Old eyes

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Depending on what I'm shooting, my needs vary.

I am 67 and have my vision tested and corrected annually to nearly 20-20 but with a pretty serious astigmatism. I use traditional lined bi-focal lenses.

Pistol shooting is not a problem as I am focusing on the front sight and target through the single vision (upper) part of the lens.

For the most part shooting rifles with iron sights is the same. I use the upper portion of the lens with the front sight and more or less approximate the rear sight and I get along pretty well.

Shooting through scoped rifles is a challenge as the ocular lens is at a distance requiring the bi-focal (lower) portion of the lens. Just can't get the right check weld doing that though. I've thought about having a set of glasses made with the magnifiers on top just for scoped rifle shooting. Anyone else do this?

Or maybe I should just shoot the Enfield through the peep sight and call it good.
 
hso ;

I Truly understand the old eyes scenario. I have a repaired retinal detachment in my left eye and a tumor behind my right eye . All of that combined with old age have made me have to either scope my rifles, or go to aperture sights.

I have Williams Firesights riding on top of my Marlin 336 and my Marlin 39a. ( I just couldn't put scopes on my lever actions ;) ). I love my Williams aperture sights. They are responsible for my much improved groups.

Go to the Williams website and look for item code number 70018 . It will be described as the WGRS-336 set. It fits the Marlin 336 and 39a.

Hope this helps, Tentwing
 
You have to adjust your shooting methods to what your eyes will allow.
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No truer words need be said. :D

Those who suggested a visit to the eye Doctor have it right. I have only had one working eye since I was 2 years old so I have an annual eye exam on the good one. I am now 60 years old and can shoot with open sights while wearing my glasses on targets out to 600 yards. If you are having trouble focusing then do something about it rather than bitching on the internet......
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There is absolutely doodly jack...uh...squat an optometrist can do about a hardening lens, lack of ability to focus, except issue bifocals or in my case TRIfocals which IS the problem, not 20/20 vision. Hell, I'm 20/15 in my left eye, 20/70 corrected in my right eye, but learned to shoot left handed at age 8. I've been wearing glssses since age two. My mom kept my first pair. They are so cute. :D It's only been in the last 10 years that I've been having focus problems THAT bad, though I went to bifocals about 15 years ago. Again it has NOTHING to do with your corrected vision, but how well you focus rapidly on multiple planes of focus, which gets real hard when you get older. I'm only 62, but it started on me early.

A scope has a single plane of focus, makes it SO much easier to use. It might not be John Wayne macho, but then, I ain't John Wayne. And, heck, Chris Kyle used a scope! I ain't as macho as he, but neither was John Wayne in reality.
 
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Originally Posted by short barrel View Post
chich, I don't think I'll be "tossing" my guns out and getting a recurve bow. That's just silly, mainly because my shoulders won't stand up to a bow anymore. In my younger days, I killed plenty of deer with a longbow and wooden arrows.


I think you are referring to the poster one reply ahead of my reply.
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Yeah, that'd be me. I tried to hunt deer for years with a bow, but I cannot shoot lefty with a bow like I can with a rifle/shotgun. I can see well enough with SIGHTS on a bow to shoot targets in good light with my right eye, but in the woods in low light, it's another matter. SO, I gave up on the endeavor, but like to shoot targets, still. I feel I owe it to the game to make a clean shot and I feel I risk a bad shot with a bow, even a compound with sights.

My first ever deer was taken with a .257 Roberts and a Weaver KV 3x5 steel body scope. Was a running deer at 70 yards partially obscured by a ledge, btw, a good shot for a grown up methinks. This was in 1963 at the tender age of 11. I still have that rifle, but it wears a different scope, now. I've taken deer with iron sighted pistols, scope sighted pistols, iron sighted black powder, iron sighted SKS, scope sighted SKS, scope sighted inline black powder rifle, and even a shotgun using buck shot. I felt no less macho killing a deer cleanly with a scoped rifle than I did an iron sighted 6.5" Ruger Blackhawk single action revolver in .357 magnum. If you really want the challenge and you can't shoot a bow anymore, hell, get yourself an accurate handgun. Heck, you could try to get close enough for a head shot with a Beretta Jet Fire in .25 ACP. How macho would THAT be? It'd be legal in Texas.

A lot of my younger years I hunted out west, shot a mulie across a New Mexico canyon at 350 yards with my 7mm Remington Magnum, shot game beyond 200 yards in the west Texas desert, even shot a coyote out of a pitching boat at 370 lasered yards with my scoped .308. I could not have made those shots with an iron sighted .45-70, not even in my younger years, not without a lot of luck, anyway. I don't trust a clean kill on a deer to luck. Now days in my box blind, I'll have no shot over 100 yards, but I find a scope invaluable for other reasons. I generally keep the scope on the lowest power, but I still use a scope.
 
