I can't see anymore

[44man]

I can see I am in good company! We are all old farts! Amazing how fast time goes by and how fast we fall apart. Big belly, no hair and bad eyes. The rest of me is OK though.

[8mmshooter]

That's why they make shotguns for us old farts. Just kiddin; I'm right there with the rest of you. LOL 8mmshooter

[drinks]

44;
I'll have you know I still have plenty of hair in my ears and on my chin!

[JohnH]

44;
I'll have you know I still have plenty of hair in my ears and on my chin!

It's not that on my chin concerns me

[The Nyack Kid]

Im only 25 but someday i feel like im 125 , i can bull$hit with the best of them bout being a old fart .back in '02 or was it '03 cant remember my memmory is goin to hell .... what was i talkin about ?!?!???? Owell . ... i have gone deaf in one ear , think it is do to earwax/earhair build up, any hows where was i ..... oh yes it what the spring of '97 i broke my back .... dern you young wippersnapper punk kids. you dun derailed my train O thought ... what are we talking about anyway?

[Frank46]

JohnH, I have cataracts and just the other day tried looking through the eyepiece on and 03A3 rear sight. Nope, no way jose. Think I will open up the aperture a bit. I put a williams fool proof on my 94 win and a lyman globe with a large aperture. Thankfully can still see and shoot fairly well. I supose that sooner or later I'll have to go for eye surgery. Scopes I can use fairly well, but do like to keep using the irons. Even so had to open up the aperture on the fool proof. Frank

[Shuz]

Guys--I've been fightin the vision problem for about 20 years now. I really have found that the Merit device is worth the money. It's advantage over other apertures is it's adjustable and therefore you can control the amount of light that enters the eye. We all know that lighting conditions often change drastically during a shooting session. When this happens, I just open or close the apperature a bit. Works for me! Just recently I found another optic aid...the Hi-Viz sighting system as found on my 329PD Smith revolver. I have found that if I concentrate on the red dot, it will "clear up" quite a bit and I'm able to do well enuf to hunt with it without the aid of the Merit. I'm gonna try it this deer and elk season. The Merit is the best way to go for target shooting, but it does not work well, nor was it designed, for hunting applications.

[MTWeatherman]

Damn...I've been blaming the deteriorating quality of wheelweights for those groups opening up over the years. Now you've told me that it's because I'm getting old!

I can shoot as well as I ever could...with a scope. Problem is, to me, some firearms just don't deserve to have scopes put on them...that would include lever actions and handguns...and they are my exclusive cast bullet guns. I still use the loads I worked up for them years ago...one was a '94 AE and I mounted a scope on it simply to work up a load then took it off and put a receiver sight back on. It just looks and carries better that way.

I'm 61. Rifle loads with receiver sights that would go into 1.5" 100 yard groups 10-15 years ago, now (at age 61) do about 4". I can narrow that group down to 2-3" by using low powered (1.25) reading glasses. With buckhorn sights I string the shots into 6 to 8" vertical groups. I do about as well with a handgun now at 25 yards as I formerly did at 50.

First paragraph aside, I know the loads I shoot are as accurate as they ever were...so for that reason don't change them. The good news is that I probably could work up a lot more new loads that now will shoot as well as I can. So age has given me a lot more versatility in what I can shoot.

Bottom line is I enjoy shooting as much as I ever did...just have accepted that I'm not as good as I used to be with iron sights. When I'm shooting at the range, I'm essentially competing with myself and it's as enjoyable as it ever was. If I want to use those iron sights and cast bullets for hunting deer sized game, I'm restricted to 150yards or so with a rifle (actually, I'd hold it to 100 yards) or 40 yards with a handgun and thats good enough for me. If I need or want more range (frequently the case in Central Montana) I'll use a flat shooting rifle with a scope and jacketed bullets (they do have their place).

For decent accuracy, receiver sights are a near necessity in order to use iron sights as one pushes over 50 or 60 (some are luckier than others). Low powered reading glasses help at the range...and be sure to keep that front sight black. If you want to seriously compete against the young guys you need a scope.

[Blackwater]

One thing I've noted that kinda' surprised me, is that tritium sights sure seem to be MUCH better for me if the light starts to fade. They start to glow at just the right time and just the right amount as the sun goes down, ending up letting me use those sights even in total darkness. Kinda' hard to find the TARGET in total darkness, of course, but up to that point, they really, really help.

