Before you make a mistake on bullets/ loads

[milprileb]

I almost made a huge mistake had it not been for my son at the range and jacking me up. I was testing cast bullet loads with my pistol and they were not grouping. I was shooting badly and my mind starting racing: alloy, sized too small, is lube a issue, seating depth, variations in reloading procedures etc etc. My son came over and shot a few mags and grouped well. In fact his groups mimic what I had been finding the case last week so what the blazes was my problem. My son asks me where is that thing you put on your glasses so you can see the front sight?

So here I was, about to tear up my loads and go into a tail spin cause I had a senior moment and forgot I can't see but a blurr without that crutch on my glasses. I found it in my shooting bag and things got nomal again.

I am not going to put up a big sales pitch other than say old eyes make for poor shooting and if you got old eyes, email me and I will send you where to get this 20 dollar stick on. This is not new technology as older shooters have used an aperture on glasses to bring iron sight picture clear. The thing I use gunpal is cheap and sticks on / off ... if I remember to do that.

Before you go in to a tear down of loads etc etc, one should do what I did not do: stop and figure out what could be the variable at play. I was consumed that I make good ammo so there is something dynamic going on and being defensive about reloading: something was out of adjustment.

The only thing out of adjustment was I was not paying attention to basic pre shooting gear so I could see the iron sights.

Whatever you do, if you got old eyes, do something so you can see iron sights. You do not have to go to a scope just yet. That will come eventually but try something before that.

[Jim Flinchbaugh]

So do you use the Hawkeye?
I've been considering one as I have the same fuzzy vision

[waksupi]

I have the same problem, the irons have gotten fuzzy over the years. I did a different fix.
On all of my iron sights, I have widened the rear notch so I see light on both sides of the front sight. It makes a huge difference. I was shooting my Combat Commander yesterday at 40 yards, and was able to place my shots where I was looking. Before, with the hairy sights, shots were all over the place.

[felix]

Milprileb, coming to your defense, I will state that no matter what you did, the same thing would have happened. It is being human and humans depend upon other humans, intentionally or not. Sometimes you can look at something a million times and see nothing wrong, and at the same time the wrong is plain as day from another angle. It's the forest and trees syndrome. Another person with the same background can/might/will see the wrong in seconds because he will use his personal angle to peer into the problem. ... felix

[Wayne Smith]

+1 to this. I have one too, and use it with pistols. I put scopes on anything I use at 50yds and beyond.

[milprileb]

THis is the site for the item I use: http://www.eyepalusa.com/eyepal_tips.html

It is not the Hawkeye. I chose eyepal as its simple to use and that means I will use it. However, failure to do so almost cost me a ton of grief chasing gremlins on accuracy that was not bullets I casted. Jumping to a conclusion almost capsized me.

This reminded me of some basics: the ammo, prep/ care of weapons and mental focus are all at play. Next time I have a issue shooting, I am going to lay all of that out and see what variable is at play and then go into a tail spin. I am finding more as I age: I am the weak node ~!!

[MtGun44]

I bought about 6 Lyman Hawkeyes after folks tried mine and wanted one. Sold them all
out, need to get some more. Works real well for me, but I don't need it for a bright
clear full sunny day.

Bill

[stubshaft]

I used a Merit disc and Knobloch's even before my eyes started to go bad.

[cbrick]

Works real well for me, but I don't need it for a bright clear full sunny day. Bill

I don't know your current age Bill but it's probably safe to say that you will need it on down the road, even on sunny days.

I used the Merit device for several years and now use a similair device on Champion brand shooting glasses. It's gotten so bad the sight picture is poor with this, without it I couldn't tell you if someone had stolen the front sight or not.

Looking through that little hole sure is a big plus.

Rick

[mroliver77]

I have trouble seeing "cobwebs" in aperture sights. I wonder if this would affect an aperture close to the eye also. Does anybody have experience with this?
Jay

[Jal5]

Picked this up after seeing an ad on another forum http://www.clear2target.com/
will never be without them again. It made a real difference in my ability to focus on the sight with progressive glasses on. They stick on and off and are reusable.

Joe

[44man]

All along, I though all of you shot with your eyes closed!

