Question about Red Dot Sight

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ZeroRooter

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I bought a Vortex® Crossfire Red Dot II (Green Dot version).

When I look through the sight, the dot is not a perfect circle. It has a kind of "snowflake-looking" shape with the middle being the brightest part.

My question is, is this normal? Or is my sight defective?

I did clean the lenses and there wasn't much change.


Thank you
 
ZeroRooter said:
I bought a Vortex® Crossfire Red Dot II (Green Dot version).

When I look through the sight, the dot is not a perfect circle. It has a kind of "snowflake-looking" shape with the middle being the brightest part.

My question is, is this normal? Or is my sight defective?

I did clean the lenses and there wasn't much change.


Thank you
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Exactly as edgy stated. Same thing happens to me. It sucks. In my case, a larger, green ring was much better... i.e. the Holosun Comp 507
 
Before my cataract surgery I had that issue, too. I found that the green "Circle-Dot" was easier to see clearly - don't know why that was 'better'. I've read that the green 'lit' sights are generally better - Unless you're shooting into 'leafy areas' 😉
EDIT - I found out why - 'Human eyes' see Green better because it is in the 'middle' of human visible spectrum, while Red is near the end. https://preferoptics.com/green-vs-red-laser-sights/
PS - I guess that's partly why I do OK with $30 Amazon Reflex sights; and the one with 'built-in laser' is only $47-ish today.
https://www.amazon.ca/Feyachi-RSL-18-Reflex-Sight-ser/dp/B07GWNTJR4/ref=sr_1_6 -- I co-witness the laser at ca 10 feet - the longest indoor shot I'd take - after zeroing the reflex at 25 on my 22LR. The laser can be run independently.
 
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Hmm. Interesting about the green sights. I'll have to find one to look through. I have an astigmatism too and red dots look like squiggly lines without my glasses. This is the first time I've heard that green dots may be better.
 
Most Vortex sights also have a poor refresh rate and also try and cheat for better battery life by pulsing the dot to reduce the amount of power used. This can appear as a fuzzy dot to many. Some manufacturers also use a cluster of dots for larger reticles ie: the Holosun 6moa pistol RDS sights appear to me as a cluster of 3 dots under some lighting conditions.

I have switched most of my rifle red dots to prisms, for this and other reasons (reticle that is always there, even if the battery dies)

At the end of the day, it shouldn't affect much the type of shooting you do with a red dot, other than the refresh rate, which can lead to dot "lag" during fast transitions.
 
I've had and sold a couple 200 dollar dots. They all have cheap emitters with poor refresh rates. The only one worth buying now is the sign Romeo gen2 with shake awake. All my other dots are holosun because they have a crisper dot.
 
Do you wear corrective lenses? For rifle scopes, I focus the eye pc. to my naked eye and it works perfectly. I used to experience the same thing as the OP using red dots and assumed I was just buying cheap ones. Turns out I had an astigmatism, and for the heck of it tried using the red dot with my eyeglasses on=problem solved.
 
edgy said:
You probably have an astigmatism, if so your red/ green dot can appear to be a “ starburst” not a crisp dot. If this is the case, a prism sight will work better for you.
I have a slight astigmatism but still use red dots, they just appear slightly distorted
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.22LRGUY said:
Do you wear corrective lenses? For rifle scopes, I focus the eye pc. to my naked eye and it works perfectly. I used to experience the same thing as the OP using red dots and assumed I was just buying cheap ones. Turns out I had an astigmatism, and for the heck of it tried using the red dot with my eyeglasses on=problem solved.
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I do have astigmatism. I guess my confusion is that I have perfect vision with my glasses on - no astigmatism at all.

Yet, when I look at the green dot with my glasses on, it still appears strange. I don't really understand why that would be the case.

I took a photograph of the inside of the scope and it indeed appears as a perfect circle on the photo.
 
When was your last eye exam ? Are your glasses AND the red-dot lenses Clean ?
and maybe your Rx has changed a bit since last test OR astig was Not Noted or Rx for. Some Optos may not think astig is an issue unless you have a 'reading intensive' job - I worked on PC data for 17-years so needed that correction. Before that I believe I had astig but was not noted on Rx.
 
Completely normal if you suffer from an astigmatism or have the brightness dialed up way too high.
You will know you have an astigmatism if you see starry street lights when driving at night time.
1750899063641.png

As for the brightness, ideally you want the brightness just a click or two above where you can just start seeing the dot. The brightest settings are meant for you to be able to see the dot when your shooting into the direction of the sun at sunset or sunrise, they're not necessarily meant to be operated at that setting. Brighter the dot the worse the glare you will see, as all a red dot is, is a laser like light diode throwing light on the back of the glass lens, also remember to look at the target not at the red dot, your focus should always be on the target once you get the brightness dialed. The dot just hovers there for aiming.

1750899167944.png


A holographic sight is less likely to bloom out if you have an astigmatism, and will allow you to go significantly brighter but its a cost/weight/use scenario. Try it out at a local store or range first if you can.
Hope this helps
 
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Buck1950 said:
I co-witness the laser at ca 10 feet - the longest indoor shot I'd take - after zeroing the reflex at 25 on my 22LR. The laser can be run independently.
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Zeroing the laser is one of the worst things to do when shooting, and should not be suggested to anybody. Since the laser is not mounted inside your barrel, it will always have an offset. Your laser works at 25, but it beyond that basic trigonometry takes over and you will be off a few inches at 30, and that grows exponentially, you will be off a few feet at 40, this offset then keeps getting bigger further away or closer we get from 25.

Leaving the laser parallel to the bore allows you to have an accurate offset at all times, no matter how far you aim, the laser pointer will always be 1" high and 0.5" right (or whatever your setup is like) of the barrel position. From then on you only have to compensate for bullet drop, which allows you to shoot using a laser till the effective range of your caliber.
eg: you know your 22lr drops 5" at a certain range, you just hold your laser pointer 6" high and 0.5" (using last setup example) to the right of your intended target. this will drop the round into the target 0.5" left and 5" lower than your original laser aiming point.

I know this is pretty useless advice to give to someone buying a 30$ chines red dot laser combo, but it also applies to anybody that's reading it and may consider buying a proper laser setup in the future.
 
B- You're right about the 'co-wit' not being good for any further distance. As I said, it's just for 'close-up' nite-shots so I can see about where it's going to hit in the near-dark. This is just on a Savage-64 plinker and the $47 reflex is good for 1"-groups at 25-yds. - Sufficient to my use. A laser or Red-dot is only as good as the rifle it's mounted on, and then one considers the 'MOA-size' of the dot and how it's held on target. A laser will get better accuracy than the 'dot', IMO. For accuracy I use a decent scope anyway.
 
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