Bad eyes a different sight help any?????

[lostone1413]

posted December 23, 2003 11:50 AM  
At 53 anymore I find it hard to focus on the front sight of the pistol when shooting. It seems to get blurry very fast. When I put the bi focals on it is even harder still. I know the blood sugar is good doctor says just my age why the eyes have a hard time focusing when I shoot a pistol. What I was wondering if anybody else has that problem and if they find a different style or color sight seems to help them shoot better. Now I shoot a GP100 with a 4"barrel and at times a Ruger P97 both with standard sights to give you an idea of what type of sights I use. Hoping maybe a different style or color sight might help somewhat Thanks Chuck

[Mikey]

lostone - you are not alone.  Sometimes coloration is a problem with stainless steel creating a problem in open sunlight or on a lighted indoor range, sometimes it is a dark sight that you can't see in the shadows or during night firing.  

I have painted the front sights of my carry guns with a white reflective paint to help grab the front sight in the darkness or dim light, and I need to darken that with a magic marker or something for daytime shooting.

Recently my eye doctor changed my prescription and I have to get new glasses but when I think the sights are too fuzzy for decent target work I will use some drugstore fixed powers just to get a bigger, and possibly better view of my sights.  

If by 'standard sights', you mean a military type sight with a rear groove and a front post, a more distinctive blade front sight and a more open rear sight have helped me.  I will regularly open up the rear sight of a mil-surp to give me a better picture of my front sight.  Better sights should help, but maybe some of the other 'older'shooters (like myself) have other suggestions.  There is also an optics 'thing' (The Merit Sight) you can put on your glasses, like a cut out of a circle, that will help older eyes focus better.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Graybeard]

If your close up vision is anywhere near as bad as mine I don't think you'll fine a sight change or corrective lens will help. If you can't see the sight then putting another of different color or design in the same place ain't gonna cut it. Trouble is you just can't see at that distance and moving it elsewhere is the cure for that. That's why I like really long barrels on iron sight guns, to get that front one far enough away I can begin to see it.

Same goes for corrective lens. Problem here is that if you correct your vision so you can see the sight it will generally so blur the target you can't be sure what you're shooting at, or at least I can't.

So what is the answer? Simple. An aperture. BUT it has to be really close to the eye to work its magic properly. What it does if up close to the eye is to take away all of those years and give your eye the ability to focus in mutiple planes at once. It does this by increasing the depth of focus of your eye. Merit makes a device you can attach to your eye glasses or shooting glasses. I've seen folks try to home make such devices. Once years ago I found and purchased a device that clips onto a glasses rim and has a disk that you move around to change the size of the aperture. Works quite well but is a bit delicate. I bought two and one is already broken. I also found a pair of glasses frames with a piece of thin black cardboard with many tiny holes in it to serve as apertures. That too works but boy does the world look strange thru it.

Still none of that works well off the range so when I go to the woods I just accept 50 yards as an absolute max for iron sights and live with it.

GB

[Jim n Iowa]

Chuck
I have trifocals and for shooting hand guns I use the center range its good for desk work, focus at arms length, but not for reading close or small print.  You focus on the target and front sight, target may blur and rear sight will for sure, but with a little practice you will get there.
Jim

[tappel]

Same problem here...
I have "progressive" prescription glasses which means you are constantly bobbing your head.  The best sights I've found have the rear sight outlined in white with a dot on the front ramp.  Also the three dot system seems to work.  In the end, target details are lost for bullseye shooting.
As an alternative, I have gone to scoped pistols.  A whole new world of shooting and plenty of fun/work to learn it.
Keep at it...Tom

[reallybigfoot]

On my SRH, Ruger's V notch and front brass bead are easier to see than the normal sights.  A fuzzy bead in a fuzzy notch work pretty well.  On my BFR 45/70 a Halo sight is the best I have found for hunting.

[billmaly]

I've noticed the same thing myself, I'm 32, but far sighted w. astigmatism. Shoot right handed, left eye dominant.

