Empirically Choosing Optic Color

[RJ]

I need some advice before I go down a very deep rabbit hole...What is the best (read: cheapest) way to empirically choose an optic color?

So I've been shooting dots on and off since 2020. All of them (2x507c, 1x507k, 2x407k, 1xEPS Carry MRS) have had red dots. I based this on a simple experiment with fiber optic rods taped to a slide a few years ago. My perception was I "saw" red better.

I am in the middle of selling my EPS Carry MRS red because after six months of playing with dot, circle, and dot/circle, I am ready to go back to a single MOA optic, either the EPS Carry 6 MOA or 407k. But before I order one, it occurred to me I could maybe try green this time.

While I am ok ordering green, and giving it a shot over a few months, I'd rather not spend the money then take the loss on ANOTHER transition in six months, back to red.

So what I am currently pondering is getting another set of fiber rods in various colors, and then, in turn, taping them to the slide of my P365 X Macro Frankengun. One thing led to another and I sketched out an approach to use the data from my Dry Practice Program logbook, in an empirical study. What I'd do is pick a set of drills (maybe the Gabe White Performance Tests) I have records on and know my performance, then use both colors over the course of a few weeks, to see how my performance varied with color?

Bear with me, as it's just an illustrative spreadsheet at this point that I didn't put much time in, but you can see how wrapped around the axle I can get:



(all the data is fake, except for the actual test Dry Times; that's what I had in my log book during the last serious amount of work I was doing with my G34+507c, aiming for Light Pin times, but was a while ago.)

Am I nuts? Is this really a lot more simple, as in, just get the green optic Rich and try it out, and stop making a mountain out of a molehill? Or is there some value in objectively evaluating the selection of color in personal performance to optimize color choice?

[RJ]

Welp gonna give this a go. Ordered a set of rods and started playing with mounting options for when they come. Will post back anything of interest in January.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

[JCN]

Am I nuts? Is this really a lot more simple, as in, just get the green optic Rich and try it out, and stop making a mountain out of a molehill? Or is there some value in objectively evaluating the selection of color in personal performance to optimize color choice?

Remind me again, do you have some element of red-green color blindness?

I have a partial deficiency but the idiosyncrasy is that different shades of red / green pop differently to my vision.

Like some of the older incandescent green traffic lights looked almost like white street lamps while the new, deeper richer green LED ones are clearly GREEEEEEN to me.

Same thing with the previous incandescent yellow blinking warning lights... I couldn't tell them clearly from the red blinking ones.




I think I would prefer a BLUE dot reticle when they eventually come out with them.

Most green single dot reticles are hard for me and tend to wash out, but it's somewhat brand specific is what I'm trying to get at.

But I really prefer the yellow-green of a fiber optic (again, the different wavelengths matter to my eye).



Most red dot reticles are deep enough that they pop for my eye against most backgrounds. Green reticles outdoors tends to be difficult for me.


So my overall assessment and recommendation would be:

1. Fiber versus electronic color may be different enough that it's not a worthwhile surrogate for testing IMO.
2. The objective performance difference RDS/GDS is (by my estimate) on the order of 1-3% which will be very difficult to tease out from shooter performance variability. The more variable the shooter, the more buried the performance difference will be in the noise of the data.


So I'd just pick red and chive on until the future when better technology allows more colors and reticles. YMMV.

[GJM]

With Holosun optics, with a six moa dot I am indifferent between red and green. With a 2 moa dot, like on the 509T and 507 Comp, I find that the 2 moa red dot is NOT bright enough for my use with sunglasses on a bright SW light day. The 2 moa green dot on the 507 Comp and 509T is much brighter and works for me.

I prefer red to contrast better with summer foliage in MT and AK, but have gone with green on the 507/509, while sticking with red on the EPS 6.

[DDTSGM]

I have a bit of astigmatism and found that green fiber optics seemed sharper to me. My first couple of RDS were red and they bloomed/starred so I began buying prismatics. When I bought my first pistol optic a green dot was available so I tried it. Being a nice guy I also bought one in red for my wife. Same deal. I like the green better.

Note: Sample of one, don't hunt so no issues with background, I also don't have any optics on my carry pistols. So my data is from range use, mostly outdoors.

[ECK]

First off, I am a fan of the simple red dot, preferably in the 5-6 MOA size. Over the years I’ve tried other dot size/configurations and I keep going back to 5-6MOA as the dot size I shoot the best with (USPSA matches). I own a 2.5MOA SRO and the HS407CO (the one with the 8MOA ring) but the majority of my red dots are either 5, 6, or 6.5 (SRO, C-More, HS407K, Vortex Razor, and RMR). I’ve heard people say that there’s not much difference between a 2.5MOA and the 5MOA dot, esp if you bump up the intensity. But comparing my match performances, I noticed a trend where I shot better (faster and more accurately) with the larger dot. I even tried the Holosun 8MOA ring, and while functional it’s not my preferred. As far as the circle-dot or chevron reticles, no thank you please, they’re not for me.

Years ago I experimented with green fiber optic tubes since a couple shooting buddies swore by them, and FOMO right? I tried green for about 3-4 matches and at the end of that time went back to red. I do have one pistol with lower 1/3 BUIS that I put in a green FO tube thinking that I did not want to have two “red dots” in my view…. And of course the Sig 365XL has the factory green front sight but I barely see that thru the HS407K window.

[crosseyedshooter]

All I know is that my eyes see fiber optic sights differently than LED reflex sights. Green looks brighter to me, but the green LED blooms more than red and I seem to have better contrast with red. So, my preference is green fiber optic and red LEDs.

I think the actual wavelength(s) of light are different between fiber optics, natural vs indoor light source, and LED red/green dot sights. It’s very difficult to generalize by only the dot color without knowing the actual LED light source and optical coatings on the reflex lenses.

[G19Fan]

Even though green feels brighter, it wash out for me.in headlights porchlights, etc much more than red

[BillSWPA]

Most shooting testing you are likely to do would be conducted under optimal or close to optimal lighting conditions. Although this information would be important, it would also be important to know what happens under suboptimal lighting conditions.

[DamonL]

Would you need two of the same gun, with the same optic, but with different color reticles to perform a good test?