Prescription glasses for shooting with iron sights?

Juster said:
iris diaphragm
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TargetGlasses2pt5mm.jpg

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Also:http://www.gunblast.com/MeritOptical.htm

$65 from Brownells
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Excellent...
 
Lyman® Hawkeye Shooter's Optic Aid
List Price:$20.00
Price:$15.49
images

"http://www.amazon.com/Lyman%C2%AE-Hawkeye-Shooters-Optic-Aid/dp/B0001EQEIC


Edit: After drilling a hole in a credit card, I notice the aperture works best without my prescription lenses, worth checking out.
 
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Well, here we go. This is a multi page topic, but I am not doing that. If you are shooting open notch sights like on a Mauser then what you need is an aperture to look through, like a pin hole camera, to give you better depth of field. As your eyes get older you loose the ability to make your eye focus over several distances, like a rear notch and a front. As well you need a proper distance prescription. If you are shooting a rear aperture then you only need a proper prescription as the aperture solves many of your problems. Funny that the Europeans did not figure this out when the Brits did in WWI. So what you need is a pair of shooting glasses like the Champion brand which allow you to use prescription lenses as well as apertures and the proper set up devices. They are a royal pain the the rear to set up but after you get used to them you will never go back. A pair of so called "shooting glasses" that look kind of normal are virtually useless if you can use them for other purposes. A shooting eye setup can't even be looked through for normal use, I have had a -5.75 correction for many years and without the weird glasses I would never have been on several Bisley teams starting in 79.

Her is a link, I think I bought my last pair from Range Sports in Kamloops. precision-sports.com/champion.htm
 
Wow!
Talk about the theme of a thread being changed. Here is the title of the thread. "Prescription glasses for shooting with iron sights?"

The thread has turned completely into gadgets for shooting with iron sights.
I, along with some others, gave a true account of different prescription glasses and shooting, based on considerable experience with rifle and pistol, but were completely ignored, in favour of gadgets that may or may not improve iron sight shooting.
 
Wow!

Gadgets are what makes it work, in other words they are not gadgets! I gave a world class opinion of what was needed, or you can go cheap and if that's all you need then great! An excellent book that cover much of this is "The way of the rifle" carried by Canada Targets. Again, world class.
 
Ian Robertson said:
The stick on things work but only when your head is in an upright position like pistol or standing etc. Prone is not much use.
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Saw some clip ons today at the range and they seem good if you want to try something without damaging your regular glasses..
And they were supposedly used by most of the Bullseye guys.
 
enefgee said:
For anyone reading this in Victoria, and experiencing the same issues, Dr. Stephen Taylor at Mayfair Optometric is a highly ranked PPC shooter, he can set you up right. (He'll also make you look dumb if you complain about your pistol's accuracy, but that's another story - lol)
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Thanks
as on the far side of 50ish all help is ok
 
"...what works/doesn't work..." It's mostly about what you need. You near or far sighted? Once that's established just buy glasses that cover the whole eye. None of the current 'granny glasses' style are any good for shooting. Too small.
All prescription glasses are impact resistant, so you don't need anything else as long as the lenses are big enough. Don't know if the aviator style lenses (a la Raybans) are still available. Been wearing those for eons myself.
"...required to wear glasses for my drivers license..." You very likely need 'em for shooting too. DOT's/MOT's usually don't care if you need specs to read, but they do for distance.
 
I feel old...

I have a friend who's a 59 year old game warden. He insists that nobody over 50 should be using iron sights. :rolleyes:
If it were up to me (I'm 69) every one of my regular shooters would have optics of some sort. But here's the thing:
Our club puts on a monthly "Military Shoot" and it's your milsurp with factory sights only ("snipers" shoot separately) and
my 'go-to' is an M-14 c/w std aperture sight. I used to qualify "Expert Rifleman" (299/300) with these sights (when I was
20!) but now looking thru the peep makes my front sight look all blurry. I just had a thorough eye exam--no cataracts (yet)
and I expect he'll write me a new Rx. I'll find out next week.

