Green VS Red Dot: Astigmatism, Contrast and Washout

[frozentundra]

I've read that green may be better for some people with astigmatism. Anyone have first or even second hand experience with this?

How about washout from flashlights, light colored targets, or snowscapes in direct sunlight compared to a red dot?


I live in an area that is extremely green in the summer which could create contrast problems with backgrounds. If green helps with my astigmatism, and apparently it may also have some battery life advantage, perhaps it's worth the potential contrast issue in the summer months? I am looking specifically at Holosun optics with the large circle reticles. Application is carry and defensive training. Mostly targets, drills, and cadence such as Dobbs and Bolke might recommend - not high level competition shooting (unfortunately).

[GJM]

I had heard that green might be better in a low sun angle, but testing red and green Holosun 507 optics, both red and green seemed to get equal amounts of splatter, but the circle was fine in both red and green in a bad sun angle.

[mrozowjj]

I don't know that any one style, color or size of dot is going to be universally better for people with astigmastism. I have a mild bit of it and dots that look clear to me look like stars to other people online and some that people have told me look great to them look like stars to me.

The only way to know is to find one somewhere and try.

[SoCalDep]

I find the green to have less issues with low sun angle, but not “no” issues. Depending on where the sun is, there are usually red or orange “phantom dots/images” and they are easily discerned from the green dot. At the right angle though, there can be multiple green dots just like the red optics.

I tried the green dot and while it worked decently, I didn’t find it any better for my astigmatism. To me, the biggest drawback is that the green wasn’t nearly as bright as the red and I, along with others have found it to be a bit lacking for bright sunlight. Not horrible, but not quite what I’d prefer.

Not that it directly addresses your post, but in the theme of astigmatism I’ve been running a Holosun 407CO for a couple weeks and with my eye correction it’s rad... Helps me stay target focused, plenty accurate, not to busy when shooting at speed... I love it... until the contacts come out or glasses come off... then it’s a big very blurry dot.

[frozentundra]

I find the green to have less issues with low sun angle, but not “no” issues. Depending on where the sun is, there are usually red or orange “phantom dots/images” and they are easily discerned from the green dot. At the right angle though, there can be multiple green dots just like the red optics.

I tried the green dot and while it worked decently, I didn’t find it any better for my astigmatism. To me, the biggest drawback is that the green wasn’t nearly as bright as the red and I, along with others have found it to be a bit lacking for bright sunlight. Not horrible, but not quite what I’d prefer.

Not that it directly addresses your post, but in the theme of astigmatism I’ve been running a Holosun 407CO for a couple weeks and with my eye correction it’s rad... Helps me stay target focused, plenty accurate, not to busy when shooting at speed... I love it... until the contacts come out or glasses come off... then it’s a big very blurry dot.

Thanks for the input.

What do you think of the 32 MOA rings without corrected vision? Are they easier to use than the CO reticle or even more of a mess?

[SoCalDep]

Thanks for the input.

What do you think of the 32 MOA rings without corrected vision? Are they easier to use than the CO reticle or even more of a mess?

I like it better than the “CO” for encouraging target focus (because I can see the ring) but neither as much as a small dot… which brings up that whole glare issue. I do think the “CO” reticle is at this point my favorite because it’s so great with correction, and (though I now realize I need to confirm) without I bet glare will still look different than the reticle, and even though a big ugly blur, it’s still good enough if glasses got knocked off or a contact popped out that I could fight well.

Of course, this is a bit preliminary….but it’s encouraging.

[TicTacticalTimmy]

I have an astigmatism in my dominant eye and have experimented with the following:
Holosun 2moa dot
Holosun 32moa ring
Holosun 32moa ring w. Dot
Holosun green 2moa dot
Holosun "CO" 8moa ring
Leupold deltapoint triangle

I found that the CO reticle is the best, and the margin is pretty wide between it and the next best option. There is almost no difference looking at the CO reticle with my astigmatism vs non astigmatism eye. It is the best for precise shooting, and also the best for fast shooting. The 32moa circle might be marginally faster off the draw maybe but i wasnt comfortable with the large size/potential margin for error.

The green 2moa dot is the 2nd best. I dont think thats exactly because green plays better with astigmatism, but rather because your eyes can detect green easier than red, so it looks brighter with the same power output. This overcomes the issue of the "cluster of grapes" defraction of light making the reticle hard to see in bright sun. However, it is still more or less a "cluster of grapes" whereas the CO is a perfect ring.

[SoCalDep]

Up to this point (my 407CO only being a couple weeks old) I’ve only seen it in two situations... Bright outdoor sunlight while wearing eye correction (contacts) and indoor lighting of various degrees with and without eye correction (glasses and contacts).

Today I wasn’t planning to shoot much (lots and lots of paperwork) so I didn’t have my contacts but ended up on the range for a bit. While I didn’t get to shoot my handgun I was showing the Holosun to a coworker and noticed that, like the larger 6.5MOA RMR dot, in bright light the ring reticle was pretty nice and clear. That’s a huge difference from indoor and low lighting where it’s a big blur.

All that to say that I liked it before and I’m even more happy now that given the right light it looks good to me even without my contacts/glasses.

[Kanye Wyoming]

Over the last 2.5 years or so, 98% of the rounds I’ve fired have been with a red dot. From reading various things here and there, it seems that a lot of people have found green dots a little more vibrant and easier to pick up, even against a background of foliage. About 6 weeks ago I started having some odd things with the vision in my left eye (it’s now diagnosed and being treated) and I thought what the heck, what better excuse to buy something, in this case to try a green dot.

I got an EPS Green MRS a few weeks ago, put it on a G19, and used just the 2MOA dot. To put it in the nicest possible way, the first two times I went to the range I sucked ass. To the point I figured green is just not for me and was thinking I ought to sell it. Today, after doing some drills with a G19 with a red dot, I switched to the one with the green dot and spent a lot of time drawing and firing one round, slowly at first and gradually working my way up to full speed. And then two rounds, first slowly then speeding up.

Well dayum - once my eyes were trained to look for green and not red, I found it is easier to pick up, and when I did some Bill Drills I was getting modestly but consistently better clean times than I had with the red.

So this is half intended as an FYI, half to see what others’ experiences have been, and half to see if there is any science explaining the red versus green in people without astigmatism, and who can see both red and green.

[G19Fan]

Over the last 2.5 years or so, 98% of the rounds I’ve fired have been with a red dot. From reading various things here and there, it seems that a lot of people have found green dots a little more vibrant and easier to pick up, even against a background of foliage. About 6 weeks ago I started having some odd things with the vision in my left eye (it’s now diagnosed and being treated) and I thought what the heck, what better excuse to buy something, in this case to try a green dot.

I got an EPS Green MRS a few weeks ago, put it on a G19, and used just the 2MOA dot. To put it in the nicest possible way, the first two times I went to the range I sucked ass. To the point I figured green is just not for me and was thinking I ought to sell it. Today, after doing some drills with a G19 with a red dot, I switched to the one with the green dot and spent a lot of time drawing and firing one round, slowly at first and gradually working my way up to full speed. And then two rounds, first slowly then speeding up.

Well dayum - once my eyes were trained to look for green and not red, I found it is easier to pick up, and when I did some Bill Drills I was getting modestly but consistently better clean times than I had with the red.

So this is half intended as an FYI, half to see what others’ experiences have been, and half to see if there is any science explaining the red versus green in people without astigmatism, and who can see both red and green.

Oddly kinda the same. Always been a red guy but today a green felt super fast to pick up was consistently faster