Do any fellow members have any experience with this optic? Especially if you have astigmatism like I do. I just traded into a nice 16in ar-15 clone. And I was considering this over a Eotech. It will mainly be used as an under 100 yard fun gun and personal protection and end of the world scenario gun. I like my Eotech that I currently have but those things are expensive today. I can find the Aimpoint Duty RDS MR for around $500. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

If you have astigmatism, then the red dot will not be crisp and clean, whether it’s the Aimpoint or the Eotech. How bad it will be depends on how bad your astigmatism is.

Add an absolute co-witness backup rear sight.

For fast, close target acquisition, rear sight folded out of the way, the astigmatism effects won't matter so much.

For more precise aiming, flip up the rear aperture; it will 'crisp up' the dot.

I think it also helps to reduce parallax error by making you be more consistent with head positioning.

Astigmatism and parallax error are two different things, and as far as I know astigmatism has no effect on the latter.

The reticle systems of all the Aimpoint sights I’m familiar with are subject to distortion if one has astigmatism. As mentioned, the degree varies with how bad the vision is.

Although it can be an annoyance, in my experience for the type of shooting for which such sights are useful some reticle blurriness doesn’t matter much, if at all. Before I had cataract replacements a few years ago, the reticles of my Aimpoints were blurred, but that didn’t keep me from getting consistent accurate hits on IDPA-size targets to 200 yards. Depending on how the blurriness appears, it may be possible to zero the sight using a portion of the visual image for precise aiming.

(None of that is a recommendation for an Aimpoint or any similar sight, BTW, just an observation.)

And of course the effects of astigmatism can be significantly less to nonexistent with sights having etched or other physical reticles.

I have an astigmatism, my aimpoint pro isn’t a perfect dot for me but it’s not bad at all, certainly usable. Now I’ve noticed that green dots tend to look a little better. I have 2 rmr’s and one is green and that one is def. Better for my eyes, also the bigger the dot seems better too, on my holosun 407k it’s I think a 6ish moa dot and it’s perfectly round to me.

If it’s going to be that much of an issue for you then get a prism optic like an acog or primary arms prism optic, I have both and much prefer them to red dots. But either way I can go with either and be fine

I have astigmatism. All my red dots look like clusters of grapes.
The ACOGs work pretty well for me (of course they do, as much as they cost).
A couple of the primary arms prisms can be “focused” and that seems to help with the cluster issue.

I had perfect vision until my late 30s. I really miss my eyes.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Although it can be an annoyance, in my experience for the type of shooting for which such sights are useful some reticle blurriness doesn’t matter much, if at all... the reticles of my Aimpoints were blurred, but that didn’t keep me from getting consistent accurate hits on IDPA-size targets to 200 yards.

That has been my experience as well, both personally as well as while instructing.

While I suppose it's possible for someone's astigmatism to be so severe that it completely interferes with red dot use, I have yet to personally encounter anyone that this is the case, when using the red dot properly.

With a red dot you focus on the target, not the dot. It's different than using iron sights.

Many folks will look through a red dot optic at the gun store or in their bedroom, focus on the dot, and then say "Oh well, this dot looks misshapen/blurry, I must not be able to use red dots..."

But when used properly, with a target focus, the distortion effect of astigmatism on the dot is typically not enough to affect usage of the optic out to maximum normal 1x red dot ranges (100-200ish yards, depending on the shooter).