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Corrective lens or not


Tom Bullweed

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My eye doc has me wearing bifocals to eliminate problems with my arms not being long enough (those of you with bifocals or who wear readers will understand). The upper lens portion makes the sights very blurry and the targets okay but not great. The reader section makes the sights sharp, the target blurred beyond hope and puts the rounds high as I shoot with my head tilted way back (as I shoot like a real dude). Shooting with non-corrective safety glasses seems okay but not great.

With the large number of our shooters being on the mature side, I know that I am not the only one 'enjoying' this. What have you found to be helpful on this matter.

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I ware tri-focals. My eye doc. Had me bring my guns to his shop and he would keep moving my focal point so it got so I could see the target and my sights.I have to really watch that I dont look through the wrong part of my lens.I have done it before and it will take a shot or two to know why you cant see the sight.If I let my head lean back to far I dont see the sights.

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I brought in my guns and he made one lens for the sights and one for distance. The right eye is the sight eye with minimum magnigication for me. I can shoot with one eye or two. It makes a big difference.

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I have had good luck by having right lense at front sight focal length and left lense for distance and shoot with both eyes open. Go to k-mart with prescription and you can buy safety glasses for 50 bucks.

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Have the Doc measure & set up your focal point at about 36" for the distance RX. You can see the front sights very clearly and the target is somewhat blurry. The big savings is that there is no bobbing your head up and down while trying to find a focal point. It's well worth the $150 or so for a specialized set of shooting glasses.

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Get a set of glasses made with the shooting eye corrected to the distance to your front sight-that is the whole lens. If you don't you will have to have you head at the perfect angle and you can not do that rapidly. The other lens can be your normal distance lens with or without bifocals, trifocals or continuous close up lenses. First time you wear them, it will take your brain about an hour to sort it all out. After that the brain picks the correct lens for the distance it needs to see clearly. We have had such glasses made at Costco for least cost. Add side shields and you are set to go. You will have to have a doctor write a prescription written for such glasses tho.

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The advice of setting up your dominant eye for your front sight (I set mine up for the pistols) and the other for distance is good advice. My glasses have a pop in insert and allows for changing the exterior lens color, but with the benefit of having done this, if I had it to do over, I would just get a wrap-around frame with clear polycarbonate lens.

 

Here's a link that might be of interest to you.

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Sheesh!

 

You guys are just needing glasses now? Ah, my heart goes out to you. I've been wearing glasses since I was six years old. In grade school I thought my middle name was four eyes. I've been wearing bifocals since I was 18. I've been wearing progressive lenses for the last twenty years.

 

What's the big deal? The targets are so close, in this sport, just put the front sight on the blurry target. You'll hit it.

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DJ, I can relate. Worn glasses since I was maybe 5 or 6, and have needed a letter from my eye doctor to get a drivers license since I was 16. One of these years he'll say no, but such is life, you deal the cards yer dealt and make the best of them.

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Before my cataract surgery I focused on the front sight with the lower (close) part of the bifocals and shot at the blurred target. As someone pointed out, our targets are close enough so the slightly blurred targets are not a problem.

 

Since the cataract surgery and distance lenses implated, the sights are only slightly blurred and not a problem.

 

BTW I'm left eye dominant but shoot with that eye closed. Been doing that as long as I can remember.

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Another vote for the close lens, far lens set up. It will only take yor brain a very short time to get used to the system. I went from this type of system in contacts then back to glasses with progresives when like you my arms got to short. Make sure you clear it with your eye doc before you bring a guns to the office for calibration. My doc is a shooter so showing up with a 73 and one of my handguns made for a long appointment, me getting him an extra set of nipples for an old cap and ball gun and talking about cowboy shooting.

 

Only bad thing about this way of doing it for me is that I used to shoot gunfighter with both eyes, left for left, right for right. Now to keep everything sharpe I'm supposed to shift them back and forth. As with Driftwood's point that doesnt always happen.

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Thanks for the great feedback. I will head to one of the X-Marts to get a pair of these magical near/far glasses. Comparing the cost of the glasses to cost of getting to the match (with current gas prices) seems a no-brainer.

 

As to the idea of just shooting at blurry targets and hoping for the best because they are large and close - I appreciate the thought, but I want to see what I am doing. My practice time is spent on half-size targets since I have learned that I (me, not anyone else) double my group size when shooting in actual match conditions.

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I've needed glasses since I was 12. When I hit 30, ('84), I looked into Contacts. Haven't looked at glasses since.

The last time I had an examination, the doctor recommended contacts with three different focuses, like tri-focals. Once I tried them, I refused to leave the office until I got what I originally came in for, basic, single focus contacts. Those tri-focals were BAD.

The secret to my getting away with single focus lenses is that I have them at one power LESS then optimal for distance, (nearsighted). This gives me decent distance vision, and adequate close vision. Even for small print, I can manage as long as there isn't too much of it. And I can see to shoot.

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