I love progressive lenses and my first pair gave me back the ability to shoot handguns but not rifles with iron sights. On down the age road I had to have a stronger lens and the handgun thing went away and rifles became possible. Now I'm on an even stronger lens and both are gone except for peep sighted rifles. I now use two different strength readers like you find at Walmart. The fly in the ointment with that solution is as the readers have to become stronger the closer my target has to be to even make it out. On the other hand scopes have never been a problem. Just adjust the focus to work with the new glasses and everything is OK.

Yes, your eye guy can offer a solution but it only lasts for a time. Then you have to do everything over and, trust me on this, it won't be as good as the one before.
 
I used to wear tri-focals, prior to my cataract surgery. To make iron sights sharp, I had the optometrist lab glue on a little lens (1/2" x 3/4") to the upper/inner corner of my master-eye lens. Its magnification made that area the same as the middle correction of the tri-focal.

No head tilting needed for the iron sights to be razor sharp. (Worked with bi-focals, also.)

Sure, the target was a trifle blurry, but not enough to keep me from center-punching it. Pistol or rifle, didn't matter.
 
I have always been farsighted. I was always a good shot at any range with irons up to about age 50. I haven't been able to see a rear sight since then. In my late 50's I started wearing glasses. For a few years I could use iron sights with glasses. Now, with glasses I cannot see the rear sight, I can see the front sight but have a hard time seeing the target at the same time. I can still shoot with peep sights on a still target by lining up the sights then focusing on the target but not with the extreme accuracy I was used to. Maybe 2moa at best. So with glasses I can hunt with peeps but it is not very practical. I pretty much use red dots or scopes. Another thing is that I was taught how to shot without any sights in the military. However that takes training and practice and I am a ways from doing it now. I think with practice I could do it at up ,to 50-75 yards. I do have training equipment from when I was an instructor. Then I could hit a nickel by throwing it the air and hitting it with a rifle shot with the sights removed. Don't try this at home with out training and a safe location.
If you can still use irons at age 70, more power to you. My eyes get worse each year.
 
when/if my eyes ever get bad enough that I can't focus or use the irons and if I want no magnification,i'd be using a 1x prism scope. something like the Vortex Spitfire 1x. also good for astigmatism. bright,clear,one plane and has a diopter but can still be a challenge to make the shot. basically,turning the clock back to when you were able to use irons easily.

iron sights is technology. old technology but still effective,durable,reliable and of primary importance to know how to use,..but still technology. optics is technology too.

did you feel like you were cheating when you were younger and/or had perfect vision and used irons well? of course not.

having said that,i can certainly understand issues with aesthetics and/or balance,especially on a lever action. ..but hso didn't say if that's the issue with his friend not wanting a "scope".
 
it just occurred to me that some of the shooting sports require iron sights to be used. Traditional muzzleloaders and the CAS/SASS rifle events are two that I can think of. If you go to one of these shoots you will mostly see squinty eyed grey bearded Old Farts on the line. I don't think even peep sights are allowed at most of these sorts of shoot...?
 
I mounted a Burris FastFire 3 on my Marlin 1894. It is small and black so it is pretty unobtrusive. The red dot is projected out at "infinity" so you really only need to focus on the target. Seems like the perfect sight for a 100 - 150 yard rifle. Took 2 deer with it last year.

My only complaint is that the detents on the dot adjustment are not pronounced enough, so it is hard to adjust in small increments. I can't seem to get my POI 2" high at 100 yards. I'm either dead on or 4" high.
 
Another vote for a peep sight. I couldn't shoot the factory iron sights worth a hoot, put on a skinner peep sight now I feel pretty comfortable hitting what I am trying to and fairly quickly at that. Amazing how easy they are to use.
 
Trent,

"A friend of mine" has the same issue, and dealt with it as you do until [strike] I[/strike] "he" got old. As [strike] I[/strike] "he"got into the flat spot on AZMikes graph, [strike] I[/strike] "he" couldn't focus even with the headache.

[strike] I[/strike] "He" still plays around with iron sights when shooting with the kids, but the serious rifles went through a progression of peep sights (which worked for a few years) and then scopes on the hunting rifles. To add insult to injury, [strike] I[/strike] "he" is left handed. Reaching across the top of a naked bolt gun to work the right-handed lever with the left hand is fairly simple. Even when slinged up, it didn't cause [strike] me[/strike] "him" to get too far out of position, and youth could overcome the bad technique. Add a scope, and that all changes. [strike] I[/strike] "He" had to buy some lefty bolt guns for hunting.

