shooting with glasses

[sandman228]

well I'm not quite sure where on forum to post this so I figured I would try here . ive been noticing some difficulty seeing and reading lately .I'm a sandblaster by trade and also have noticed more difficulty doing my job . I'm 46 yrs old and haven't had an eye exam for about 10 years and was told at my last eye exam that I had a stigmatism in my left eye .I'm also a lefty and do pretty much all with left hand . so I went for an eye exam last night and while being questioned by the examiner one of the things I brought up was I'm not as good of a shot as I used to be . after I reassured her I'm not a terrorist or animal killer just someone who enjoys gun collecting and recreational shooting she tells me she hears this allot (not able to shoot as well as used to ) so after the exam is over she tells me I need bifocals she says actually my eye muscles are very strong for my age but my stigmatism is basically throwing things off .she recommended progressive lenses and tells me that as far as target shooting goes it will bring the target in nice and clear for me but I may have trouble seeing the sights on the gun close up . during all this I'm thinking I'm going from never wearing glasses in my life straight to bifocals wow ! so my preferred method of shooting is 25 yrds bench rested arms fully extended shooting off a rest usually with a revolver. occasionally I shoot semi auto pistol or revolver off hand standing at 7/10 yrds I have no trouble seeing target or having very good accuracy with short range but with my revolvers at 25 yrds I'm slipping . my question is for you shooters who wear bifocals if your able to see target well at 25 yrds how much trouble do you have being able to see sights shooting like I mentioned . also I don't know if this will make a difference or not but ive been told I have fairly long arms fully extended from armpit to tip of middle finger my arms are just over 30 inches long . so with a 6 inch barrel revolver the front sight will still be almost 3 feet in front of me . also how will it effect my shooting a rifle most of my rifles are open sight lever guns . I think my only scoped rifles are a henry 22 lever and a savage 22 auto .

[farmerjim]

I use to wear bifocals and never had any trouble shooting pistols. I have had cataract surgery in both eyes and have 20/20 distance vision in my right eye (I am right handed any right eye dominant).
I have near vision in my left eye. I still see fine to shoot. My poor shooting skills need to be blamed on something else.

[opus]

unfortunately it happens to most of us as we age. I am 63 and have the same issues you have with open sights. There are some things you can do to improve shooting with open sights. Merrit aperture on your glasses for one, not much help for me. I had them make my bifocals with the reading lense to focus at car dashboard distance. This allows me to see the sights on a revolver or pistol well with a slightly blurry target, but only when holding my head at an unnatural angle. Many switch to scopes and reflex sights, but I don't like those options for handguns. I still do OK at 25 yds offhand, but not like I used to do. I have heard of companies that will make prescription shooting glasses, but they are far and few between and expensive. Sorry I don't have any good news for you.

[lefty o]

get 2 pairs of glasses, the bifocal for regular everday life, and get a pair just made for distance for shooting.

[Tom W.]

I have bifocals and am right handed but left eye dominant. I can hit pretty well, not as well as before the problems due to cancer, but getting better again.

I generally shoot handguns with my right ear laying on my shoulder. I know it looks strange, but it works great. My scoped rifles are focused to be clear while looking over my glasses.

[wch]

See an ophthalmologist and explain what you need.
There are solutions for almost every situation.

[AggieEE]

They can put your bifocal prescription in the upper part of dedicated shooting glasses. If you shoot iron sights on rifles they have to move the optical center of the lens to the upper left corner of the glasses if you're a right handed. Not telling you to change doctors but it would help if your eye doctor was also a shooter, maybe just for shooting glasses?? The main thing is your head needs to be in a natural, comfortable position when you shoot then have them move the optical center of the lens to match up with eyes and sights. The lens blanks are about 3" in dia with the optical center marked so if your optician grinds the lens to shape you're good. Good luck.

[popper]

Astigmatism - occurs a 2 different problems. distortion in cornea or lens. Several remedies, glasses is one. Went through this last year. Had the cornea scraped and now I can read normal print without glasses. As a side note, two docs gave me the automated tests and results were not exactly the same. Like hearing, so much testing is subjective - (which is better, #1 or #2?).
Anyway, I don't shoot with corrective glasses. Rifles have scope and pistol - won't have glasses on when I NEED to shot so practice without them.

[thxmrgarand]

I take my handgun right into the ophthalmologist's office and have the middle focus of my tri-focals match the front sight on a 6 inch barrel. That works OK out of doors. In the local indoor range I cannot see much of anything with iron sights for some reason, so I use red dot sights which work well. The ophthalmologist, an avid shooter, says I am a very good candidate to have corrective surgery, and I suppose I need to go have that done. I have worn glasses for a very long time and I have always very much disliked doing so. Very seldom can I go a year without breaking a pair and scratching another pair; hate them. Regarding health care in general, I think every one of us needs to contact our US Senators today and urge them to support this tax bill.

