AR Noob - Astigmatism/Red Dot/Co-witness issue

[bogus]

A brief history - I just recently built my first AR. I put a Vortex Strikefire on top along with a Magpul GEN2 MBUS. I have decent vision. Arms are starting to get a little short I recently visited my optometrist and he recommended reading glasses when needed. Other than that my vision is fine 98% of the time.

The 4 MOA red dot in the Strikefire appears as a large clump of grapes sitting in the middle of a large snowflake at all brightness settings. Just guessing, I would say it appears 6-8x the size of the normal 4 MOA dot. I thought I got a lemon the first time I looked through it. My son kept telling me it was awesome and that I was crazy. I did some checking on the web and did the rotation test and low and behold the image did not move as I rotated the scope (thus astigmatism). If I flip-up the MBUS (full co-witness) and view the red dot through it I see a nice small almost perfectly round dot. Looking through the aperture of the rear site corrects the astigmatism nicely!

I would like to take some training at some point. Do people run their ARs with both irons and red dots in this scenario? Should I just ditch the red dot and run irons only? I'm assuming I would lose the main benefits of the red dot if I have to use the irons in conjunction with it.

I really don't want to drop big bucks for lasik at the moment. I really wouldn't get much use out of buying a full prescription pair of glasses either. Are there any other options? I guess I could get a pair of prescription shooting glasses, but those won't be cheap either I suspect.

What are the rest of you doing who have this issue?

Thanks for your time and assistance!

 

[RetDep310]

I'm not sure what to advise as far as the sights/red dot, I just use iron sights on my AR. But as far as the glasses, pay a visit to Columbus Optical, and talk to the guys there. I have bugged them for years in regards to my shooting or golfing glasses need, and it's amazing what they can do to get the right glasses set up for you.

 

[mvician]

Turn the brightness down and concentrate on the target, not the dot.

 

[sepe]

I've got real bad astigmatism in both eyes. I have serious issues shooting with my glasses but contacts, I'm fine. I'll be finding out with a red dot before too long.

As far as shooting glasses, you might look at getting your Rx and checking with the online places that do cheap glasses. Just have the eye doc give you the exact numbers you'd need if they were going to set you up and enter that in your order. If your eyes aren't bad but the astigmatism is causing issues, you can find prescription sunglasses pretty cheap in a variety of lens colors. I'm not sure of the website but my brother was telling me he got 2 pairs of prescription sunglasses for like $20.

Prescription Glasses Category - All Sunglasses - Prescription Glasses | Cheap Glasses| discount glasses leader online.

 

[windellmc]

I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye, and I shoot left handed. I have heard Aimpoints are a big no no for astigmatism but have not heard that about Eotech. I thought the Strikefire was an Aimpoint clone. You might see if the dot is any better on an Eotech.

I also run absolute cowitness with the Eotech so I can look right through the irons and see the dot. For me that is a lot quicker than using the irons although if the dot sight goes out I am right on the irons.

 

[dom1104]

Look at the target, not the dot.

This is an issue that only arises as you sit there, next to your computer desk, looking at your new hardware.

It does not occur on the range.

 

[Steven]

Fold the iron sight down, Open both eyes , align dot with target. Try to concentrate on the target not the dot.
Still blurry ? You may want to find some other option

 

[bogus]

Thanks for the responses guys. I have tried it with both eyes open. If I recall correctly the dot was still blurry when I concentrating on the target. The blurriness is not so much the issue at that point. It's the size of the blur that concerns me. Any type of precision would be almost impossible in my mind due to the large coverage area of the dot. Even with the brightness turned way down, it's still pretty big. Strange...

I'll try it again tonight and see if I can force a change somehow with my view. Maybe change the distance between the scope and my eyes a bit to see if it makes any difference.

 

[bogus]

Turn the brightness down and concentrate on the target, not the dot.

Look at the target, not the dot.

This is an issue that only arises as you sit there, next to your computer desk, looking at your new hardware.

It does not occur on the range.

Fold the iron sight down, Open both eyes , align dot with target. Try to concentrate on the target not the dot.
Still blurry ? You may want to find some other option

You guys are right about concentrating on the target and not the dot. Thank you for the input. I will simply have to give it a go and see how I like it. It felt/looked a lot different targeting distant objects last night rather than simply an object across the room.