Prescription glasses and pistol shooting - I'm hoping this is my solution.

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shikano53

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Hi all,
I am 61 years old, have been shooting long gun since I was old enough to own one, and finally decided about 6 months ago to take up shooting a handgun and eventually join IPSC and shoot.

I shoot a Walther PPQ-Navy

I recently completed my BB course.

Here is my 'eye' dilemma.

I am a south paw and my dominant eye is my left eye and of course I shoot left handed. I wear prescription glasses for reading and computer (close work) and require a distance prescription for driving etc.

Visually, my right eye is weaker than my left eye. At work I am constantly swapping glasses. I guess the eye thing is something that comes with age. I wear progressives which work well for driving, but I have found out progressives are no good for shooting.

I have tried several things. First, just my distance glasses. I can see the target clearly but my sights are blurry. I tried just clear, non-prescription safety glasses. I can see my sights but can't see the target clearly.

So the other day I wondered. Hmmm, the brain and the human eyes are amazingly adaptive. What if take a distance prescription, remove the left lens, and shoot with that?
I got my eyes examined this past October and my prescription hasn't really changed a whole lot.

So I took a pair of riding goggles that have my distance prescription in a set of inserts, and removed the left lens and did some dry firing practice.
Wow! I can see my sights, especially the all important front sight, crystal clear and I can see the target clearly as well.

I am going to try this on the range ASAP.

My goal right now is to ignore all the techie stuff and concentrate on grip and sight picture, and hopefully ingrain some accuracy with the Walther just as it is out of the box.

I have the classic flinch syndrome and I am working hard to correct that.

I'm a leftie, and my shots pull down and to the right.

Anyway that's my story.

As someone told me, "treat every shot as a learning experience."

Chris in RD AB
 
I'm 68 next month and over the years, I find the eye sight isn't quite as sharp as it once was. I've done a fair amount of 'paper punching' in years past. If I'm not mistaken, even with ones eye sight at the peak of perfection, clarity at all three distances at the same time, is virtually impossible. The eye can only really focus clearly at one at a time. Pistol or rifle shooting with open sights, #1 is clarity of the front sight. The rear sight, even though perhaps a little fuzzy, will be easy to centre or align to the front nonetheless. And as with the rear sight, basically the same degree of sharp clarity holds true for your target. Both eyes open does help. I had a set of perscription shooting glasses made up, with the focal distance at the same as what the front sight on the average handgun will be.
With your shots down and to the right , could possibly be either you're squeezing with your bottem two fingers down and to the right, or, pushing to the right with your trigger finger rather than squeezing straight back, or a combination of both. Suggestion, try some dry firing, especially if you have a handgun with a heavier trigger pull. And, if you do so with a revolver, just load a couple of chambers and see what the result is when the hammer goes down on an empty chamber.
 
Johnn Peterson said:
I'm 68 next month and over the years, I find the eye sight isn't quite as sharp as it once was. I've done a fair amount of 'paper punching' in years past. If I'm not mistaken, even with ones eye sight at the peak of perfection, clarity at all three distances at the same time, is virtually impossible. The eye can only really focus clearly at one at a time. Pistol or rifle shooting with open sights, #1 is clarity of the front sight. The rear sight, even though perhaps a little fuzzy, will be easy to centre or align to the front nonetheless. And as with the rear sight, basically the same degree of sharp clarity holds true for your target. Both eyes open does help. I had a set of perscription shooting glasses made up, with the focal distance at the same as what the front sight on the average handgun will be.
With your shots down and to the right , could possibly be either you're squeezing with your bottem two fingers down and to the right, or, pushing to the right with your trigger finger rather than squeezing straight back, or a combination of both. Suggestion, try some dry firing, especially if you have a handgun with a heavier trigger pull. And, if you do so with a revolver, just load a couple of chambers and see what the result is when the hammer goes down on an empty chamber.
Click to expand...

Thanks John,
I appreciate the comments.
 
I'm not even 50 yet but I have the same pistol shooting sight issues. You've given me some ideas to try - maybe after I replace my 4 year old glasses. I'll talk to my optician when I get my eyes checked next month and see if maybe he can rig me up some shooting glasses. Maybe yellow tint too for contrast. Thanks Chris.
 