[Cariboo]

Find and optometrists that likes to hunt and or shoot is my suggestion. I was in or position 23 years ago and the first grouse l shot at with the 22 had my youngest son doubled over he was laughing so hard, the bullet hit about 4 feet to the left at 20 yards. I’ve been getting a new set every two or three years since. I have tried close to half a dozen optometrists over the years and not really been happy, a Little over a year ago a young optometrist opened a new shop and I thought I’d try yet another one. It was a pleasant surprise to find that she and her staff all were involved with shooting at least a bit. This is the first set that have come close, what a treat.
Best of luck

[runfiverun]

I just wear some reading glasses when I shoot handguns.
this brings the sight in focus.

[C.F.Plinker]

Back BC (before cataracts) I found that getting a pair of whole lens magnifing safety glasses let me see the front sight clearly. Then I added a homemade 5/64 diopter taped on the safety glasses. This increased the depth of field so that the target was now somewhat in focus. It also took out some of the oval shape to the targer that was due to the astigmatism. This is for iron sights (both open notch and aperture). For red dots and scopes I just used my daily wear progressive lenses which are also ANSI rated safety glasses.

The cataract surgery got rid of about half of the astigmatism and corrected the distance vision so that no additional correction is needed. Now I just use a pair of plain safety glasses with the homemade diopter.

As we age our eyes lose the ability to focus. When we were younger we could look down the barrel and the eye would focus on the sight, then the target, then back to the sight so fast everything seemed to be in focus at the same time. We can't do that anymore. So you have to decide what you want to be in focus and get the correction that does that. Since you are just looking through one spot in the glasses you only have one correction. For me the diopter let me have enough additional depth of field that I use iron sights out to 100 yards. YMMV.

[MT Gianni]

Progressive bifocals did not improve my ability to see both front sight and target. I have a pair I just use for shooting with a slightly taller, fixed window. I can move my head slightly just a fraction of an inch and go from focused on the sight to focused on the target. That improved things a lot. My eye Doctor had no problems with me bringing and empty handgun into his office to determine where the line on the bifocal window would be. I did let them know before my appointment and brought in a SA revolver with no cylinder. One of the perks of life in Montana.

[higgins]

After cataract surgery, I still need very slight distant-vision correction in my left (shooting) eye, and definitely need readers for pistol sight distance. I do what runfiverun does. For handguns and iron sighted rifles I wear a pair of plastic lense readers with large lens that cover the eye. With the iron sighted rifles I can shoot aperture sights with my bifocals OK, but for the open sights it's a tossup between the readers and the bifocals, depending on how far away the target is.

[bangerjim]

"Getting old is not for the faint of heart"!

I use two separate set of "readers" for shooting......from the dollar store!

I refuse to spend the $$ for bifocal or the hassle of using them. I have a pare of 1.5 readers in ever room of the house thanks to the $ store. Eye doctor says that is OK.

I can see perfect far away but need "readers" for close up. Shooting is a mix!

Banger

[AZ Pete]

I have a pair of glasses that were made for pistol shooting. I am left eye dominant, so the left lens was cut to focus on the front sight, the right focuses on infinity. Keep both eyes open, and you get a very sharp sight picture. I also often shoot with my progressive lenses, pistol, iron sight rifle and shotgun. The special shooting glasses work best for pistol though.


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[Rick Hodges]

I shoot with bifocals....I use a fairly large lens and push the reading part as low as possible in the lens giving me a larger distance focus area. With long arms and barrels the sights come into focus, the rear a little blurred but the front sight and target pretty sharp.
This also works for archery bow sights. What you don't want is to have the diopter shift to happen in the middle of the sight picture.
The distance correction allows me to shoot aperture (peep) sights on rifles as well.

[Thumbcocker]

I have no line bifocals. My Dr. listens when I explained how I needed to be able to focus on the front sight of a handgun at arms length. Glasses work well for me.

[MyFlatline]

I put Hi Vis sights on the pistols and that helped, scoped all the rifles. No line bifocals allow me to work but at 400 bucks a pair I can't afford a special pair to shoot in. 15 years ago I was bullet proof, only 55 now,,starting to look bleak..

[fecmech]

I went a slightly different direction. I'm right handed, right eye dominant. I had my eye doc give me a prescription for my right lense with "just enough" positive diopter that I can see my front sight clearly at arms length. My left lense is my normal prescription. I put those lenses into an old pair of glasses I had and use them for iron sighted pistols. When I first put them on it feels a little weird but after about 10 minutes my brain acclimates to the glasses and they work well.

