Old eyes & open sights... again.

[stuart cee dub]

I did the same thing Doug did and went to a mid range focus .

I had my glasses tuned by my optometrist so I could clearly see my front sight which is about 45'' inches from my right eye and let the rear sight fuzz out .The last sight picture I see before I shoot is a crisp front sight settling on a fuzzy target .Bifocals were not a consideration.Too confusing.

A national  service rifle match shooter told me about this idea at the local range one day regarding the front sight focus for glasses .However he had the added advantage of a peep sight .None of the other guys I shoot with bothered with special shooting glasses, just wearing their street glasses but it sounded plauseable to me so I tried it.

To get this to work you need to bring your gun in to the  eye doctors office ,mine has fitted shooters before so they did not freak out.My technician was more  used to  fitting shot gun shooters who prefer to focus on the clay bird letting their whole barrel fuzz out .As a rifle shooter the front sight is more important .

This is a great topic and I have learned a lot reading the responses 

[B Staley]

bgf, I read the article last night and will give it a try......B Staley

[Roger B]

Stuart has another excellent point.  Take an older pair of frames to your optician & have them put the focal point of your lens where your pupil is when sighting your rifle.  Just call around until you find someone who will do it.  Your glasses lens is set up to put the focal point in front of your pupil when everything is square & upright, not when you have your head at a severe angle on the stock.  When that happens, your lens actually distorts things a bit.  Combine that with a merit disk & you are on a par with the younger guys.  Get regular eye exams.  Glaucoma sneaks up on you.  If you have cataracts that limit your activity, get rid of them.  The surgery is fast & simple these days withe lens implants making the old coke bottle glasses unnecessary.
Roger B.

[Daryl]

I got my first pair of glasses when my hunting buddy could see gophers I couldn't.  On the next year's hunt, I had them too - wow- what a difference.  Then I tried shooting an open sighted rifle with them - not worth a whoop - the progressive lenses were just as Roger noted - they were out of focus in the upper left corner where I was looking at sights through.  I struggeled for the two years, then got a new perscription- again, my long distance perscription, but with bifocal - and a high bifocal to easily see the computer screen.  The long distance perscription is the total area of the upper lense, not just in front of the pupil with eye's front. with these glasses, the front sight is barely fuzzy, the rear more so, but I manage to shoot not too badly with them. I've tried shooting with low power magnifyers, and didn't like not seeing the target well.  Perhaps I need more practise with them before making a decision.

[Joe Stein]

Daryl, 
How do those work with pistol sights?  Can you see them as well as you can a rifle's sights?  Do you have enough range of focus to see the pistol front sight clearly enough to be accurate? 
Good posts in this thread.
_Joe

[smokinbuck]

G,
Went to a woods walk yesterday with my grandson, 15 yrs old. During the course he missed a target and the teasing got around to him needing glasses. He took "my" glasses and proceeded to clean most of the rest of the course!!!!
Mark 

[Collector]

Oh, did I forget to mention, that young eyes have a greater ability to 'adjust' to different lens strengths (within reason,) than older eyes?    As always, I have a 100% money back guarantee on all of my free advice. 

From a statistical standpoint, more participants and more events might prove to be not only interesting (statistically) but some fun besides.  Add/modify a rule: pull glasses out of a box/hat so that no one can see what glasses they are going to get to improve the variability factoring.

[Daryl]

Pistol sights aren't as good as the rifle sights, that's for certain.  My handgun accuracy has indeed suffered.  I am thinking of trying an express-type sigth for handgun to see if that helps - wide V and bead front sight.  I don't quite know what I'll do for long-range shooting with a wide V, though. With normalhandgun sights on the 4",  I'd merely hold up the 'range' place the ran on top of it and ring the 300 meter sheep sil.  With the bead - not sure, but I'll figure it out - mabye to hold it at 6 o'clock and figure how much blade, is all.  Might be easy.

[frogwalking]

I still do pretty well with a pistol as the sights are close together. 

When I was a young fellow, I saw an old hog rifle at Miller's that had four or five filled in dovetails in the rear portion of the barrel, with the existing sight almost half way down the barrel.  Miller told me the rifle had apparently belonged to the same man for much of its working life.  As his eyes got worse, he moved the rear sight forward so he could get both sights in a reasonable semblance of focus.  My rifles have the rear sight about 15 inches from the breech.  I still can't see them well, but better than if they were closer.  Of course, in doing this one gives up the advantage of having the longest possible sight radius.  Brownels are out of the eye glass attachment mentioned earlier but I plan to get one when they receive their new stock. 

[beleg2]

Very interesting thread.
FWIW:
John "Pondoro" Taylor , famous British African hunter recommend to put back sight as far to the front as you can as you get older.
Remember he get his money hunting dangerous game withexpress sighted rifles almost every day.

BTW:
he hunted with a muzzleloader during some time when he could not get ammo for his NE rifles.

Thanks
Martin

[Harnic]

G,
Went to a woods walk yesterday with my grandson, 15 yrs old. During the course he missed a target and the teasing got around to him needing glasses. He took "my" glasses and proceeded to clean most of the rest of the course!!!!
Mark  

Don't those young smarties just drive you nuts Mark?  

As usual, some interesting replies to my rant.  The Merit Disc works well for me & I'll continue to use it unless something better comes along.  If a shoot has banned them because someone has used it to gain an advantage, I'll sit that one out... who wants to shoot with cheaters anyway!    Thank you gentlemen.

[smokinbuck]

Harnic,
Yes they sure do. But I figure that as long as they are winning a few things they will keep coming back. They are the future.
Mark

[Fred]

Having had a tremendous amount of eye surgery and looking at cataract surgery in a week or so I happened to pick up an Austin & Halleck with fiber optic sights. I took it to the range and wow. My old 45 year old flinter now has them on it I haven't been able to hit anything with it for years. It may not be PC but it works and the old flinter and I are going deer hunting this year.

