I thought a red dot was a dot?

[MikeTBC]

Got my mail order 40mm TruGlo tonight. Pretty cool, but I am wondering why the reticle appears as a blobbish bouquet of flowers instead of a simple dot.

Red Dot users ... weigh in with your reticle description?

TBC

 

[pdowg881]

Can;t you turn the power knob on top for various dot sizes/brightness? I know I have a cheap tasco, and the higher numbers make it brighter and bigger.

 

[hexidismal]

Hmm, sounds like you've got a problem there. The description of "blobbish bouquet of flowers", is pretty open to the imagination... but what you should have there is a definitely a solid dot. If you look here, you can see what a 5 MOA dot should look like.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/48012-57032-2276.html

If it doesn't look like that, I think it's time to send it back.

 

[kimsonvu]

Is it too big for 1 handgun 1911 ?

 

[gravis86]

The dot might have a halo around it when it is turned up all the way, but it shouldn't look like a bouquet. I have the same exact TruGlo that you do, and mine didn't do that. I took some pictures for you to compare.

This one is on 11 for brightness. As you can see, It has a little of a halo, but it's not that bad.

This second one is at 3 for brightness. Much better.

I know they look like they are different sizes, but I swear they were taken at the same distance.

If yours really is as bad as you claim, it must be defective. I would get it replaced.

 

[MikeTBC]

Thanks all ...

Took some pics of "the dot" and guess what? The flowery fireworks aerial thang doesn't show in a digital pic ... it looks like it ought to ... a dot.

What the heck is going on? 5 people looked through it ... all agreed - it looks like an aerial at a fireworks show. NOT a dot.

Geez I'm cornfused. An optical anomaly that a camera can't see?

TBC

 

[cavman]

Could be your eye.

The bouquet of flowers might be how one sees the dot if that eye has an astigmatism.

I see the same bouquet from time to time with one of my eyes. The other eye sees the dot as a dot.

 

[JohnBT]

What he said. My father and I stood in a gun shop one day and passed around a few red dots with 2 or 3 other folks. At first it just didn't make any sense. Some people saw a clean dot on one sight while others saw clusters of dots, but on the next one it would be the other way around. Some of us were wearing glasses and some weren't. Sometimes rotating the sight 90 degrees would improve cluster effect and sometimes it wouldn't.

We were looking at everything from expensive ($300?) Nikons down to whatever it was they sold for $49.

I mailordered an UltraDot MatchDot and haven't seen the first cluster of dots. I wear Varilux progressive lenses and have seen my fair share of bizarre optical effects, but not with the UltraDot.

John

 

[MikeTBC]

Thanks to all - I appreciate the posts.

Odd how it changes - different people and scopes ... high dollar / low dollar

Guess there's nothing to be done, I'll just live with "The Blob"

TBC

 

[supraneurotoxin]

is it on backwards?

 

[.41 magnum man]

MikeTBC said, "Took some pics of "the dot" and guess what? The flowery fireworks aerial thang doesn't show in a digital pic ... it looks like it ought to ... a dot.

What the heck is going on? "

You have a ghost ring sight!

 

[Shipwreck]

I have looked at some in cabellas. I know what U mean. It is not supposed to look like that. Return it, ir try another brand.Hell, even a $29 BSA sight at Wal-mart has a nice shaped dot.

 

[TacoMalo]

sounds busted to me, red dot should be a nice little red dot unless you have a multi reticle sight which you can select from but looks like that knob on top is only an intensity selector right? BTW, I'm sure the empty cases eject fine on that slide but does it come pretty close to hitting that mount or is there plenty of room to fly by?

 

[glockman19]

I experienced the same phenomenon with mt EOTech until I had my LASIK surgery 4 weeks ago. "you have a astignitism". Now I see it just as I photograph it with my camera.

 

[copaup]

Sorry, problems not the sight, its your eye. You've got a mild astigmatism. What happens is the lens of your eye is just enough out of round that the image is scattered a bit on the retina. So instead of a sharp single dot, you get multiple overlaid images. I've got the same problem. If I let the prescription of my contacts get more than a couple of years out of date it starts to get noticable. The problem can easily be fixed by contacts, glasses, or LASIK. Get an eye exam. You'll be suprised how much sharper the world looks. I was.

 

[kart racer]

Even with my contacts my red dot looks like a cluster of grapes,when I look at it inside.When viewing it outside it is nowhere near as bad.For me it doesn't matter if it's an aimpoint or my spot red dot.

 

[Dave Wilson]

So, just how bad is your astigmatism? With my eyes, I have never seen a dot no matter how good the quality of red dot or whether or not I was wearing corrective lenses. I use C-More sights and Bushnel HoloSights... pricey lil buggers, still have a misshapen blob they call a dot. I took 2 sights back to the gunshop, the employees looked through them and saw just a single round dot. I finally googled the problem and it comes down to astigmatism.

just my $0.02


Dave

 

[ceetee]

Yep. It's your eyes. The way red dots work is that the dot you see is just a mirror reflection of a red LED. Since the LED is round, you should be seeing it's reflection as round. If the dot truly is not round, then it may be because of a faulty mirror, or something in the way the LED is mounted that's interfering with your view of the mirror image.

 

[RNB65]

I have astigmatism in my right eye and red dot sights always look like little clusters thru that eye (which happens to be my aiming eye). Thru my left eye, it looks like a solid dot.

Oh, well, welcome to the world of bad eyesight.

 

[ddc]

I've had the same issue with two different Aimpoint's. I found out the hard way it wasn't the scope, it's my eyes... sigh...

(That's not to say that there couldn't be a problem with the scope, it's just that as you've already seen with the other responses there is a good chance it's your eyes.)