Corrective Vision Glasses?

[Dogbite]

Two articles, print them out and show them to the optometrist or opthamologist

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/nra/ssusa_201108/index.php#/20

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/wong1.htm

I shoot rifle and a little bit of pistol (bullseye) so my shooting script based on the sight radius of the rifle or pistol that I shoot. I use a lens holder that is similar to this - http://www.knobloch-schiessbrillen.d...Positions.html

I'm not saying that what works for me is your solution but shooting irons while presbyopia changes every year is challenging. I haven't considered LASIK but know folks who have done it as it allowed them to continue shooting irons.

Thank you - Two very informative articles

[Dogbite]

I received the below data from the M14 Forum.

http://m14forum.com/forums.php

Very good resource for multiple disciplines.
Most from the advise listed below is from the M14 forum and from this guy / retired - His business link - No affiliation

URL="https://shootingsight.com/"]https://shootingsight.com/[/URL]

Smoothy8500 opened an thread there too - Thank you

http://m14forum.com/vision/355329-corrective-glasses-both-pistol-rifle-3-gun.html

This is a copied summary of what I have found to Date - Long read but worth while. Hope it helps others. I'll know in about 6 weeks when I hope to receive my first pair of shooting glasses -

(1)
The problem is not the visibility of the sight, it is that as you get old, the lenses in your eyes get hard and lose their adjustment range. When you were young, the lenses could just focus in close, now they cannot. So while a bright sight post can make you pay more attention to the sight, you have not really fixed the focus problem.

This is what lenses in reading glasses do. They can artificially shift your focal point closer to you, so you do not have to rely on the eye's non-functioning ability to shift focal point. The trick is simply figuring out how close you want your focal point. As lens power increases, your focal point gets closer. For reading, you want it at arm's length. For shooting, that's much too close, because you get a great front sight, but the target is blurry.

The correct distance to focus at (and what your eye used to do without you even thinking about it) ends up calculating to be the optical average of focusing perfectly on the target, and focusing perfectly on the sight. When you run the math, it ends up as an add of 0.5 or 0.75, depending on the sight radius of what you are shooting.

-0.50 or 0.75 is what you add to your distance vision.

If you have good distance vision, you need zero correction for distance, so you just use the 0.50 or 0.75.

If you have a distance correction, either plus (farsighted) or minus (nearsighted), you would add the 0.50 or 0.75. You can do this either by adding the mathematical values to make a new lens, or else you can stack two lenses, by putting your distance vision in eyeglasses, and putting the 0.50 in the hood of the rear sight. Optically, those solutions are equivalent.

The corrections I am recommending are conceptually just like reading glasses, except much less powerful. Your 2.5 reading glasses will focus you at 1/2.5 meters, or 40cm, about 16" away. The 0.50 I recommend will focus you at 2 meters, which is between the front sight and the target.


(2)
Here is a MUCH better option: Bob Jones (www.bjonessights.com) makes some frames custom for shooting - the nose pads are welded on crooked, so the glasses sit way left on your face - this keeps the right lens centered about your line of sight when you form a cheek weld. He charges $35, and they come with non-prescription lenses. You then add $30 to get one prescription lens added to your shooting eye, so you are in for $65 total, versus $265 for this web site. It's $95 if your want prescription in both lenses, but that's still only a third of the place above.

Also note, based on optical/photographic formulas for lens calculation, the correct relaxed focus distance is at the hyperfocal distance of the front sight, which is 2x the distance to the front sight. For an M-1A, this will work out to +0.5 diopters added to your distance prescription, or just +0.5 diopters if you do not wear glasses to see distance. Anyone who tells you need a lens that will focus you on the front sight does not know optics, or does not know shooting .... or both.

+0.5 diopter is less than half the power of even the weakest reading glasses, and much less than the power of most bifocals.

(3)
You do NOT want progressive lenses for shooting. They will cause you to string your shot groups vertically. You want single strength lenses. Sorry to let you know this after you dumped the money.

The issue with poor vision is not that you can't see the front sight, it is that you cannot see the front sight consistently. If your eye is straining to see the front sight, your eye muscle will try until it tires and gets exhausted, so this means you can see the front sight better in the morning, and less well in the afternoon.

Drifting focus means the width of the blur line that you see around the front sight changes. When the blur line gets wide, the front sight looks fat, and your brain has to estimate where the edge of the sight really is. Interestingly, this does not typically hurt you in windage estimation, since there are two vertical edges to the front sight, so your brain can estimate the symmetry of if the target is balanced between them, regardless if they are sharp or fuzzy, thin or fat (as long as they are both equally fat). In elevation however, you only have one horizontal edge on the top of the front post. As that edge gets skinny/fat, your front sight looks taller or shorter, so you start holding high or low to compensate for where you think the top of the front sight is, and string your shot groups vertically.

With progressive lenses, your focal point changes gradually from the top/distance part of the lens to the close-up part. When you aim, if the glasses are not exactly in the same spot, if you tilt your head slightly differently from one shot to another, or if the glasses slide down your nose slightly, you will get differing focal points from shot to shot, which will change the effective height of the front post from shot to shot.

