I can still shoot, I just can't SEE !!!

[jmsj]

Hey guys,
I have posted in the past year or more that I have been having problem seeing the iron sights on my pistols. It started out that the groups were the same width but were2-3 times as tall. Groups that used to be 2" @ 35 yds were now 2" by 4" or 5" tall. Then lately they started becoming more patterns, the same 2" loads were becoming 6" patterns.

I was becoming very discouraged. I started losing my confidence and had not even shot pistols very much this spring which is very out of the normal for me. I have resisted going to scopes or red dot because I really don't like the way they look or how they change the balance/feel of a handgun (especially the Ruger SA's I have that are mostly fixed sights that I shoot the most). To be completely honest, vanity probably had as much to do with my dislike of optics as anything. But with my aging eyes the iron sights were giving me fits.

My wife kept telling me that I was taking it too hard and encouraged me to keep shooting and work through it. Well for my birthday she gave me a Millet red dot sight w/ a 3 min dot. I mounted it on a Ruger Bisley SBH Hunter last week and found some time to shoot a quick 6 shot group after we cleaned up the Mother's day supper and before the rainstorm settled in. I shot this group at 35 yds. from a makeshift rest. I fired this group pretty fast as the rain and wind was just starting up. As I was shooting this group I could start to see the cluster of bullet holes start to appear. There is one shot outside of the cluster and that shot for some reason felt different. I think in my haste I didn't have a correct grip on the gun. The load was 10.0 grains of Unique, Federal LP primer, Lyman's 429421 lubed w/ FWFL and sized .431"

http://i961.photobucket.com/albums/ae97/jmsj515/DSC00190.jpg

I felt pretty good about this group as it is better than anything I have shot in about 2 years. So it looks like I can still shoot, I just can't SEE !!!
jmsj

[Finster101]

Good for you! I'd certainly be happy with that group.

[ColColt]

I can identify with having trouble with iron sights and seeing your target. There are optical devices you can put on your glasses whereby you can see the front, rear of the sights as well as the target. It don't get any better than that. I'm going to talk with my ophthalmologist and see if he can come up with something in the form of a device built into the glasses so I won't have to lick that rubber suction cup that holds my diopter as that if iffy depending on placement on the lens.

[OneSkinnyMass]

That "Looks" pretty good to me, I think ya "See" just fine, change can be a good thing.

Keep ya barrel warm,

Skinny

[jblee10]

I fought the use of red dot sights also. But eventually gave in. I still dislike having to activate a red dot before shooting. But I'll put up with it because it made my groups shrink up again. I've never had a Millet, but I'm happy with my Ultradots.

[subsonic]

Good shooting!

Focal length is a killer. You may see just fine, just can't focus at certain distances (usually close) anymore.

I tell you, I am 35 and I can already tell a difference vs when I was in my 20s with pistols. I can still pull off a great group when needed, but its 10x EASIER with the red dot and if I shoot 10 groups and average them, the average will definitely be tighter with the red dot. It's obviously more pronounced with a short sight radius short barreled gun.

[bobthenailer]

Im now 64 years old and i was using a adj apture sighting disc since my mid 30s along with later different power reading glasses and different tinted colored clip on shooting glasses to obtain perfect sighting with iron sights for general shooting & bullseye & silhouette shooting.

Since my mid 40s ive been slowley putting more red dot sights on my handguns , now most of my handguns have them as well as 3 rifles, the RD enables me to shoot as well or even better than i did with iron sights without of all the parafanalya. and no eyestrain or changing lighting condtions to deal with .
Now what i need is to somehow calm down my shakeing , at times i now need 2 hands to hold a handgun as still as i could do with one hand and its getting more frequent . so far i havent come up with a fix for that! but some weight traning has helped some. I guess i might have to just accept that , but it sure makes me mad as i was allways a fierce competator and liked being on top , its still hard accepting your not quite as good as you once were at something that you love to do so much for so many years .

[jmsj]

Thanks guys,
I am going to play with this sight and pistol for a while and see how it goes.
I think the next pistol I may try an optic on will be my 4" S&W 686. It is an older model and has always been a great shooter.
Thanks, jmsj

[Jack Stanley]

Not seeing the sight well is one of the reasons I went to using rifles more . It sorta helps having the sight just a bit farther for me and now rifle sights are getting fuzzy . I can still point a handgun in the general direction OK probably not enough for hunting at the ranges I used to do though [smilie=1:

I'll get through it with the encouragement my gunsmith gave me ..... "Gettin' old ain't fer sissies !!! " The wisdom of the ages huh? :grin:

Jack

[gray wolf]

Thanks guys,
I am going to play with this sight and pistol for a while and see how it goes.
I would say the play time is over, and so is the problem,
"" I came, I saw, I conquered, therefore I win ""
Good going and nice shooting.

[44man]

OH, how great! I can't say more but you have a hug from me---NO don't get silly now. Man things only! Just take my hand!
The best things for me is to see you fellas shoot good.

[ratboy]

i am glad you can still shoot.
my problem is that i need new glasses and i am too cheap to buy them.

[Matthew 25]

Adapt and overcome. Good job!

[odfairfaxsub]

thats a darn good group. im glad you put a scope on that pistol. when conditions change we have to adapt and most cant even shoot that good!!!

[ColColt]

I tell you, I am 35 and I can already tell a difference vs when I was in my 20s with pistols. I can still pull off a great group when needed, but its 10x EASIER with the red dot and if I shoot 10 groups and average them, the average will definitely be tighter with the red dot. It's obviously more pronounced with a short sight radius short barreled gun.

