If You Get Old,your Eyes Go Down

[TEL20]

Can some one tell me how to see the front sight and the target from 15 yrds to 25? I know front sight,but my eye sight makes everything from the front out sight looks so blurry that I can't call shots! Do I guess?

[Mick]

How old are those eyes?

I learned to shoot with both eyes open and see downrange when I shot OPEN by covering the far side of the C-More lense and making my left eye go to the target while my right eye stayed with the dot in the sight. This works with the Aimpoint on my rifle too. Later with the LTD gun my speed improved and I could see both the target and the sights.

At age 51 , I wear a 1X right eye and 1.25X left eye power glasses and will get a 1.25X right lense for indoor and lowlight shooting. These allow me to see enough of the sights to hit the target but still see the target.

You might have to go to the DR with a small pin the size of a front sight and try lenses until you find what works for you. My DR let me bring an empty gun to look through in the back room until I found what worked.

[Mr Glack]

I'm well into my 50s now. I just had an exam a few months ago and asked for help with the front sight focal point. I was hoping prescription lens might be helpful (I've been getting the reading glasses at the local grocery store up till now). The doc didn't have a lot of answers. Seemed to boil down to moving my head up or down depending on what focal distance I was needing ... which isn't much help.

I've found that a bright fiber front sight helps me pick out the center of the front sight better/faster and that's a big help.

I've also seen some adds for lens tailored for pistol shooters but haven't checked them out. Maybe someone else out there has tried a pair.

[FranDoc]

Multiple recent posts on the topic; it seems to be a common issue for those of us with 40- and 50-something eyesight. See if any of these are helpful:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...56&hl=focus

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...12&hl=focus

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...11&hl=focus

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...c=47086&hl=

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...=44810&st=0

Check with the local opticians, tell them what you need to accomplish, then see who's willing to work with you.

[lcs]

I'm well into my 50s now. I just had an exam a few months ago and asked for help with the front sight focal point. I was hoping prescription lens might be helpful (I've been getting the reading glasses at the local grocery store up till now). The doc didn't have a lot of answers. Seemed to boil down to moving my head up or down depending on what focal distance I was needing ... which isn't much help.

I've found that a bright fiber front sight helps me pick out the center of the front sight better/faster and that's a big help.

I've also seen some adds for lens tailored for pistol shooters but haven't checked them out. Maybe someone else out there has tried a pair.

Fairly inexpensive solution. www.gunnersalley.com has ESS shooting glasses for about $75 including a RX insert. (Same glasses our guys in IRAQ are using)

I have two sets. One for limited and one for open. For limited I had the bifocal part put on the top part of RX lenses. No more head bobbing. For open the bifocal is on the bottom of the insert (so I see score sheets etc). The RX cost me another $70 to have made. Quite cheap IMHO and my shooting improved a hundred fold.

I am lazy, so I bought two sets (You can use one set with two removeable inserts). BTW, you get three different lense colors with each set.

Hope this helps

[Mick]

I didn't mention that I used to shoot with a .085" orange post and now use a .100" with a 1mm fiber optic. I tried a .125" post with a 1.5mm fiber but it was too big. In the previous entries to the web you'll see Michael's focal awarness mentioned. When I used to do that mental prep for a stage and visualize before actually firing I got that zone going and shot it just like I had rehearsed it in my mind. Lately I haven't been doing that. 27 years of Police work has me trying to look at the stage and figure out a few basics like when to reload and then do it on command rather than with full mental prep. We used to do hidden stages too.

When doing simunition training and paintball I feel a strong sense of awareness that seems to be working for this game too. Sometimes the targets are crystal clear and when I finish the stage I can rewind it in my mind very clearly so that focus is there. I just wish I had the peripheral clarity I had before too.

I don't mind getting old except for the vision thing....

[Jim Norman]

I would suggest either a left right or same in both eyes,RX, but I wuld stay away from bifocals in shooting glasses for other than Bullseye type shooting. We have to move to too many different positions to shoot and the bifocals are problematic.

My coice has been to have a good front sight focus and blurred targets. Thankfully they aren't too blurred, I can see them, but I can't see the hits, but then again, I shuldn't need to. If you are looking for the hits, you are going to be too slow. You need to know you hit the target.

My opinon of course and others generally vary.

Jim

[Scout454]

I'm 60 and I've been wearing glasses to read for over 20 years (too much close work). I tried the "shooters" bifocal for pistol and it worked - sort of - but was useless for rifle and shotgun.

