Pistol Red Dots for Astigmatism

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S&Wtinkerer

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Hi everyone. I have a pistol that is cut for an optic and have never had a pistol with a dot on it. I have pretty bad astigmatism and thought I would never be able to get a dot on the pistol, until I looked through a Holosun EPS 2 (the green reticle with a 2MOA dot and 32 MOA circle).


I don't have a ton of experience with red dots as they usually don't work with my eyes and I use prisms, etched reticles or just LPVOs/normal optics. Anyone have recommendations besides the EPS 2 that would be good on a pistol and ok with astigmatism? Ideally under $500 ish out the door.
 
I have a 507C-GR X2 in both circle/dot and vulcan ACSS. I also have experience with the 6MOA red dot 407K and various other 2-3 MOA red dots. Ranking clarity from best to worst.

1) 507C-GR circle only, no dot (perfect in all conditions)
2) 407K 6moa dot (surprisingly clear in all conditions, very slight blur)
3) 507C-GR circle/dot combo (some fuzz on the 2moa dot, makes it pretty busy. I'm honestly not sure the circle by itself isn't the better option for defense, and the dot only the better option for precision)
4) 507C Green dot only (some fuzz on the 2 moa dot)
5) 507C Green ACSS vulcan (perfect in medium-bright lights, ghosting in low light/dark backgrounds)
6) 2-3 MOA red dot

So at least for my and my astigmatism, I a) do a bit better with green than red, and b) the bigger the dot, the clearer it is.

I would not hesitate to use any of the reticles above for a defense gun or steel/bigger targets.

I would only use 4 or 6 for precision shooting, but the mind does a pretty good job of interpolating the center of a 32 moa ring, as my groups barely opened up at all (think of using open aperture iron sights).
 
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I agree, I went to the red reflex sights years ago when I changed my contact prescription to monovision, one eye set for close and my dominant eye set for distance. Couldn't see irons anymore. I wasn't really happy with the red dot because of my astigmatism but it was usable, better than readers and way better than glasses. I just bought a Holosun 507 in green and it's amazingly clear, center dot, and 32 moa circle. Thinking about selling all my Venoms and Fast Fires and buying the Holosun.
 
I have alot of luck with the smaller dots, if its one of the 6 moa or bigger reticles, its not going to work for me.

I really do think you would be happy with what you tried. If it works, why not get that?
 
I’ve settled on the green 507c-gr- x2 ACSS with the chevron and big perimeter “ring. I’ve tried 3 or 4 others and it Is the easiest for me to pick up and use fast and accurately.

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Thank you everyone for the replies! I also haven't usually spent this much money on an optic before and I appreciate the opinions. Most of my glass is in the $200-300 range so taking this leap with a little research is much appreciated. I am hoping it could pull double duty and maybe also go on a carbine? We shall see!
 
S&Wtinkerer said:
Thank you everyone for the replies! I also haven't usually spent this much money on an optic before and I appreciate the opinions. Most of my glass is in the $200-300 range so taking this leap with a little research is much appreciated. I am hoping it could pull double duty and maybe also go on a carbine? We shall see!
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I would not go with the EPS you mentioned earlier unless you find one with the MRS reticle. If it only comes with a dot which won't be great with your astigmatism. Look for one with the circle dot like this:

they go on sale under $300
 
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Catfish said:
I would not go with the EPS you mentioned earlier unless you find one with the MRS reticle. If it only comes with a dot which won't be great with your astigmatism. Look for one with the circle dot like this:

they go on sale under $300
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in my experience, the circle is worse. Looks like a fat donut without my glasses. Dot is jagged and rough looking. - really only an issue with precision shooting. Dot looks crisp in sunlight regardless.
 
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For what it's worth, I got the green Holosun ACSS as an open box special from primary arms for about $275. It was like new...no issues.
 
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The best I have used is the SRO. Can see dot pretty clearly mostly.

Holosun 507 not bad either. Use that on a carbine though.
 
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