Cyelee Wolf 2 – Does it work for Astigmatism?
The cyelee wolf 2 is marketed as being a budget red dot that is supposed to be better for astigmatism than other competitor products on the market. But does it actually work? As someone with an astigmatism I’ll give you my honest, unbiased feedback.
But I want to hear from you as answers to this question will vary for everyone’s individual eyes and what works for you may actually work for someone else. Do you battle with an astigmatism? What is the best optic that works for your eyes?
Cyelee Wolf 2 Green Dot
The product really does help for astigmatism in my testing, and it comes in at a very low price. It is worth looking into if you struggle with astigmatism.
Disclosure: Cyelee Provided this Optic for Free for Review
In full disclosure, Cyelee provided this optic to me for free for this video, but I was not compensated in any way other than the optic being free. Whenever these opportunities come, I always make sure the manufacturer knows that I will not bend my review in any way.
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If you do end up wanting to purchase the optic after the review, you can use one of my affiliate links in the description. Check out on Amazon with code CRACKW15 and you’ll get 15% off of the optic. I’ll also get a little kickback from Amazon for the purchase, and that helps support the channel and fund our future projects, so it is incredibly appreciated. The affiliate relationship is with Amazon, not cyelee. We purposely don’t monetize our platforms with ads, so these affiliate links are what helps keep the lights on if you actually buy a product we recommend.
Framing the Astigmatism Problem
Okay, let’s start with level setting the astigmatism problem. Those of us who deal with minor astigmatisms oftent have issues with red dot optics. Typically you’ll either see a star burst effect or a long dash which is a series of dots. As you stare at the reticle for longer periods of time, the problem can get worse. My eyes always seem to transform the red dot from say a 2MOA dot to a maybe 5-10MOA diagnal line. It is so annoying.
I for one can testify that the problem varies a great deal from optic to optic. Some are definitely worse than others for my eyes, and it probably has something to do with the curvature of the glass. The problem is less of an issue so long as I target focus and have the brightness settings set appropriately.
For pistols this doesn’t really matter much. Its so low of a concern that I don’t mention it in most reviews unless its really bad on an optic. The distances that you’re shooting at are so minimal and the red dot is just a guide post anyways, since you’re for the most part point shooting inside 15 yards. If you aren’t bullseye shooting, Acceptable accuracy is usually anything in the A-Zone, so I don’t stress about it too much. A 5-10 MOA dot at say 10 yards really only covers around an half inch to an inch of the target, so any deviation from the astigmatism doesn’t really effect accuracy.
Rifles are another story. With a rifle you’re probably shooting at a longer distance. If your 2MOA dot becomes a 5-10 MOA line like it does for me, that can translate to a miss at over 100 yards.
It’s for this reason, my preference is to run LPVOs on rifles, as the diopter can be adjusted for my eye sight, although friends trying out my rifles often complain of a hazy reticle. So if I end up being a loot drop, at least they’ll be annoyed.
But hopefully I won’t be a loot drop because ideally we’ll solve this astigmatism problem. So this is the use case I had in mind when considering this optic. I was looking for something that could fill the roll of a backup for my higher magnification Vortex PST 5-25X Scope on an AR-10.
How the Cyelee Wolf 2 Works Better for Astigmatism versus other Red Dots
The Cyelee wolf 2 features two things that are supposed to help with astigmatism, a green emitter, as well as a 32 MOA circle with a 3 MOA dot in the middle. The reticle is essentially the same as the one we see on holosun multi reticle models like the 507 series or the EPS, although holosun typically features a 2MOA center dot.
The cyelee also comes in at less than one half, and in some cases, less than 1/3 of the price of Holosun, green emitter, multi reticle models.
The Wolf 2 does not have multiple reticle support, you’re stuck with the circle center dot, but for my application on a rifle that doesn’t matter and I actually like the 16 MOA reference point below the circle to estimate my holds.
Does this Optic actually work for Astigmatism?
So does this really work? Yes with some caveats. I still see a little bit of a line when using the optic. The 3MOA dot extends slightly to maybe 5MOA, but the problem is not nearly as bad as on other optics I’ve tried. The outer circle helps constrain the inner circle it seems like if that makes any sense. To compare, I shot it next to a typical rifle red dot on a 300 blackout pistol that I happened to have with me on that range trip, a Sig Romeo 7, and the Wolf 2 was night and day better for that astigmatism problem. So i’m going to say yes, for my eyes, this does work.
But if the Wolf 2 worth it in the ways we typically measure a micro red dot optic?
Cyelee Wolf 2 Green Dot
The product really does help for astigmatism in my testing, and it comes in at a very low price. It is worth looking into if you struggle with astigmatism.
