Multiple Prescriptions for Close Up and Distance?

[blind bat]

At my last eye exam the optometrist created a special shooting prescription for me with my natural point of focus on the front sight. I recently compared my two prescriptions using a plate rack at 10 yards and found there to be a .5 - 1s advantage using the shooting prescription. However, I need to go back to my normal prescription for 25 yard group shooting because the target is too blurry to get a precise idea of where I'm trying to aim.

I'm going to have a set of Rudy glass made up now that I'm certain the shooting rx is not just a placebo but I can't afford to have two sets of glasses. My quandary is the technique for shooting things like the IDPA classifier. Especially stage three. Do shooters with these type of prescription shooting glasses switch to a standard prescription when shooting a 20+ yard string or do you just deal with points down?

Edited September 8, 2010 by blind bat

[Singlestack]

The target is always blurred for me. I focus on the FS.

[diehli]

Bifocals with the division higher up than normal (shooting Rx in the lower portion, standard Rx in the upper).

[benos]

At my last eye exam the optometrist created a special shooting prescription for me with my natural point of focus on the front sight. I recently compared my two prescriptions using a plate rack at 10 yards and found there to be a .5 - 1s advantage using the shooting prescription. However, I need to go back to my normal prescription for 25 yard group shooting because the target is too blurry to get a precise idea of where I'm trying to aim.

I'm going to have a set of Rudy glass made up now that I'm certain the shooting rx is not just a placebo but I can't afford to have two sets of glasses. My quandary is the technique for shooting things like the IDPA classifier. Especially stage three. Do shooters with these type of prescription shooting glasses switch to a standard prescription when shooting a 20+ yard string or do you just deal with points down?

For all distances, wear glasses that allow you to see your front sight in razor sharp focus. It doesn't matter how fuzzy the target is, you will still naturally point the aligned sights in the middle of it.

be

[calishootr]

I have a gun friendly eye doctor and he allowed me to bring in my limited gun and we measured the focal distance from my eyes to the front sight, and set up a pair of glasses for that distance

[Sarge]

I'm scheduled to go to the eye doc next week. He is familiar with the needs of shooters so hopefully I'll know more then. But I am getting confused by this thread.

I thought some guys have dominant eye focus on sights and non dominant on target distances. This way you can keep your glasses on all day.

My vision is very good beyond the end of the gun. With weak readers I can make the sight very clear but the rest of the world is blurry.

What is the drill, change glasses when you are not shooting? I can't see walking around all day or RO'ing with blurry vision.

Am I missing something?

Thanks

Kevin

[Singlestack]

I have my dominate eye focused to the FS and my non-dominate eye set to infinity. I wear the glasses all day with no problem.

[All-Gator]

+1 to Singlestack's comment. The brain is an amazing organ...it combines the disance/near focus discrepancy with no difficulty into one image. However, I do have a shooting buddy who said that he could not tolerate the setup as it (for whatever reason) made him dizzy.

A-G

[Steve J]

At my last eye exam the optometrist created a special shooting prescription for me with my natural point of focus on the front sight. I recently compared my two prescriptions using a plate rack at 10 yards and found there to be a .5 - 1s advantage using the shooting prescription. However, I need to go back to my normal prescription for 25 yard group shooting because the target is too blurry to get a precise idea of where I'm trying to aim.

I'm going to have a set of Rudy glass made up now that I'm certain the shooting rx is not just a placebo but I can't afford to have two sets of glasses. My quandary is the technique for shooting things like the IDPA classifier. Especially stage three. Do shooters with these type of prescription shooting glasses switch to a standard prescription when shooting a 20+ yard string or do you just deal with points down?

I and a number of people I know have shooting glasses where the dominant eye lense is focused on or just beyond the front sight and the non-dominant eye lense is focused at infinity. I works great for older eyes and iron sights.

[open17]

Had a set made up a couple of years ago. Dominant eye front sight, other eye distance.

They call it "monovision"

First time I wore them got a heck of a headache in about 3 hours. Just about gave up

on the whole idea.

Now--It takes 20-30 minutes for the brain to adjust, then I'm fine all day. Crisp clear

front sight, clear targets. Focuses close enough that I can read a stage description or

run the timer. Really having FUN with iron sights again!

[Steve J]

I have my dominate eye focused to the FS and my non-dominate eye set to infinity. I wear the glasses all day with no problem.

I do the same thing except when driving or in the grocery store. They don't work for me in those two situations. Driving is obvious. You don't want a hard focus only inside the car. The grocery store is less obvious - too many bright lights and thing to focus on I think.

[Pezco]

Decot Shooting Glasses adjusted my prescription so my dominant eye was in focus on my front sight and my left eye was my regular prescription.

[Singlestack]

I have my dominate eye focused to the FS and my non-dominate eye set to infinity. I wear the glasses all day with no problem.

I do the same thing except when driving or in the grocery store. They don't work for me in those two situations. Driving is obvious. You don't want a hard focus only inside the car. The grocery store is less obvious - too many bright lights and thing to focus on I think.

I should have put "at the range" in there...

[Steve J]

I have my dominate eye focused to the FS and my non-dominate eye set to infinity. I wear the glasses all day with no problem.

I do the same thing except when driving or in the grocery store. They don't work for me in those two situations. Driving is obvious. You don't want a hard focus only inside the car. The grocery store is less obvious - too many bright lights and thing to focus on I think.

I should have put "at the range" in there...

I love my clear tent shooting glasses at home, especially in the kitchen. Give it a try.

