Sight for astigmatism?

[nitroxace]

I have found that the Primary Arms ACSS reticle works wonders with anyone who has astigmatism. The larger chevron ^ style is a 10 MOA but it will not obstruct anything at distance as the its not a 10MOA solid dot. Holosun teamed up with Primary Arms and created the Holosun 507c ACSS Vulcan. I have one and am looking to purchase a 2nd as they are on backorder currently. It is by far the easiest and most crisp red dot to use in my opinion. My wife has a severe astigmatism and she find it clear when comparing it to a standard 3 MOA red dot.

Holosun states that the chevron can assist as bullet drop calculator. I am a pistols person so I cant confirm if this work out to stated distance. I thought that I would throw it out there.

 

[Can-down]

Vortex Spitfire: the gen 1 models are better as they are more versatile and have a low-mount option for shotgun/lever/rim fire, the new ones are designed for AR height.
Primary Arms 1x: the first gen tube style I give the edge over the Vortex, due to better reticle and (separately sold) mounting height options.
Primary Arms 1x Micro-prism: I’m currently using one and so far so good, but only one range trip so far. Way more (included) mounting options, much bigger reticle with actually useable BDC marks and smaller overall size, shake-awake/auto-off and more.

I like the spitfire 1x vortex prism's as well, the dot in a circle is really well suited for shotgun use and is easy to use with solid projectiles as well.

Which PA micro prism are you using? I recenly bought their latest micro 1X with the gemini 9mm reticle and I find the hold over dots are to close together for my eyes ( which are finally starting to show signs of age) and even the chevron that so many people like is too small and at that size I would prefer a simple dot and then just hold over or under the target instinctively. This new gen PA micro prism seems like it could almost be to small.... it's tiny!

I didn't realize I had astigmatism till I bought a red dot many years ago and thought it was defective. I've learned to buy the smallest dot possible and just live with it. Strange part is it seems to be worse when viewing inside under certain lights but outside it's better. Yesterday I was looking through an older sparc red dot and was surprised to see a perfectly round crisp dot. It really seems to very but I got used to placing a less then perfect dot on targets years ago.

 

[-raqh-]

I like the spitfire 1x vortex prism's as well, the dot in a circle is really well suited for shotgun use and is easy to use with solid projectiles as well.

Which PA micro prism are you using? I recenly bought their latest micro 1X with the gemini 9mm reticle and I find the hold over dots are to close together for my eyes ( which are finally starting to show signs of age) and even the chevron that so many people like is too small and at that size I would prefer a simple dot and then just hold over or under the target instinctively. This new gen PA micro prism seems like it could almost be to small.... it's tiny!

I didn't realize I had astigmatism till I bought a red dot many years ago and thought it was defective. I've learned to buy the smallest dot possible and just live with it. Strange part is it seems to be worse when viewing inside under certain lights but outside it's better. Yesterday I was looking through an older sparc red dot and was surprised to see a perfectly round crisp dot. It really seems to very but I got used to placing a less then perfect dot on targets years ago.

The Gemini 9mm is the one I'm considering, I'm really interested but reviews are really mixed with some saying it's great and absolutely one of the best for the money, and some just like you saying the reticle is too small....

 

[guntech]

I wear contact lenses as I don't like to wear glasses. They don't correct my astigmatism however. I have progressive glasses as a backup but will have to see how they work shooting.

Do you wear glasses for shooting?

 

[jacotsmith]

Which PA micro prism are you using? I recenly bought their latest micro 1X with the gemini 9mm reticle and I find the hold over dots are to close together for my eyes ( which are finally starting to show signs of age) and even the chevron that so many people like is too small

Everything is relative, the reticle on the newer PA micro prism is WAY bigger than the earlier model, so I find it quite practical in comparison lol. However as I mentioned, I’ve only used it for one range trip so far and was only focussing on 25m targets to zero, so I haven’t even tried the hold over marks.

 

[rascal1]

Do you wear glasses for shooting?

Only safety glasses over my contacts, that's at the range. Hunting and at work, just contacts. Etched reticle work great, red dot sights or just blobs when they are turned up high for day time use.

 

[Can-down]

The Gemini 9mm is the one I'm considering, I'm really interested but reviews are really mixed with some saying it's great and absolutely one of the best for the money, and some just like you saying the reticle is too small....

I still haven't had a chance to shoot it so I can't say for sure, but the first dot down from the chevron is close enough that it's a bit cluttered, the next dot down is about where the horseshoe ring would come in if it was a circle.