Is the Wolf 2 a Good optic?
Lets go over the other pros.
Footprint
The wolf 2 is cut for Trijicon RMR, which has become by far the most popular and common optic cut.
Price
This model in particular cost $127 on amazon. With the promo code, that should drop it to about $107. That is really, really cheap as compared to other options on the market, with holosun costing easily double that for the basic 407 models. RMR cut optics are usually not this affordable.
Glass clarity
My goodness the glass is clear on these. This is on par with my $400 Holosun EPS, or my Japanese glass Sightron SRS-2.
Window Size
The window is plenty large for a pistol red dot at 24mm.
Shake Awake
This has become a standard feature on most optics today, but seeing it in this price range is pretty rare.
Solid push button controls with adjustable brightness settings
The controls are great quality. The optic has 8 daytime brightness settings with 2 that Cyelee describes as “dim enough for enhanced brightness optics (invisible to the naked eye)”. I guess that means night vision compatible but I don’t have a way to verify.
Included Pic Rail Adapter
It comes with a Pic adapter, so that made mounting this up to a rifle super easy for me.
Top loading battery compartment
You don’t have to unmount the optic and rezero every time you remove it. It takes fairly standard CR1632 batteries, which is common for this size optic.
Limited Lifetime Warranty
Its worth mentioning that Cyelee lists these with a limited lifetime warranty. Thats pretty wild for such an affordable optic. I haven’t had to the warranty service yet, so I can’t speak to how good customer service will be, but if they really hold to the lifetime warranty that is really impressive at this price point.
Cons
Turrets aren’t great
I’m really not a fan of the turrets. This is bigger deal when mounting to a rifle. You want each click to correlate to a specific MOA adjustment so that you can easily zero it at longer distances. The marketing claims to “click adjustment”, but the adjustment knobs are analog. It actually reminds me a lot of the swampfox liberty and justice models in many ways, which I reviewed in another video, yet it comes in at less than half the price of those optics.
Things still to be determined
I can’t comment on reliability as I don’t have a lot of rounds down range with this yet. I have this mounted on an AR-10, but shooting the AR-10 is very expensive, so I only have a few magazines worth through it. So far, its holding up to 308 Recoil fine, but being mounted to a rifle is actually less intense then being mounted to a reciprocating pistol slide. Ive never killed a red dot on a rifle, but ive killed several pistol red dots.
I will update if this thing dies on me at any point. The Cyelee rep did tell me that their optics are tested up to 1500 simulated recoils with 1500Gs of force. This is a pretty weird way to measure ballistics, but I found this table on AR15.com, which showed the G-force in testing for various huge calibers. So the Cyelee testing well exceeds that if this is accurate.
Would I recommend this optic for shooters who deal with Astigmatism?
But given the price point I’d say the jury isn’t out yet. I do have a Cyelee Wolf pro currently mounted on a PSA dagger with a higher round count, that I’ll review next week.
Okay so would I recommend this if you have an astigmatism? Yes. Honestly for that purpose and at this price point its worth a shot. Could you mount this on a rifle as a backup sight? Yes, I think these actually may have the most utility in this context given the price, common footprint, and incredible glass clarity, and the fact that mounting solutions on rifles don’t have force from reciprocating components.
Would I put this on a carry gun?
Would I put these on a carry or duty pistol? At this point no. I don’t think Cyelee as a company has been around long enough or their products proven enough to trust it on a concealed carry pistol unless you really can’t afford another option. That doesn’t mean that I won’t in the future when I have more rounds through guns with these optics mounted. In fact, of what I’ve seen so far I’m very impressed.
However, concealed carry pistols take the most beating because they are low mass so there is a lot of felt recoil, they aren’t just sitting in a safe, and you really should be training with your concealed carry pistol more than any other gun. So for your carry gun I would go with a more proven brand, like Trijicon or one of the higher end Holosun offerings. I’m currently running a Holosun EPS on a glock 26.
But for primarily range guns, absolutely, Cyelee is an incredible value for the money. Again, that glass clarity is a show stopper. You probably can’t afford to put a $400 optic on every single pistol in your collection, so Cyelee makes a really competitive product for that context.
Cyelee Wolf 2 Green Dot
The product really does help for astigmatism in my testing, and it comes in at a very low price. It is worth looking into if you struggle with astigmatism.
Conclusion
I hope this video helps you make an informed purchasing decision. If you like this video please consider subscribing to the channel. Tune in next week as I’ll be reviewing a different Cyelee optic, the Cyelee Wolf Pro mounted on a Pistol, you won’t want to miss it.
