Front site focus prescription shooting glasses

[1eyedfatman]

I wear bi-focal glasses.  I use them more for distance and take them off when I'm sitting at my desk in front of the computer.  I typing this now with no glasses on.  I wear these glasses when I shoot indoor matches and I shoot prescription sunglasses when shooting outdoors (non-bifocal and for distance).  The problem either either glasses is that the front sight is not in focus.  I used Dawson red fiber completion sites on my Glock 34.  I do have a pair of computer glasses which I never use which make my front site very clear, but I can't use those for shooting because it slightly blurs my distance sight.  I am cross-eye dominant so I shoot right hand but close my right eye and shoot left eye open.  My level is IDPA Expert and USPSA Prod B.

I have an appointment this Wednesday for an eye exam and I'm going to ask the doctor if they can make me a par of glasses where the top half of my left lens makes my front site in focus and the lower par of the left lens and the entire right lens is focused for distance.  I'm thinking of using Oakley frames and having the lenses grow dark outside.  Has anybody else tried this and does it work out or does the one progressive lens throw the eyes off?

 

[Taroman]

I had the same type glasses made.

Right eye focused on the front sight. 

Left eye focused at infinity.

It's what keeps me in the game when optics are not available.

[zombywoof]

If you have a prescription for distance in your glasses, ask your eye Dr for a +.75 lens in front of your current glasses. My Dr. let me bring in a firearm to the office. I was shooting rifle at the time and got some interesting looks from people in the waiting room. The AR and pistol are about the same focal distance. We did the good, better, best with him adding those lens in front of my eye while I was aiming my firearm. You need to tweak your distance prescription so you can see the front sight, too much and the target is a total blurr, too little (what you have now) and you can't see the front sight. You need a controlled blurr. For most people a +.75 to their current distance prescription works. I had another right lens made for an old set of glasses and switch between the two sets I have, one for irons and one for dots ( my regular street glasses). Good luck. Ask your Dr. if you can bring in a firearm.

[dogtired]

I have a 1x lens in the right.  It is not perfect by any measure but I can see the sight.  I will get eye strain when I put them on for about 10 minutes and when I take them off after the match I feel it.

At a recent 3 gun match I shot prone in the dust and it was very hard to see the distant target as the dust was in focus and the distant target was not.  I have thought or trying the left eye now, shooting pistol with left eye.  When I get to the big city I will try a cheap glasses place and do that (nothing cheap here).  You can use a pencil eraser as your focus if the eye doc does not want to use a gun.

[Hi-Power Jack]

Getting to be time to switch to OPEN, and scopes ... 

[Steve RA]

Or Carry Optics or get the prescriptions correct for both eyes so you can focus on the front sight with one eye and the target with the other.  I've done this since the early 80s and it has worked well for me, some people can't adapt to it, unfortunately.

[armydad]

For those of you who went with prescription glasses for one eye at distance and other for the front sight, have you had any issues with double vision? When I shoot both eyes open, I see 2 front sights so have to close one eye. I've been planning to see my eye doc about it to see if it can be corrected but haven't made the time for it. Thanks and sorry if I'm hijacking the thread.

[1eyedfatman]

I'm waiting on permission from the Dr if I can take my SIRT laser pistol with the Dawson front site in for my appointment.  If I can't, I'm going to a different Dr.

Question:  I have a concern that if I get the upper part of the left eye lens (shooting eye) +magnification to get a crisp front sight, that the target will become too blurred.  Particularly on targets with non-threats, swingers, hardcover targets, distant targets, etc where making out the edge of targets may be helpful, could making the targets more blurry penalize me?  Does one not try to go perfect front sight focus but give up a little to not blur the targets too much?  Like the previous post...go with +75 even if it is slightly weaker so as not to loose too much focus on the rear targets. 

