Shooting glasses for "seniors"

[10X]

I'm fortunate in that as my eyesight changed, my distance vision became worse, but my focus at about front sight distance is as clear as ever.  So I shoot iron sights uncorrected.

 

I do have astigmatism, so for bullseye with a dot sight, best move I ever made was to take a dot sight into the eye doctor.   I held it up while the doc fiddled with the lense selection on the machine until the dot was perfectly round.  I then had a pair of safety/shooting glasses made with that prescription.

Edited August 1, 2019 by 10X

[njl]

I tried all kinds of lens set up different ways last year. I finally got Rudy Rydons with inserts with my progressive prescription and quit experimenting and learned to use the. I just switch to them about 45 min before starting to get my eyes adjusted 

If your Rudys have your normal progressive lens Rx in the insert, what adjustment is needed to switch from your daily glasses to the Rudys?

[Kilrb]

Just getting adjusted to the different frames, lens color I choose. Prescription is no problem as far as vision correction

Edited August 2, 2019 by Kilrb

[CHARLES D]

I’m in the same boat as most.  After messing with glasses prescribed from my eye doctor and using mono vision contacts I finally talked to the fine folks at Decot Glasses. Was sort of hesitant at first getting a pair of glasses ( 3 inserts) for shooting only. Sure wish I would of contacted them years ago. Worth the money if you shoot allot.

[tbarker13]

I've been wearing multi-focal contacts, which have helped a lot. But over time, the correction from those started to fail as well - for iron sights. Added a modified reader RX to my Oakley glasses. Took the gun in to my optometrist's office - and she did measurements to make the glasses work. Something about reading glasses being optimized for reading distance (18" or so), while the front sight of the gun is a little further than that. That helped a lot.

 

 

[rooster]

Went to eye doc yesterday and he set me up for mono vision, which I have been using for years. I measured distance to front sight with my normal freestyle hold. The script I was using was plus 3.75 for , front sight sight and plus 2.75 for distance. My script now is plus 4.25, and plus 3.00. I sure do hope I can see the target. I went to zeni optical and picked out a frame with trivex lenses for under 90 bucks. If it works I might try the hunters gold brand. Zenni is excellent, you can literally build your own glasses. You can even take your picture and try them on to see what they look like on your mug.

[njl]

I was getting kind of bummed after finding that Costco and Sam's Club offer lenses for WAY less than pretty much any other optical shop, but neither will do my Rudy Rx insert.  Costco's excuse was it's safety glasses, and they won't do safety glasses.  Sam's Club's reason was they get all their lenses done at a remote lab, and if you provide your own frames, they somehow trace the frame and send that info to the lab where the lenses are cut, and then they get assembled at the local store...but with the plastic insert that uses fishing line, there's nothing to trace.

Then I found that Rudy sells two metal full-frame inserts, one of which is specifically intended for progressive lenses.  I'm guessing Sam's Club might be willing to work with this, and the progressive lenses will end up costing right around $200 installed.  Other places, progressives are $500-$600.  What insert have any of you using Rudy's with progressive lenses used, and where did you get the Rx lenses done?

[Kilrb]

My Eye doctor did mine

[njl]

12 hours ago, Kilrb said:

My Eye doctor did mine

 

In the plastic insert that uses fishing line to hold the lenses, or one of the full frame metal ones?

[Kilrb]

The plastic insert

[RandyBaker]

Should the main objective be to get a pair of glasses that make your front sight clear?...wouldn’t that make the target stuff more blurry?

[njl]

4 minutes ago, RandyBaker said:

Should the main objective be to get a pair of glasses that make your front sight clear?...wouldn’t that make the target stuff more blurry?

 

You can't accurately shoot an iron sighted pistol without a reasonably clear front sight.  The only issue with a slightly fuzzy target is even less chance of seeing bullet holes (knowing if it's worth firing make-ups).  I've gotten to the point where I'm curious about shooting in progressives so that hopefully I can get both clear sights and clear targets.

One thing I'm curious about (is there an optometrist in the house?) is varying lens heights and progressives, and who/how it's decided where the transition section of the lens begins and ends (i.e. how big the sweet spots are for distance vision, near vision, and how much is used for transition).  Is that just formulaic based on the height of the lens, or is it something that can be specified when the lenses are ordered? 

