Irons sights/target-one of them is blurry

[wiiawiwb]

I have a Rossi 92 levergun and am having trouble getting a clear picture of both the target and sights. If I wear my contacts, the 25-yard target is clear but the front and rear iron sights are fuzzy. If I wear reading glasses at the range then I can focus on a clear front/rear sight alignment but the target is barely discernable.

What is the solution? I could spend $400 for bifocals but I hate to do that as I won't use the bifocals for anything else.

 

[M-Cameron]

thats proper shooting, your eyes are fine.

unless you are shooting a diopter sight, you are not going to have a clear picture on both.

traditional rifle shooting dictates that you focus on the front sight, and let everything else blur.

however personally, i believe that if you have a good cheek weld and sight alignment, that you should focus on the target, and let the sights blur.

 

[MrBorland]

You want the front sight in focus, but not to the extent the target is indecipherably blurry, which is what you'll likely get if you use your reading glasses.

A rule of thumb is to take your distance prescription and add 0.75 diopters to it. If your distance vision is fine, then, and your reading glasses are, say +2.0, a +0.75 prescription would work pretty well. If adding 0.75 to your distance prescription gets you to +1.25 or higher, you might find a pair in your local CVS or grocery store. Otherwise, Bob Jones "Harry Potter" glasses are affordable, and might be worth considering.

Otherwise, it might be time to consider an optic.

 

[Bama Drifter]

Proper sight picture includes 3 things, each getting further from the shooter's eye: rear sight, front sight, & target. Our human eyes allow us to focus on only ONE focal plane at a time, but we have three things to line up for an accurate shot!

So we compensate by finding our natural point of aim, relaxing, using proper breathing and trigger control and visually lining up the sights as best we can prior to intently focusing on our front sight, then pressing the trigger for a "surprise break". If our eyes are focused on anything besides the front sight, the shot will be off. Attached photo says more than I can describe.

To sum it up, just remember the true words of the late great LtCol Cooper: "Front sight, squeeze!"

 

[CZ9shooter]

It is impossible to focus on two objects at different distances. So you have to pick one or the other. Eveything I have ever learned says that the front sight is the right answer.

 

[wally]

Its optics. You (or a camera) can only focus on a single plane, when you are young enough your eyes can accommodate (focus) quickly enough that you could fool yourself into thinking that all three were in focus at the same time, but they never really were.

Eventually age moves your near point of vision (unless severely myopic to start with) out to the point that the front sight is a blur without "reading glasses". A "shooting prescription" can help, so can an aperture (pinhole) over the shooting eye (at the expense of losing most of the light, although its fine for afternoons at the range). But to use irons you need to be able to see the front sight clearly and learn to be consistent with the alignment of the blurry rear sight and target.

By about age 60 I pretty much totally gave up on iron sights except for the most casual plinking. I use red dot optics or scopes. My left eye can still just barely focus on the front sight of a handgun so if I tilt my head and close my right eye (right eye dominant) I can do OK, but its slow and uncomfortable. I've played with shooting rifles left-handed, but at this point, scopes are more "natural" for me. I never even fired a gun with a scope until I was in my high thirties.

 

[smithman 10]

Irons

I'm 68 and still enjoy shooting with iron sights, both open like on a Model 94 Winchester 30-30 or aperture as on an AR-15, M-1 Garand and such.

I do most of my shooting with my regular prescription glasses. I cheat a little and use a set of reading glasses when shooting my revolvers in PPC matches but if I shoot IDPA, I use the glasses I wear everyday.

The front sight may be a little blurry for old eyes, but you can still get decent results.

I encourage everyone not to give up shooting irons entirely, even if we do have access to all these new fangled red dot thingies!

 

[rcmodel]

Front sight, Front sight, Front Sight!!

That is your mantra while squeezing of the shot.

As others more eloquently stated, your eye can only focus on one distance at a time.

So, the front sight it has to be.

Everything else will take care of itself, even though slightly out of focus.

rc

 

[jmr40]

Perfectly normal. The front sight, rear sight and target are all different distances from your eye. It is impossible for your eye to focus on more than 1 at a time even with perfect vision. If you want the sights and target in focus you'll have to go with optics.

