Red Dot Sights and Astigmatism Blurry Dot to Clear Dot

i have sever astigmatism. Still on the hunt for iron sights that will work for me. Ive been able to use scopes and dots ok enough but iron sites are a real tough on me

I've heard that using polarized glasses will correct this too…

Son of a… I thought it was my red dot. Damn it. Off to the eye doc again…shit.

I recently purchased a Holosun sight and sent it back because I was seeing a double circle and dot, which made it fuzzy. I got a replacement sight in today and when I turned it on I had the same problem. I got on YouTube and searched 'Holosun sight blurry" to see if somebody had posted a video to confirm that this might be a defect. This was the first video that came up. As I watched it I was reminded that I had corrective eye surgery years ago. In one of the comments someone suggested looking through the sight while wearing polarized sunglasses. So I put on my sunglasses, looked through the sight and BAM! Crystal clear. Thanks for posting this great video and thanks for all the helpful comments.

I recently found out I have an astigmatism when I looked through my friend's Trijicon MRO and called it out for being a blurry piece of crap. He said it looked just fine. Went to my eye doctor and verified the bad news. Turns out it was operator defect instead of manufacturer defect 😉

I went ahead and looked at the Vortex Spitfire and it's a great 1x sight. The only problem is prism sights are incompatible with magnifiers, which kinda sucks for my build.
I've noticed that certain sights have much less blur than others. I went to my LGS and looked through an Aimpoint, a Trijicon, a Holosun, and an EOTech. The Holosun and Aimpoint were both much crisper than the others. I think I'm going to just bite the bullet and get some corrective lenses, but if I were intending to fit a red dot without a magnifier I'd buy that Vortex in a heartbeat.

Great info, thanks for explaining! Do you, or anyone else, know of other sights/scopes that would not have this problem? I currently have a Sig Romeo 5 and astigmatism. I want a sight that can see further out but I don’t want my astigmatism to mess up what I see. I have heard that ACOG works with astigmatism but how about other sights?

I'm not sure if I have an astigmatism but I'm thinking so as red dot sights and eotech optics are blurry to me. However, if the same red dot or eotech is GREEN, no fuzziness. I'm really glad companies (quality companies) are providing a green illumination option.

I had the same problem with a Vortex Sparc. I added a Vortex 3x Magnifer and it helped. For another build I put on a Burris AR 536 5x prism with CQB Reticle very good sight no issues.

Thank you very much for your shared experience! I'll try to get a prism optic now. Would be interesting to know just how many people have astigmatism, but think they have perfect vision until looking through a red dot sight.

What about if you put on a digital night vision and it makes the dot blurry? The dot is fine without the digital night zoom but when the night vision is on the dot becomes a bigger blotch. Is this just a focus issue?

Shit. I have the same issue! This is great! Thank you so much.

Awesome video exactly what I was looking for thanks just subbed.

Same issue here. I called Vortex. They explained this to me even recommend their prism scope. But they also recommend trying polarized sunglasses… it works.

👍thanks

I have a di optical eg1c prism sight and it looks worse to my astigmatism than a holosun 515 or aimpoint.

Thanks for this video!! Never had eye issues until my 1st red dot purchase today!

I returned several red dots before I found out what was going on from another youtuber… Great Info

Wow! I just got a sightmark ultra shot plus and thought it was just garbage because it was only $100. But, I put my glasses on and by golly, it worked! I never realized because my AR has a prism scope on it and I never had an issue. And since you mentioned it, I have the vortex you mentioned.

I have a minor astigmatism, the holosun ACSS reticle with magnifier is funny. My eyes see it blurry for a second until I try to look past it and then all of a sudden it's crystal clear. Great combo since I don't need it to be crystal clear for up close, and with the magnifier I just remember to relax a bit, unfortunately I'm left eye dominant and right handed, lol. No help there!

I have an astigmatism and I have the vortex spitfire II and the reticle is blurry. Not a huge deal to me. I just wanted to point out that if you an astigmatism, buying the spitfire II isn’t a sure fix. Twang n bang also has a good video explaining the same problem. I think a good solution is to get prescription shooting glasses with corrective lenses. That’s what I plan to do.

Thank you so much! I was considering sending my halosun back…..then took a picture with my phone and showed a few pals and all of that came back with a perfect dot. Have an eye appointment tomorrow. Hilarious I waited this long dealing with it untill my optic being the last straw.

TDS, always looking out for us, thank you

Q: I have a Sig Romeo 4 red dot and a Juliet 4 magnifier on my AR. When I use the Romeo 4 by itself it work fine I only have 1 red dot. But when I use it with the magnifier I have a elongated burred dot or 2 dot extremely close together .1mm side by side.
Is this because my magnifier may be off center lens or something else?

