Shooting w/ Reading Glasses - Old Eyes?

[JoePfeiffer]

My distance vision is pretty close to perfect (had LASIK two weeks ago), but at my age I need reading glasses. I just bought a set of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0058...165_QL70#ref=mp_s_a_1_7&qid=1392842834&sr=1-7 in 1.25, and was able to pop the lens out of the left insert with no problem. I'll be trying them out later this week.

 

[sig228]

........I use a pair of flip down magnifiers over my regular shooting glasses. ........I flip them down when shooting and back up when they're not needed.

I found the right strength by going to the local Walgreens and looking through the lenses of various reading glasses while wearing my regular shooting glasses. I'm sure I looked like a doofus wearing glasses and holding up readers in front of them.......

Thank you, that was my answer. Flip up reading glasses. I looked pretty stupid too at CVS, but determined that I need a 1.5 over my regular glasses. I downloaded an eye chart on my iphone that is used at arms length distance. I can see perfectly!!

 

[bracer]

There are scope sites on most of my rifles, even pellet rifles. Scopes on two hand guns. It 78 years old I need all the help I can get..

 

[bracer]

There

 

[HOWARD J]

My lens smoked up so I had to get plastic inserts---I now can see very well but I need glasses for close range small print book reading---my left eye has done a lot of the work all my life---if my left eye gets weak I will be in trouble---AT MY AGE I DON'T THINK IT MATTERS TOO MUCH.

 

[hiplains]

After having tried various forms of my glasses, I have bi-focals, am far sighted, I went to my eye doc and he gave me some daily wear contacts. I've never had much luck with contacts but gave them a try. With them in place and a pair of shooting glasses, yellow tint, it was if I had gone back in time prior to glasses. Worked well. One note, the contacts are daily wear, after eight hours, change them, it really does make a difference.

I use the 2.0 diopter in the contacts. It makes sighting much easier, no parralax induced, cheek weld is spot on if I do my part. Unlike the rest of my family, I've only needed glasses for a few years, too much time in front of a computer screen finally did it. Worth looking into, I found it a great way to get the sight picture I want.

 

[Pete D.]

I had an optometrist make me a lenses for my dominant eye that gives me clear focus on objects at arms length....like a front sight on a pistol.
The Merit disc works also, as does a clip on adjustable iris from Gehmann.
So far the aperture on my service rifle clears my vision of the front sight and allows me to see the target.
For Smallbore prone I use apertures on the rear and on the front.

 

[JoePfeiffer]

My distance vision is pretty close to perfect (had LASIK two weeks ago), but at my age I need reading glasses. I just bought a set of these http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0058...165_QL70#ref=mp_s_a_1_7&qid=1392842834&sr=1-7 in 1.25, and was able to pop the lens out of the left insert with no problem. I'll be trying them out later this week.

Tried them out yesterday, and they worked very well. I've never been able to shoot with both eyes open (my guess is that this is because my dominant eye had enough astigmatism that I was seeing a bit better with the other -- regardless, with both eyes open I couldn't keep the various multiple images straight); with these glasses I not only kept both eyes open but was able to focus on the sights and target simultaneously. Win!

 

[Pete D.]

); with these glasses I not only kept both eyes open but was able to focus on the sights and target simultaneously. Win!

It is surely great that you are seeing so clearly. A note, however.....as I understand it, it is an
optical impossibility to focus on two separate objects at two distances at the same time.
What happens is that clear vision allows us to switch back and forth rapidly between the front sight and the target.

 

[Welding Rod]

Thanks for the great input, I have several things now to try.

 

[JoePfeiffer]

It is surely great that you are seeing so clearly. A note, however.....as I understand it, it is an
optical impossibility to focus on two separate objects at two distances at the same time.
What happens is that clear vision allows us to switch back and forth rapidly between the front sight and the target.

Ordinarily, it would be impossible. What makes the difference here is that I have a correcting lens in front of one eye -- without that, you're right the best you can do is switch back and forth (assuming you're young enough to even do that!).

 

[W.E.G.]

"Computer Glasses"

I wear a +0.50 when I'm sitting at a desktop computer.
Anything stronger than that falls in the "reading glasses" category, and forces me to crawl up to the monitor like I'm trying to figure out: "Is that a leg or an arm?" -- well you know.