[Shepard]

I've been out of the sport for about ten years and one of the reasons was because my eye sight was failing and I couldn't get it straightened out. After several tries across the years just last month I found a Doc who let me bring in my gun. My dominant eye had become my weaker eye but he worked with me for over an hour changing out different contacts to get front sight focus with my dominant eye and distance with my non-dominant.  Its not like I'm 30 again but for the first time in years I feel confident about being able to track the sight. To make a long story longer, find a Doc that will let you bring in your gun and is patient. I'd pretty much given up till I found this Doc.  

[Smitty79]

I use the dominant eye front sight distant and non-dominant.    I believe that this is what Rob Leatham does.   He seems to be reasonably successful with it.   It was tough for the first hour or so.   Now it's natural.   I don't notice it.

[tanks]

22 hours ago, armydad said:

For those of you who went with prescription glasses for one eye at distance and other for the front sight, have you had any issues with double vision? When I shoot both eyes open, I see 2 front sights so have to close one eye. I've been planning to see my eye doc about it to see if it can be corrected but haven't made the time for it. Thanks and sorry if I'm hijacking the thread.

I don't wear prescription glasses. However, due to the fact my arms are no longer long enough I wear 1.75 reading glasses. I had www.decot.com make me a set of their shooting glasses. 0.75 for my dominant eye that enables me to see the sights and clear for the other eye. It takes about 5 minutes for me to adjust, then I am fine.  

[armydad]

Thank you. 

[BMaus]

I am very short sighted and normally wear multifocals.

I use single vision lenses in both eyes for shooting.
My non-dominant eye has my distance prescription and my dominant eye is setup for front sight focus.
Normally your front sight focus will be +0.50 to 1.25 over your distance prescription.

Get your optometrist to dummy some up in that frame they have and go outside and check out your vision.
Some people cannot adjust to two different focal lengths.

I am 50+ and have no problems adjusting when I put on my shooting glasses but sometimes take 5-10 minutes to adjust when I put my normal multifocals back on.

I shoot a CZ Shadow in production.

 

Edited August 16, 2016 by BMaus

[1eyedfatman]

I took my SIRT practice pistol in with my eye appointment.  The Dr said they could not reverse the bi-focal so that my intermediate sight (front sight) was on the top and my distance sight was on the bottom.  He said they could only make them the other way around.  He did say they have something called double-D's which is like a bi-focal up top, a middle area and another bi-focal at the bottom.  The middle area could be distance and the upper/lower could be anything.  He seemed to be leaning me in that direction.

I ended up leaving with a free sample of 10 pairs of contacts he wanted me to try out.  The right contact was for distance and the left for the front sight.  I shot an IDPA match and did pretty well on accuracy.  Except for 1 missed head (1 our of 3 kneeled behind low cover), I only had -1 down for the match with a lot of moving and a few head shots.  That 1 head shot miss -5 dropped me from 1st to 4th.   But, I attributed that to me and not the contacts since the rest of the match was pretty clean.  I seemed to move around just fine and made my cover positions.  The front sight was much more clear although the targets were more blurry making calling my shots more difficult.  With my regular distance glasses, sometimes in the back of my mind a pick up the holes on the targets (sometimes).

Match got rained out this weekend, so I didn't get a chance to try them at an outdoor match.  After I get a couple more matches with them, I'll go back into his office.  After thinking about it, talking to others and doing some reading, I'm thinking about just having one lens focus for the front sight and the other lens focus for distance.  The site below has an interesting writeup on this and provide 2 options with the option I just mentioned as their recommended method for action shooting.  I have talked with other shooters that do this also.  And this would simulate what I am experiencing now with my contacts.  I prefer having glasses made up instead of contacts so I can use them easily for matches and dry-firing.

http://www.decot.com/content/Front_Sight_Blur.htm

 

Edited August 21, 2016 by 1eyedfatman

[TANFARM]

Rudy reverse bi focals solved my problem...near correction on top ..distance for the balance of the lense ...see the front sight is a good thing !

[Tubguy]

I went to my local Pearle Vision with my gun and wow. That front sight is so clear now. Almost to clear. I wish I would have done this a couple of years back.