Eyes getting older sights getting fuzzier

[eagle24]

I'm in those years where your arms start getting too short to read without glasses.  In fact, in the last 2 years I have gone from reading glasses to wearing progressive lenses full time.  Very little correction in my distance vision, but there is a little.  Eye doc tells me that in the next year or so, it should level off and be what it will be from then on most likely.  My question is:  How far from the breach do some of you (that have been through the shortening of the arm stuff) have to put your rear sight?  I built a rifle a couple of years ago and put the rear sight almost over the entry thimble.  I swear it's gotten fuzzy in the last year or so even though it is probably 13" or so out.

[Daryl]

Gets to a point, Greg, where you won't see a sharp rear sight, no matter where it is and the front will have a 'glow' as well. That's where mine are now. 

Sight design then becomes more important than position and the easiest to see for some aging eyes are wide V's (Express sights) with beads.  The fuzz in the wide V doesn't hurt as much as with narrow V sights as the ears are so wide, the steel is still quite distinguishable and the bead, although fuzzy, still gives an accurate sight picture.  We know the ball strikes in the centre of the bead, so the fuzz or halo doesn't disturb the actual impact location. Wiht a fuzzy blade, the top is not distinguishable and that makes for trouble.

With bead sights, the bead (small or large diameter) is raised above the bottom of the groove to give elevation for longer shooting - which practise will make an automatic adjustment in time.  Usually about a 1/16" is good for going from 50 to 100yards.  I usually sight my trail rifles for zero at 25 yards. This puts them 1/2" or so high at 50 yards and raising the bead (or blade) 1/16" gives a 100yard zero.

With a wide, shallow V sight, the bead sits in the bottom of the V. I like to cut a very small, shallow, easily visible notch there as a more vivid indicator of the centre. I sit the bead on top of that notch.  It is barely visible but I feel it helps with accuracy shooting. When game shooting, this sort of sight is the fastest open sight there is.  If the design wasn't the best, the dangerous game rifles & "best quality" modern and antique ctg. rifles wouldn't have them.

in my honest opinion

Several of the guys here have tried them and like them.

 

[Standing Bear]

The use of a pin hole or aperture located either on the gun as a rear sight or afixed to the shooting glasses does wonders for fuzzy sights. 

Merit makes a unit that has a variable iris and has been used for decades by pistol and rifle shooters.  http://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

Or you can make your own.  Some use electrical tape others are made using different clamping arrangements and materials such as ladies hair clips and pieces of aluminum cans.

Good luck,
TC

[SCLoyalist]

The two rifles I shoot most of the time have 44" barrels, with the rear sights 14" in front of the breech, resulting in a 28" sight radius, and I also shoot pistol some.   I believe vision usually becomes more far-sighted (i.e. near vision suffers) with age and that seems to apply to my case.

I tried and am happy with shooting with very low power reading glasses.   The drugstore rack glasses usually don't go below 1.0 diopter (which made the target look too blurry for my liking), but you can get .25 and .5 strength diopter reading or "computer" glasses from online vendors.  The .5 diopter glasses I'm using now cost me $25, and bring the front sights of rifle and pistol in sharp and improve the rear sight view considerably, and don't completely fuzz out the view of the target.  I figure, too, that for shooting  rifle, I want something between eyes and lock for safety's sake, and the glasses address that. 

You should be able to explain to your eye doctor what you're trying to be able to see in terms of sight distances and target, and he should be able to tell you how the laws of optics could be applied to best help you, but sometimes all you can get out of them is the non-helpful suggestion to try a scope.  That's when you're down to trial and error and seeing what works best for you.

Good luck, SCL

[Hank*in*WV]

If my eyes get much worse, I'm going to have to put the back sight in front.

[Daryl]

Interesting how many 'older' (SENIOR) blokes go to smoothbores for their round ball matches. There is only one sight - the front one, and of course no one expects you do do well - !  There is more truth in those words than you might think.