Impossible to buy anything less than a +1.00 in any of the department stores.

The Bob Jones lenses are a good source for incremental lenses of less than +1.00 if you want to deal with lenses in the aperture.

In addition to needing a set of "computer" glasses, I was wondering whether the less-than 1.00 magnification might help me for highpower rifle shooting.

After much teeth-gnashing and taking the name of Google in vain, I finally found a source for glasses of less than +1.00.
Make a note of this, because you or somebody you know, will want these type of glasses at some point.

Here's the link: http://www.computerglassesdirect.com/ordernow.html

I wrote a summary of some of my experience with them on the FAL Files at http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=332659&highlight=glasses

Here's a cut-and-paste:

I was not impressed with the spendy bifocal offerings, and I refuse to go through the hassle and expense of an eye exam, and then pay for custom-made glasses that are nothing more than low-power readers.

I kept pecking through Google, and I finally found what I was looking for.
http://www.computerglassesdirect.com/ordernow.html

Straightforward LOW-POWER glasses.
The site offers a PDF document that is supposed to help you figure out what "power" you need. That document just gave me a headache.

So, I ordered three pair in three different powers respectively.
Level-1 = .25 Diopter (Slight Magnification)
Level-2 = .50 Diopter (Medium Magnification)
Level-3 = .75 Diopter (Strong Magnification)

At the computer, the .25 glasses didn't have enough horsepower.
The .50 glasses were just about perfect, and they make a HUGE DIFFERENCE for me. I can finally see the monitor, and everything on the desk (especially the keyboard keys) with reasonable clarity.
The .75 glasses seemed OK too, but they made my head feel just a touch "swimmy," and didn't seem to offer any more clarity than the .50 glasses.

I think the 0.50 glasses also just became my new shooting glasses for pistol.

I used PayPal to pay for the glasses. Be careful if you use PayPal, because the site will charge you three separate shipping fees. I ended up getting dinged for about $20 shipping for three pair of glasses. The owner of the business (seems to be a mom-and-pop operation) was very understanding of my complaint about the triple-shipping-charge, and he said he's shipping me another pair of the 0.50 glasses gratis to compensate for the shipping overcharge. If I had to do it again, and I were ordering multiple pairs, I think I'd just send an email to Bob Colwell at [email protected] stating what other glasses I wanted, and arranging for just a straight PayPal payment (not through the "shopping cart") so that the automated shopping cart wouldn't charge me multiple shipping fees. It only cost $6.10 to ship three pair Priority Mail.

Some of my shooting buddies are using the "computer glasses" to shoot pistol.

I agree, the +0.50 glasses really bring the pistol front sight into focus, and for shooting at a man-size silhouette at 8 yards, I can see where it makes sense to let the (big) target go blurry, and keep optical focus on the pistol front sight.

But, what does that have to do with highpower rifle shooting?

Well, you can try the different-power glasses from the computer glasses people.
Pretty inexpensive really, and you don't have to mess with lenses in your service rifle aperture.
If you're that guy who just HAS TO HAVE the +0.375 lens or the +0.625 lens, then the computer glasses aren't going to be for you.

I messed around with the computer glasses and my service rifle.
At 100 yards, I could smoke the reduced 600 target while wearing the computer glasses.
Just wow.

Problem came when I got out at "full distance" with the computer glasses.
At 300 yards I pretty much could hardly even see the target with the same glasses that worked so well at 100 yards.

So, what to do?
Hell if I know.

After experimenting with various prescriptions, I came to the conclusion that the most VERSATILE prescription for me was the one that made the targets crisp.
Yes, my front sight is fuzzy - but not so fuzzy that I can't still hold the 10-ring.
People will try to tell you that you can't shoot good scores if the front sight is fuzzy. I'm here to tell you, that piece of "conventional wisdom" is untrue.
Very confidence-inspiring too to be able to read the number boards clearly through the rear aperture.

I hear these stories about shooters who pick out some reference point on the berm, and then "count-over" some number of targets to get lined up on the correct target, and I just cringe. If I had to do that, I think I'd take up knitting.