[08 Cayenne]

I know nothing about them, I want to to get a pair of glasses just for shooting. I have a very hard time getting the sight clear with my bifocals, head ends up tilted way back and have very poor shooting stance.

This is what I was thinking, get the entire right lens, (dominant eye) with the front sight in focus. Get the left eye with my distance prescription. I shoot with both eyes open. Do you think it will work?

Thanks
Frank

 

[davidgcalderone]

Check out this web site

http://www.safevision.net/shooting/index.html

 

[Eagle 1]

I'm not an optomistrist, nor do I play one on TV.......I ended up going back to an old pair of single strength distance lenses. The parallax difference by not having the eye in exactly the same place made shooting with bifocals a non-option. I don't think two different lenses would work too well, but I could be wrong. I'd stay with the same prescription for both.

Eagle 1

 

[JayKosta]

A good rule of thumb seems to have your prescription adjusted so the best focus is at 2X the distance from your eye to the front sight. That allows you to see both the target and the front sight adequately well.

If your prescription is strong, then you might need special shooting glasses (e.g. Knoblocks) that permit the lens to be best positioned while in shooting position.

Talk with your eyeglass provider and explain your concerns - you might get some useful ideas.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY

 

[Trung Si]

Talk with your eyeglass provider and explain your concerns - you might get some useful ideas.

Jay Kosta
Endwell NY

I shoot with Prescription Shooting Glasses( the same prescription as my driving Glasses) but I still use a B Jones Insert for Matches!
PS Forget about trying to shoot with Bifocals!

 

[Dave P]

Facts: To be accurate, you have to focus on the front sight. Old eyes do not change focus well.

A good solution: fixed single lens on strong eye, which focuses on front sight only. (focal length about 24"; A blurry bull is fine) Weak eye lense is covered with a patch, so it does not see the target.

 

[12gabackup]

Check out this web site

http://www.safevision.net/shooting/index.html

These look like what I've been kooking for. Does anyone have personal experience with them?

 

[baydwag]

thanks for this info. I am ordering a pair to se eif it will help me out.

 

[08 Cayenne]

Finally got an eye exam today then took my optometrist, (my wife) to the shooting range with me with a complete set of trial lenses. She basically could build any glasses she wanted to in just a couple of minutes.

Nothing is perfect and they all have trade-offs.

I am right eye dominant and tried:
Both eyes open, tested on a Sig P226ST & Colt GCNM.
1. left eye distance vision and right eye focused on front sight. Can't use this because it causes terrible double vision of the target
2. left and right eye 2X away from the front sight. Double vision not as bad, but front sight was fuzzy
3. left eye 2X and right eye focused on front sight. Still had double vision of the target and front sight fuzzy.
4. both eyes focused on the front sight. This ended up being my second best choice. I could live with this.
5. both eyes focused about 3" past the front sight. This is what I liked the best. Sight is crystal clear and no double vision of the target at all.
6. We also tried several other variations of the above.

Then I used my skeet shotgun with 26" barrel, my SOCOM II with 16" barrel, and a couple scoped .308's & .30-06's with trial #5 and they were all good.

Now all I have to do is figure out what tint for the lenses.

 

[FormerCorp]

poor eyes need help

this forum is right on the money for giving me and my tired old eyes some necessary help. thanks to all for starting this helpful topic and those of you that offered helpful advice.

 

[sc_ranger]

I also was having trouble with my bifocals when shooting handguns. Switching to a single prescription lens helped me too.

 

[wheelgunner]

I know nothing about them, I want to to get a pair of glasses just for shooting. I have a very hard time getting the sight clear with my bifocals, head ends up tilted way back and have very poor shooting stance.

This is what I was thinking, get the entire right lens, (dominant eye) with the front sight in focus. Get the left eye with my distance prescription. I shoot with both eyes open. Do you think it will work?

Thanks
Frank

That's the solution I've been told. But I can't see (pun intended) how you could keep both eyes open.

