I'm not quite fifty yet, but my eyesight has gone seriously south over the last couple of years, and after having incredibly good eyesight all my life, this sucks. My problem isn't seeing the sights, it's more that I can't focus on three things at once, i.e., the rear sight, the front sight, and the target. I can focus clearly on the two closer ones, or the farther one, but not all three at once. I can get to where I shoot well with a lot of practice, but it takes CONSTANT practice now, where before I could just shoot well at will. All my rifles now wear glass, but since I carry a pistol on duty, I'm looking for anything that can give me back what I once had. Part of the problem is that as my eyes age, the muscles can't make the lens flex like it used to, and seeing anything up close is VERY difficult. I've learned to superimpose the front sight down into the middle of the rear sight, but I still have to focus more on the target than anything else, to hit it. I'm still what I consider moderately proficient with my duty gun, but in trying to stay that way, I've had to fire over fifty thousand rounds thru my duty gun in the past three years. I reload my ammo, and refuse to use lead bullets because of the smoke/dirt factor, so I've spent something close to five grand on pistol ammo in those three years, just for the one gun I carry. That doesn't take into account the other handguns I shoot, which also involves another grand or two. I think the only reason I can still shoot as well as I can is because I shoot so much, and I think muscle memory and training plays a big part. At this point I'm shooting with a flash sight picture, rather than a better-defined one, because that's the best I can see. The other key is learning to shoot double-action well, something I've worked hard at for the past twenty years. But if there's a sighting system that will make me a better shot with my aging eyes, I'd love to see it!
Papajohn the Bald,Blinking Bat
