Apertures for Old Eyes

[DennisB]

Anyone use an aperture for handgun?  Seems like my 53-YO vision has finally gotten to where I can't get a half-focused front OR rear sight with a pistol.  I've tinkered with an old set of clip-on sunglasses by punching a small hole and blotting out the area around it for a make-shift aperture, but haven't tried it yet.  Getting old ain't for sissies!

[jhalcott]

try a Merit sight .It might be a bit clumsy for hunting but it is a great aperture sight for the range.jh

[Castaway]

I made one for my Black Hawk.  Wasn't that hard to do.  Took off the existing rear sight, mic'd the dimensions and got to work on some sheet metal with a file.  My mistake was that my aperature was too large.  I recommend making a small hole first, then you have the option of making it larger.  Kind of the same principle as asking the barber to start with only a little off top.  Never got aroud to making another but my consider it now that hunting season is over.

[Sixgun]

I can also feel the pain that you old farts can feel since I am going to be 53 for at least another month.

For years, ever since I got the funny glasses with a line in em, I had trouble seeing the front sight and the target, at the same time.

Two years ago when I went in for my eye exam, I discussed this problem with my eye Dr.  We spent extra time in the chair with the big glasses that have all of the lense combos known to man and he fine tuned my glasses better than the normal "Which is better, This, or This".

The result was that I got some lenses that I could actually focus on the front sight again and still see the target.  Toward the end of the last silhouette season, the front sight started to blur, just a little, so I scheduled another session with the eye Dr.   I haven't got my new glasses back yet but he seemed to think that I should be able to get another couple of years of good shooting if special care is given to the fit of the lenses.

This won't help everyone but if you are going in for an eye appt in the near future it wouldn't hurt to bring it up.

Sixgun

[Charlie Detroit]

The idea of putting the aperture on the glasses rather than on the gun has been helpful for me. Any aperture you put on the gun, since it is held out at some distance from the eye, is gonna be 'way too big to do much good if you're gonna be able to see through it. Try this experiment: take a short length of electrician's plastic tape and punch (cut, really) a small hole in it. Stick it on your aiming eye lens. Look through it, not at it. Everything in your field of view should be pretty sharp. If not, you made too big a hole. Try again. If you aim your revolver while looking through this hole, you will see that the rear sight, the front sight and the target are all sharp. Works for me, anyway. Don't ask me how; it's part of quantum mechanics, and that stuff makes my head hurt. You wouldn't want me to have a headache, would ya?
If this works for you, you can go with the tape solution (for poor, downtrodden folks like me) or go the luxury route by ordering the Merit Eye Disc (not real sure of the name) from Brownell's. It has a base that sticks right down on your shootin' specs.

[Rocky]

I believe the instructors at Gunsite and, possibly, Thunder Ranch have found the Ashley Outdoors Express Sight for pistols to be the best answer currently available for aging eyes. Col. Jeff Cooper mentioned that this seemed to be a better solution than the aperture sight for most people in his commentaries, but don't recall which issue offhand. I've used the AO Express pistol sights a bit and they work even though my eyes aren't going bad.... yet  :wink:

Rocky

[bfoster]

Dennis B,

I'm 51 and have been down the road of trying to use bi and trifocals for handgun shooting for years. This, as sixgunner points out simply didn't work for him, it didn't work for me, and hasn't worked for anyone else I know.

If you primarily shoot at paper targets a pair of shooting glasses with a perscription set so that the front sight is in sharp focus will be a big help, provided that your eyes don't require so much correction that you simply can't see the target at all with the perscription ground so that the front sight is in really sharp focus! For shooting at paper, it doesn't matter that the target is not blurred, the front sight is what you need to see.

I purchased the first pair of glases specifically for shooting a while back and this made a significant difference for me, my scores with an air pistol on ISU targets jumped from an average in the 490X600 range to an average in the 550x600 range. I haven't shot this well in years.

Apertures come in two types, those mounted on the rear of the handgun, and those that mount on glasses(like the AHG or Merit), or on frames (like the Jaggi).

To my mind, the handgun mounted aperture, at its best, has a large hole, the so called "ghost ring sight". This doesn't much help with depth of field, which, after all, is the point you're looking for in using an aperture. In its favor, target acquisiton with sights like this is, however, quick.

The apertures mounted close to the eye are helpful if your vision isn't really poor. They do increase depth of field. The only drawback is that you may have to take/make a moment to get everything lined up if you're shooting in less than formal style. They are'nt always great for a snap shot on a running bunny.

I really don't like 'scopes on handguns. But if you're primarily a handgun hunter, and if your vision is too poor to allow you to see game over your front sight even with a pair of glasses having the lenses ground so that the front sight is sharp, I believe that a 'scope the most practical way to go. Handgun 'scope optics have been much improved in the past 10 years. As you can imagine, the big trouble with this is that handguns with mounted scopes just aren't as portable/useful as handguns without scopes.

regards,

Bob

[Original Ken]

I can toss my 2 cents worth in for whatever its worth.  These old eyes aren't real good at focusing anymore.  I had the same problem with the front sight and the target.  Worked with the eye doc and I guess it is as good as it's gonna get.  I will be 61 next month and am still using iron sights on my handguns.  Usually shoot 50 foot indoor range on NRA Bullseye league.  I bought a removable black plastic lens cover that flips up for the left eye and also bought a Gruman (I think that is the name) aperture with adjustable aperture and you can also locate it on different areas of the right lens to what fits you best.  I tried shooting with the left eye plastic patch and it did seem to improve the sight picture because of not forcing the left eye closed which also distorts the vision in the right eye.  Also fooled around using both and after adjusting the aperture the sight picture did improve some.  I can't say that it appreciably improved my scores as I don't shoot enough to have a consistent scoring pattern.  I bought both of them from a company in Tennessee called Champions Choice.  All in all a combination of one or both of them seemed to help some.  Ideally if I could get my arms to be about 14 feet long I wouldn't need all these "toys" just to see the sights!!!!!  :-D

[barber]

I have One Ragged Hole sights on my Ruger RH, and they work great. They come with 2 sizes.  Just go to the site by that name.

