I've only used two brands of reflex or red dot sights - three Burris Fastfires both II and III, two Sig Romeo 5's and closely examined a Leupold Delta Point pro. None of them have a clear, round, precise dot although the Leupold had a fairly defined triangle reticle. They all start as a somewhat misshapen thing at dimmer levels - one Romeo 5 reticle looks like a comma or a jelly donut with a leak, then they turn into a starburst at brighter levels including the Leupold.
Is that just endemic to the breed or do the better (higher priced) ones have a nicely defined dot? I can see how a slight starburst effect wouldn't hurt for self defense use since you just slap it on the middle of a relatively large target, in fact it's probably a lot easier to pick up. But I want something that can be used for more precise work so I keep going back to open sights where you can exactly delineate the edge of the blade, or just limit the reflex ones to a dimmer level.
I've really tried to like them as evidenced by owning 5 so far - the Burris's and Sigs, and have used them on everything from a Ruger Mk III, Smith Model 17, various Marlin lever actions, a couple Ruger 10/22's on up to a Ruger 77 .30-06. Except for one Romeo5 left on a 10/22 I keep going back to some other sight and specifically peep sights on the rifles since I can get a more precise sight picture a lot further out.
So - is all this just just because I've only used the lower end models? Do the $500 sights negate my issues here? Btw, it's not my eyes making the dots irregular, I verified that.