Three years ago I brought my slide into the drs office and we took my slight distance corrrection and added 1/4 diopter to it. That made the sights clearer without bluring the target. Shogun was better and rifle was no problem (I adjusted the crosshair focus for the glasses). Recently I ordered new glasses with the right eye up .5 diopters. Big lenses (peripheral vision, head position for isosceles), adjustable bridge (for prone). Call Decot and ask to speak to one of their shooting specialists.

[TWHaz]

http://www.sportglasses.com/

[TEL20]

Well, my eye's are 51 and I remember not to long ago I could focus on the front sight and call shots,but now I guess I'll try fiber optics. They do help outdoors,but not in low light. Just bought a used XD and put fiber optic sights on it and it has helped and I'm putting a set on my STI now.

[Jaxshooter]

I posted this previously. I have tried all types of glasses with different RXs and could not find anything that worked 100%. The my doctor suggested I bring my guns along to see what we could come up with.

I took a limited and open gun and we tired different lens combinations. We finally found a way to make it work with both guns and my scoped and iron sighted rifles as well. For open(and scoped rifles) I wear two contacts for distance. In limited I wear a contact in my right eye (dominate) for close focus on the front sight and a distance lens in my left eye. I shoot with both eyes open and it is like it was before I needed glasses.

[Throwin Lead]

This may help - Link to removeable bifocal

I had an eye exam today and explained to the doc what I was trying to accomplish. He suggested that I try these out by placing the lense in top of my glasses for the dominant eye only (one lense). The lense will apply/remove with water and are reusable and are available in several different sthrengths.

I plan to practice extensively before wearing in a match to be sure that I can navigate properly while using it

I'm a tradesperson and have a set of "double D"(bifocal in top & bottom of lense) bifocal safety glasses for overhead work. You wouldn't want to run around a course of fire wearing those unless you were absolutely comfortable wearing them as they are very hard to get used to wearing full time. I wear my regular safety glasses all the time and carry the double d's in my tool bag and switch them out when I have too.

.

I ordered a pair today. I'll let you all know how they work out.

[wsimpso1]

I am 51 and have had cateract surgery, so my vision has NO distance accomodation. The business of looking at the target then coming back to the front sight are gone for me.

My shooting glasses have the right eye corrected to the front sight, my left has my distance correction, and the optical center of my lenses are shifted up and to the left a little so that it is centered on where I look through them. No bifocals in these lenses keeps the glasses reasonably inexpensive, so I have one pair with yellow lenses and one with brown for those bright days. I can see the sights and read with the right eye, see the targets with the left, and it works great, even on those off balance positions or working around obstacles and off side cover. I am convinced that my eyesight costs me no points with the pistol. Since the whole lens is the right correction to see the front sight, I can even track the sight throughout recoil (on my best days), even with odd positions.

Guess about shot placement? Hell, you can see the shape of a USPSA or IDPA target to within an inch or so at 15 yards with the right eye focused on the front sight. Get further out Yes, your fuzz zone really isn't much more than that. And you really do not need details. Have some confidence that a centered sight gives centered hits. On close cover, refine in your mind's eye where you want that hit and put the sight there. With practice, it will be fine. And dry fire helps. And the further shots, well, the further out they are, the smaller the amount of target around the front sight. What matters is sight alignment, then putting the sight on the target, not seeing the target.

For rifles, I have conceded defeat. Iron sights are useable on easy targets and high contrast targets, but buff colored targets on buff colored earth at 200 yards is just about impossible. For tactical rifle work, scopes and regular glasses are the order of the day for this graybeard.

Billski

[TEL20]

Well,

I bought the inserts that Throwin Lead told about at Wallgreen for 9.99 and put it on the right upper lens of my safety glasses. I used it at a local match this weekend and it helped a lot.Just need to get use to keep both eyes open at all times.

[Throwin Lead]

Update on the removeable cheaters - it works great for me! I have a Dawson fiber optic sight and I can see that little red dot much more clearly. It look like a red light bulb at the end of my pistol instead of a blurred red haze. First few times wearing the lense I noticed at times my non dominant eye was trying to take over my sight picture. I knew this becasue in those instances the front sight got fuzzy again - I only use one lense for the dominant eye. Eventually this seemed to go away. Been using the lense about 3 or 4 matches & at practices. I'd give it 2 thumbs up! Nice to see the top of the front sight and actually align it in the notch!

Now if I could only get a trigger finger........