My friend’s dad is severely vision impaired. Still wants to deer hunt from a ground blind or ladder stand. Talking < 100 yard shots
Any help appreciated.
It really depends upon his specific visual impairment as to what is going to be the best optic.
A lot of traditional red dot scope’s 10 to look very fuzzy or like they have spider legs with certain visual impairments. A magnifier can sometimes help with that but not always.
A low powered variable with a simple.illuminated radical is often times a better choice since the diopter on the ocular bell can be focused to a persons specific visual needs. Virtually all red dot sights lack that feature.
Adding to the above comment, astigmatisms will cause the red dot to be more of a star burst. It is generally considered that a prism red dot optic, whether magnified or not should alleviate this if that is part of his vision ailments.
Not sure if this will help or not and I see that the Burris FF3 has been mentioned, but you can adjust the brightness of the dot which may help as well.
I just bought my wife a Sig Sauer red dot to put on her new rimfire. Very well made. Not too expensive. Very adjustable intensity. Auto on and off. Leave it on, it shuts off if set still for a bit. Pick it up or move it and it instantly, automatically turns on. Immense battery life.
Like stated above, astigmatism will cause the viewer to see a starburst or smear. Happens to me, but I can still see the center dot. On lower power, it does not happen to me. Less expensive than the Burris.
As other said it depends on his vision. I have an astigmatism and certain red dots don’t work. Sig, Holosun and Vortex will work if I turn the brightness down. Eotech is also okay. Aimpoint and Trjicon are starbursted to my eyes. You might want to try the vortex or sig prism line.
Do you know what condition he has? Some conditions can also affect color perception and contrast sensitivity. Tree em is on the right track I think, a low power variable with an illumination option and a good field of view might be a better choice. Astigmatism is usually correctable unless there is extensive scarring but anything affecting his central vision area may also cause the same type of distortion