Shooting with glasses Q?

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Chris142

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As I age I am getting more and more nearsighted. I can see tiny print on a can easily 3ft away. I cant see clearly over 10ft or so.

When shooting if I wear my glasses I can see the target fine. But I can' see the sites on the gun.

Opposite if I take the glasses off. I bought bifocals and wore them for 2 years. Cant stand them. I cant walk with them on without tripping over stuff or falling off a curb.

Shooting is no longer fun for this reason. Any ideas?
 
I have progressive lenses and have found that I have to hold the pistol up and slowly tilt my head forward or backward until the sight pic is clear.
I have also started bringing the site pic closer to my face. It results in a longer time between shots.
I also shoot large targets i.e. soup cans or a bright orange rubber reactive target. The progressive lenses are expensive but I can usually find a decent site pic.

I’ve been taught that the site pic is more important than focusing on the target.
 
In order of importance: front sight, (rear sight, target). I'm farsighted, I got some readers that just barely get the front sight in focus, the rear sight on a pistol and the target aren't crisp but I can manage. I can't use a rifle with traditional open sights at all, peep sights are a different story, do fine with them. Progressives are terrible with iron sights as noted. I get my bifocals cut higher than normal on the lens so I don't have to tip my head back much to use the close lens. Shooting outside I can get by with the bifocals, inside forget it. Seems like you could find a lens RX that moves your closest focus out to the front sight, that would help with the target and the rear sight should be usable. If you're trying to shoot open sights indoors good luck, the low light opens your pupils up and you depth of field gets narrow. My optometrist made me some glasses with my dominant eye bifocal lens set for the front sight, the other eye is a normal reading RX. Don't even notice it. Hope something in all that helps.
 
Originally Posted By: khittner
Here’s a radical idea: Stop shooting if you can’t see what you’re doing anymore?
no way! I can still shoot. Very close to my target but not hit it like I used to.
 
Another option is to get a red dot sight so you can just focus on the target. But that can lead to other issues where the dot becomes a blur due to the shape of the lens in your eye.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
As I age I am getting more and more nearsighted. I can see tiny print on a can easily 3ft away. I cant see clearly over 10ft or so.

When shooting if I wear my glasses I can see the target fine. But I can' see the sites on the gun.

Opposite if I take the glasses off. I bought bifocals and wore them for 2 years. Cant stand them. I cant walk with them on without tripping over stuff or falling off a curb.

Shooting is no longer fun for this reason. Any ideas?


I have worn glasses since the 1st grads . When I got to 40 , my arms were too short to move a book far enough away to focus .

Bi-foals . Drove me crazy . Took me a year untill I could wear them 8 hours . That's life , getting old is not for cowards or wimps .

Now I wear tri-focals .
 
Chris142 - is the condition the same in both eyes? My eyes have different issues. Although I am right eye dominant (more or less) I see up close better with the left and better farther away with the right. If I want to clearly see the target, I use my right eye, but I lose clarity on the front sight. Hence, I have started using my left eye, which does seem to require some alteration in point of aim since I'm right handed. This is with a handgun, a rifle still gives me trouble since I cannot shoot left handed.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
no way! I can still shoot. Very close to my target but not hit it like I used to.

There surely must be something in the literature or at one of the shooting sites. Years ago, I had read stuff on the matter in shooting magazines, but that was way too long ago to offer anything of any use. Before I had laser surgery many years ago, I was highly nearsighted, but still enjoyed shooting. Fortunately, my glasses were good enough to give me distance vision, too.

In any case, all my instructors have always stated to concentrate on the pistol sights, and the target last, as already indicated in the thread.
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: khittner
Here’s a radical idea: Stop shooting if you can’t see what you’re doing anymore?
no way! I can still shoot. Very close to my target but not hit it like I used to.


Stop shooting? Wrong! You need MORE practice.

What guns are you shooting and at what range? I though you were supposed to be able to focus on the front sight.
 
Originally Posted By: JamesBond
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: khittner
Here’s a radical idea: Stop shooting if you can’t see what you’re doing anymore?
no way! I can still shoot. Very close to my target but not hit it like I used to.


Stop shooting? Wrong! You need MORE practice.

What guns are you shooting and at what range? I though you were supposed to be able to focus on the front sight.
tomorrow I will be shooting my Kahr cw9 semi auto,marlin 3030 and a 20ga side by side shotgun I have never shot yet.
 
Originally Posted By: FloatingBrick
Chris142 - is the condition the same in both eyes?
very close. Both are near sighted.left being slighly better than the right @ 15ft or so.
 
What you need is a pair of Diopter Shooting Glasses. These are nothing new, and have been around for years, and they work very well. What they do is "trick" your eyes into being able to focus on both the sights and target at the same time. It works on the same principal how a camera allows more depth of field focus in a photograph, through a higher F number, (smaller aperture), setting on the lens itself.

I've had mine for years. The were made by a company called HySkore. I got them from Midway. But they're now showing them as discontinued. You might be able to pick them up somewhere else. You see many Olympic rimfire shooters using them. So I know they're still being manufactured. These are the one's I have. They're like a microwave oven or a garage door opener. Once you have them you'll wonder how you lived without them for so long.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/116708/hyskore-pro-optic-aid-kit

Here is an article on how they work. They even show you how to use electrical tape to make your own. Or you can buy the aperture itself from an outfit called Merit Optical.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2012/07/diopter-devices-aid-old-eyes/

http://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html
 
That's a good product Bill, and the same reason it's easier to see the sights outside when it's sunny compared to in an indoor range. Also why I can use aperture sights (peeps) or the sights on a black rifle. Can't find them in stock anywhere but Merit seems to have an active website. Here's another product that does the same thing and it's less expensive: http://seebettershootbetter.com/Home.html

These are great products for range shooting, not sure how they translate to self defense or home defense if that's a consideration.
 
I'm 26, been wearing glasses since I was about 11-12, and shooting since about 7... I thought this was normal?
frown.gif
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
I'm 26, been wearing glasses since I was about 11-12, and shooting since about 7... I thought this was normal?
frown.gif

i didnt get glasses till I was 40! Before then my close vision was always great and I could see the targets but not the mountains in the distance. I can see color ok. But when I miss I cant tell where I am hitting.
 
Last edited:
Another option is to split the difference. Wear sports glasses that are a bit to weak for your reading. Neither sight nor target will be clear but its a good compromise. I wear +3 for reading but I shoot with +2

But as someone else mentioned..its more important to frame the sights. One other thing tho'..if you shooting for SD practice shoot what you wear in public.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Chris142
As I age I am getting more and more nearsighted. I can see tiny print on a can easily 3ft away. I cant see clearly over 10ft or so.

When shooting if I wear my glasses I can see the target fine. But I can' see the sites on the gun.

Opposite if I take the glasses off. I bought bifocals and wore them for 2 years. Cant stand them. I cant walk with them on without tripping over stuff or falling off a curb.

Shooting is no longer fun for this reason. Any ideas?


Use an optic.

The optic will be focused at infinity and in the same focal plane as the target. Correct your eyes for distance vision and the reticle and target will both be in focus.

Personally, I use contact lenses for shooting as I get a better correction with them than with glasses when shooting rifles to shotguns. The contact lens is always in the sweet stop optically, while with glasses I'm looking through the corner of the lens, which causes distortions.

BSW
 
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