I'm getting a .44 SRH soon, and will put a Bushnell Holosight atop it. Reason being: No eye relief as a scope requires, and I can shoot with BOTH eyes open, which ought to allow me to keep the gun on target for a long time, without blurring, tearing up, etc. I'll be sure to keep the group posted on how this works.

[Bore44]

I have been thinking of installing a holosight or similar type sight on my
SBH. I would like to here more input about this. Any experiences good and bad. Any information or experience with the C-More sights.

[44 Man]

I talked to my Optomitist a few years ago and he told of a customer that shoots competition a lot.  He had a set of glasses made up with the right lens (dominant eye) focus set for 24" and the left lens set for infinity.  That's my front sight distance so I tried it myself and it works.  I hunt mostly with scoped handguns anymore, but I use these glasses at the bench with open sights to check loads.  When you first get them, you tend to walk a little funny, but you adjust to that quickly.  I've also heard of glasses (I think I read it in American Handgunner?) with the bi-focals in the top rather than the bottom.  When you hold the gun up and tilt your head down, they are right where you need them.  Of course the focus needs to be set at the front sight distance also.  I'll do this for the next set I order, then I won't walk funny.    44 Man

[crawfish]

Since no one else will say it I will they are called optics either with or without magnification. Glasses since I was 15, bi-focal at 35, tri-focal at 48. All my hunting handguns are scoped, everyone of them. Most are low powered 1X, 2X, and 2.5X and I also have 2 red dot sights and 1 holo-sight. My carry guns have stock iron sights that I can't see to use so I practice hundreds of rounds of point shooting at 7 and 15 yards. After more than 20 years of that kind of practice I know that every round at those distances will hit center mass and I'm good out to 25. Don't kid yourself there is nothing that can fix old eyes for very long even the new surgeries will revert in as little as 3 years in some cases but most are only good for 5 anyway. I am well past the time where I try to fool myself into think I can do any kind of distance work with iron sights, spirit is willing but the eyes are old.  :cry:

[mec]

I'm 56 and went several years past the customary age for developing presbyopia.  For the past five or six years, I've needed some correction if the light is not bright.  One to 1.5 diopter drugstore reading glasses sharpen the sights while leaving the target somewhat fuzzy but visible.   A friend has been making tape diopters and sticking them on his glasses. This works very well.  The hole he uses appears to be about 3/32" He also has a set of glasses with multiple holes -looks kind of like the compound eye of a bug.

[unspellable]

First and foremost, regardless of your eyesight problems or lack of them you need proper shooting glasses.  Ones designed to protect the eye in the event of crap flying back at you.  This means stronger than industry standard safety glasses.  My great grandfathr had a glass eye for lack of shooting glasses.  Likewise, Paul Mauser of mauser rifle fame.

An optical sight is a sure fix.  But I have plenty of handguns with iron sights.  I have a pair of shooting glases for them.  They are bifocals.  I have 1.25  diopters added to the normal prescription for the distance part of the shooting eye.  A corresponding 1.25 diopters is subtracted from the near vision part of this lens so the total power of both lenses is the same in the reading portion.  This makes the front sight nice and sharp.  This is the impoortant part, a little fuzziness in the target does not hurt that much.

One can buy little paste on reading lenses at the drug store meant to go on the bottom of a pair of non-prescription sungalsses for reading and stick one of them on the shooting eye lens of a pair of regular prescription lenses.  a 1.25 diopter paste on in line with the sights will make the front sight sharp.

[1911crazy]

I'm 53yo and a diabetic I have learned to sight quicker before my focus changes with the long barrel handguns  6" thru  8" barrels.   With the shorter barrels I just cover with the barrel I want to hit I don't use any sights thats with my 45acp and 357 snubbie.   If i focus on the sights too long it does go blurry too so we have to get quicker at sighting to beat the problem.                                                                     BigBill