which one works the best for you as everyone seems to have different effects based on their own personal astigmatism.

For me what I've found is the smaller the dot the brighter I have to make it to find it and brighter dot makes for more bloom/starburst effect so for me bigger dot is better.

The other thing I've found is that tube red dots have more bloom than open red dots so Aimpoints are worse for me than RMR style.

Among the dots I would put on a pistol I found that the RMR is the best out there bar none with the 6.5 MOA being the best. The reason I think this is the case is:

Green glass tint - You will see some reviewers complain about this but that slight green tint to the glass provides contrast from the red of the dot. They did this to allow the dot to stand out more so you can run it at a lower brightness so the battery lasts even longer. Being able to run it dimmer and still see it is going to make the starburst effect lessen
Open style - open style lets in more light which helps deal with some of the edges of the starburst effect
Having more brightness settings. Some of the other dots I've tried were not able to go dim enough for indoor use so indoors I was stuck with a brighter dot that bloomed more


For all those reasons if I'm putting a dot on a pistol that I want to run into the ground I buy the Trijicon RMR 6.5 MOA model with the manual brightness adjustment settings. While I think the size of the dot might vary for use I think it would be a great idea to try the 1 MOA , 3.25MOA & 6.5 MOA dots yourself and see which of them works beset for you. I don't know where you live but find a dealer with them and try a few of them.

The close second for me and my is the Holosun 407co which is the dot evi1joe mentioned that isn't actually a dot. You might want to check this out as it's not actually a dot but a red ring and maybe having something that isn't a dot will help trick your eye into seeing it more clearly. I talk about that reticle here:


https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?38369-HE508T-First-impressions-and-initial-range-review-with-comparison-to-RMR&p=964325&viewfull=1#post964325

[Ghog]

Thanks for all the suggestions. Seems like my most sensible option is to continue looking for some red dot sights to compare. May need to make a little road trip.

[jeep45238]

I recently started using a Holosun 407C with a 2MOA dot. On the automatic adjustment it's surprisingly useful. You can lock in a brightness as well if you desire.