Kinda leaning towards the Vortex CCW for my Glock 43x though I cannot seem to decide if I want a red dart or a green dot. Honestly, I can’t decide if I want an open or closed emitter even, but either of those will work for me. I think I pick up the green fiber optic front sights better when shooting with irons versus red, makes sense because the human eye is attracted to green more, but I’ve always enjoyed the red dot on my rifles so should I go green or stick with red?

I do not have an astigmatism, for what it is worth.

I was shooting recently.
Glock G-34 with a Trigicon RMR HD, red dot (open emitter)
I was shooting outside, in the rain, at red steel targets with green foliage as a background.

Raining on and off, I had one slight problem where water obstructed the emitter.
Solution: blew it out with a good breath of air. Yeah, it quickly cleared the drop of water out, however, temperature variations to the glass and my breath, fogged up the glass for a few seconds.

I’ve had this setup for years- rain, snow, humidity… this is the ONLY time I’ve had any problems!

The red dot on red steel was a little rough to pick up quickly.
White, blue, green, black- no problem!
However, if it were green, I’d probably have a problem picking it up when I was shooting the green targets.

There’s a Holosun EPS Carry on my G-43X which is enclosed. So no problem with rain drops.
Same with the red dot on the red background- a little hard to pick up.
The newer ones have a yellow option. I’d like to spend some time with that one to see how different it is.

If I had to do this all over again, I’d still choose a RED dot over green.

Best bet would be to go somewhere and look through both dots to see which you prefer.

60 years old, and I went with green after comparing red and green. I never loose the dot against a green background, it’s not a natural green. Think Flourescent green.

That being said, I have an old ACOG reflex sight on my AR that was used “over there” and that reticle is gold. Now you would think that would be horrible, especially in sand, but it works.

Whichever you get you must train with it to pick it up on the draw. Classes help, but it can be done on your own. I was hesitant, but now have dots on all my serious defensive stuff.

Good luck!

Strictly personal preference. Nobody can tell you which one is better for you.

I have a slight preference for green, though most of my optics are red since it's more common, and I have no issue with red.

I have one green dot and a bunch of red ones. Unless you’re color blind it really is a matter of preference. I like the green one quite a bit, my colorblind neighbor can’t use it, but has no trouble. With red.

quote:

Originally posted by josp:
Best bet would be to go somewhere and look through both dots to see which you prefer.

^^^This

Many ppl will tell your green is better for astigmatism. You won't know until you try for yourself. I have several red & green dots. I have some optics that run both red & green. I've tried both colors thoroughly. My conclusion is that red works better all-around for my astigmatism, regardless of brand or model of optic. YMMV.

Yeah perhaps I need to check out a green one in person first. I have a few LGS’s that can fit that bill. Thanks guys.

Dated information inbound-

A few years ago I was rocking an EoTech with a green reticle. Life was good until we started using white light at night. The green washed out worse than red ever has.

But, I fully recognize that technology is changing rapidly. We have a Vortex set up on a Glock 47 and night range starts a week from Monday.

We shall see.

Also for what it's worth. I prefer a green dot. I seem to pick it up quicker. But not stare at the dot instead of the target. Red makes me want to be dot focused instead of target focused. Just a weird thing I noticed with me.

Also for CCW I'd chose closed emitter. Just to keep lint, dust, etc off the emitter. J

Green for me, with a very low power setting, typically just visible - i find with astigmatism the brighter the dot, the worse the distortion

The human eye uses cone photoreceptors to perceive detail and color in lighted conditions. There are three types of cones: S to perceive short wavelengths (blue-violet), M to perceive medium wavelengths (green) and L to perceive long wavelengths (yellow-green). There is an overlap in the M and L cones to see green, which is believed to be a result of human evolution and the importance of surviving in a green plant environment. In any case, it means the human eye is capable of seeing shades of green under more lighting conditions, because different wavelengths are intensely covered by two types of cones.

Holosun gold dot works for me. I like it as the color reduces the star pattern due to astigmatism.

One interesting quirk is that when both red and green are offered as options on a particular model, the green one will often be slightly more expensive, to the tune of $20ish bucks.

Reportedly this is due to green LED emitters being slightly more expensive to produce, likely due to their lower usage/demand and therefore less economy of scale.