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Thread: The effect of a low sun angle on red dot optics

  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by tlong17I View Post
    Thanks for the quality post. Do you still have a R1 Pro to test the same? I have to imagine it would be the same as the R3Max unless there is something different other than the larger viewing window.
    I will test the R1 Pro, Holosun 507 and DP Pro as soon as we get another sunny morning. I think, but am not certain, that the R1 Pro and R3 Max are made in different places.
    Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.

  2. #12
    Not a pistol mounted optic, but Russell Phagan aka Sinistral Rifleman posted this match video from Saturday where he had a hell of a time on the first stage facing direct sunlight.


  3. #13
    This happened to me today and bugged the heck out of me!

    Holosun 507C. At 4:30 PM in northern AZ, I believe about 1.5 hours before sunset. I was shooting a steel plate at 25yds. To get to that distance, I was standing at a different angle than I was the rest of my range trip. The sun was directly behind my back.

    I started shooting... and missing about 50% of the time. I called the shots good and this really irked me... I started thinking maybe my zero is off... maybe my shot calling is garbage... etc. I looked through the lens to get an idea of how close my sight picture needed to be.... and saw two dots. Basically there was a second dot directly above the actual dot, and this dot was visible earlier in the draw stroke, causing me to pull the trigger while I was aimed very low.

    I was very disturbed by this, especially because there was no way I would be able to tell this from the actual dot in a social situation. It looked almost identical to the actual dot just a bit less bright and less circular. I will definitely be paying attention to this issue when making future red dot purchases.

  4. #14
    Good lord at the SRO. Lol.

    I'm new to dots and really, really wish there was a go-to, reliable optic with a big window that works equally well for CCW as competition. It seems, from reading this sub-forum, that we are still a little ways away. Was really hoping the SRO would be the one.

  5. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by TicTacticalTimmy View Post
    This happened to me today and bugged the heck out of me!

    Holosun 507C. At 4:30 PM in northern AZ, I believe about 1.5 hours before sunset. I was shooting a steel plate at 25yds. To get to that distance, I was standing at a different angle than I was the rest of my range trip. The sun was directly behind my back.

    I started shooting... and missing about 50% of the time. I called the shots good and this really irked me... I started thinking maybe my zero is off... maybe my shot calling is garbage... etc. I looked through the lens to get an idea of how close my sight picture needed to be.... and saw two dots. Basically there was a second dot directly above the actual dot, and this dot was visible earlier in the draw stroke, causing me to pull the trigger while I was aimed very low.

    I was very disturbed by this, especially because there was no way I would be able to tell this from the actual dot in a social situation. It looked almost identical to the actual dot just a bit less bright and less circular. I will definitely be paying attention to this issue when making future red dot purchases.
    Maybe the 8 MOA circle or circle-dot reticles have an advantage in these situations?

  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by frozentundra View Post
    Maybe the 8 MOA circle or circle-dot reticles have an advantage in these situations?

    Good idea. Next time I am at the range at this time of day I will try to get the angle just right again, and then switch to circle only.

  7. #17
    Site Supporter miller_man's Avatar
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    I don't know. For carry, I think we all would agree BUIS are a must. Looking at the pictures, blacked out irons seem to be in the perfect lighting to stand out quite well - I would think shooting irons would work out pretty well. The focus on the pictures appears to be set to pick up the dot, but looks like the irons would be standing out a whole lot.

    Now, having the experience and quick wits to switch that quickly to the irons may or may not be so easy or instinctive. I know I am pretty darn addicted and set to just look for/use the dot.
    The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me.

    Humbly improving with CZ's.

  8. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by miller_man View Post
    I don't know. For carry, I think we all would agree BUIS are a must. Looking at the pictures, blacked out irons seem to be in the perfect lighting to stand out quite well - I would think shooting irons would work out pretty well. The focus on the pictures appears to be set to pick up the dot, but looks like the irons would be standing out a whole lot.

    Now, having the experience and quick wits to switch that quickly to the irons may or may not be so easy or instinctive. I know I am pretty darn addicted and set to just look for/use the dot.

    The thing is with my specific optic and this experience, I didnt see anything that looked weird.... I saw a dot but it wasnt the correct dot. It wasnt until after I kept missing the target after calling my shots good that I realized something was amiss. How would you know to switch to BUIS when experiencing this under pressure ?

    To correct the issue while shooting, I didnt need to switch to my BUIS, just align the gun perfectly so that the actual dot was on the target and the false dot was out of the screen. Maybe this whole concern could be avoided if I presented the gun better and did not have the gun aligned high before settling onto the target.

  9. #19
    I was able to test this phenomenon further with my 507C and a newly acquired 407C-GR:

    507c:
    When in circle mode or circle/dot mode, the false dot is still visible. However, is is just a dot; not a circle. Therefore if you are used to looking for a circle or circle/dot reticle you would not mistake the false dot for the reticle. Yet another reason I need to pick up a 407CO to try out.

    407c-gr:
    With this optic, I could not get the false dot to appear!
    This is a brand new 407c-gr, probably from the last batch prior to the v2s. It seems to have generally better lens quality than the 507. I am not an optics nerd, but I believe the correct term is that it has less abberation than the earlier produced 507. With my tiny sample size I have no idea if I got a good 407, a bad 507, or if the lens quality has improved over the months. Regardless, at this point my assumption is this phenomenon is caused by imperfections in the lens, and therefore probably varies from sample to sample from any given manufacturer.

  10. #20

    407CO results

    Last weekend I was at the range shooting my Holosun 407CO (8MOA ring) as the sun was going down. The sun was directly behind me and at the worst possible angle.

    I got an artifact that looked kind of like 3 bloomed dots clustered together at the very right hand side of the window. It was different enough from the reticle and also far enough away from it that I didn't have any concern of mistaking it for my reticle when drawing/shooting at speed. The 407CO is good to go with low sun angles for me.

    It's remarkable how much more I like the CO reticle than anything else I have used, for everything from hosing to shooting from sandbags to long range precision. Really hope they add this reticle to more of their sights.

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