Just picked up some new glasses. Since I’m old they’re progressive lenses. Shot a few gophers and I’ve missed more than I normally do (rarely miss) with my CZ457 with 2-7 Crossfire. Have other ole guys had issues shooting with progressive lenses? Should I get a pair of glasses that aren’t progressives to shoot with? They have taken some getting used to. My eyes aren’t bad, no restriction on my license, It is nice to sharpen things up at distance.
The younger guys might laugh but it’s part of getting older. A Costco 3 pack of cheaters will be in your stocking sometime after 45…
For a lot of years. Here is what I have found: When shooting with a scope I use the upper most part which, following the cataract surgery is only a correction for astygmatism, otherwise, my vision is 20-20 for distance. This is born out by the fact that the focus is zero, neither + nor - on the scopes. This works with no glasses. I shoot right handed so have the hinged scope cover opening to the left; it serves as a blinder for my left eye.
Open sights are a different story; I need corrective lenses for close up. When shooting hand gun, I have to look through a very narrow band of the progressive lense to minimize distortion down range so I can still see the target clearly enought to aim while still be able to see the sights. This is OK for hand gun, but rifles are a different animal.
Following my surgery, I was very happy to see; I was clinically blind in my right eye before, and now no longer even need glasses to drive. After I figured out the progressives and pistol shooting, I needed a solution for rifles. No matter how I held me head, the proper focal point was not aligning with the rifles sights. After some trial and error, I doscovered that cheap "Costco" readers of only +1 or +1.5 gave me the best of both worlds for open sight rifles. Post and knotch sights like on my 452 lux JW14, Zastava M22 are great out to 25 yards and plinking out to 50. With Peep sights like my Coey model 78 and my customized Toz are great all the way out to 50, and with the Toz, I have dialed the rear up and tried one 5 x 5 square bullseye target with a 10 shot group at 100 yards. I was very surprised that all the shots were on the paper. I got three pair of these +1 glasses from Amazon for less than $20 delivered. Below is a photo of the Toz and the only targe I ever shot at 100 yards:
It is not like it was 20 years ago, or even 10, but it is still good to get out and shoot. I hope you can get something out of my experiences that will help.
One other point; if they advise cataract surgery, take them up on it; I went from seeing only a grey fog in my right it to seeing the surgeons face the moment he slipped the new lense into place! The discomfort of the surgery and recovery is minimal; so minimal that i would put at about a 1 on a scale of 10 compared to a tooth cleaning at the dentist which I would rate as a 10 out of 10. (My experience anyway)
