I just got an rmr and as soon as I turned it on I found the dot to be a huge collection of sparkles. I checked with my phone camera and it’s a beautiful dot and verified by pulling out an old eotech and seeing the same when I didn’t before I stored it, so it’s my eyes. I remember a recent(within a couple months) post of a similar experience but my search-fu is weak today. Was going to see what happened with the other person.

I am planning to get my eyes checked. I have taken a 4yr hiatus from shooting and recently started to get back into it. I noticed last week I have problems focusing on the front sight, hence the rmr purchase. But I have had issues recently with fuzziness around lights, especially at a distance and didn’t consider the possibility of other issues.
I haven’t had an eye exam in at least 4years so it’s time I guess. I had PRK through the Navy in 2006 and was told I may have to get a correction in my 40’s for near vision. Seems I may need more than that. I’ll get an eye exam scheduled soon.

Not really looking forward to saving up for a touch up if it’s possible but the prk was a huge quality of life improvement for me so if I can I will. Has anyone had luck with PRK fixing the issue with red dot sights? Were glasses able to correct it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: buddy357,

You likely have astigmatism. (I do, same issue.)

See if either of these are the post.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...050015324#7050015324

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...080030834#1080030834

Thanks Sigmonkey.

You don't see distortion with your phone camera, though? Why would this be if it's your eyes?

I can’t explain it well. From my research today it seems red dots don’t appear to emanate from a single point due to how the image is generated and eyes with astigmatism can’t focus them in one spot. The camera lens is not mis-shaped like the eye with astigmatism and shows the image as it should be.

A link to a decent article:
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/...ou-know-astigmatism/

I had noticed something recently, not sure how to describe it.. maybe a fuzziness around indoor lights and bright things in brightly lit areas that wasn’t there before.

Ever since the PRK I’ve had not halos which were all the Navy dr cared about, but smears around bright lights. They are worse farther away and I don’t see them at all up close. The led taillights on newer cars recently have made it worse. I wasn’t worried because the Navy doc swore it wasn’t a problem and would go away. Instead it’s gotten progressively worse. And it’s painful to be outside without polarized sunglasses during the day,even on grey days..maybe I should have gotten a second opinion before. But I definitely need to get it checked out. At least I have a name for it now.

Before the PRK, if I squinted at an eye chart without glasses there was a fuzzy blob on the wall. So I can’t complain but so much. But this affects one of the few things I enjoy.

I do watch Rich and Morty by the way, but the way they show their pupils in the cartoon is what a red dot looks like to me, and yes I have an astigmatism.



That's why I switched to a 1x4 with a lighted reticle.

quote:

Originally posted by kkina:
You don't see distortion with your phone camera, though? Why would this be if it's your eyes?

The dot is a small point vs the wider area of things like a small screen or print.

Your eyes sample many time in various area and pattern to take in the larger matter, but tend to center in a point and that is where the astigmatism "sees" things out of focus on the radial.

When the eyes are "darting", the astigmatism problem is not as obvious as when the eye tries to focus on a fixed point and the "out of focus" part of the vision is appearant.

If one looks at a clock face with astigmatism, 2 through 4 and 8 through 10 will be in focus while 11 through 1 and 5 through 7 will be out of focus. And many people have the eye trying to switch between the two areas trying to focus. This can happen several times a second, making it uncomfortable to look at some things like patterns with many close parralel lines, reading and so forth.

My rmr was going to go on a Glock 19. I am having real problems focusing on the front sight since I started shooting again a few weeks ago. I heard from a couple friends my age that a red dot made a huge difference for them so I thought I’d try it.

Archerman, I see something similar to the Rick and Morty pupils with an additional glow around them on the rmr. And the eotech before was a little bit fuzzy on the outer circle with a perfect dot on the center. Now it’s a big fuzzy central area like the rmr with 360 degrees of lines radiating from it and a wide brighter circular area of lines or rows of dots.

I was about ready to send back my Aimpoint T-1 until I took a picture of the dot with my phone, and then it was a dot, so I knew it was me.

That cartoon pic is about the illustration of what I see that I could find.

While they don't work with magnifiers, there are 1x prism sights available. I hear they alleviate much of the astigmatism red dot blob problems.

It helps to have an eye doc who is supportive of shooting sports.

quote:

Originally posted by Vgex:
While they don't work with magnifiers, there are 1x prism sights available. I hear they alleviate much of the astigmatism red dot blob problems.

This. I've heard Prism sights can be the fix.

quote:

Prism sights

I have the astigmatism issue, it shows up on the less expensive red dots as a star and as well on the Vortex Venom.

Looking through a sig romeo 5 the dot was clear, one trick is to get the smaller red dot or reduce the dot size down to as small as you can and see it, this will reduce the star pattern you will see.

I've tried several RMR at the gun store, the better RMR's seem to help fix it, however the smaller MOA is also key.

No matter the price of the optic, I see a cluster of grapes. I, too, was dismayed when I did the phone pic test and realized it was me.

In addition to going with a smaller moa dot, turning the brightness down will also make a difference.

So far as I can tell dot size and intensity don’t make much of a difference for me. And I have issues with an rmr06, an eotech, and a trs-25. I have an eye exam Friday, hoping to find the problems and a fix.

Too ironic that you posted this as I am having a similar issue and also have an eye doctor appointment on Friday to get it checked. I've always had excellent vision until the last few years where I've started noticing a little more degradation in certain circumstances. The thing is last I checked it last year, my doc says I have become a little near sighted in my right eye (with the presence of a floater I sometimes notice and sometimes don't) and a bit far sighted in my left eye, what he refers to as a blessing and a curse. A curse because my eyes haven't degraded equally or in the same way and when I do notice it, it is more an annoyance. A blessing because with both eyes open, my brain has trained itself to use whichever eye is more appropriate for the distance or object I'm viewing and the other as backup so I don't notice it as much in daily life, but my astigmatism shows up more with illuminated optics. Most recently I ordered a holographic sight with the selectable reticle (dot, circle dot, crosshair, and gunsight) and the reticles look fuzzy and flared to me, though I can still make out the primary dot and intended shape of the reticle with some difficulty.

Traditional optics are not an issue though and neither are iron sights for the most part as the combination of vision still allows me to shoot with both eyes open (I'm right handed) and keep the iron sights in focus while my left eye does the distance backfill. If I close my left eye though my target becomes much more fuzzy when focusing on the front sight and even when I focus on the target. I still shoot quite accurately, but I'm limited to iron sights or traditional optics, and I have to concentrate on sight alignment and the target a little harder than I used to for the same results.

Last time my eye doc said that most corrective laser surgery docs won't consider correction unless your vision is degraded to a specific degree and since mine has been mild so far didn't even recommend glasses or contacts at that point unless it was really annoying me since my eyes tend to help each other out. I think this year may be different though. And yes, I'm mid 40's.

I have had an astigmatism all my life and got my first pair of glasses at age 5. I had Lasik surgery over 20 years ago. After the Lasik my astigmatism was more pronounced with focused beams of light. Headlights, beam pointers, and red dot optics were all impacted. At the time the docs told me that they were able to correct for astigmatism with either of the proceedures but it wasn't always successful with all patients. Since my surgery my vision has declined considerably and I'm back in glasses. Another round of flap n zap may be in my future but I'm going to give it a few more years before that. It's my hope that they have perfected it more for the astigmatism problem as well.