The problem comes when a guy with good eyesight - a certain native guide comes to mind, who has GREAT eyesight and shoots mostly a 44" to 48" 20 bore smoothbore.  He shoots it better than most guys shoot rifles - out ot 100 yards anyway. Quite impressive to watch and worse to shoot against - even thou you use a rifle - no BS- serious stuff.  Glad they keep the scoring sepearate at Hefley Creek.  3 years in a rod, his smoothbore beat the high rifle scores in metalic silouette shooting. Honest, heh, heh, Injun.

[Don Steele]

When this problem first started cropping up for me, I spoke Bud Decot, a good optician who specialized in making shooting glasses for competition. His products have replaceable lenses so that with a single frame, you can change tints depending on lighting and background. They made a "strong-side" eye lense for me that was ground to provide a better sight picture. Put it in the frame, keeping the "weak-side" lense just as it is...shoot with both eyes open, and your brain will figure it out.
This concept has allowed me to take Whitetail out to 100 yds with my iron sighted Hawken.
For Match shooting, I also use the previously mentioned Merit disc.
( You didn't ask, but for non-BP...I use a red dot.)

[rudyc]

I just read someplace that a fella said his eyesight was getting so bad he was going to have to "shoot by sense of smell"

rudyc

[bonron]

On my next birthday I'll reach the ripe old age of 80. By now nearly all my faculties have disappeared or greatly diminished along with my hair. I have a good friend who helped me solve the fuzzy sight situation simply by taking some thin shim stock, drilling a 1/16" hole near one end and bend the other end over the top of your glasses in a position to facilitate seeing through the hole when sighting your rifle or pistol. Clears up the sights and is a alot less costly than commercially available diopters. It works in the field, woods or on the line. Try it, you'll be surprised.   Ron

[Daryl]

Ron - I'm going to have to try that.

[roundball]

Knock on wood, at 66 I still don't need prescription glasses...been using drugstore reading glasses for the past several years, stepping them up occasionally to their present strength of +2.50 diopters.

Then 3-4 years ago, for the range I found going to a full size +1.0 diopter pair of glasses sharpened the sights, gave me some eye protection, and still let me sit and scan detail in the woods while hunting.
Last year I bumped up to the +1.25 strength...actually a tad too strong...but I can still see the sights under low light conditions and also see game good as well.

[excess650]

I've preferred a receiver or tang sight on modern rifles for many years.  Barrel sights, particularly the rear sight, have become increasingly fuzzy for me over the years.  I bought a  32" barreled "English Sporting Rifle" from the builder a couple of years ago, and immediately found the sights didn't work for me.  I moved a rear sight forward and backwards on the barrel before deciding to have him cut a dovetail in the tang just behind the barrel.  With it so close to they eye, the slot seems wide, but works much like an aperture sight.

I've since finished my 28-1/2" barreled Jaeger.  The rear sight is currently 6-1/2" ahead of the breech, and a bit fuzzy for my comfort.  I'm going to try the wide V-notch, and see if it works.  If not, I may bend some flat stock and make a fixed tang sight.  Being HC isn't as important(to me) as having a very useable hunting rifle.

[roundball]

Don't know if this is any kind of workable option, but there are rear sights made on a flat base with its dovetail tenon closer to one end than the other so it can be reversed...a common one has a buckhorn rear sight on it but I assume there are others.
The ones I've seen are on a 3-4" thin flat base...might allow you to position the rear sight another 2-3" further in front of the existing dovetail without a lot of trouble...

[Daryl]

Here's an aperture-type sight along with the buckhorn variety.  The dot, of cours,e represents the front sight.  The wide V and bead as well which works quite well for me on my .45 Longrifle and on my 14 bore Sporting Rifle(previous pictures, page 1, I think.)

[Canute Rex]

Last summer I went to the Precision Museum in Windsor Vermont and saw a rifle that told a story. It was a heavy barreled underhammer rifle made in that very building. The rear sight was dovetailed in far forward of the breech. Behind the rear sight dovetail, spaced every couple of inches, were the previous dovetails, each carefully filled in with some white substance, probably bone. The owner's eyes must have progressed as ours are doing and he compensated, bit by bit.