I have astigmatism, and round beads look everything but round, too, and I've found the smallest bead THAT I CAN SEE (dang those "qualifier" words!) helps me about as much as I can be helped. Smaller blur variations DO yield smaller aiming errors. White also are MUCH easier for me to see, and a white outline helps on the rear sight as well, particularly afield, where the white just seems to be much quicker and easier to differentiate from the background. It'll "flare" a bit more in bright sun, of course, but that's something I have to take into consideration in the overall tradeoffs of these type decisions.

Thinner, square sights like the Baugman ramps also seem to let me shoot a little better with plain irons, and I like them with a white insert instead of orange or red or even yellow. Again, the white just seems much easier and quicker to pick up for most of my shooting. It's not best on std. black on buff colored NRA style targets, but I just pick my practice/test targets from colors that DO allow the white to show up well.

BTW, if you like white sights as I do, you can get cheap, dark colored 8" paper plates for real cheap. They staple onto backboards just as well as anything if you put the staples on the flat portion. I even use them for scoped rifle, putting the little stick on white circles of various appropriate sizes in the center.

Seems I'm making all sorts of decisions based on my vision these days, but I guess that's why God lets us get old enough to adapt???

[JohnH]

Damn...I've been blaming the deteriorating quality of wheelweights for those groups opening up over the years. Now you've told me that it's because I'm getting old!

First paragraph aside, I know the loads I shoot are as accurate as they ever were...so for that reason don't change them. The good news is that I probably could work up a lot more new loads that now will shoot as well as I can. So age has given me a lot more versatility in what I can shoot.

Hehehe. Leave it to a caster to see the Silver Stream in all things

[ejjuls]

Hey guys,

After seeing this post I thought I should throw in a bit of experience (painful)and info.

February of 2004 I had a Carcano come apart on me.....in haste I didn't grab the shooting glasses on the bumper of the truck and fired 12 rounds without a problem (reload - 160grn Hornady .268" with IMR4831 powder - min load from the Lee manual) and the 13th...well all hell broke loose. Why the gun let go is another story - eyes are this one.....Anyway, a pee sized piece of brass found it's way into my right eye and stopped 1mm from penetrating through my lens pocket into the back of my eye. My lens was completey shredded and I was instantly blind. Dr. said one more mm and I would have lost the eye totally. After surgery to replace the lens I am faced with a hole in my iris the size of the metal piece and a partially paralyzed iris. My eyes, left and right have severe powder burns and scaring and massive amount of metal in each....left eye is ok but peppered. Right eye is now "bionic".

My new synthetic lens cannot focus at anything closer than 4 feet. This creates a problem when shooting. I am left handed but shoot rifles right handed - shooting left handed is not an option for me. I may be backward but not completely! Iron sights are completely out of the question - can't see the rear or front sight! Peep's are the ticket for my situation for iron sighted options. Scopes require me to scew the eye piece bell out to the last thread to see the crosshairs clearly. I can deal with that.....but I don't like scopes.
My preference is the peep - problem comes in when your looking for fast target aquisition on game. For me the rear peep is a hazy fuzzy ring with no clarity and the front sight looks like a fuzzy blob when your dealing with a larger aperature hunting style sight. Target style sights work pretty darn good with the exception of the rear peep. I have to use the "ringed" rear peep fixture - suposedly for low light conditions. This helps the rear come into focus. Also - by forcing the eye to accept light through a small opening everything gets tighter and more focused to the point where the front sight on a normal length barrel is "realatively" clear. Ok.....now how do I deal with a hunting situation - answer......peep on a peep. I wear the sunglass with a hole in it for the right eye - flip type - as mentioned earlier. This with a hunting aperature with the low light ring is enough to allow me to continue to hunt. The other thing I have found that works perfectly without any extra holes is a simple red-dot scope. This is now where I am leaning - no magnification - shoot with both eyes open and through normal shooting glasses (ballistic eyewear actually). Accuracy is 4" at 100 yds +/- or more accurately 4MOA (dot size) - This is perfect for my hunting situations - I just sight in with the bullet hitting at the top of the dot at 100 yds and I am good to about 300 yds give or take. For longer distance hunting or varmint shooting I switch to a scoped weapon. Just something to think about for us visually challenged shooters - whether it be age or accidents.

My weapon of choice for the red-dot hunting is simple: Customized Mosin-Nagant rifle with a Tasco Pro-Point scope and 170grn Lee RNFP-GC pushed by a reduced charge of IMR 3031 and a CCI Lg. Rifle Primer with COW filler. Velocity is 2000 FPS and wickedly accurate. I rifle has a two groove bbl cut to 22 inches - I think it is an old '03 bbl from a springfield rifle? not sure - but the gunsmithwho did the work wasn't very good and the gun needed some help which I provided. Now instead of shotgun it is a rifle!

Hope this helps
Eric