Blocking Red Dot lens: Training aid ?

[Radical Precision Designs]

Sometimes, as many of us whose eyesight is not as acute as it used to be, I will follow the target through the lens of my C-More scope with my dominant eye. Ok, I try to do the right thing by not following the dot, and instead bring the dot into the spot I'm calling. But by subconsciously limiting/concentrating my "view" to what I see through the small area of the lens by my dominant eye I believe some of my peripheral and depth of field capability is being diminished.

I have been practicing my dry fire target acquisition while taping off the front of my C-More lens. I can see the red dot over-imposed in my target, but can not make any peripheral detail through the lens. Only what my left eye sees of the target with the dot over it as transposed by my brain over it is what I see. Now my target spot is much better defined, the dot is still sharp, and I can concentrate better on following shots. But it feels strange a little bit, and it is not easy to get used to it. Tomorrow night we have a local match and I intend to shoot the entire match with the tape in place ... as sort of a training aid.

Has anyone tried this, or has a better alternative to sharpen up judicious use of non-dominant eye use ??? My tired eyes will welcome your thoughts.

[JThompson]

Sometimes, as many of us whose eyesight is not as acute as it used to be, I will follow the target through the lens of my C-More scope with my dominant eye. Ok, I try to do the right thing by not following the dot, and instead bring the dot into the spot I'm calling. But by subconsciously limiting/concentrating my "view" to what I see through the small area of the lens by my dominant eye I believe some of my peripheral and depth of field capability is being diminished.

I have been practicing my dry fire target acquisition while taping off the front of my C-More lens. I can see the red dot over-imposed in my target, but can not make any peripheral detail through the lens. Only what my left eye sees of the target with the dot over it as transposed by my brain over it is what I see. Now my target spot is much better defined, the dot is still sharp, and I can concentrate better on following shots. But it feels strange a little bit, and it is not easy to get used to it. Tomorrow night we have a local match and I intend to shoot the entire match with the tape in place ... as sort of a training aid.

Has anyone tried this, or has a better alternative to sharpen up judicious use of non-dominant eye use ??? My tired eyes will welcome your thoughts.

Venry, I ran over this too with my failing eyes. What helped me was to turn the dot way down, so as not to draw your eye as much. I used it so I could just barely see the dot and the smaller dot was better for doing this than the 12 I use now. When I get some glasses I think I will go back to a 6 for inside and keep the 12 for out. I also tried to shoot the gun with the dot off and had some mild progress with that. Do you have glasses? If your eyes are a bit off than you may need to think about going ahead and getting some, if you haven't already. Have them focused for infinity and that should help as well.

Jim

Edited November 29, 2007 by JThompson

[Radical Precision Designs]

Sometimes, as many of us whose eyesight is not as acute as it used to be, I will follow the target through the lens of my C-More scope with my dominant eye. Ok, I try to do the right thing by not following the dot, and instead bring the dot into the spot I'm calling. But by subconsciously limiting/concentrating my "view" to what I see through the small area of the lens by my dominant eye I believe some of my peripheral and depth of field capability is being diminished.

I have been practicing my dry fire target acquisition while taping off the front of my C-More lens. I can see the red dot over-imposed in my target, but can not make any peripheral detail through the lens. Only what my left eye sees of the target with the dot over it as transposed by my brain over it is what I see. Now my target spot is much better defined, the dot is still sharp, and I can concentrate better on following shots. But it feels strange a little bit, and it is not easy to get used to it. Tomorrow night we have a local match and I intend to shoot the entire match with the tape in place ... as sort of a training aid.

Has anyone tried this, or has a better alternative to sharpen up judicious use of non-dominant eye use ??? My tired eyes will welcome your thoughts.