I compensate with a 1/16" wide 45 degree flat filed on the back of my rear sight. It creates two bright horizontal lines that I can line up either side of the front brass bead.  "--o--"

[TMerkley]

Although, I do not have the far sighted vision, I made sights for my CVA Frontier Carbine, using a chunk of Brass for the rear sight with a V notch with a triangular file and used a nickel for my front sight.  The nickel was cut in half and has two "posts" that set into a brass or copper base to fit into the dove-tail.  The nickel lights up just like silver and is easily distinguisable against the brass rear sight.  Works extremely well in hunting situations.  I hit a deer at 75 yards in the woods last week.  The front sight looks alot like the one in the Foxfire book made by Hershel House. 

[sonny]

yet still another reson for smoothbore guns with front sight only.The old timers could still get game out to 75yds with there smoothie's, when ripping apart their trusty old rifleguns was out of the question. I think everybody on this forum, after the age of 60, should get a smoothbore an watch the fur fly again,instead of pulling apart "ole betsy",to squeeze out a couple more years of........."i think i hit em".................ha ha ha.....sonny.........getting old is not for sissy's.

[George Sutton]

All my rear sights are at 14" down the barrel. I also cut a wide notch in the rear sight. I have 20-20 vision but need reading glasses. The wide notch helps.

Centershot

[Jim Hart]

SC 
I tried your suggestion of low powered computer glasses - works for me!
Thanks

[SCLoyalist]

SC 
I tried your suggestion of low powered computer glasses - works for me!
Thanks

Glad to hear it.  The variations in individuals' eyesight, preferences for sight picture,  sights on the rifle/pistol, etc make for a "your mileage may vary" situation.   However, for about $25, it's worth a try, and if they don't work for shooting you can still use 'em to read.

[varsity07840]

I've used the Merit eyepiece for years, initially fixing it to my glasses in the usual manner. While this was fine for the range, for hunting I found that it restricted my
vision when stuck to the lens and it was a PIA to stick on my glasses in the right spot while getting geared up in the morning. More than once it fell off while walking to or while in the stand.  Thankfully I had a strand of fishing line attached to it and my glasses. At the risk of sounding long winded, here's what I did to eliminate the problems noted above.

I bought a pair of safety glasses intended to fit over your eye glasses. They're the type with an upper frame and nose bridge, no surrounding frame. I cut away the plastic lenses, and for my shooting eye, leaving just enough to room to epoxy the eye piece but not hinder my line of sight when it was pivoted away. I'ts also safety wired to the bridge. I fashioned a pivot stop from a headless screw in  the remaining part of the lens that allows the same position for shooting every time.
Put 'em on, take 'em off. No more sticking the thing on every time I want to shoot.

Duane

[bob in the woods]

I use a wide, very wide actually, notch in the rear sight, and a 1/8th wide brass front sight. Lots of daylight on either side of the front when in the notch. I just concentrate on the front and target, and my eye does the rest. The rear doesn't have to be in perfect focus. Works for me, and is fast in the field.

[Roger Fisher]

I use a wide, very wide actually, notch in the rear sight, and a 1/8th wide brass front sight. Lots of daylight on either side of the front when in the notch. I just concentrate on the front and target, and my eye does the rest. The rear doesn't have to be in perfect focus. Works for me, and is fast in the field.

Better to have a blurry r sight; but clear frt sight and target.  Found this out over a span of a few years....  Eye guys (or gals) are able to clear the frt sight and the target (distance) but not all three.  (target, frt sight AND rear sight).   I'll have to try Daryl's shallow rear sight and frt bead sometime on down the road...!

[Daryl]

Won't hurt, Roger.   The V can more vertical than mine "sharper" I mean, bit wider than the typed "V". The front bead is quite vital, though as it doens't need to be sharp, the ball always striking in it's centre. A blade must be sharp to see it's top and sides, however a fuzz ball is round - the ball is in it's centre, always.  I wondered if Taylor could show a picture of his Stutzen's rear sight.  The ball hits the bottom of the V and stays there, as it should, and is raised above the bottom for elevation to strike centre at longer ranges.

[Ezra]

I just turned 55 and I need the rear sight about twelve inches from the breech.  I need reading glasses for particularly fine print.


Ez