Watchtower Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) I'm in my 40's and my eyes are crapping out on me. I'm planning on going to the eye doc to get some glasses and I'm sure he will suggest bifocals. I'm shooting iron sights on my pistol (PPC, IDPA, and IPSC occasionally) and was wondering if the bifocals are going to be a nuisance? Anybody else out there been thru this, and if so, what finally worked for you? Edited August 17, 2011 by Watchtower Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juan Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I went thru this 4 mos ago went mono vision, shooting eye corrected to front sight distance and non shooting eye has zero correction. work great for shooting but a pain for non shooting activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-mishka Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I went thru this 4 mos ago went mono vision, shooting eye corrected to front sight distance and non shooting eye has zero correction. work great for shooting but a pain for non shooting activities. can you elaborate on this? i need to see doctor as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juan Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I went thru this 4 mos ago went mono vision, shooting eye corrected to front sight distance and non shooting eye has zero correction. work great for shooting but a pain for non shooting activities. can you elaborate on this? i need to see doctor as well My eye sight is good at a distance, I cannot get a sharp focus on close objects. so the eye doc corrected my shooting eye focal distance to the front sight. and my left eye was left alone with a distance focus. so each eye has a different focal distance. good for shooting and thats all I use them for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-mishka Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I went thru this 4 mos ago went mono vision, shooting eye corrected to front sight distance and non shooting eye has zero correction. work great for shooting but a pain for non shooting activities. can you elaborate on this? i need to see doctor as well My eye sight is good at a distance, I cannot get a sharp focus on close objects. so the eye doc corrected my shooting eye focal distance to the front sight. and my left eye was left alone with a distance focus. so each eye has a different focal distance. good for shooting and thats all I use them for. thanks, that cleared things up for me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) I went thru this 4 mos ago went mono vision, shooting eye corrected to front sight distance and non shooting eye has zero correction. work great for shooting but a pain for non shooting activities. can you elaborate on this? i need to see doctor as well My eye sight is good at a distance, I cannot get a sharp focus on close objects. so the eye doc corrected my shooting eye focal distance to the front sight. and my left eye was left alone with a distance focus. so each eye has a different focal distance. good for shooting and thats all I use them for. thanks, that cleared things up for me There are gun friendly eye doctors out there and they will even let you bring your (unloaded) gun so that they can take precise measurements from your eye to your front sight as well as try on lenses to confirm the measurements. Edited August 17, 2011 by Skydiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airedale Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 I wear progressive lenses and the front sight is fuzzy with my daily wear glasses. I had the eyedoctor make a set with clear front sight vision in the right eye and far vision in the left. (I am near sighted) It takes about a minute, when I put on my pistol shooting glasses, to stop feeling a bit nauseous. I'm good to go after that. This setup has made a huge difference for me. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
e-mishka Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 anybody knows a "gun friendly" doctors in nw chicago area? i dont really want to call a bunch of offices and ask them if i can bring my gun in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Airedale Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 anybody knows a "gun friendly" doctors in nw chicago area? i dont really want to call a bunch of offices and ask them if i can bring my gun in Mine is not gun friendly. I used a pencil at front sight distance to figure to work it out. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 (edited) anybody knows a "gun friendly" doctors in nw chicago area? i dont really want to call a bunch of offices and ask them if i can bring my gun in Or just bring the slide. Somebody else suggested an Airsoft gun, or a cardboard cutout. There is also something called a "walkthrough stick" that Benny Hill makes. It's essentially a stick that has a front sight and rear sight that you can attach to a magazine. Edited August 17, 2011 by Skydiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
t0066jh Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I'm in my 40's and my eyes are crapping out on me. I'm planning on going to the eye doc to get some glasses and I'm sure he will suggest bifocals. I'm shooting iron sights on my pistol (PPC, IDPA, and IPSC occasionally) and was wondering if the bifocals are going to be a nuisance? Anybody else out there been thru this, and if so, what finally worked for you? I'm 65 and just got some real shooting glasses. Dominant eye is corrected for front sight focus. Non dominant eye corrected for focus on distance. Both bifocals (non transition) are cut low on the glasses. Good for looking down at a jam in your gun. I put the glasses on when I leave for a 20 minute drive to the range. By the time I get there, my eyes have adjusted. The best part of the glasses is that when I'm properly indexed on the target, I draw the gun and this crystal clear fiber optic front sight appears covering my desired point of impact on the target.....now just press the trigger. Alpha. Try it you'll like it. If ordering from Rudy Project, add the code 2 Alpha for USPSA discount. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Watchtower Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks everyone, I'm going to try it, i.e. dominant eye corrected for the front sight and the other corrected for distance. This website rules! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biloxi23 Posted August 21, 2011 Share Posted August 21, 2011 Just got mu new glasess. My doctor focused my right eye bifocal on the front sight, and slightly raised up the transition are of the progressive bifocal. It is slightly a pain for non-shooting reading, but it seems to be worthy it. My doctor told me that she has about 5-6 guns in the office every week in order to focus the patient's eye on teh front sight. It sure made it a lot easier when the doctor understaind ahead of time what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennisp5 Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 anybody knows a "gun friendly" doctors in nw chicago area? i dont really want to call a bunch of offices and ask them if i can bring my gun in Dr.Crawford at the Eye Care Center Of Lake County made mine. I think they have an office in Vernon hills. He had me bring my gun to my normal exam. If you go there, call him in advance. He said some of the people in the office are a little nervous around guns. Cost me just aver $100 for basic polycarbonate lenses in my old frames. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pjb45 Posted August 23, 2011 Share Posted August 23, 2011 An alternative is to have someone measure the distance of the front sight to your eye. The doc can replicate that distance in his office. Another technique is to put your hands up like in your normal shooting position and tell him you want to focus five inches (or whatever is appropriate) beyond the last or first knuckle of your thumb. Measure the distance before you go into the office. My doc is very gun friendly but I never had the need to bring a gun into the exam room. BTW: I have mono vision. Luckily the eye is use for the front sight is the reading close eye. Unfortunately it is not my dominant eye. I have experimented with various techniques and just settled on closing my dominant eye when shooting iron sights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
open17 Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 One suggestion on the mono vision. When I first tried it, I had the dominant eye focal distance set to the front sight. They set the middle of the focus range to the front sight distance. Don't do that. Have the front sight distance set at the far end of the focus range. Your arm isn't going to get any longer, and by having the front sight at the far end of the focus it makes it a lot easier to focus on the timer or course descriptions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j0n Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 This dual lens idea seems fantastic... I may have to try it if I can find a gun-friendly doctor in New Je-... nevermind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimmie Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I only wear glasses for reading so this only works if your distance vision is o.k. At 40++ years of age I'm up to 2.75 readers which I buy at the drug store. My eye doctor suggested shooting glasses at 1.0. It actually works. I've tried everything else that you all have suggested and this current fix works awesome. I can actually still see in the distance and don't have to take them off to walk around. When I first put them on, it takes a couple of minutes to acclimate but after that, I don't even know I have them on. If you only wear glasses for reading and your vision is o.k. otherwise, I would suggest buying a few pairs of over the counter readers at a lower magnification and try them around the house. Find the strength that lets you see your front sight fairly well but doesn't blur out the distance too much. Then have them made into shooting glasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Round_Gun_Shooter Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 At 40++ years of age I thought your were more like 38 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R.Elliott Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I tried the mono vision thing and it almost drove me nuts. For me it was particularly difficult shooting through narrow windows or past vision barriers and the problems were magnified when shooting indoors in the winter. They suggested I try contacts for correction and that didn't work for me either; my brain just couldn't deal with the two different inputs and I kept getting double images and disorientation. Plus the contacts would move slightly every time I blinked. I finally settled on a front sight focus on both lenses and just accepted a blurry target. For Open Division I have both lenses set up for distance and a very small bifocal at the bottom for reading targets/score cards. They also happen to be perfect for driving. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimmie Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 At 40++ years of age I thought your were more like 38 O.k. 38 and a half and a half and a half........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 One suggestion on the mono vision. When I first tried it, I had the dominant eye focal distance set to the front sight. They set the middle of the focus range to the front sight distance. Don't do that. Have the front sight distance set at the far end of the focus range. Your arm isn't going to get any longer, and by having the front sight at the far end of the focus it makes it a lot easier to focus on the timer or course descriptions. Good suggestion there! Note that you may have to adjust your one handed shooting stance(s) to compensate as well to mimic the eye to front sight distance of your regular two handed stance. To people watching you, it may look a little weird since the common modern stance for one handed shooting stance tends to have the shooting hand side of the body addressing the target more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 One suggestion on the mono vision. When I first tried it, I had the dominant eye focal distance set to the front sight. They set the middle of the focus range to the front sight distance. Don't do that. Have the front sight distance set at the far end of the focus range. Your arm isn't going to get any longer, and by having the front sight at the far end of the focus it makes it a lot easier to focus on the timer or course descriptions. Interesting! I did something different. I found that with a hard focus on the front sight, targets beyond 20-25 yards were a crap shoot at best. I could align the sights but I had no idea where my point of aim was. I had the doc set the focus beyond the front sight leaving enough acuity to be able to align the sights but still be able to see distant targets. I actually took my gun and a target to the eye doc and we worked in his hallway. He put his lab glasses on me and we developed a prescription that was a good compromise of sights and target. My weak eye is set to distance. It is quite common to have partial and no-shoot covered targets at >20 yards around here so you really need to see what you are shooting at. YMMV, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregJ Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 I'm 54, and have been wearing progressive bi-focals for many years. A few years ago I started getting serious about pistols, and had to do something about my glasses, because no way I could shoot competitively with bifocals - as they force you to tilt your head back to get the front sight in focus. I had my eye doc make up a set of shooting glasses with my left a single Rx for distance, and my right a single Rx for near - set about 27", which is right where the front sight would be. So far this has been working great for me. YRMV, but you might want to give a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetdriver71 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Don't know if this helps...i use contacts however they are single vision by Cooper Vision. They work well. I think they have bifocal lenses now as well. It's nice to wear contacts and able to wear my oakly's without buying special lenses for shooting glasses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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