I was speaking to a coworker the other day who's also in his first set of progressives, and he said he hates them and won't do it again.  Comparing our frames, he had much taller lenses, and his biggest complaint was having to look down more than he's comfortable doing to read up close.  My daily wear progressives are only about 35mm tall.  I have a really old Aviator style frame that has nearly 50mm tall lenses.  I wonder, if I got a similar style new frame with PALs, how the layout would compare to my current ones, and if that would be better or worse for shooting (or just different and hard to adjust to)?

[shred]

Youngeyes is an eye doc, and a good one.

 

Seeing holes in the paper is often overrated for high speed shooting, as nobody got time for that.  I get a prescription for front-sight clear, but instead of smack in the middle clearest front sight, I have the Dr push it out a few clicks so the sight is still "good enough", but there's more clarity downrange for target acquisition and such.

 

 

[rooster]

I don’t think progressives will work for this type shooting. The trouble is for front sight focus your looking through the bottom of both lenses, so your target will be out of focus, and vice versa when looking at target. With mono vision your picking up target with your distance lens then focusing on front sight with your close lens. For speed shooting this is the most preferred method. I’ve been doing it this way for 20 years, it’s not for everyone, some can’t get used to the mono vision. If you do it long enough your brain works everything out. Your friend needs to give the progressives a chance. Wear them for a month they really are the way to go for regular wear.

[RandyBaker]

I wear progressive glasses and there great for normal everyday stuff. When I’m target shooting they are ok but when you are trying to move around and look at different angles it would be tough to always look through the top or bottom. I guess for shooting I need to get a happy medium between the  front sight being clearish  and and still good target pic. 

[RaylanGivens]

Progressive lenses work for this kind of shooting if you're shooting a dot...  Everything is target focused.

[njl]

I finally got out to the range this past weekend (it'd been a few weeks) and did an hour of IDPA practice (draws, double taps into a target, transition to another target, double tap it, mixing in some 2 to the body / 1 to the head) and did this in my old Rx daily-wear progressives.  It worked well, and I think I was seeing better than I do with my Rudy Rydons + distance-only Rx insert.  I'm waiting for frames I ordered to arrive so I can order a new Rx in progressives, and it'll be interesting to see if I can shoot in those, but worst case, I think for the time being, my current / old Rx progressives will be my shooting glasses now, at least for non-reactive targets shooting.

[683beretta]

Wayne Morgan, Morgan Optical. Orleans NY helped me out when I had problems with

age. put the grind higher or lower in the lens, etc. He primarily caters to trap shooters,

But he is well versed in all shooting sports.

[Aforum55]

Check out the hunter gold's. They offer a prescription lense with several frame styles. The "gold lense" really makes colors pop and have a lot of RX option. Might be a good option for you! They're supporting the sport heavily as well. 

[njl]

So, my new frames came in, and I had Costco make a set of progressive lenses for them in my new Rx (stronger distance correction and stronger ADD for reading).  They had to do it twice, because they screwed up the PD measurement on the first attempt.  The end result is a pair of glasses I don't think I can use for much other than driving

 

My old/original progressive lens Rx, the distance vision correction is, I guess, weak enough that I can still focus reasonably close (like a computer screen about 24" away from my face).  The issue was, I wasn't satisfied with the distance vision clarity.  So, the new Rx gives me sharper distance vision, but pushes my near focus distance out to more like 36".  I can't focus on a computer screen or front sight using the distance part of the lens, and as I work at a computer all day, I'm not willing to move my head around as much as would be required to see the screen(s) through the transition portion of the lens that allows me to focus close, but not reading lens close.

 

I guess my options at this point are:

Keep the new ones as "driving glasses". 

Return [the lenses] to Costco for a refund.

Go back to the optometrist and figure out a compromise Rx that gives me as clear distance vision as I can get without pushing out my near focus beyond about 24".

[fitzdawg]

I just graduated from single vision to progressives this week (turned 40 last week), so I'm following this with interest. As of right now, I'm perfectly fine with just single vision distance correction for shooting glasses, as I really only have a hard time focusing very close (reading a book, phone, etc). As somebody else said, I wonder if I could get a set of progressives dialed in specifically for head/eye/hand placement for shooting? If that's possible, I might be able to hang on to irons for a few more years. 

[clawson2011]

I have started using Ranger. prescription inserts work well for me.  contacts are hard for me due to an astigmatism.