Aging Eyeballs

[Seven High]

As I get older, I am having problems shooting my pistols accurately. I am looking at different sighting systems to help me shoot better. Do any of you have previous experiences or recommendations such as tru-glo sights or others?

[whm1974]

Eyeglassess?

-Bill

[Mal H]

Gotta agree with Bill. More and more often I find myself using reading glasses when shooting a pistol. Not strong ones, but usually +1.00 or +1.25. Makes the sights much sharper and the target only a little blurrier. That's the situation you want anyway no matter how good your eyes are. The sights should be in focus even if the target is blurry.

[Arc-Lite]

Seven.... man, my sights are getting fuzzier too....I wish these sight makers would make them a bit better... my eyes are fine..its the sights !!!! try glasses, or a different sight....I have a HP with a gold inlay on the front blade....it works great in strong light, and does not wash out.... as you get older, you learn where the target should be...and sometimes, this is better then young eyes.... each time I see the eye doc...he says...well you need new glasses.... I keep telling him, I'm fine, hell.....I can see the moon.

[Browns Fan]

Be sure to get checked for glaucoma.

[NC Shooter]

The problem with reading glasses for me is that they ride low on my nose making me tilt my head back to see the sights. To get around this issue, I found some stick on lenses (basically bifocals for sunglasses) that I apply to my shooting glasses (where ever I need it to) to allow me to see the sights.

http://www.eabco.com/BifocalStickOn.htm

Apply to your shooting glasses and the front sight will become more visible.

Getting old is not fun...

Mark

[DBR]

http://www.duluthtrading.com/store/catprotect.asp?S=4AJP&PGN=3 has fullsize OSHA safety glasses from +1.5 to +3.0 diopters for about $20. These work great. You want the "full lense magnifiers". For shooting, get a pair that is .5 to 1.0 diopters weaker than reading glasses. Reason, front sight is about twice as far away as a book.

[LHB1]

Fully understand the difficulty with aging eyeballs. Mine just turned 66 last month and have a list of problems common to many others of like age. Can't use open sights at all on rifles and pistol sights are very fuzzy. All my rifles wear scopes and hunting pistols wear 2X Leupold EER scopes. The scopes put crosshairs and target in the same focal plane and 2X makes pistol targets a little easier to see. More magnification on pistols just increases apparent wobble.

For open pistol sights, wear corrective glasses. Use reading boosters if necessary. Personally I dislike glow type sights on pistol and prefer full adjustable target type sights (especially BO-MAR). Others use and like the glow sights. Use whatever will allow you to continue shooting. Bend with the wind but don't give up.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

ps: Since my right eye can no longer be corrected to 20/20, I learned to shoot using left eye and my normal two hand hold. Required shifting grip slightly on pistol and adjusting sights accordingly. Just another option to try.

[dev_null]

Somewhere on a carpentry tool site, I found polycarbonate safety glasses that are bifocals: regular safety on top, magnification on bottom. Highly recommended.

If I can find the site again, I'll post a link. If all else fails, leaf through some woodworking magazines.

[Standing Wolf]

I found an adjustable iris clipped to my glasses helped. Awhile later, I discovered red dot scopes. About ten minutes after that, I discovered I could use an iris with a red dot scope.

I can't see well, but just about well enough most of the time.

[Majic]

My eyeballs are fine, but my arms sure have gotten shorter with age. :D

[Frandy]

Well, at 57, I need reading glasses, so focusing on the front sight is a real challenge. I just bought this little gadget that i hope will help. The concept seems right. It arrived in the mail today, three hours too late for my trip to the range this morning. I'll let you know how it works the next time I shoot.

http://www.meritcorporation.com/index-2.html

Frandy

[MikeIsaj]

Not always possible but I started using targets with a center any color but black. Red seems to be the easiest. The sights are much easier and my shooting improves tremendously with a red center.

[DBR]

I am rather surprised. I offered a good compromise solution in a previous post (including a link). It seems everyone would rather bitch than see their sights and shoot. Do you folks actually shoot or do you just sit in front of your computers and speculate?

[Jim101]

I have the same problems, glasses on, target shart, sights not, glasses off sights sharp, target not..Here is what I am going to do, ask the eye doc. if he can make some shooting glasses...Take a toy gun to his office and show him distance from the eye etc. and make a set of glasses...They should be like computer glasses..
Also, I like the adjustable iris aperture idea, but, that is alot of money. I am sure I have seen them for a cheaper price.....I look around..