[Roger Fisher]

It's tough to change old habits i/e. squinting down the sights with one eye; but I'm trying to teach myself to shoot offhand rifle with both eyes open.  (Well my left eye open a 'little') Hard to train an ol dog; but it worked this past weekend shoot 'sometimes'   Anyone out there do this with success?

[Harnic]

Mark, you are so right!  We need to keep the youngsters coming & try to attract more.  Both my sons grew up shooting & still enjoy it, I always encourage them to bring any friends along who are game to try as well.

It's tough to change old habits i/e. squinting down the sights with one eye; but I'm trying to teach myself to shoot offhand rifle with both eyes open.  (Well my left eye open a 'little') Hard to train an ol dog; but it worked this past weekend shoot 'sometimes'  Anyone out there do this with success?

Roger, I have always shot with both eyes open, especially when shooting offhand.  I figure when you're out hunting, why handicap yourself by closing half your ability to see?!    Before I got old & feeble, it worked well for me, now just holding the danged rifle still is the biggest challenge!  

[smylee grouch]

Yes, shoot with both eyes open, you should get more field of view and can pick out targets alot sooner. You will have to do as you did, squint with one eye until you train your self but once you train your self you wont regret it. Most top notch shootgun shooters shoot with both eyes open. My old drill Sgt. taught us to do it by threats and I'm glad he did. It works wonders for many shooting ailments.    Gary

[Daryl]

Shooting both eyes open is the "propper" method of aiming, but does not work if the eyes are very close in dominance - at least that is the problem I have when using both eyes. The only time I can, is wing shooting and all I look at is the bird, clay or otherwise, never looking at the barrel - when using a modern orpercussion shotgun. With a flintlock, I must close one eye or cannot pick up the clay or bird before they are out of range, the eyes bouncing dominance back and forth.
If you can do it, it is a good idea as shooting both eyes open will help admit a LOT more light and should compliment your shooting. Seeing is hitting.

[Harnic]

Daryl brings up a good point.  Eye dominance is a huge factor in whether one can shoot with both eyes open.  I can shoot equally well with either eye, when shooting pistol I often aim with my left eye as it is clearer as I age.  I believe many folks who can't shoot with both eyes open have that problem because their other eye is dominant & it claims focus when aiming... !@*%&@ hard to aim with the right eye when the left one is the one you're looking through!  When I was gunsmithing I had dozens of shooters who came through my shop with shooting/aiming problems & many of them were trying to aim with their weak eye.  When my generation was young left handed kids were often taught to write with their right hands because it wasn't "normal" to do things left handed, consequently they became comfortable working with their right hands, but their left eye remained dominant, causing no end of trouble for them when they became shooters.  I convinced a few to shoot left & once they adapted they did much better.

[bgf]

I thought eye-strain was the reason most often given for keeping both eyes open.  Don't some people use a cover/shade for the "off" eye?  I do it both ways at times, but prefer cyclops mode, as my weak eye further distorts the picture -- it is only slightly less dominant .

[Hank*in*WV]

I've always shot both eyes open. My eyes don't seem to tire out and get blurry as easily, especially with age.

[Daryl]

I thought eye-strain was the reason most often given for keeping both eyes open.  Don't some people use a cover/shade for the "off" eye?  I do it both ways at times, but prefer cyclops mode, as my weak eye further distorts the picture -- it is only slightly less dominant .

Good point about eye-strain, bgf  I have a pair of glasses, with taped over left lense, and no lense in the right side for shooting position so I can have both eyes open. There is considerably less strain, especially in prone.  They would be good to wear when chunk shooting.  Some of the more expensive shootng glasses have a 'blank' swing bracket that covers whichever eye is your non-dominant eye.

[Flinter]

I never focus on the front or rear sight. They are just there. I always focus on the target. Maybe, this is because I have shot at a lot of moving targets. I don’t have time to focus on anything but the target when I shoot like this. I also shoot with both eyes open. I have tried to teach my son this, but to no avail. I can not understand why someone would close one eye to shoot. 

Mike

[Roger Fisher]

I never focus on the front or rear sight. They are just there. I always focus on the target. Maybe, this is because I have shot at a lot of moving targets. I don’t have time to focus on anything but the target when I shoot like this. I also shoot with both eyes open. I have tried to teach my son this, but to no avail. I can not understand why someone would close one eye to shoot. 

Mike

Well now Flinty, this made me smile (some) I am now trying to train myself new tricks (in shooting)   Squinting down the sights with left eye (kinda) closed/open is just one of my bad habits I learned many/many moons ago.  Best I can remember was sitting on the John and leaning the ol .22 on the bathroom window sill shooting sewer rats off the dump behind the house.  My eye/eyes were in a little better shape then at age 12 or so!  btw this was in town.  Little gun problems those days.

[Daryl]

I never focus on the front or rear sight. They are just there. I always focus on the target. Maybe, this is because I have shot at a lot of moving targets. I don’t have time to focus on anything but the target when I shoot like this. I also shoot with both eyes open. I have tried to teach my son this, but to no avail. I can not understand why someone would close one eye to shoot. 

Mike

Mike - Shooting both eyes open is the "proper" method of aiming, but does not work if the eyes are very close in dominance - at least that is the problem I have when using both eyes.  If both eyes are open, eye dominance switches back and forth with fuzzy inline and side views.  It is distracting and too imprecise to use.

[Robert Wolfe]

I have to close my left eye - I'm right handed and strongly left eye dominant.