I use to be able to knock the knee caps off a woodpecker at 20 yards with my ol' Ruger 45 Colt. Now at 66, I can't even see the woodpecker at 20 yards without my glasses! Enjoy your youth, sub...it gets worse.;)

[MtGun44]

Buy a Lyman Hawkeye or make your own equivalent. Not magic but the help a lot.

Bill

[454PB]

You never realize how shakey you are until you shoot a revolver with a scope on it.

[Old Caster]

If you are shooting iron sights on a pistol at a round bull target, all you need to see is the front sight. The rest can be quite blurry. In my bullseye group, two of the standouts shooting iron sights are 71 and 79. Standard pistol competitions must be shot with iron sights and the pistol must fit in a box which makes the barrel effectively have to be 6 inches or less. The rapid fire portion is 5 shots in 10 seconds and you can't raise the pistol until the targets turn so target aquisition must be quick. All of the top competitors were 65 or up until recently a fellow about 40 has stepped in to take top honors. His scores are higher than any of the rest of us ever were. If you have it in mind to shoot at an item like as in hunting or plinking, watching only the front sight won't work very well at all and an optic device is then necessary. I am 67 and my iron sight bullseye scores are about the same as with a red dot. Generally my slow fire scores are better with a dot and my timed and rapid are better with irons. -- Bill --

[canyon-ghost]

I started shooting on a range, the targets were silhouettes (game animals) to 100 meters. With single shot contenders, the scoped ones walk off and leave the iron sights. They just score a lot more hits. I wasn't having trouble seeing, had new glasses. The game was just shooting TC Contenders with a rifle scope on top. That's just the way it was done.

I never really thought about it until I started shooting Rugers with open sights. Now, I appreciate what I have more, knowing the time will come when my eyes won't be this good.

And yet, there is not one thing wrong with good optics, not one!

[spotsboss]

I can identify with having trouble with iron sights and seeing your target. There are optical devices you can put on your glasses whereby you can see the front, rear of the sights as well as the target. It don't get any better than that. I'm going to talk with my ophthalmologist and see if he can come up with something in the form of a device built into the glasses so I won't have to lick that rubber suction cup that holds my diopter as that if iffy depending on placement on the lens.

You might try www.sportglasses.com. The Decot Hy-Wyd glasses have the bifocal part in the TOP of the lens on your sighting eye side. You go to your optometrist and ask him/her to do the bifocal Rx for clear focus at the exact distance from your eye to the front sight of your gun. Decot will build it into your lens. If you need Rx for distance, he will build that into both lenses. Pretty cool.

[ColColt]

Buy a Lyman Hawkeye or make your own equivalent. Not magic but the help a lot.

Bill

I have those. Trouble is they won't stick long if at all on my regular lens so, I have to use shooting glasses over my regular glasses. Once I get them to stick the rubber part stands away from the plastic lens and then I can't see good with it. It's like a peep sight.

[TCLouis]

One has to love it when a plan comes together.

[jblee10]

You never realize how shakey you are until you shoot a revolver with a scope on it.

That is the truth. Lots of people go with to much magnification, and that just slows you down. When I shoot a 4x scope my groups aren't much better than a red dot.

[MtGun44]

I wonder why it won't stick to your glasses? Sticks fine for me and several friends.
Too small lenses? Make a wire holder and clip it on the frames with an alligator clip.

Bill

[ColColt]

I don't know. I lightly wet the suction cup with some tongue action and it would stay a second or two and then fall off. It stick pretty good to the shooting glasses but not my regular ones...go figure? I'm going to talk with my ophthalmologist and see if he can construct something better than this. When it works, it works good as I can see front, rear sight and target.

[TXGunNut]

Good for you, jmsj. Looks like many of us are dealing with similar issues, I find it ironic that that I've developed a taste for un-scoped rifles now that irons are damn near impossible and peeps are getting difficult.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to do what you wanna do!:grin:

[GT27]

Nice cloverleaf,just 1 spoiler,nice shooting!!

[jmsj]

Good for you, jmsj. Looks like many of us are dealing with similar issues, I find it ironic that that I've developed a taste for un-scoped rifles now that irons are damn near impossible and peeps are getting difficult.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to do what you wanna do!:grin:

TXGunNut,
I too have gone back to shooting peep sighted rifles. The rifles that I am shooting were converted to peep sights many years ago but for now I am still able to see see the sights on them.
I really like the last line in your post

GT27 Nice cloverleaf,just 1 spoiler,nice shooting!!

Thanks. I am not the greatest shot but I think if I would have slowed down I could have kept them all together. It had already started to rain and I could see the squall coming down the mountain so I was in kind of in a hurry. Hopefully I'll get some time this week to shoot this gun/sight some more.
jmsj

[MtGun44]

Nothing magic about the Hawkeye, just a pinhole "lens". Drill a small hole in
anything opaque and figure some way to mount it to your glasses. WIre and
foil, brass sheet soldered to a brass hobby tube with an alligator clip, etc.
Bill

[.5mv^2]

Eyes are my business. I am 61. My personal solution for handgun shooting is to wear progressive lenses. I raise my chin a bit until the front sight is clear, get a sight picture, then shoot.

For me simple is best. I wear progressive lenses all the time. I don't have to stop to put on my shooting glasses. Progressives don't always work for rifle shooting with scopes I usually do fine with peep sights like on an AR.

If a patient expresses a problem shooting I many times will have them bring their weapon in to the exam room so that a solution can be found.

The Red dot looks like it works well.

[dnotarianni]

You never realize how shakey you are until you shoot a revolver with a scope on it.

You ain't kidding The shake kills me with a dot. I had same problem with sights and I had a 1/2 power reading glasses lens ground into my shooting glasses. Sights are clear again and can still see target. Just had another pair made with transitions lens so I can go from yellow inside to a brown shade in the sun. Cheaper than a dot and no batteries required!
dave