Venry, I ran over this too with my failing eyes. What helped me was to turn the dot way down, so as not to draw your eye as much. I used it so I could just barely see the dot and the smaller dot was better for doing this than the 12 I use now. When I get some glasses I think I will go back to a 6 for inside and keep the 12 for out. I also tried to shoot the gun with the dot off and had some mild progress with that. Do you have glasses? If your eyes are a bit off than you may need to think about going ahead and getting some, if you haven't already. Have them focused for infinity and that should help as well.

Jim

Thanks for the "dope", Jim. I actually have a little bit of astigmatism, which is not equally shared between my eyes. Normally I do not wear my mild prescription glasses, as I have never really liked them. I will wear a 1.25 diopter for reading and close work but they are useless with a dot, making it flare way out of proportion. On ocassion I have practiced with the dot completely off too, but that was just for "muscle/memory" training. I just really want to improve the sharpness of my non-dominant eye while focusing both eyes in different planes, if this is possible. (??)

[AlamoShooter]

Our very great ...Late friend Bud Bond showed me that trick a few years ago. With the tape = as a way to speed up transitions on steel. Yes it is what I would call a good tool for training.

I personaly think it would be ???How to put it ??? not so grate a thing to do in a match.

Edited November 30, 2007 by AlamoShooter

[JThompson]

Sometimes, as many of us whose eyesight is not as acute as it used to be, I will follow the target through the lens of my C-More scope with my dominant eye. Ok, I try to do the right thing by not following the dot, and instead bring the dot into the spot I'm calling. But by subconsciously limiting/concentrating my "view" to what I see through the small area of the lens by my dominant eye I believe some of my peripheral and depth of field capability is being diminished.

I have been practicing my dry fire target acquisition while taping off the front of my C-More lens. I can see the red dot over-imposed in my target, but can not make any peripheral detail through the lens. Only what my left eye sees of the target with the dot over it as transposed by my brain over it is what I see. Now my target spot is much better defined, the dot is still sharp, and I can concentrate better on following shots. But it feels strange a little bit, and it is not easy to get used to it. Tomorrow night we have a local match and I intend to shoot the entire match with the tape in place ... as sort of a training aid.

Has anyone tried this, or has a better alternative to sharpen up judicious use of non-dominant eye use ??? My tired eyes will welcome your thoughts.

Venry, I ran over this too with my failing eyes. What helped me was to turn the dot way down, so as not to draw your eye as much. I used it so I could just barely see the dot and the smaller dot was better for doing this than the 12 I use now. When I get some glasses I think I will go back to a 6 for inside and keep the 12 for out. I also tried to shoot the gun with the dot off and had some mild progress with that. Do you have glasses? If your eyes are a bit off than you may need to think about going ahead and getting some, if you haven't already. Have them focused for infinity and that should help as well.

Jim

Thanks for the "dope", Jim. I actually have a little bit of astigmatism, which is not equally shared between my eyes. Normally I do not wear my mild prescription glasses, as I have never really liked them. I will wear a 1.25 diopter for reading and close work but they are useless with a dot, making it flare way out of proportion. On ocassion I have practiced with the dot completely off too, but that was just for "muscle/memory" training. I just really want to improve the sharpness of my non-dominant eye while focusing both eyes in different planes, if this is possible. (??)

I have much the same issue. Tech the dot is focuses at infinity, so if you can get both eyes focused there you should be good. There was an ad in "Rifleman" that used some type of pill that were "supposed" to help, but I haven't tried it. Also, there are some simple exersizes that friends say worked for them. You can google eyesight exersize and find some.

Here is the one a friend used, but I haven't tried it so....

http://www.withoutglasses.com/presbyopia.html

Edited November 29, 2007 by JThompson

[Radical Precision Designs]

Thanks, Jim.

That was an interesting web-site with intriguing info. and offer.

It somehow reminded me of some of the info given by some posters in these forums. (LOL) Just enough to whet your apetite, but for the full effect you must buy the "tape" !!!!!

Worth considering ... for overall gain besides shooting.