[strike] My[/strike] "His" lever guns still have aftermarket peep sights (Williams mostly). I guess [strike] I[/strike] "he" is that "stick in the mud" mentioned above when it comes to leverguns. If [strike] I[/strike] "he" didn't have the bolt guns, maybe, but for now they're keeping the peeps.
 
having said that,i can certainly understand issues with aesthetics and/or balance,especially on a lever action. ..but hso didn't say if that's the issue with his friend not wanting a "scope".
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Yeah, a scope just messes up the main thing I like about my little lever carbine, being able to wrap my hand around it and carry it so handily. :D It's a Rossi 92, not really easily scoped anyway. I have killed deer with it, but no longer hunt deer with it. I do, however, occasionally chase squirrel with it. I put a ghost ring on it years ago. I have a light .38 load, 105 grain Lee cast SWC over 2.3 grains bullseye that'll do anything a .22 will do. At 50 yards in good light off a rest, it'll fill a 1.5" circle, minute of squirrel. :D

I'm thinking about putting a Tech Sight on my SKS and maybe my 10/22 which I've scoped due to not being able to use the crappy open sights it came with. I have a peep, almost a ghost ring, on an M1 22 Chiappa I bought recently and have been shooting a lot. Fun gun and I can hit well with it.

Yes, ghost rings are the real solution for iron sighted shooting. I can still shoot my handguns fairly well, too, but not as well as I once did I'm afraid. I got no problem up close defense distance, but squirrel hunting with a handgun is best done now days with a LER pistol scope on my Ruger Mk 2. I also have a scope on my .30-30 barrel and my .22 Barrel for my Contender.

I missed a rabbit last night coming in from the box blind. I had my little SR22 with me. It was very low light and I could barely see the sight, but the rabbit was less than 15 yards, thought I could make the shot. Well, that got me to thinking about lasers. The SR22 has a rail on it for easy laser mounting. THAT should fire up the traditionalists! ROFL!

It's really not a big deal, but I just never thought of a scope as "cheating". I don't have that ethos. I'd rather cheat and be assured of a clean kill, myself, but to each their own. :D I do agree, ghost ring apertures are the easiest iron sights to use for old eyes. i'm likin' 'em a lot more these days, myself. :D
 
"He" still plays around with iron sights when shooting with the kids, but the serious rifles went through a progression of peep sights (which worked for a few years) and then scopes on the hunting rifles. To add insult to injury, I "he" is left handed. Reaching across the top of a naked bolt gun to work the right-handed lever with the left hand is fairly simple. Even when slinged up, it didn't cause me "him" to get too far out of position, and youth could overcome the bad technique. Add a scope, and that all changes. I "He" had to buy some lefty bolt guns for hunting.
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I taught myself to shoot lefty with my Benjamin pellet gun at age 8. I shoot right hand bolts with scopes. I've just always held the gun a little higher with my left hand on the grip, worked the bolt with my right hand, brought it back down. Of the rest of the typical blind or stand or cross sticks or monopod, I don't have to lift the gun. Has always worked for me. As a natural right hander, i never wanted a left hand gun, would be a little weird for me, too used to doing it the way I do it.

You might not be into rock, but Jimi Hendrix was a lefty who played a right hand guitar. More'n one way to skin that cat. :D If you're naturally left handed, might be a little weird working a bolt the way I do. I'm sitting here picturing trying to work a left hand bolt shooting right handed. :D
 
HankR said:
Trent,

"A friend of mine" has the same issue, and dealt with it as you do until [strike] I[/strike] "he" got old. As [strike] I[/strike] "he"got into the flat spot on AZMikes graph, [strike] I[/strike] "he" couldn't focus even with the headache.

[strike] I[/strike] "He" still plays around with iron sights when shooting with the kids, but the serious rifles went through a progression of peep sights (which worked for a few years) and then scopes on the hunting rifles. To add insult to injury, [strike] I[/strike] "he" is left handed. Reaching across the top of a naked bolt gun to work the right-handed lever with the left hand is fairly simple. Even when slinged up, it didn't cause [strike] me[/strike] "him" to get too far out of position, and youth could overcome the bad technique. Add a scope, and that all changes. [strike] I[/strike] "He" had to buy some lefty bolt guns for hunting.

