so..... I dont like aimpoint???

[turnburglar]

Long time lurker first time poster, with that said:

My work gun is an m4 with an m68, or what I believe is sold to the civilian market as the aimpoint m4. I got back from Afghanistan not too long ago, where I learned first hand that your life can be trusted with an aimpoint. The battery life is incredible and it definitely handled some serious abuse. My problem with the aimpoint, and just about every high end optic I have tried (eotech, leupold) is that the dot always looks like a splash or horribly defined, or in the eotechs really incredibly fuzzy. Now I know it's just not my work one, because I have tried others but it's so bad that when I go to qual I just leave the aimpoint turned off and shoot with my irons.

Now my eyesight isn't perfect 80/20 and 40/20 and I might have heard a eye doc say astigmatism? Don't know what that means, but I roll raw most of the time as I don't like wearing glasses. Using a traditional front sight/rear sight works great for me but isn't super practical in low light and cqc situations. The kicker here is: I have seen low priced optics that don't seem to be nearly as bad. I am guessing it has something to do with the way high quality optics emitter or diode runs that make it high quality, but also make it hard for my eyes to focus on. Anyone else have these problems? Just for reference any impending purchase would be for a home built AR as I can't mod my work gun in any way.

Thanks guys and love the community.

[SteveL]

Sounds to me like you're having issues with the shape of the dot/reticle caused by astigmatism. Unfortunately the only true fixes for this are corrective lenses or corrective surgery. I had terrible astigmatism pretty much all my life and I was absolutely unable to use an Eotech until I had not one, but two, eye surgeries. Now it's my preferred optic.

I ran a search using the key word "astigmatism" and there are a ton of threads to read through. I hope some of this is helpful for you.

https://www.m4carbine.net/google.php...1420j220642j11

[Leaveammoforme]

Wow ,we almost have the same eyes. My left is 70/20 w/astigmatism. right is 40/20. I only wear glasses while watching tv, driving or when they count as eye pro. I have a slight depth perception issue at close range while not wearing lenses. I know exactly what you're talking about on dot blur. I usually get something between a tear drop, weird letter C or a star burst when looking through most RDS. Of course, not concentrating on the dot minimizes this. I have noticed sometimes less expensive RDS dots do appear 'prettier' to my eyes.

On that note, I would not use a cheapo RDS just because the dot appeared better (shape wise) to me. It's not worth the trade off IMO. Since you plan on this going on a HD gun, I would still stick with an hour glass/cookie monster/pac man looking reticle on a proven RDS like an aimpoint.

[Failure2Stop]

While 1x optics other than Aimpoint/EoTech are not generally my recommended types, if the dot/reticle of such optics is unusable it doesn't matter how great the optic is for everybody else. I share issues with the Aimpoint dot, though it is still my go-to for HD duty. Different projected dot/reticles in different optics give different degrees of distortion/bloom for me, for example, cheapo JPoint/FireDot dots generally appear crisper than Aimpoint dots. I found that more traditional etched reticles appear crisp and therefore are more precise for me.

If you are ok with introducing eye-relief into rapid engagements, slightly less than optimal reticles, and mount that need attentive mounting/verification, the Leupold Prismatic is pretty decent. They are used with great success in 3-gun, used with greater frequency among the top shooters than EoTechs or Aimpoints.

The 1.5x ACOGS have gotten some decent reviews, and have better mounting solutions available.

Personally, I found that on a GP carbine I like to be able to do both close and long work, and have converted mostly over to low powered varibles in the 1-6 and 1-8 range (based on application), though I do hold a residual appreciation for some 1-4s. For the capability gain, the weight is worth it to me.

[F-Trooper05]

Same problem here. I also only wear glasses when I watch TV, or drive. I corrected it by getting prescription Rudy Project eye pro. If you're active duty, you can get them for a pretty good deal on Promotive.com.

[Headcase650]

After I got Lasik all those problems went away. Before lasik the only red dot I liked was the eotech but couldn't afford one of those so bought a first gen Holosight. Still have it mounted on a super redhawk.

[SpeedRacer]

I have the same issue, and have basically just learned to "shoot the blob". What's funny is for years I didn't know about my astigmatism and thought that's just how red dots looked, until I took my first carbine course and did some support side work. I was so caught off guard by how crisp my Aimpoint reticle was using my good eye I didn't even finish the drill.

I did since switch to Eotechs because of the issue, although the 2moa Aimpoints work pretty good as well. At least the blob is smaller...

[Hmac]

After I got Lasik all those problems went away. Before lasik the only red dot I liked was the eotech but couldn't afford one of those so bought a first gen Holosight. Still have it mounted on a super redhawk.

LASIK leaves the eye vulnerable to significant injury to the corneal flap that's created. Some jobs in the military are unavailable to someone who has had any laser eye surgery, some jobs are ok if you've had PRK but not LASiK. For Navy SEALs and divers, for example, they can only get PRK.

Injury to the LASIK corneal flap is a bad injury, and it doesn't take much.

[Headcase650]

LASIK leaves the eye vulnerable to significant injury to the corneal flap that's created. Some jobs in the military are unavailable to someone who has had any laser eye surgery, some jobs are ok if you've had PRK but not LASiK. For Navy SEALs and divers, for example, they can only get PRK.

Injury to the LASIK corneal flap is a bad injury, and it doesn't take much.

I knew the risk was higher during recovery, but they said after a year those risks would be gone. Just got my 1 year check up and everything checked out. Is there a reason to think your at a higher risk even after a year?

[Robb Jensen]

Blaming the Aimpoint because you see the dot as not round and crisp is like blaming your broken umbrella on you getting wet in the rain. The problem is in your eye. The smaller the dot the harder it is to see the dot clearly. Those really cheaply red dots with 6-12moa dots look really clearly because of this.