[Mark K]

I went 'round and 'round with this a year ago. I wear progressive trifocals in day to day life. I had a set of lenses made for my shooting glasses that made the front site crystal clear for limited shooting, and a long distance focus set for shooting Open. Had problems with both. The close focus pair made me dizzy just looking at the ground. The long distance pair made doing things like calling scores while ROing. I finally reasoned that since I wear Trifocals all day, every day, that I would try them shooting. Did the trick for me. I could easily focus on the front sight or the target as necessary.

Only makes sense to me to have glasses while shooting that make your vision as close to normal at all times as you can. We do not hear of shooters with normal vision trying to restrict their vision to just the front sight.

Mark K.

[Singlestack]

I went 'round and 'round with this a year ago. I wear progressive trifocals in day to day life. I had a set of lenses made for my shooting glasses that made the front site crystal clear for limited shooting, and a long distance focus set for shooting Open. Had problems with both. The close focus pair made me dizzy just looking at the ground. The long distance pair made doing things like calling scores while ROing. I finally reasoned that since I wear Trifocals all day, every day, that I would try them shooting. Did the trick for me. I could easily focus on the front sight or the target as necessary.

Only makes sense to me to have glasses while shooting that make your vision as close to normal at all times as you can. We do not hear of shooters with normal vision trying to restrict their vision to just the front sight.

Mark K.

Thats because they can see it!

[Mark K]

I went 'round and 'round with this a year ago. I wear progressive trifocals in day to day life. I had a set of lenses made for my shooting glasses that made the front site crystal clear for limited shooting, and a long distance focus set for shooting Open. Had problems with both. The close focus pair made me dizzy just looking at the ground. The long distance pair made doing things like calling scores while ROing. I finally reasoned that since I wear Trifocals all day, every day, that I would try them shooting. Did the trick for me. I could easily focus on the front sight or the target as necessary.

Only makes sense to me to have glasses while shooting that make your vision as close to normal at all times as you can. We do not hear of shooters with normal vision trying to restrict their vision to just the front sight.

Mark K.

Thats because they can see it!

Duh! John, My point is why would I not want to see it all, if that is an option. You are doing it with two different lenses (essentially what they do with Lasik for guys like us - correct one eye for close and one for far and let the brain figure it out). But, if I can have a prescription that will allow me to see all with both eyes, that seems to be the solution. (I can't blame my vision for my slow shooting ).

Mark K.

Edited September 9, 2010 by Mark K

[lugnut]

Pretty much the same as what everyone has said- dominant eye adjusted for front sight, non dominant eye for distance. However my eyes couldn't quite deal with the full power for the dominant eye so I have to back off a little. I can still see the serrations on my front blade so it works good for me. Takes a bit to adjust but I hardly notice them after a while.

[Steve J]

I went 'round and 'round with this a year ago. I wear progressive trifocals in day to day life. I had a set of lenses made for my shooting glasses that made the front site crystal clear for limited shooting, and a long distance focus set for shooting Open. Had problems with both. The close focus pair made me dizzy just looking at the ground. The long distance pair made doing things like calling scores while ROing. I finally reasoned that since I wear Trifocals all day, every day, that I would try them shooting. Did the trick for me. I could easily focus on the front sight or the target as necessary.

Only makes sense to me to have glasses while shooting that make your vision as close to normal at all times as you can. We do not hear of shooters with normal vision trying to restrict their vision to just the front sight.

Mark K.

Thats because they can see it!

Duh! John, My point is why would I not want to see it all, if that is an option. You are doing it with two different lenses (essentially what they do with Lasik for guys like us - correct one eye for close and one for far and let the brain figure it out). But, if I can have a prescription that will allow me to see all with both eyes, that seems to be the solution. (I can't blame my vision for my slow shooting ).

Mark K.

Mark, monovision works. Each eye has a different focal length. They've been setting up daily wear contact lenses like that for years. Unless I'm misreading your post, you had both eyes at the same focal length. That was your mistake. I wouldn't wear trifocals if you paid me. I prefer to switch glasses or take them off to read.

[Graham Smith]

FWIW, I wear progressive contacts for routine vision. Work OK but not great and do a fairly good job of giving me focus on the sights. But they do make the targets more fuzzy. The last couple months, I started just wearing a contact in my right eye. This has actually helped quite a bit.

[benos]

To add a little to my last post, for my last year of competitive shooting, I had glasses as others have described, with the focal length for my shooting eye set to the distance of my front sight. And since my non-aiming was still 20-20, it had no correction. Worked perfectly.

be

[Kevin G.]

My Dad is getting a set of bifocals made with the magnification for reading above his normal line of sight instead of below. So instead of helping when he looks down to read it helps when he tilts his head forward a bit while looking at the sights. Standard prescription and vision are still available.

This is second hand info. Just hadn't heard anyone else mention doing it.

[bbbean]

My Dad is getting a set of bifocals made with the magnification for reading above his normal line of sight instead of below. So instead of helping when he looks down to read it helps when he tilts his head forward a bit while looking at the sights.

I tried that, but found that shooting from any sort of non-straightforward position had me ducking and moving my head around trying to get the front sight in focus. Monovision works much better, IME.

[Greg Bell]

I do the same as Singlestack works great, I put them on when I get to the range takes me about 15 minutes to adjust. I sometimes get way down the road driving home before I notice they are still on and switch back to my standard glasses.

[assaulter]

So, what would you do for 3 gun and you are left eye dominant. It would be tough to have your left eye corrected to focus on your front sight nad your right eye focused for the target for your pistol, then pick up a shotgun and have the target and your front sight blurry!