If you want up-close, much better is to get true bifocals with a line in them.

(4)
Take your doctor's recommendation for distance prescription including the astigmatism part, and add +0.50 to the spherical component for a long rifle. Leave the cylinder unchanged. That's it.

Since you see near distances, your prescription will be a negative number, so respect the signs. If your sphere is a -2.00, add +0.50 to get to a -1.50, and so on.

[k1dude]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'll tell you my experience.

I'm nearsighted in my dominant eye and farsighted in my other eye. Depending on the stage and weapons used, I have to tailor my use of glasses or not.

For long distance rifle, I have to use my glasses because I shoot limited (red dot, no magnification). A magnified scope would help in that regard, but I don't like throw levers. For short to medium distance rifle, I keep both eyes open without glasses.

With pistol, I keep both eyes open with no glasses. With glasses I can't see the front or rear sights, but I can see the target.

With shotgun, I shoot both eyes open without glasses.

Only rarely do I encounter a stage that really messes me up regarding eyesight.

Last month I shot a stage with rifle and pistol where there was no good solution for me. So I shot rifle with glasses, then ran to the pistol portion and couldn't use my sights because of the glasses. I did fine though simply because of muscle memory and even though it was blurry, it was still enough.

There might not be a perfect solution, but knowing your limitations, changing your technique or strategy depending on the stage works well enough. Shooting both eyes open can be a real benefit with bad eyes. Your nearsighted eye helps in certain situations and your farsighted eye helps in others. You just have to train your brain to let one eye go lazy depending on the situation.

I haven't had surgery either. I know of too many bad outcomes where the people are screwed for life. I'm not willing to risk it.

[Dogbite]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I'll tell you my experience.

I'm nearsighted in my dominant eye and farsighted in my other eye. Depending on the stage and weapons used, I have to tailor my use of glasses or not.

For long distance rifle, I have to use my glasses because I shoot limited (red dot, no magnification). A magnified scope would help in that regard, but I don't like throw levers. For short to medium distance rifle, I keep both eyes open without glasses.

With pistol, I keep both eyes open with no glasses. With glasses I can't see the front or rear sights, but I can see the target.

With shotgun, I shoot both eyes open without glasses.

Only rarely do I encounter a stage that really messes me up regarding eyesight.

Last month I shot a stage with rifle and pistol where there was no good solution for me. So I shot rifle with glasses, then ran to the pistol portion and couldn't use my sights because of the glasses. I did fine though simply because of muscle memory and even though it was blurry, it was still enough.

There might not be a perfect solution, but knowing your limitations, changing your technique or strategy depending on the stage works well enough. Shooting both eyes open can be a real benefit with bad eyes. Your nearsighted eye helps in certain situations and your farsighted eye helps in others. You just have to train your brain to let one eye go lazy depending on the situation.

I haven't had surgery either. I know of too many bad outcomes where the people are screwed for life. I'm not willing to risk it.

I shoot both eyes open also. Last event I shot, I misses 3 clays that were thrown up just in front of me (They were so close and moved so slowly that it was exceedingly frustrating) and 8 - 6" steel plates with my shotgun All Very close distance. All very easy shots but I could not see my front bead and had difficult lining up the shot placement. It was then when I decided to look for glasses. Poor excuse for poor shot placement but hopefully glasses will be a solution for me.
What will I do when I miss again and have corrective glasses. LOLOLOLOLOL

[OpenSightsOnly]

When you run the math, it ends up as an add of 0.5 or 0.75, depending on the sight radius of what you are shooting.

-0.50 or 0.75 is what you add to your distance vision.

If you have good distance vision, you need zero correction for distance, so you just use the 0.50 or 0.75.

Well, yes and no . . .

The shooting script for pistol or rifle with metallic/iron sights is going to be dependent on the sight radius of the pistol and rifle. That means you will have a different script for the rifle and pistol. That is the important thing to remember!

This is about hyperfocal distance. If you are shooting a rifle length AR15 (20" barrel) or a service pistol, add +0.75 diopters to your distance script. If the sight radius is longer than an AR15 with a 20" barrel, then you need to use +0.50 diopters to your distance script.

Your distance script simply means your eyeglass prescription. If you shoot irons, you need to see an optometrist once a year. This is important so you can be on top with how much presbyopia creeps-in.

I have been keeping my annual eye refraction scripts and bring them to the optometrist so that he or she can see the historical changes. I also have astigmatism, and depending on how my eyes are feeling during the exam the astigmatism value will change. So its good to keep the paperwork so you can baseline the changes.

The challenge with playing with hyperfocal distance and presbyopia is that you loose distance. In other words, your eye may not tolerate or accommodate the changes even though you have the proper shooting script. An adjustable iris may give you depth of field but at the cost of available light. So, you have to play with this.

