Sanity Check: Scope Astigmatism

[bountyhunter]

I'm old, so I am gradually installing red dots on a lot of comp guns. I have an Ultra Dot on a revolver, a Tasco pro Point 2, an OKO.... all perfect.

Now to the problem: I keep ordering Red Dots (very fine ones) like Ultra Dot and Milett high end sighters and can not use them because of astigmatism through the sighting device:

I use a sighter with both eyes open and focused on target, and then raise the sighter in line with my dom (right) eye and simply superimpose the dot onto the target, still viewing the target with both eyes. The two eye thing gives me a big advantage at the indoor range leagues where the cheap buggers who own them will never repair the 25 yard target lights so the back end of the range is always dark (grumble, grumble). Seeing the target with both eyes allows me to pick up the rings very easily.

PROBLEM: in the sighters with astigmatism, when I raise the sighter into the vision path of my right eye, the perseived target image in that eye shifts position giving me double vison. It feels like you have somebody else's glasses on.

An interesting thing is you can rotate the tube of the sighter and see the double targets move apart and then converge, but not at an orientation point where it is possible to mount the scope.

This is not a blurring of the target image, it is a perceived shifting due to the orientation of the lenses. If you block the left eye and use only the right eye, you don't see this (obviously) because there is no other image for reference.

I am coming to the conclusion that even very good sighters are not checked for this astigmatism because I have seen it on many of them. I got two Ultra Dots in a row with it, one bad and the other VERY bad. I have had other people here check and they see the same thing. My corrected vision checks in at 20-15, so I am almost certain it is not an effect of my eyes.

Anybody else see this problem? Any place to order sighters where they will check for it so I don't have to keep mailing them back?

[Lycanthrope]

I always wonder why weapons grade optics (like scopes and gun sights) aren't as optically correct as camera lenses of the same price range.........

[bountyhunter]

I always wonder why weapons grade optics (like scopes and gun sights) aren't as optically correct as camera lenses of the same price range.........

I always wonder why the makers of $150 scopes can't institute a high-tech test step in the manufacturing process like:

Have the guy with good eyes hold the scope up and look through it and see if the spot on the wall gets distorted.....

[Lycanthrope]

Because enough people don't complain......

[ErikW]

You could just buy a $200+ sight, C-More.

[bountyhunter]

You could just buy a $200+ sight, C-More.

I have an OKO which is a C-MORE clone (only one lense) and it is fine... but that design is kind of fragile to getting knocked around and the exposed lense picks up spray and crap a lot coming back from the compensator.

The 1" tube dots are nice because they stay clean and are ideal for slow fire shooting like PPC and Bullseye. But the extra clear lenses do cause distorion.