With a 16" barrel, the first dot below the chevron is for around 150 yards and the second dot is 200 yards, that's with the tip of the chevron sighted in at 50 yards, the under side of the chevron tip at 75 and the bottom points of the chevron being 100 yards. The chevron is small enough that it's not really jumping out as the obvious aim point to my eyes and the small amount of difference between the 50/75/100 yard aim points is quite "busy" looking and hard to pin point.

Here is a pretty good image I pulled off the internet, This is close to what I see but I'd say it's even a bit smaller when I look through it then it appears in the picture. There is something about the layout that does not draw my eye to the chevron quickly.

I think the layout of the reticle would make more sense in a 2x where it was slightly larger and easier to see the finer aiming points.

 

[Can-down]

Everything is relative, the reticle on the newer PA micro prism is WAY bigger than the earlier model, so I find it quite practical in comparison lol. However as I mentioned, I’ve only used it for one range trip so far and was only focussing on 25m targets to zero, so I haven’t even tried the hold over marks.

I've heard that said but which 1x prism did they make that had the Gemini 9mm reticle? If this one is WAY bigger then the previous one, well I can't imagine how bad the first one was... I think a magnifier would help but that sort of defeats the purpose of a small optic. I will see how I feel after trying it out but I'd probably be pretty happy with the .223 cyclops reticle and just hold over and under by eye without the extra dots. Even just a single dot for 200 yards would be better to my brain, then I could just split the difference by eye for 150yards.

I don't mind the chevrons though I'm not a fanboy, I do understand why people like them but for my eyes small dots and dot on the spot as opposed to chevron tip below the spot is what I like. I do have other PA optics where the chevron is way larger and easier to use as designed.

This 1X micro Gemini is a bit of a strain for me and is not what I would consider quick, easy and well defined for the different hold overs.

 

[Can-down]

The Gemini 9mm is the one I'm considering, I'm really interested but reviews are really mixed with some saying it's great and absolutely one of the best for the money, and some just like you saying the reticle is too small....

I would suggest trying to look through one if you can.

I did just that and checked out a cyclops version in person ( with out the hold over dots that the Gemini has) and it looked reasonable

The extra hold over dots just clutter things up for me and in hindsight I'm thinking that the regular cyclops would have been better... but I won't know for sure till I get a chance to shoot with it.

 

[-raqh-]

Yeah, sadly, all I have around are sport/hunt and fish stores, no gun shops pretty much 150km close. So they basically hold the low end stuff with a TRS-25 being pretty much the best I can get local...

 

[KaneZoR]

Thr aimpoint micro T2 works well with astigmatism, I don’t have that condition myself but I’ve had a person who does tell me that after taking a look through my optic. YMMV of course

Otherwise the various prism optics are a good choice as others have mentioned but with the trades offs associated with those.

 

[4star60]

Not an Optometrist but wore eyeglasses for 61 years due to short sightedness and astimatism And stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!
Astigmatism is an imperfect sphere or mishape of the eye. Generally it does not cause "flare". I would describe it more as a smear or in some cases almost a double vision and yes when you get your eyes checked they check for it, of course. They do have soft contact lense that will correct it if you are a candidate. If you are older as in my case the "flare" was/is the beginning of cataracts and they correct your vision with lenses for that until you reach a very bad point. In my case I was told it would be years but for whatever reason cataracts developed faster than average. Solution at that point is lense implants. I have got to say if you reach that point find a world renowned surgeon like my wife and I did. With the implanted lense he gave me 20-15 vision(better than 20-20). bye bye eyeglasses after 61 years excep tfor some reading. Got it done within a few months at a private clinic or here in BC you can go the government way which can be a year waiting(being very blindish) and they will not pay for lenses to correct astigmatism but you may have the opportunity to pay. The reason the surgeon we chose was private was because they limited his operations and also his outcomes weren't as good because of the poorer equipment in BC hospitals. He would have done both my eyes on one day but the college of surgeons did not allow that so I had them done on back to back days. First one I got up from the operating platform and shook his hand as I could immediately see very well!

My .02.