[OpenSightsOnly]

I shoot both eyes open also. Last event I shot, I misses 3 clays that were thrown up just in front of me (They were so close and moved so slowly that it was exceedingly frustrating) and 8 - 6" steel plates with my shotgun All Very close distance. All very easy shots but I could not see my front bead and had difficult lining up the shot placement. It was then when I decided to look for glasses. Poor excuse for poor shot placement but hopefully glasses will be a solution for me.
What will I do when I miss again and have corrective glasses. LOLOLOLOLOL

Do you wear glasses for everyday use or you haven't seen and optometrist ever?

[arrowshooter]

I am very near sighted in left eye, not so much in right. With irons I use just safety glasses with no correction and can see the sights very clear, aiming at the center of the blur down range. On rifles I am most accurate with peep sights. Anything with a scope or a red dot I shoot with my regular glasses.

[Dogbite]

Do you wear glasses for everyday use or you haven't seen and optometrist ever?

I wear glasses for reading Costco standard over the counter glasses (I think 1.75) and prescription glasses for driving. Driving glasses are worn most of the time I am out side because my eyes are extremely light sensitive. I have Very Dark tinted and clear. I don't use Costco glasses at work unless I am on the computer - Now for example. My last prescription is 3 years old and work well for driving. I'm sure my eyesight has deteriorated some but not much since my last checkup. I'm in my later 50s.
I started to wear corrective glasses in my early 40s. I went to the eye doctor, he took me outside and said try these. Wholly SHTTT The trees have leaves. I did not notice my eye degeneration until that day. I still see the leaves on trees with my driving glasses. LOL

[Dvrjon]

You can "custom" a set of shooting glasses with Optyx 20/20 or Hydrotac lenses. These attach to glasses by hydrostatic pressure and can be removed or adjusted. I've used them in scuba dive masks since the 90's (that's when they started making scuba guages with real tiny printing). They stay put. I have removed masks underwater and not lost lenses. I also use them as reading inserts for cheap-o sunglasses.

http://optx2020.com/c-1-hydrotac-stick-on-lenses.aspx

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hydrotac-Stick-on-Bifocal-Lenses-1-50/38092965

Get two sets with different prescriptions, one for distance; one for close. You can screw around with the prescription glasses in Walmart or other store to get an idea of where you want to be in strength, simply by putting on the glasses and holding your hand out at approximate sighting distance, or by looking at shelf items 18" in front of your hand.

Get the stick on lens, and put one at the top of each lens of the glasses.

When you come down on your gun, you'll be looking through the adjusted lenses. If you look through the bottom of the lenses, you'll get normal vision provided by that lens.

[OpenSightsOnly]

I am very near sighted in left eye, not so much in right. With irons I use just safety glasses with no correction and can see the sights very clear, aiming at the center of the blur down range. On rifles I am most accurate with peep sights. Anything with a scope or a red dot I shoot with my regular glasses.

Safety glasses are actually plano or 0.

So if you are near or far sighted for your aiming eye, the plano lens may affect you.

Aperture or peep sights will help your aiming eye since it will sharpen the sight post if you are far sighted or give you depth of field if you are near sighted.

[OpenSightsOnly]

I wear glasses for reading Costco standard over the counter glasses (I think 1.75) and prescription glasses for driving. Driving glasses are worn most of the time I am out side because my eyes are extremely light sensitive. I have Very Dark tinted and clear. I don't use Costco glasses at work unless I am on the computer - Now for example. My last prescription is 3 years old and work well for driving. I'm sure my eyesight has deteriorated some but not much since my last checkup. I'm in my later 50s.
I started to wear corrective glasses in my early 40s. I went to the eye doctor, he took me outside and said try these. Wholly SHTTT The trees have leaves. I did not notice my eye degeneration until that day. I still see the leaves on trees with my driving glasses. LOL

For daily every day use, progressives are the way to go since you get near and far vision in one package that does not mess you up like using bifocals. Bifocals are kind of messed up since it leads to eye strain, neck strain, and just bad posture. My daily use glasses also has that light sensitive auto tint, I forget what you call them. Anyways, get them so that you don't have to get prescription sunglasses.

You have to see an optometrist once a year and an opthamologist every other year.

[Dogbite]

Thank you everyone. I am and continuing to learn quite a bit. I am sure others are benefitting as well. Many more options available now from what I previously expected.
I will continue to add info as I come across it.
I hope others will as well.
This turned out to be very productive - Thanks again to all who have and are still contributing.

[arrowshooter]

My daily use glasses also has that light sensitive auto tint, I forget what you call them.

Photochromic

What about those stick-on apertures? They really work?

[OpenSightsOnly]

Photochromic

What about those stick-on apertures? They really work?

Have been using the Transition lens 10+ years. The amber is not so dark while the grey lens are good.

Had one issue and that the lens did not darken while I was outdoors. Brought it back to opto, problem solved.

Have tried the Merit Corp stick on iris/aperture. If you shoot bullseye, then it works as advertised. I don't use it anymore as I have another solution.

If you are interested in that stick-on iris/aperture, I'll sell it. PM me

[phydoux]

You may want to check out the +0.50 shooting glasses for less than $10 on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Elvex-RX-500C.../dp/B013XSD156