Handgun optics and corrective lenses

[TacticalJanitor]

Over the last few years I've collected about 10-ish RDS setups for various handguns. Throughout that process, I noticed that some are much better than others for people (like me) with corrective lenses and astigmatism.

In my opinion, nothing is better than an RMR or RMRcc for seeing a sharp, clear dot with astigmatism. I have not tried any other Trijicon products.

Holosun makes some good RDS sights (meaning reliable and reasonably-priced), but they tend to bloom like crazy for me. They are simply never sharp or pretty...but work very well for shooting at speed. Has anyone else found this to be the case?

Anyway, I'm curious to see what the handgunners with glasses think about optic sights. How has it gone for you?

 

[12Bravo20]

I have astigmatism and wear bifocals. Pretty much all brands of dot sights bloom for me. I find that green reticles work best with my eyes. No matter which brand or color of reticle, I keep the brightness turned down as much as possible while the dot is still visible. Keeping the brightness turned down helps the most. And that is why I do not care for any optic with auto brightness.

 

[herrwalther]

I'm the opposite and I have astigmatism. It was actually my Holosun optic that made me think I had astigmatism in the first place. I have a Holosun 507C (in green) and it did smear for me. But I changed it to the dot in circle reticle, changed drastically for me and I have been using it ever since. It has been on three different handguns and has always been a sharp optic for my bad eyesight and minor astigmatism.

 

[12Bravo20]

I find that I have less bloom with circle dot reticles versus a single dot no matter what color the reticle is.

 

[sevt_chevelle]

The green holosun acss reticle is the best for me.

 

[12Bravo20]

As you can see everyone's eyes are different. What works for others might not work for you so go with what works best for you.

No matter what color or type of reticle you go with, try setting the brightness at the lowest possible setting the is still usable to see if that helps.

 

[wally]

Actually the "bloom" is largely irrelevant unless you have a way too large a dot for your shooting situation. The reason is with dot optics you look through the dot and focus your vision on the target. This is why they rock for defense guns, as when the bullets might be flying both ways it is damn hard to focus on the front sight instead of the threat!

A fellow at the club had a new Holosun optic, he asked me if I had a T15 bit so he could remove it, I didn't have the bit with me, but after talking to him, seems he was missing the steel plate targets consistently. He let me shoot it and I was nailing them, so I asked if he'd ever used a RDS before and the answer was no. So I explained to him that focusing on the dot like it was a front sight would not work, you have to "look thru" the dot and focus on the target. He picked it up pretty quickly and went from ready to toss the RDS to being very happy with it.

Lower brightness levels are a good idea as it help you look through the dot instead of at it. It can take some effort for the transition to over come years of "focus on the front sight" training.

 

[doubleh]

No matter what color or type of reticle you go with, try setting the brightness at the lowest possible setting the is still usable to see if that helps.

Words of wisdom.