 

[-raqh-]

Not an Optometrist but wore eyeglasses for 61 years due to short sightedness and astimatism And stayed at a Holiday Inn Express!
Astigmatism is an imperfect sphere or mishape of the eye. Generally it does not cause "flare". I would describe it more as a smear or in some cases almost a double vision and yes when you get your eyes checked they check for it, of course. They do have soft contact lense that will correct it if you are a candidate. If you are older as in my case the "flare" was/is the beginning of cataracts and they correct your vision with lenses for that until you reach a very bad point. In my case I was told it would be years but for whatever reason cataracts developed faster than average. Solution at that point is lense implants. I have got to say if you reach that point find a world renowned surgeon like my wife and I did. With the implanted lense he gave me 20-15 vision(better than 20-20). bye bye eyeglasses after 61 years excep tfor some reading. Got it done within a few months at a private clinic or here in BC you can go the government way which can be a year waiting(being very blindish) and they will not pay for lenses to correct astigmatism but you may have the opportunity to pay. The reason the surgeon we chose was private was because they limited his operations and also his outcomes weren't as good because of the poorer equipment in BC hospitals. He would have done both my eyes on one day but the college of surgeons did not allow that so I had them done on back to back days. First one I got up from the operating platform and shook his hand as I could immediately see very well!

My .02.

As I'm in my mid 30s, I sure hope it isn't cataracts!

 

[JBD]

Thr aimpoint micro T2 works well with astigmatism, I don’t have that condition myself but I’ve had a person who does tell me that after taking a look through my optic. YMMV of course

Otherwise the various prism optics are a good choice as others have mentioned but with the trades offs associated with those.

No It does not. I have astigmatism and the aimpoint T2 and my dot is a spray of light

 

[Buck1950]

Was many years ago that I tried contact lenses - they were the "soft" ones - had no capacity to correct for astigmatism - I noticed it most when trying to do curling - glasses constantly fogging up when I squatted in the hack - was told then, that had to be "hard" contacts to fix for astigmatism - did not try that - went back to glasses, and kept them. Might be different tech available today??

so 10 more years for me. but the glare is limited not completely eliminated for sure. doctor said when you get older less light is going into the eyes (shrinking of the pupil) and when more light is getting in it created an haze because it is a little too much but not yet to be blinded ...

I had that 'glare' both with dots and when night-driving but about 5 years ago my ophthalmologist had been giving me 'iridotomy' laser treatments for glaucoma and finally decided that developing cataracts were threatening eye damage so I got both cataracts removed. Now NO glare (as long as my windshield is clean ) AND newspapers , books etc are Black and WHITE instead of 'beige'. So the glare was partly due to the cataracts and prob partly due to dirty glasses Now I want to wear sunglasses most of the time - very sensitive to bright lights. And only glasses for reading.
And I had the cataracts done by local surgeon and paid for by NB Medicare, Not a private surgeon. I don't have $10K to spend on that.

 

[Mik123]

Same for me with a T2 and H2. I tried a few other and I resigned myself to LPVOs. I have a Minox ZP5 1-8 and it’s a great optic.

No It does not. I have astigmatism and the aimpoint T2 and my dot is a spray of light

 

[Potashminer]

As I'm in my mid 30s, I sure hope it isn't cataracts!

You should be expecting many more decades of doing stuff - likely want to know, not to hope, about whether you have start of cataracts - they can be dealt with - but not if all that you do is just hope that you do not have them.

 

[Painkillers]

I also have an astigmatism. A red dot on a pistol appears to be less of an issue for me and I'm assuming the sight radius has something to do with the smear effect? For rifles, where the optic is much closer it is a problem. A 2 moa dot looks more like a 5 moa smear. I can and still do shoot with relative accuracy in this situation, but there are better optics and what's more interesting to me is that I find there can be a vast improvement with reticle type. I've tried many different reticles and for me, for my degree of astigmatism, I find the circle-dot (Elcan doughnut of death type) 2 moa dot and 65 moa circle almost completely eliminates the smear on the dot if I shoot both eyes open. Oddly, if I shoot with either eye closed and focus on the dot, the smear returns yet not as pronounced as if I were using a single dot without the ring.

 

[conor_90]

I have pretty bad astigmatism and I find that smaller dots and less intense light settings make most RDS usable

Never tried a prism sight re eye relief and the style of guns I use but LPVO with illuminated reticule are great. Wish you could get them in plainer reticule options, a few of these available on optics trade eu. Circle and horse show reticules are good for shooting on 1x but too busy for me when magnified for hunting

 

[mildot]

While it's not the "cheapest" option, I wear a scleral contact lens, which can eliminate most if not all of my astigmatism, and I have a pretty good one. They also let me see much better than glasses YMMV. The use of a magnifier enables me to "clean up" the RDS dot etc, pistols with the MRDS Holosun optic are fine. If I'm running a strait EOTech type sight I'm OK with any CBQ stuff where I'm not making a precise hit etc.