[jostein jensen]

A bit off topic... Is there only one sharp dot in your lens when you focus your eyes on the lens/dot?

I find that when I focus on the lens there are MULTIPLE dots there... Like 7-8 in a really tight cluster. When I shift focus to target its just one red dot. Is it me or the dot module thats fooked?

[Fireant]

I just don't clean my cmore lens for a while. No tape needed. When I first started shooting open I wanted to use the dot like a scope and aim through it. If I leave the lens hazed over I don't try to look through the lens.

[lcs]

I am by no means an expert in Open, but I have worn progressive bifocals for 10 years. My "distance" vision is pretty good.

From day one of trying open, I did not wear my glasses. The open shooters I talked to (GMs) told me "your focus is on the target, not the dot". I do have to say I had previous training in up close and personnal shooting where precise sight acqusition is not used, so this was an easy concept to master.

At first I saw the dot and it seemed bright and "in my face" so-to-speak, as time goes on the dot is now just "there" when I call the shot. The latest advise from the open guys is to "snap" my eyes faster to the next target and the dot will be there.

ESS has some great shooting glasses with an RX insert and you could have the insert made to correct the mild astigmatism without any reading correction in the insert . You might find the astigmatism is your real problem. I have my ESS insert with the bifocal part on the "top" of the glasses (versus the bottom) to shoot limited. The targets are slightly "fuzzy" and the front sight is like it was when I was twenty. I think I have less than $175 in the glasses and I use the same glasses for limited and open by just removing the insert.

www.gunnersalley.com for ESS shooting glasses. Something to consider and it is pretty cheap to try.

I hope my vision quest has been of some help.

Larry

[eric nielsen]

Venry

What you're doing was the subject of ProTips article by JoJo Vidanes a few years ago in GunGames magazine. I tried it, liked it, and have suggested dryfiring with front taped over to several new Open shooters.

I still do it a bunch myself. The local matches where i've seen my own bullets go SPLAT on steel were always after a bunch of dry fire with the lens blocked & the dot superimposed. My focal distance was out there on the targets plus my vision was following thru just a few .001s which also is a big help on steel.

Having said that, it's possible [as in, i'm guilty] to practice it TOO much, to the point where your weakside eye is doing all the work and you start to not care very much where the dot is and how still the dot is on the target. It's a balance.

[Radical Precision Designs]

Venry

What you're doing was the subject of ProTips article by JoJo Vidanes a few years ago in GunGames magazine. I tried it, liked it, and have suggested dryfiring with front taped over to several new Open shooters.

I still do it a bunch myself. The local matches where i've seen my own bullets go SPLAT on steel were always after a bunch of dry fire with the lens blocked & the dot superimposed. My focal distance was out there on the targets plus my vision was following thru just a few .001s which also is a big help on steel.

Having said that, it's possible [as in, i'm guilty] to practice it TOO much, to the point where your weakside eye is doing all the work and you start to not care very much where the dot is and how still the dot is on the target. It's a balance.

Eric-

That was very good info. I wish I had seen Vidanes material. It would have been a good start to build upon.

So, you've been playing with this technique successfully, I see ... and getting great results.

Have you ever done this practicing with live ammo, at the range or at a match ???

Tonight we had a match where I was going to tape the lens, but decided to wait and perhaps try doing at the range first. After all "twilight" shooting might not be the best place to get started with this.

[eric nielsen]

I haven't used tape at a match, mostly because it looks funny. Did it in practice some, seemed like the 1st few shots were a little slow.

Way way back when they sent a polarizing filter with every Aimpoint, I shot some matches with the filter turned around 90% dark. Now the dot is so bright there's no real need for it.

The 5 years i shot a C-More, i considered putting window-tinting film on the far side of the lens, because the dot would wash out even with an 8moa and new batteries. Again, never did it, you could try it & tell us how it goes. Some tints will block about 75% of the sunlight.

Edited December 1, 2007 by eric nielsen