Jim

[ezypikns]

I wish this was my idea, but it's not. I read about it in 'American Handgunner' a while back.
Get yourself a roll of electrical tape, the regular cheap kind from WalMart or wherever. Now take a hole punch, the best kind is one of those with an adjustable wheel on it that will punch several hole sizes. Punch about a 1/16" diameter (approximately) hole in a square piece of tape which you've cut off the roll. Stick it on your glasses so that you sight naturally thru this hole.
That's it. If you know anything about photography, you'll remember that a smaller lens opening gives a greater depth of field in a photo. This simply means that everything in the photo is in sharp focus. When your eye focuses thru a small hole, you'll find that your sight picture will sharpen as well as your target.
A merit optical device will do the same thing for you, but it costs 65.00 or so. Believe me, this works. You may have to adjust the location of the tape. I'm 57, nearsighted, and beginning to be pretty farsighted too. I found that shooting up to 10 or 15 yds, I can use plain no prescription safety glasses with the tape, and see just fine. People will ask you about the tape, but when you explain, they understand. Everybody wants to shoot as well as they can.
Do give this a try.

[trickyasafox]

i turned 21 years old this past week and my eyes are -4.25 and -4.5 respectively

so i know what ur talking about with bad sight picture,for most pistols i just broke down and got reddot sights, but this monday i have a consultation for LASIC eye surgury. To be honest from my friends who have done it that seems like the only way to go if your a candidate. and the surgury is getting pretty cheap, im going up to canada for mine probably, but its about 2 k total for for both eyes, and considering hwo much i 've but into contacts and glasses over the past 10 years 2k aint to bad :cool:

[Iggy]

Progressive lens trifocals...

[MikeIsaj]

I am rather surprised. I offered a good compromise solution in a previous post (including a link). It seems everyone would rather bitch than see their sights and shoot. Do you folks actually shoot or do you just sit in front of your computers and speculate?

DBR
Not on the high road here. The whole point of a discussion forum is discussion. I think you are forgetting two things;
1. People shoot for many reasons, ALL valid. Safety glasses aren't going to be available to a defensive shooter in an actual shoot. Practice should imitate actual likely scenarios as much as possible. This has taken on new importance to me personally since after a career of making BGs unhappy, I now am confronted with a work related disability that probably will not allow me to safely retreat.

2. There are frequently many solutions to a problem. Yours is a good solution but, not the only solution. Just because we don't stop posting after your advice is given does not mean it is rejected. Don't take offense if we want all the knowledge available.

[redbone]

7H:

I've experimented with the electrical tape idea, and variants, and it works, but not real practical if you are CCing. I'm a progressive eyeglasses guy myself. Yeah, the glasses can help you see the sights, but the target is even more fuzzy. I've found the best solution to be Crimson Trace grips. Of course, they're not available for all models, so you have to be selective.

Last fall I took a deer with an open sighted flintlock. Early morning, he was just back in a treeline. Poor light. I could see the sights, and no deer, or see the deer, but no sights. Deer have wondderful camoflage in a dimly lit woods! Probably took me 8 or 10 minutes to get a shot where I could see the deer and the sights with any certainty. The next day I bought an in-line with a nice scope for hunting. I still shoot the flinter, but only at well-lit paper.

I think this is what it boils down to for me: When it really counts, use a sighting system that will work for old eyes, i.e. Crimson Trace or a scope. For fun at the range, try other stuff.

Good luck!

RBH

[El Kabong]

Hi Dad,

If you are having trouble using your guns, I'll be more than happy to take care of them for you! :evil: :neener: ;)

[DBR]

MikeIsag:

You are right. I have no reason to be impatient with others on this forum.

I have been fighting this problem for more than ten years and I believe I have tried all of the available solutions including expensive prescription glasses. Certainly my solution may not be right for everyone however it does solve the problem for only a little money.

As far as self defense goes, I now use XS Big Dot sights on my carry guns. Even though the front sight looks like a fuzzy ping pong ball at least I can see it. Like they say, it is good for "minute of felon" at any distance I am likely to engage in legal self defense use of a firearm.

[MillCreek]

Like they say, it is good for "minute of felon" at any distance

What a very cogent comment. After all, this is really what CCW is all about, isn't it? My middle-aged eyes and brain are going to make an effort to remember this fine quote.

