Prescription glasses and shooting

O

old_sparky

New member
prescription glasses

I started wearing prescription safety glasses twenty years ago but the prescription was for close up work and my distance vision exceeded 20-20. Never had a problem, buddy's use to use me to help them work up their loads. I prided myself on being able to shoot well. Turned 40 and vision went wacko. Changing every time I went to get new glasses. 45 came bifocals. Since then I have tried them all progressive etc. The problem is shooting with a scope. At the range the other day I was thinking of seeing glasses with the bifocal in the upper corner of the shooting eye. Anyone use these. I notice if I can use the progressive part of my lens My cross hairs are sharper. I did shoot some groups that were satisfactory but it was very frustrating and it took allot of time. Any help is appreciated
thanks, Sparky
 
Exactly the same position for me. Used to be I could see like a hawk....now I struggle to either use the glasses or focus without them. Riflescopes don't lend themselves glasses use at all.
 
Been wearing progressive lenses for years and MY scopes have presented zero problems. I just adjust the ocular lens for my present set of glasses. Takes a few minutes, but is pretty easy to do (just follow the directions that came with the scope if you are unfamiliar with how to do this). The problem comes in when I try to use SOMEONE ELSE'S scope that is adjusted for their eyes (or left with the factory adjustment) - a big blur for me!

My biggest frustration with wearing glasses is rifle shooting with iron sights (notch rear). Open sights don't work at all any more. Aperture sights are ok as long as the barrel is long enough. AR15 sights won't work because the front sight is too close to my eyes.

The progressive lenses are GREAT for handgun shooting, though. Just tilt my head until the front sight is in perfect focus! Can't do that with a rifle.
 
Last edited:
Old eyes..can't live with them, can't live without them, IMHO.

Love my progressive lenses but have had separate special shooting glasses made up for handguns and rifles. My dominant right eye lens is focused for handgun front sight and somewhat closer for scoped rifles..both left lenses are regular distance corrected only.. Works for me.

Agree that you can tilt your head with progressives for handgun shooting however that was neither fast nor consistent for me.
 
I had wavefront LASIK done about three months ago, and I have to say, I am loving it for shooting and hunting. Wish I had done it sooner.
 
I have worn glasses all my life. Went through the Lasic testing only to be told it will not work on my eyes. The only good thing is that my eyes over the last few years have improved some. I set the ocular lins for my use and use to not allow anyone else to change the setting however I mark the it so that I can tell where it was set now it does not mater if someone changes it.
 
My eyes arnt what the use to be either,had to go to glasses
about 5 yrs ago,sucks especially in the winter.Im working on getting lasic done before the fur season.I hate using glasses to shoot.
 
I set the ocular lens so that I can see clearly wihout glasses. I wear progressive, and most of the correction I need is for seeing up close. Distance vision isn't 20/20 but fair. The upper part of my glasses are for taking care of some stigmatism issues. I can and do set my scopes so I can use my rifles without glasses just in case I had to do so. I can also tilt my head and look thru the frames without the lens being involved while wearing my glasses. I haven't tried it yet, but if one needed additional adjustment than what the scope provide, one could find it with an AO scope.
 
Until 2 years ago my eyes were never anything but perfect.

THEN, I start hitting that middle age "Can't see up close thing"....

I got reading glasses for my up-close work.

I noticed that my groups were not as good, & my scopes just weren't as clear as they used to be....I was putting in some bench-time with a rifle & had my reading glasses on to adjust the scope turret & inadvertantly left them on when I went to sight thge target again...DANG! Big difference.

I had never thought that the scope sight picture would be considered "up-close" work, but I had not seen the bullseye that well in a couple of years. I could actually see the bullet holes I was making at 100 yards with my .223... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

That got me to thinking that if by putting reading glasses on would help old geezers like me see better & shoot better through a scope, couldn't I make a "Corrective Scope Cap" that would slide on the scope & allow us the same vision as reading glasses???

Kinda like a Monicle that would give you a clear scope picture, without having to wear reading glasses.

If you try & wear reading glasses to hunt with, you can't see distances. SO, if your +1.75 correction were already on the scope, you would get a clearer scope picture without messing with glasses.

Do you guys think that would sell enough to make it worth my time to market it? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif

Barry
 
Barry, that may be somthing. I use a magnifying lens in my welding helmet. And I have heard of lab techs having their correction on microscopes. If I spend any time taking my glasses on and off looking thru binoculars or spotting scopes I start feeling kinda like road sickness. The eye doc says its my astigmatism. What do old bench shooters do? Anyone have a clue?
thanks, Sparky
 
I have tri focals, non progressive. I do some computer work and have found the mid range works well for this, as it does for focus on the front sight of a pistol. With practice it will work fine. The other problem is safty glasses for shooting. I had Decot make me some shooting glasses in the mid range and they work well with both iron and scope sights, rifle or pistol. Hunting is another problem, I should wear glasses to hunt but I don't. A oversize glasses to fit over your rx glasses would really help.
Jim
 
I've been recommending this getting old thing to every young person I know. I've now progressed to tri-focals and progressives. I've simply got to put the glasses up on top of my head to see thru scopes. I don't think this is going to get any better as time goes on. It does make the grand daughters very happy when they outshoot me though.
 
Quote:
I set the ocular lens so that I can see clearly wihout glasses. I wear progressive, and most of the correction I need is for seeing up close. Distance vision isn't 20/20 but fair. The upper part of my glasses are for taking care of some stigmatism issues. I can and do set my scopes so I can use my rifles without glasses just in case I had to do so. I can also tilt my head and look thru the frames without the lens being involved while wearing my glasses. I haven't tried it yet, but if one needed additional adjustment than what the scope provide, one could find it with an AO scope.



I set reticle focus without my glasses and slide'm down abit and look over the top of my glasses when shooting.
 
Barry:

Have you ever experimented with adjusting your scope focus to see how clear you can make it without glasses? I'm in the progressive bi-focal club, but I'm lucky in that I can still see great at about 1 foot (+/- 3 inches) /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
All of my scopes have the ability to focus perfectly if I take my glasses off and adjust them.
It's great to live a long life, eh?
(keep telling yourself that).
How well can you see through binocs without your glasses?
As good as with them on? I can if I change the focus, maybe clearer even. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
I shot HP rifle competition w/iron sights many years after having trifocals with a great deal of assistance from my Optician. Talked with him about needing to sharpen the front sight and he had me bring my rifle and a reduced target to his office where he slipped various lenses behind the rear sight until we found the best one.

The target blurs with too much power but the trick (w/irons) is to choose a compromise that sharpens front sight while target remains relatively clear.

Barry, I think your idea of a corrective lense cap would work great for anyone who can see well enough to hunt w/o glasses or with single vision prescription. One thing to take into account is, say you use the +1.75 reading glasses and your sight picture is super clear. Then, let's assume your regular prescription glasses are +.50. If you need your prescription glasses to hunt with, you would reduce the power of the ocular lens cap by +.50 IIRC. (It's been a few years since we made those lenses for my rear sight, so better check this formula w/an optician.)

A bit too late for me, however, since I can't see to find my progressives in the morning so have to be sure and place them in the same place each night. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Regards,
hm
 
Back
Top