The other thing is that I underwent corneal laser Tx about 12 years ago. It worked great (I used to be "legally blind" without
glasses) and I went to 20-20 overnight. My acuity has deteriorated since then, but not by very much.
I now have 'transitions' for reading with a slight correction for distance.

I can see the target at 100 yds, and the front sight clearly, with my naked eyes.
The only time I have trouble now is when I try to sight thru the aperture and my sight picture is totally whacky-jacky.
IDK if enlarging the size of the aperture would help; some say to decrease it...?

I do use my glasses to shoot, but I end up bobbing my head like a pigeon to find the sweet spot in the transition lenses.
The doc seemed to know a lot about sights and shooting, so I'm keen to know what he comes up with.
 
glycerin said:
It is critical, optically to see the front sight most clearly(especially for handgun, M4, etc.). I am near-sighted, and get one lense(right for me) focused at pistol front sight distance. My target is always blurry(your eye will accurately find centre of a blur, but front sight alignment is critical). Rifle works similar, but don't know how it works for far-sighted people. Aperture front and rear sights are very good for old eyes.
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Like he said. If you want results (good groups) it is the front sight that has to be sharp. All you need for your shooting eye is a single prescription lens, with the right optics to give you a good focus at, say 36" from your eye. (Measure your rifle front sight distance.) A lens is made large and it has an optical centre. When the lens is shaped to go into your frame, the optical center can be placed wherever it is needed. You have to put your head on a stock, and aim, so the optician can make a mark where the optical centre should be. If you are right handed, it will be high left in your right frame.

The target will not be sharp. You can't focus on both, and it is the front sight that matters. But, if you look through a rear peep, that will tend to increase the depth of field, making the target a bit sharper. For target shooting we use an adjustable rear sight and adjust the peep hole as small as we can, until the target starts to dim out.

My shooting glasses have a single focus lens on the right, made to focus on my front sight and a bi-focal lens on the left, to help me see my notebook, reloads mags, etc. They cost about $45. Cheap frames.

SHOOTINGGLASSES.jpg


An optician can make you a set of reading glasses, with the entire lens (both sides) set for table top work. They are very handy for reloading or working on a computer, so you don't have to tip your head up to see out the bottom of bi-focals.

For a shooting pair of glasses, the left lens is the same as your regular bi-focal. The right lens is like a reading lens, only focused a bit farther away.
 
Don't get them damned progressives ........I tossed mine .......you could either see both sights fine and not the target or the target and not the sights! I just kept my old prescription glasses for irons and nothing for a scope.I did have to change some 4X to 3-9's for paper punching. @53
 
It depends on the sit as to what is needed. My eye guy was all set up that I needed distance rx and then I went in and told him I needed about 1m focus and he was all confused. Pistol and rifle are different and for rifle I use a variable diopter which allows me to adjust the focus as needed. It also depends on your health. I am diabetic and my eyes can vary a bit from day to day. Find the blindest best shooter in your club and ask him what he uses, every game is different. I had about a -5.75 correction and now that I had cataracts fixed it is all different. I now use nothing for long range irons and about a +1 for pistol. I use reading glasses for pistol now and need about a 1+ but can only find a +1.25 which is really too much. Pistol must focus ONLY on the front sight but rifle is a bit different (rear aperture that is, I don't even try to use a rear notch but it is doable with an iris in or on your glasses). Rifle must focus somewhere between the front sight and the target, depending on which gives the best score.
 
SIGP2101 said:
You will need these eventually after you try all El-cheap-o crap solutions:
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Ummm... IDK if I'm psychologically ready to be wearing a rig like that. I'd be afraid I might be mistaken for a space alien.
Doesn't the sight of a man wearing that contraption and holding a firearm make people a bit nervous? :)
On the plus side, it could be helpful in avoiding those uncomfortable social situations.
If I was using them, I expect I'd have to be getting damn fine results to avoid getting laughed at.

But seriously--if that is what will help the most, then that's what I'll do.
Cheers
SL
 
We

Hey guys,
Thx for those helpful suggestions. I'll keep those in mind when I return to the eyedoc next week. At the price of eyeglasses these days I can't afford
to try too many different approaches before I find what works for me.
I'll keep you posted.
SL
 
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