I'm kinda pissed that my eye doctor didn't correct my astigmatism with my glasses. Is there a lensed "cap" you could just stick on the back of one of these red dots to help with the burning man effect?

Thank you very much. I also have mild to moderate astigmatism and get the wacky dot on a true red dot sight. One additional option is an illuminated sight. I have a 1 X 6 Vortex with an illuminated red dot. It is not blurry at all. Its a perfect red dot for me.I understand that this a rifle sight, but still worth mentioning for people with astigmatism.

Yeah my right eye is blurry, but left eye is fine. Im sure I have astigmatism because my perfectly clear left eye makes my Reflex red dot blurry, duplicates the sight pattern. Thank you because I will now ask to go and see if I have it. Thank you it helps a lot

super informative, subbed. i got a really good deal on a red dot and learned i have astigmatism. i wear contacts but mine don't fix that apparently. have a big problem with lights at night as well (traffic ilghts). going to ask the eye doc. keep up the good work

Almost sent back my romeo 5..thank you lol

Thank you, sir! This video helps in my quest for THE right type of scope for my aging eyes. Earned a sub.

Squint your dominant eye and it goes away too

Thank you for this video. Now I realized why I need to use my glasses to see my reflex sight clearly.

what how is sight mark made because I've never had a blur untill I used a trs-25

I have been looking for very accurate explanation of Sights for people who have Astigmatism.

I just learned something very helpful. THANK YOU!

And I Can't Think You enough for making this video, only thing my eye doctor told me was that I have Viking eyes, I was from Norway or some Viking country,,, All i am is a pure Carolina redneck that lives , loves the Outdoors.

I just got this today, just turned it on and all I see is a blurry star, at all distances, at all the different brightness adjustments. No way am going to have this. I just seen the eye doctor 2 months ago and he did not say anything about astigmatism. So i am not going to get contact lenses. I have a Sig Sauer sth-400A Holographic or Reflex sight and it works good, until i started reading some of the threads below, The sig is alot more perfect round with a tiny leg on the bottom, i have been using it for 9 plus years and never noticed it until now….. WOW… so in a nutshell, I am going to look for a prism scope. Any Suggestions on a good quality prism scope for less than 300.00. And what really is f**cked up I just got Jagerwerks to mill my glock, breach design and mill for Trijicon RMR2 7moa. Cerokote and all , Looks like i wont be able to use that.,, It will be here next week. SMH !!!

for those wondering if they have astigmatism… take a picture of your red dot with your phone and see if you notice a difference… I have perfect 20/20 vision but I have astigmatism and I notice A HUGE difference.
EDIT: oh shit didn't realize you said it at the end of the video

Burris prism 536 (It's 5X, but there's a 3x as well. Yes it has a power free, etched reticle, it also had ranging reticles with a CQB circle as well.

Pls the Burris 536 reticle is on the FREE version of STRELOK, the App you enter your ammo BC, grain size, velocity, your barrel size, and the distance of the shot you wish to take. It also asks for current weather, and I think elevation, then it calculates it all, and shows you precisely where to place your target within your aiming reticle.

Try vortex spitfire 1x or 3x amazing not too expensive no more stars. Primary arms 2.5x works also.

wow I am in the military and have had a hard time on the range with m4's using a red dot. After shooting expert for years with iron sights, I have been getting very frustrated, I would switch to back up sights on the m4 and go back to marksman scores. I never realized why i didn't like red dots until i watched this video, great video.

Regular glasses don't seem to fix mine. It kinda "stars" or flares to the 1 and 7 o'clock position…regardless of orientation. I also checked it with a camera and it is a clear dot. Dunno if my prescription is off or what but I just got my glasses about a month ago. I can't do contacts because I can't stand, even the idea of, touching my eye. I guess I'll give a prismatic a try.

I got a vortex spitfire 2 and it's Chinese junk, I see a blur not a dot. With an eotech I see a nice dot.

I was having the same issue since my dot was all crazy. I focused on a target and while keeping focused on the target I brought the red dot in alignment with the target. Perfect dot.

Rotating the sight is how I first tested (as recommended by Sootch). I then realized there was a clear difference to the degree of "starring" between my strong and weak eye. Looking at the dot through a camera was the 3rd test I tried. All pointed towards astigmatism – I had no idea since I have no vision problems otherwise and have lacked on my check-ups.

Just got a vortex strikefire two I thought I got fucked over