Prescription shooting glasses & sights

[jimreed1948]

I want to have some shooting glasses made so I can see my sights better. Should I ask for my close up or distance prescription for the new glasses? I want to use them for my regular style of sights as well as a red dot sight.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: If you want glasses for iron sights and a red dot you will need two different pairs of glasses. For the iron sights I would look into mono vision, one for the front sight and the other for distance(target). For a red dot I think you can get away for distance for both eyes. Both of these are for shooting with both eyes open. Rudy Project make an insert for there glasses so that may make things easier with 2 inserts. Hope this helps. Thanks, Eric

[Brooke]

I know this subject has been beat to death in many posts on many forums without any real worthwhile outcomes. Consequently I would share my recent experience in case it helps someone.

I wear glasses with both spherical and cylindrical corrections...most older shooters also have both to some degree or other. I was never able to get my regular optometrist to take an interest in my inability to see my pistol front sight clearly after many requests from me. I "invented" my own shooting glasses by adding a stick on +1.25 diopter lens on top of my prescription glasses. The combination worked great for seeing the sight, but sometimes finding the smaller stick on in my visual field when shooting quickly or around barricades slowed me down. Finally I got pissed off enough to take some proactive steps.

I found an optician (that's a guy that just builds lens and who can also fit glasses, but doesn't get into diseases and other eye problems). This particular optician also is a Rudy Project dealer (he also shoots on occasion which helped). I showed him my "invented" glasses and told him I would gladly buy some Rudy's if he could build an RX insert that worked for my use. He measured the power of my Rube Goldberg glasses and made up a right eye lens to match (it took two trials because the Rudy RX's sit so close to the eye versus regular glasses).

I can now see my front sight perfectly with a full frame lens in a Rudy RX carrier and a set of Rudy glasses with clear, red, yellow, copper, and brown lens. In my left eye I have my standard precription and the new lens in my dominate right eye. The different lens do not bother me and I can see close or far just by telling brain what eye to use. I wouldn't wear these for everyday use like driving, but they sure work for my shooting.

I do not know whether this will work for everyone. Somebody may get dizzy using two different lens, but it has not bothered me. I think the key is finding someone who takes an interest in an idividual need rather than just herding sheep though an eye business.

[jimreed1948]

I went to my eye doctor for a regular check up after posting this and told him what I needed. He knew exactly what I wanted. After the eye exam, he showed my what my regular vision glasses would look like. He extended the little chart that was in front of me to a certain distance, approximately where my sights would be and I could read everything. I got my shooting glasses from Wal Mart. They are perfect. It doesn't matter if I'm shooting regular sites or a red dot, I can now see everything sharp and clear.

Edited July 15, 2014 by jimreed1948

[BMaus]

I am pretty short sighted and normally wear right -6.50 and left -7.25 for distance in multifocal lenses. Without glasses I start to lose focus at 10 inches !

I am right eye dominant and using iron/fo sights.

For pistol shooting my optometrist came up with right -5.50 and left -7.00 in single vision lenses.

These give me a very clear front sight and an only slightly fuzzy target at 25 yards.

Before settling on this he mocked them up in a replaceable lense frame and got me to check my 25 yard vision.

It is possible to go too strong on the front sight and totally fuzz out the target.

Commonly they add somewhere between +0.50 and +1.25 to your distance prescription (for your dominant eye) to get a good front sight focus, normally at about 80 cm (31 inches).

Edited July 16, 2014 by BMaus

[RePete]

I wear reading glasses.

The prescription inserts I have are for a 21 foot focal point. I can see the sights and the target.