[mainmech48]

I tried a lot of different gadgets too. Some work great on the range, but how likely am I to have them at hand, much less be wearing them, any other time?

I went to XS sights on my most frequent CCWs for much the same reason already mentioned. They're fast to pick up, and capable of enough precision out to 25 yds or so to call your shots and make them. Not for bullseyes, but neither is my Para C7.45.

FWIW, I put a gold bead front on my 625, and it helped a great deal. While it may still be fuzzy at times, I can still hit better with it than I could with the old Patridge blade in similar circumstances. Ditto the fiber optic blade I put on my full-sized Springfield GM. Paired with a Novak XD rear that adjusts for elevation, it allowed me to at least remain competitive at local IDPA matches when I had to start wearing bifocals.

[brickeyee]

Practice with a Merit attachment to create the muscle memory for accurate shooting. I no longer shoot Bullseye due to medical problems, but used to win bets by out shooting folks at 25 yards eyes closed. You cannot win a match this way, but you can shoot well enough to beat many folks. After aligning to the target, the rest is muscle memory.
The same type of muscle memory is used for ‘hammers’. The first shot is aimed. The second shot is fired when the gun return to the same position without checking the sights. At 7 yards, the holes should be within 1-2 inches of each other.
All you need is ‘minute of assailant’ at a pretty close range to do the job.

[shu]

i found (at walgreen pharmacy) some soft plastic magnifying lenses.. look in the reading glasses displays.. semi-circular, about the diameter of a quarter cut in half. moisten with water (or lick) and stick to the inside of safety glasses.. i mounted one in the upper part of right side of some shooting glasses.. works great; front sight is clear, target is blurry.

when my distance vision started to go bad i got bifocals.. found them to be not satisfactory for computer use because the reading section was too strong at computer distance and was positioned too low in the frame. for computer use i had to lean forward and stick my nose up.. next pass at the optical shop i got trifocals and told the folks to place the middle lens band well high on the lens so i could keep my head level at computer distance.

unexpected benefit, the middle band is right there on the front sight with head level!.

i do prefer the first approach, the stick on reading lenses, which allows me to hunch over and sight through the top part of the lens.

best wishes - shu

[happy old sailor]

my personal odometer is about to roll on 74 so i have all these eye probs and more. i have good luck with red dots, YMMV. and, who said getting old is no fun?? i invite you to consider the alternative.

[mutt]

Don't know if this will help any or not. Helps me. a little red or orange of the wife's finger nail polish. Before eye catarac removal ( both eyes ) I had tri-focals. The tri was made very narrow and just beneath my level line of vision. The bi-focal was below that. worked wonderfully. Gonna' try for that again next time. The regular bi-'s are a pain . but the polish helps. ................................MUTT

[dairycreek]

and have been (still?) dealing with the problems of age and changing vision as they relate to shooting. There just is not an easy, quick answer. I highly recommend sitting down with your optometrist/opthamologist and explaining the importance of your shooting to you, what you want to be able to do, etc. Fortunately, my optometrist is also a shooter and it wasn't too hard to get him to listen. I have trifocals now and they seem to be working well for me. Experiment with sights on your gun. For me, being able to pick up that front sight quickly was a big, big problem. HiViz in orange works best for me.

It is a problem that will change over time which requires that you keep dealing with it. Getting old ain't for sissies and this is a real good example of that.

[Old Dog]

I'm finding the Hi-Viz (red) front sight over the v-notch rear sight on some of my S&W revolvers works very well for me outdoors, and indoors is still a big improvement over all-black or traditional 3-dots. Inside my local indoor ranges (with the typical spotty lighting) I still have problems, especially if I'm using targets with black centers (so I use the big orange dots). As for shooting semi-autos, I'm slowly converting some of my pistols to the XS system (that big white dot over the white bar is great).

I'm noticing that my forty-something eyes aren't nearly as bad in natural light; it's indoors under artificial light that I have the fuzzy sight picture thing happening ...

[rockstar.esq]

"One ragged Hole" Makes a ghost ring rear sight for most Rugers. From what I've heard, they work great. I even came across a cop with something similar on his Glock.

[PinnedAndRecessed]

I talked to my optometrist about this. He said that, once upon a time, a guy brought in a handgun into the office. The optometrist had the guy assume a shooting stance. The doc then measured the distance from the eye to the front sight and made the shooter eyeglasses corrected for that distance.