 

[pelhampatriot]

Thank you

I have talked at length with my eye doctor about this, i think maybe she just doesn't really like men with guns???
Thank you for this post it gives me hope. I will contact safe vision and see what they can do.

 

[ShootingSight]

I sell lenses for rifle shooters, so I have studied the optics of a rifle. This does not mean all applies to a pistol, but here are a few facts:

You do not want to focus on the front sight. Your eye, especially if you are using a reducing aperture, will have a depth of field, where you want to put your ideal focal point somewhat beyond the front sight, so your depth of field still allows you to see the front sight clearly, but you have not given up too much target. In rifle, the ideal is about 2x the distance from your eye to the front sight, in a pistol, it is likely closer.

Lens strengths can be related to focal distance because if your eye is relaxed and you are focusing at infinity (assuming you don't need help seeing the target), take 1/diopter to get your focal length in meters. A 0.5 diopter will focus at 2m, a 0.75 diopter will focus at 1.33 meters, etc.

Art

 

[Charon]

Look at Decot also. I have been using them for 25 years. In more than 50 lens sets and full glasses I have ALWAYS received perfect lenses. This has not been true with some other manufactures I have tried. The adjustable axis frames are excellent for shooting. I now just order extra lenses to go with the number of frames I have.

I highly recommend Decot after 25 years of extensive use.

http://www.decot.com/Default.asp

 

[rich005]

Shooting Glasses

Frank,
If you still live around St.Clairsville,check with Dr. John Heiby He is an Army
Eye doctor. I believe he fit glasses for AMU teams at Ft. Benning. He did
mine and they work well. They are the Zeiss frames. John shoots at the
Lewis Wetzel R&P Club.......................................Rich F.

 

[08 Cayenne]

Rich, sorry for the late reply, just saw your post. Dr. Heiby is a great eye doc, he was a teacher at OSU when my wife was in optometry school. I also belong to LW and have shot bullseye and plates with him, not so much recently though. He is a great shooter also.

Frank,
If you still live around St.Clairsville,check with Dr. John Heiby He is an Army
Eye doctor. I believe he fit glasses for AMU teams at Ft. Benning. He did
mine and they work well. They are the Zeiss frames. John shoots at the
Lewis Wetzel R&P Club.......................................Rich F.

 

[nSquid]

My dad was an optomotrist. I had bifocals at age 5. Once I had 20/15 both eyes. Those days are long gone.

Now, most (all) of us slide into presbyopia (literally "old eye") sometime after age 45 or so. Your relaxed focus will actually be about 4-6 feet from your face, just about where the front sight sits on rifle or pistol.

So dad had his own prescription shooting lenses, specifically for target 45 shooting. Right eye (he being right handed) lens focus at front sight, left eye focus at infinity. It is not a simple arrangement to get used to, but he and his buddies all swore by it. And no bifocals!

 

[nSquid]

That's the solution I've been told. But I can't see (pun intended) how you could keep both eyes open.

Try shooting a weapon with a zero power holographic sight. Once you do you will visually understand better. Built a 17HMR falling block for my wife and mounted a cheapie NcStar sight. She says it's the first time she's been able to shoot with both eyes open and see what she's shooting at actually get hit.

 

[ShootingSight]

Someone gave a link above to a place that does prescription safety glasses. Nice glasses, but the prices are insane! THey want $85 for frames, and an additional 80 - 180 for the lenses, depending on what you get.

Also note, those sexy wrap style Wiley glasses are not suited to all types of shooting - they hug your face so close, if you are sweating, and holding a cheek weld for more than a few seconds so your breath is all around your face, they will fog up. You want to bigger boxy ugly ones to reduce fogging, or even go with glasses that have no side shields (note, to be Z87, they have to have side shields, so this precludes true Z87 glasses).

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 youneed a lens that will focus you on the front sight does not know optics, or does not know shooting .... or both.

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