[geargnasher]

I have trouble seeing "cobwebs" in aperture sights. I wonder if this would affect an aperture close to the eye also. Does anybody have experience with this?
Jay

Do you have lots of floaters? Possibly some form of Uveitis causing thickening/scarring of the macula? What about small cataracts? Any sort of trash in your eyeballs will play hoc with apertures. As an example, I have Pars Planitis in both eyes and an epiretinal membrane in my left (dominant) eye, it makes seeing detail through any sort of aperture a real challenge. When shooting Buffalo Guns with tang sights, I use a medium-ish (.060") aperture in the rear. and just a ghost ring in the front that is barely smaller than the tang aperture when viewed from a shooting perspective. I center the front in the rear, and center the whole target backer in the front without the aid of a blade, cross, iris, or any thing other than my guesstimation of center. I can shoot 6" groups consistently at 300 yards that way from a good rest using a 2'x3' backer and a Dirty Bird. I don't have presbyopia yet, and most days see 20/25 in my bad eye, but apertures are still a problem due to the damage from the disease.

Cover one eye and stare at a white sheet of paper, or clear blue sky. Do you see any shadows from threads/cobwebs/specks/spots of junk floating in your field of vision? If you do, you should probably go get checked by a competent opthamologist and see if you have problems other than just normal age-related floaters.

Gear

[zomby woof]

+.75-.50 on your shooting eye prescription will take care of this problem.
I use +.75 for pistol, AR and Carbine. +.50 for Garand and Springfield, +.25 for the 96 Swede.

Sucks getting old, there is a cure.

[cbrick]

+.75-.50 on your shooting eye prescription will take care of this problem.
I use +.75 for pistol, AR and Carbine. +.50 for Garand and Springfield, +.25 for the 96 Swede.

Sucks getting old, there is a cure.

Yes and no. I use the plus lenses in my Champion Shooting glasses. The champions hold two lenses over your shooting eye. The first lens is your distance prescription that allows fairly good vision of the target but really poor vision close up, IE the sights. The second lens is the + lens, for me that's the .5, it takes away from the distance and brings in the sights.

Ok, sounds good right? The problem is that you cannot have both by changing the lens. You can have either a good clear target OR good clear sights. The sights are far more important so the use of the .5 lens to bring in the sights.

The problem is that as you bring in the sight your taking away from the target and you get to a compromise. Take away more of the target with say a .75 or stronger lens and there is no target anymore but yes, the sights do look great but there isn't a target to point them at. Take away less of the target with a .25 or no extra lens and there isn't enough of the sights.

So the compromise . . . Fuzzy sights AND fuzzy targets. More or less of either and there is nothing of the other.

So no, not a cure, an aid for sure. I wouldn't be shooting anything with open sights anymore without it.

Yep, kinda sucks getting old but I know of only one alternative to it and that is NOT acceptable.

Rick

[mpmarty]

Heck I'm seventy-two years young and shoot iron sights just fine with just plain old safety glasses. I'm sure I'll need some of this stuff when I reach a hundred and five.

[bbqncigars]

Since the Lasik, I've been better with irons compared to the thick glass progressives I wore. The Hadley aperture on the Sharps helps a lot (couldn't get a Merit for it). I'm really hoping that the Microsight will soon be available for other sights than the standard AR mousegun. It would also help if it came down from $150. That's twice what a Merit runs.

[olafhardt]

l have a model 34 s&w kit gun that l have always done pretty well with. l use it to check myself with. My groups really went bad, it scared me! l noticed that l was focusing on the front site with my left eye and the rear site with my right eye. l closed my left eye and the groups srank to normal. My eye doctor found damage in my right eye. She said this type of compensation is typical eye behavior. So l close one eye works for me.

[StrawHat]

This reminds me of the day I was shooting a practice round of PPC and my scores were about 5xs better than the previous week. My shooting partner noticed it and asked if it was the new safety glasses I was wearing. I was wearing a pair of reading glasses and was able to see the front sight better. After that, I wore the readers under my shooting glasses! I will have to try the stick on things and see how they work for me.

Thanks for the info!

[1Shirt]

My two cents only. Agree with most of the above, as it is a to each his own proposition. I was having trouble with my milsurps eyesight wise. I painted the back of the rear sights with "White Out" correction goop which is a matt white. Has helped me appreciably particularly with my Mosins.
1Shirt!