[williamlayton]

probably not the answer you want and especially from a newby to this forem but---same problem--waited until the catarcs took over--had new lens put in and i see wonderfully now.  blessings but i'm not sure you want to pray for cataracs.

[unspellable]

I have several tricks for this problem.  One of them I am using at present on my pistol shooting glasses is to have +1.25 diopters added to the distance part of the right lens. (I shoot right eyed)  This makes the front sight tack sharp.  At the same time I have my standard lens on the left side so the target is tack sharp.  This is a trick sometimes used when implanting artificial lenses after cataract surgery.  The brain is what does the seeing and for about 8 out of ten people this works ducky.  (Don't forget to knock 1.25 off the reading part of the lens so both lenses are the same for reading.)

Another trick is to go to the drugstore and buy a pair of the stick on reader lenses intended to make bifocals out of non-prescription sunglasses.  get +1.25 strength and past one on the shooting eye lens in line with the front sight.  This way most of the shooting eye's picture will still be at infinity and only a small spot is focused on the front sight.

[Dusty Miller]

This 61 year old shooter just picked up a Bushnell Holosight for his .44 mag and it appears it'll be just the cat's meow for poor vision.  The gun is in the shop right now getting the scope base mounted and in a week or two I should be able to report back on the results.

[jacobtowne]

The Merrit Aperture sight attaches to your glasses via a suction cup. At 62, I could no longer shoot my military rifles because of the closeness of the rear sight (it disappeared). The Merritt is adjustable, and works fine. Without it, I'd no longer shoot those rifles.
It works just fine for handgun shooting. If you are hunting, perhaps a telescopic sight would work. The one on my Remington .22 rifle was cheap, and the back is adjustable to my eye's focal length.
JT

[haroldclark]

I agree with Dusty Miller.  I'm 69 years old and I have been dealing with old eyes for well over 10 years.  I have had a Merit Di-optor for 15 years and it doesn't get much use.  It doesn't seem to help poor vision no matter what I do with it.  I have tried shooting it with the old military sights too and it doesn't help.  A peeper works fairly well, but the Swedish Mauser 1896 sights are too far away from this old boy.

Just face the music and get either a holosight or a red dot sight.  As recently as yesterday, my wife and I were shooting.  She was shooting a Smith & Wesson model 41 in 22 long rifle with an Ultra-Dot electronic dot sight and she was just poking holes in the 15 yard 10 ring.  Then she picked up the S&W Model 52 38 wadcutter with the standard adjustable iron sights.  She did exceptionally well, but her first comment was that she wants an Ultra-Dot on all her guns.  She is only 59 boys and girls.

I had to just get over myself and admit that I can't see those iron sights as well as I once did.

Harold Clark

[Mikey]

Oh My Gawd:  Blackwater and Charlie Detroit on the same thread and all within the past year.  Fellas I hain't hoid from either of ya in so long I thought ya'll had fianlly made it to the clearing at the end of the path and were hookin' up with the Original Ken for a heavenly huntin' trip.  

But now, to see that you are both alive (hopefully) and kickin' - (seems so) makes me just bleepin' happy.

Denis B:  My eyes are only 58 yrs old but giving me problems.  Sometimes, when I get to bed early enough and don't read too much small print the night before I can focus a set of Winchester sights on a 100 yd shoot and see target, sometimes not.  

I have found that a peep sight, such as the Lyman #2 or some of the others work pretty well for me.  Even the military sights do alright.  I was at the range last week and a buddy showed up with his AR-15 - I had been shooting my lever action with the #2 tang and doing pretty well, and his military peep on his rifle was just as good.  I would like to think that if I was shooting silly-wets I could have hit them with those rifles using those sights.  

The Merit Sight was developed by a fellow shooter in Schenectady, New York.  He was old when he designed it and I hope he is still old.  The sight design helps focus your eye to the sight and it worked for him and has worked for many, many others.  Beyond something like the Merit sight I would recommend a peeper and hope that would help ya.  HTH.  Mikey.

[Jim n Iowa]

I have tried to get a pair of eye glass'es made to shoot iron sights. I use tri's and my thought was to have the mid range in the middle and the long on top 20% of the lense, using the poly plastic lense. I can't get it done, with out buying new frames and even then they doubt it doeable. So I also use scopes and red dots, on the 5.5" RH its focus front and center mass the target. Old age is a B.... however the alternative is worse.
Jim

[HappyHunter]

I have tried the eye glasses with the right (shooting eye) made to focus on the front sight (of my 45 acp,  kimber super match) and the left lens set to my normal prescription.  This has helped at the indoor shooting range.  

For handgun hunting I will typically use a 2 or 4x scope and sometimes a red dot.  

I have a lever gun that Mikey talked me into putting a peep sight on (nice williams sight with adj. target turrets really great shooter and will likely be my go to in later years).

Some of the older bullseye shooters at my club use a large diopter that clips to the shooting lens of your glasses, this is really nice as well.  I believe these are the Meritts mentioned above.

Just two more cents.

Fred