[waksupi]

I didn't like progressives. My eye doc is a shooter, and I told him I wanted the focal point at the distance of where my front sight is.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

My eye's have been getting noticeably worse over that last 5 years, and as for shooting, I am right handed and right eye dominant.
One year ago, I finally go to the Eye Doc. It turns out I have a slight astigmatism in my right eye. I knew something was up with the right eye, and had been trying to figure out how to shoot with my left eye, but I couldn't make it work. The eye Doc recommends bifocals, and my insurance limited me to mostly small lense frame glasses. I get 'em made, and I HATE them. Makes shooting worse.

I wish I had this info for my first visit to the eye doc.

I didn't like progressives. My eye doc is a shooter, and I told him I wanted the focal point at the distance of where my front sight is.

Anyway, my eye Doc experiences over the last year is a long story...I ain't gonna go into all that. But the short version is, the end result (so far), is I never use the first pair of bifocal glasses that insurance paid for. I got a second pair for driving and watching TV...a larger frame, they are awesome, TV never looked so good. I got a second pair for shooting Pistols...The eye doc recomended a 22" focal point, which is standard for computer use glasses...I said I need them farther out, the Front site of my typical revolver, held at arms distance is 26". The eye Doc was hesitant to comply, but I finally got him to do it. That made pistol shooting much better. I haven't tackled shooting rifle with open sites yet, Since I have either sold the rifles with iron sites or scoped them in the last 5 years, since the problem started. But I did buy a Henry Big Boy 41 mag this year, and that has open sites, but I'm still working on getting it to cycle my boolits to my satisfaction...still not there yet. I've shot it some at paper plates and short distances, but haven't taken the time to test accuracy and set the sites and figure what glasses I should use or what I may need to order?.
that's my 2¢

[shooterg]

Get the scrip for the glasses and go to zenni optical online - very reasonably priced glasses.

[Geezer in NH]

10 years since last? Get an exam are you dumb? 46 years old how long since last Dr. visit.
I was having problems at 59 with my 20/15 eyesight going down hill. Seems my primary missed I was diabetic for at least 10 years.

Made my eye's do what yours are doing. I needed shot's in each eye and laser surgery to let me maintain enough to still drive and see.. every 4-6 weeks still need a 3000 dollar shot in my left eye I feel lucky I have insurance or I would be blind!

Got to say buck up dude go to a Doctor or be a brave Puss and see where it goes.

[Moleman-]

I've had bifocals the last couple years and glasses for 40 years or so. The only time I notice a difference is if I'm paying attention and I've got the "seamless" transition right where I'm looking. Then it's just a very slight head tilt and you're back in business. Rifles with open sites are the worst for me but peep sights & scopes on rifles are fine as are sights on pistols.

[David2011]

My eye doc is also a shooter. We shoot together at the trap range when I can get there but I shoot action pistol and Cowboy as well. I took my 7-1/2" Ruger Blackhawk in and had him give me a prescription for 1" past the end of the the sights on the Ruger. That gave me pretty darned sharp sights and a decent target image. I had glasses made with the close up lens in the dominant eye and distance vision in the other eye (right eye/hand dominant). After my most recent exam he said he couldn't write me a prescription. My eyes had shifted so that handgun sights are sharp without a prescription so I'm shooting with standard safety glasses that have a bifocal for reading. Under $10 at Wal-Mart's optometry department. The targets are a little soft but they would be anyway.

[mold maker]

I can't sympathize with those of you just now needing glasses. I've worn coke bottles for litterly 70 years and still shoot.
Lenses can be adapted to your situation, and a new normal will allow you the best vision you can have...
Not what you want to hear, but reality.
As the old saying goes, "Getting old ain't for wussies, but it does beat the alternative."
As others have said, find a Doc that shoots. He/she has to understand the problem before the best solution is found.
Grinding lenses isn't rocket science. Let the Doc write your prescription and take it to WalMart or one of the other discount optical places. The savings might buy a second pair and the results are the same.

[OS OK]

Options?

I used to be in the same boat as mold maker...wore contact lenses since 61...several months back the eye doctor says you have cataracts!
Long story short, the surgeon said that my right eye doesn't help me near or far, I should try an 'upgraded lense' in the left eye that will allow me to see near and far. Of course the insurance doesn't cover that option so I had to pay the difference.

Now I'm 10 days into the left eye post surgery, takes a month to settle in but I am 20/30 in that eye...can see cell towers on the other side of the valley ridge @ about 8~10 miles distant. My close vision is outstanding too...Doc said that I won't even have to use readers so long as the healing progresses like it is doing.

Yesterday was the first day I could get out with the 1911...I can focus distinctly on the front sight and see the bull clearly too!
I dunnoh how all this works but it's like shooting with someone else's eyes...67 years with bad vision and now suddenly can see...
"Whatta Blessing from above!"