Darkw said:
I'm not even 50 yet but I have the same pistol shooting sight issues. You've given me some ideas to try - maybe after I replace my 4 year old glasses. I'll talk to my optician when I get my eyes checked next month and see if maybe he can rig me up some shooting glasses. Maybe yellow tint too for contrast. Thanks Chris.
Click to expand...

You bet! Good luck. Once I've been to the range I will post my results using my glasses as configured above.
Chris in RD AB
 
I've never tried anything with a yellow tint for shooting but;) MANY years ago, I did use yellow tint goggles for skiing and ski jumping on days when it was dull or poor light. The tint seemed to brighten things up a little and give clearer defination to bumps and irregularities on the slopes and jump runs and landings.
 
You young fellows will learn that you need a special, pair of glasses for shooting.

I just had another pair made by Zenni, the Chinese website, for about $50.

For my shooting eye I used a single lens (not a bifocal) set to bring the front sight into focus. The other eye is a normal bifocal lens. i had them tinted 10% yellow. This helps make it obvious that these are the shooting glasses.
 
Years ago I had glasses made up with a reading lens in the right side and a progressive on the left.

Being right-handed this works very well for me. I can see my targets very well at any distance and my front sight is clear.

Without glasses the front sight is a blur and the targets aren't much better!

So..... as far as I am concerned, this sort of set up is well worth the effort :)

John
 
dan belisle said:
I had Barry Nolt in Edmonton make me a set of shooting glasses with interchangeable lenses for rifle/pistol sights. Should have done it years ago, a phenomenal difference in my sight pictures. Well worth the money spent . - dan
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Dan is Barry still available? I'm in edmonton and badly need shooting glasses. Can you pm me any details? I'll google him too.

Edit.... Found him.
 
dan belisle said:
I had Barry Nolt in Edmonton make me a set of shooting glasses with interchangeable lenses for rifle/pistol sights. Should have done it years ago, a phenomenal difference in my sight pictures. Well worth the money spent . - dan
Click to expand...

I'm actually going to make an appointment with him in the New Year. Today I went to the range with my jury rigged glasses with the left lens removed and just a plain plastic safety lens and my distance prescription in my right eye and I could actually see my front sight with my left eye and the target with my right eye, clearly.

Without a doubt it made a difference to my shooting today.

Going to get set up in the new year ASAP!
 
I had an optometrist fit me with contacts that allowed me to focus on my sights with my right eye, and distance with my left - for some stuff that works, but when I'm trying to shoot left/left (hand/eye) obviously it's a bugger. I'm going to make an appointment to see Stephen Taylor in the new year, he's a highly skilled shooter as well as a doctor of optometry, hopefully he'll be able to get me seeing the sights through both eyes.
 
Is the 10% enough to make a contrast difference? I've been thinking of this too, but I'm not sure if 50% is too much and 10% is too little.

Ganderite said:
You young fellows will learn that you need a special, pair of glasses for shooting.

I just had another pair made by Zenni, the Chinese website, for about $50.

For my shooting eye I used a single lens (not a bifocal) set to bring the front sight into focus. The other eye is a normal bifocal lens. i had them tinted 10% yellow. This helps make it obvious that these are the shooting glasses.
Click to expand...
 
xdmer said:
Is the 10% enough to make a contrast difference? I've been thinking of this too, but I'm not sure if 50% is too much and 10% is too little.
Click to expand...

10% is too little to make much difference. 30% might be about right. Tinting was $6 option, so I tinted just so that it is obvious these are my shooting glasses. more than once I wore my old shooting glasses driving home - which meant I was effectively blind in my right eye.
 
I am right handed and right eye dominate, but I always try to shoot an equal number of rounds from both hands.

That is right eye, right hand and left eye and left hand. I also shoot a number of rounds left hand and right eye.

Like anything else, it's just practice.
 
Like 9.3 said above you need to focus on the front sight, the target does not matter. Put the target up backwards and stare at that front, I bet you shoot a better group and score. Think about it, if you keep the sights aligned you will shoot the same size group at both 1m and 25m (relatively speaking) and I am sure you can hold on the 10 at 1m. I have fought with a -5.75 correction all my life but since I had cataracts fixed I am back to scratch again. Right now I am using the weakest readers I can find for my right and I would like to use nothing for my left but I want some protection. Have you ever had a neighbours revolver shave lead and get it in the eye, a bit painful! A friend shoots with basicly the same thing, reader (or there abouts) in the right and distance in the left, seems to work for him.
 
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