[strike] My[/strike] "His" lever guns still have aftermarket peep sights (Williams mostly). I guess [strike] I[/strike] "he" is that "stick in the mud" mentioned above when it comes to leverguns. If [strike] I[/strike] "he" didn't have the bolt guns, maybe, but for now they're keeping the peeps.
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I *do* shoot MUCH better with peep site (AR15) than I do with blade & notch (Swiss K31/etc). It's easier for me to get a consistent center on the front sight in the ghost ring, than it is for me to get that notch and front blade to line up precisely. With the back sight getting hazy I never can seem to get that front post perfectly centered, like I can when centering the ghost ring / front sight.

I've already started shooting left handed - started a few years ago after a motorcycle crash injured my wrist badly. I found I actually shot better left handed with irons, because my left eye is an order of magnitude better than my right! (It's 20/200 instead of 20/600, and my corrected vision on left eye is 20/15, where as my right eye gets to about 20/30 at best). I'm dead even with a scope, left or right handed.

In another thread we discussed eye dominance and periodically my eye dominance changes. As my eyes change, my right eye gets worse, faster, than my left eye. This last time I went 4 years on a set of eyeglasses (I never follow the "every year" schedule I should), which led to my left eye being much clearer and my right eye having some strain.

The net result? My eye dominance shifted as my brain begins using my left eye predominantly! At this point, following the big shift, I can "coerce" the transition by reading each night with the eye I want to be dominant. I need to do this a few days or week in advance of "when" I want that eye to be dominant. So if I'm shooting left handed that coming weekend, I'll read with my left eye each night before bed, and work with my left eye on the computer during the day. Switch it up for right eye.

My left handed shooting initially was better with irons and scope, but mainly because I was paying so much attention to what I was doing. Shortly after I started it got worse, then gradually got better.

I can shoot either side now with rifle & shotgun, scoped or iron, with approximately the same skill.

Pistol is another story entirely.. I suck with my weak hand. Need to work on that next year. :)
 
I have a great ophthalmologist! :what:

I explained the problem, and our solution is a special set of shooting specs with the optical center of the right lens in the upper left corner of the right lens. The optical center is about 1/2" from the edge of the lens which is where I am actually looking through the lens when I use iron sights or a scope.

It took two tries with the optics lab but the manager made sure the second try was correctly made to order.
The left lens is just a normal (for me) single strength left lens.

Works great! :D


410
 
I see that many say they won't put a scope on their rifle.
I'm 63 with "old eyes" and have gone to 1-4 power scopes on all of my rifles that I would have shot with iron sights.
Absolutely no issues and have great, clear sight pictures.
Don't be afraid to use a low power scope. It makes shooting still enjoyable with "advanced" age eyes....lol.
 
http://www.bjonessights.com/
If your eyes arn't what they were earlier, take a look at this web site. This gentelman manafactures a lens that changes the "diopter" of your vision, if you cant see the front sight,he supplies the nessasary lens to fix that, if the reverse is the issue he also has a fix for that too. These appliances are furnished in a housing that screws into your existing rear peep housing. Lyman, Williams, Marbles are companys that make numerious types and designs, oh , also the Providance tool company makes a neat reciever sight for lever actions. I use these devices on all ny peep sighted rifles and have no complaint.
 
Scope, fiber optic, peep, use whatever it takes to continue enjoying the shooting sports. Time and age will take its toll, what purpose does it serve to place additional restrictions on yourself. Go see the eye doc, and take advantage of the opportunities available, all of them.
 
I have a set of peep sights on a M44 Mosin. They work well. I'm using the smallest size for the front and standard size for the rear. If you can find something like that with the proper corrective lens he should be good to go.
 
I just bought another iron sighted rifle and of course I can't see the sights without the readers I mentioned in my original post and I can't see the target well enough at 25 yards to get decent groups with the readers. A tang sight would be perfect except that it will be in the way. Thought about a Skinner peep sight that fits in the rear sight dovetail. Then I decided to try a Merit disc which would work for all my iron sighted guns. Out of stock at Brownells so I ordered the cheaper Lyman option just to see what's what. Sight showed up yesterday and guess what. I can see well enough to shoot at 25 yards again. When the adjustable Merit becomes available I will order one.

Admission: It isn't anything like having young eyes again of course but it will allow me to shoot some guns that I couldn't before without doing any sight replacement.
 
I am having cataract surgery on Monday but have been using 1x reading glasses for my open sights. It worked pretty well for my M1 sights, OK for my Mosin and 91 Argentine but was no help for my AR15 Carbine The sight radius is just too short. I use a 2.25 diopter for reading and hope I loose some of that after my surgery. I have heard that computer glasses are available in .5 diopter and are the set-up for old eyes.
After a month or so I will see how it goes and then if I have to will hit up an optometrist for corrected shooting glasses.
 
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