 

[MrBorland]

I can focus on a clear front/rear sight alignment but the target is barely discernable

Y'all are missing an important point the OP made (my emphasis above).

Yes, you should focus on the front sight, and yes, the target will be somewhat blurry, but no, it shouldn't be "barely discernable". "Barely discernable" isn't normal (in that it's not optimal), and it'd be best to alter your prescription so you're able to see the front sight clearly, with the target appearing a bit blurred.

 

[wiiawiwb]

I'll clarify my OP. When I go to the range, I use a red paper pie plate as my target at 25 yards. I tried using reading glasses (over my protective glasses) and could perfectly align the front sight within the semi-buckhorn rear. The red pie plate was a really fuzzy target. My shots ended up being pretty good.

When I took off the reading glasses, I could really align the fuzzy sights with a crisp pie plate. The result were not too bad but not nearly as good as when I could focus on the iron sights.

I guess my experience bears out what everyone has said. Front sight trumps all.

 

[PapaG]

I can remember cutting a new dovetail and moving a buddie's rear sight a foot forward on his muzzle loading rifle so he could see both. Looked a little funny, sights only about 18" apart on a 36" barrel but when he started winning, other people figured we were on to something.

 

[LoneGoose]

wiiawiwb, I used to shoot pistols very well. Then my eyes got old and I could not get either front or rear sight to come into focus. It affected my shooting. Then I found an item on the internet.

Go to www.seebettershootbetter.com and check it out. Basically, it is an aperture that you attach to your safety glasses and look through. Just like the aperture setting on a camera can increase the "depth of field" for a photo, this aperture gives you a clearer picture of the front and rear sights. I use mine every time I shoot. Good luck.

 

[Milkmaster]

Try some peep sights. That is what works for me. The peep orifice is a lot closer to your face. You tend to look through and center the rear sight correctly and focus on the front sight and beyond better. My older eyes have found that to be a great workable combination for plinking or hunting. Good Luck!

 

[mgkdrgn]

Two words for you:

Skinner Peeps

You'll thank me later.

 

[Sunray]

"...over my protective glasses..." Your reading glasses should be protective. Unless they're those daft granny glasses. Then focus on the front sight with the pie plate on top.
The semi-buckhorn rear is the culprit. Peeps are your friend. Williams Gunsights.

 

[natman]

Yes, it is impossible to focus on the front sight and the target at the same time. However, if you have normal eyesight and are young enough, you can focus on the front sight and then shift your focus to the target. When you get a bit older your eyes aren't as flexible as they once were so you can't do that any more. You can get around that using bifocals to give you one prescription for close work and one for distance, but that doesn't work for shooting because it requires that you move your head to switch between them.

After a certain age you just can't shoot using open sights anymore. Peep sights will help because the small aperture will increase your depth of field. The long term fix is to get a scope because that will put the target and the sight on the same plane.

 

[BCRider]

My experience has been that I get the best accuracy when the front sight is sharp. And I certainly do not focus on the target or the group is roughly the size of a small hill as a result.

A buddy that needs 3.0's to read a book or menu found that he gets pretty good results using 1.25's for his rifle shooting. With this weaker power reading glasses the front sight is just sharp or at least near enough to sharp while the distant target isn't so blurry as to be invisible.

Hard edged bifocals don't work because the sights and the target are all in line with each other. So one or the other will be out of focus depending on which side of the hard line you're looking through. Folks with progressive bifocals have a better time of it since they can find the sweet spot between the upper and lower areas.

Peep sights are the way I like to go as well. And the better ones are the receiver or tang mounted versions that have small size apertures.

Another option I've played with for handgun shooting where I'm after small bullseye groups is an aperture on my shooting glasses. I've yet to try it on a rifle with plain iron sights but i don't see why it wouldn't work out as well.

A way to try it out at near zero cost is to use a leather punch or something suitable to punch a clean round hole that is around 1/16" to 3/32" into a bit of electrical tape and simply stick the patch of tape on your glasses at a spot where you'll look through the small hole while sighting the rifle. It only works in good light since it's limiting the amount of light you will see. But at the same time the aperture that close to your eye will tend to increase your eye's depth of field which makes both the target and front sight a little sharper at the same time.