I can't see

[Matthew1969]

The last year or so my vision has really gone south. Far is still good, but I cannot see my sights. I ordered a Sharpsight. Anyone here have any experience with them? I've also considered a supplement for vision but am not sure. All input is appreciated. You folks are a mountain of great information!
Matthew

[EC121]

Punch a hole in some painters tape with a finishing nail head.  Or use the smallest hole on a leather punch.  Stick it on your glasses as test.  It should help once you get it to the right spot for sighting.  All those things can be a pain because they block your normal vision.  You can also put a peepsight on the tang screw to help things, and it won't block your vision.  I drilled and countersunk a piece of metal and bent it to fit the tang screw.  Then drilled a hole to look through.  Might even line up with the normal sights.  I have only done it on a smoothbore with no back sight.

[Matthew1969]

I really like that idea with the homemade peep! Thanks a ton!
Matthew

[Darkhorse]

A tang mounted peep works for my older eyes. Here's the link to my original post.
http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=43554.0

I've since done the same thing to my .54 and it works very well also.

[Mike Brooks]

Popular subject amongst this crowd!

[Bob Roller]

Popular subject amongst this crowd!

Cataracts are a real PITB and my next eye appointment is in December.
I am going to see about getting something done sooner.Noticed it was
worse yesterday while setiing up my milling machine.

Bob Roller

[oldtravler61]

  Ron impressive group nice shooting.
  Not sure about anyone else but a peep sight sure helps me find that front sight a whole lot faster when I'm hunting.
  Been using one in Iowa sitting there December deer season. The guy's I hunt with like to do deer drive's.
  So anything that you see is moving quick. Made a big difference.  Oldtravler

[EC121]

Here is what I did.  I drilled three holes to see which one worked.  The bottom one was the one.  I need to cut off the top two.  Then polish and cold blue the metal.  I suppose if you drilled them right they could work for elevation.

[Matt / PA]

I was a flyfishing guide, fly tier for many years and I can remember in my 20's "making fun of" the old !@#$% and their flip down magnifying lenses.....as I easily tied on a #28 midge on 9x tippet, and then could see a trout take it at 50 feet.
(For you non flyfishers.....if I showed you how small that is you would think I was pulling your leg! )

I fished and shot competitively in complete denial that I was ever going to get older.......then I hit 40. It was like passing through a portal.    

 Between the slow recoveries from injuries, thinking I still had a low 90's fastball, and softer midsection I started to notice the close vision was getting a little sketchy. It would come and go just enough to make me think it wasn't happening..............and now by 45 I can't hold my cell phone far enough from my face where it's clear enough AND still close enough to actually read. I go into a restaurant and I have to take a picture of the menu and blow it up to avoid just pointing at something I don't want to eat LOL 
Something about an astigmatism.
And of course I went from actually being able to shoot open sights pretty decently to "I THINK the front sight is lined up with the top of the rear sight?"
I'm blind!  Well not really but it feels like it..........I mean this is worse than being called "Sir" by an attractive young lady LOL

The kicker for ME is that I'm left eye dominant but shoot righty (A product of a left handed mother / righty father)
So I have 35 years of built up right handed shooting muscle memory and for some reason only my right eye is blurry on the rear sight.......my left eye is crystal clear on the sights! It's like a cruel joke.
So I feel like I have the decision to make of figuring out a fix for the right eye, or simply put the gun in the other hand and start over!

How many of you guys who 'Can't see" have this only seriously affecting one eye? Anyone else have any success flipping to the "wrong" side this far along in the game.
And of course I have all right handed flinters so I'm not sure if I'm risking an eyebrow.

[PPatch]

The last year or so my vision has really gone south. Far is still good, but I cannot see my sights. I ordered a Sharpsight. Anyone here have any experience with them? I've also considered a supplement for vision but am not sure. All input is appreciated. You folks are a mountain of great information!
Matthew

Matthew; I am going to assume you've had a visit with an ophthalmologist to determine what is going on with your vision...

My eyes suffer from macro degeneration and I take two Lutein soft gels each day, morning and afternoon, in order to aid in further onset of the disease. They are made by Bausch & Lomb are bought over the counter, the complete label reads:

"Bausch & Lomb PreserVision, Eye Vitamin & Mineral Supplement. AREDS Lutein." A bottle of 100 is about $35.

I too use a small square of black electrical tape with a 1/16th inch hole punched in it and mounted on a spare pair of glasses. Does wonders to clear up those sights.

dave

[deepcreekdale]

Matt/PA, I have the exact same problem. I used to have perfect (20/10) vision in both eyes,  played baseball, shot competitively and all was good. As the years have passed, my right eye is now about 20/80 and my left is still 20/10. I am very left eye dominant also. I can squint and read anything with my left eye but since I shoot right handed, well, you know the story. I have tried shooting left handed but with no success. I am VERY right handed according to a doctor friend of mine that checked me once. I had a pair of shooting glasses made and had them put the area of focus high in the upper left corner of the right lens so it lines up with the sight picture. That helped a bit I also have used electrical tape with a hole drilled but also have one of those suction cup gizzies that has a disc with a small hole in it. The suction cup lets you move it around a little to adjust. Both seem to help but I simply can't see well enough to be a competitive shooter any more. Still fun to shoot though. BTW, you will get used to the young ladies calling you "sir". I guess it would be better than "pops" or "old timer"

[Matthew1969]

Thanks for the replies. Will definitely look into that supplement.
   "It was like passing through a portal" -I cannot think of a better way to put it!
The peep sights are really cool, plus the build it yourself mentality makes it that much more enjoyable. Whenever any of you think you aren't listened to, please remember guys like me out there hanging on your every word.
Matthew

[hanshi]

I had cataracts removed about a year ago and the new lenses were only for distance vision.  My right eye has always been my worst one and I am right eye dominate.  This creates a real problem.  It got to where I had to sight through the bifocal to see the pistol's front sight; but that required me to bend my head way back and that was murder on my neck.  Rifle sights weren't much better.

In order to read anything I had to get several pair of reading glasses.  I found that low power glasses were what I needed to see gun sights but the higher power ones made reading easier and less of a strain.  I now see front sights well enough to shoot and hit a target.  I think my right eye isn't as good as it was a few months ago but it's difficult to tell.  A few weeks after both eyes were done, the doctor said I had 20/25 vision - both eyes considered.  In truth, I have more vision problems from a swarm of "floaters" that have developed over the last few years.  No cure for that.

[Standing Bear]

Ophthalmologist asked if I wanted right eye for reading or distance.  After a slight pause I held my right arm straight out thumb up and said I'd like the striations in that thumb nail to plain to see and then as far past as possible.  Worked. Left eye got the distant thing and I wear cheater readers for a necklace.

 Shooting glasses are big lens "bifocals" clear at the top and 2.0
In the reader for loading etc.

[oldtravler61]

  EC121 is that a Duprey smoothie. Oldtravler

[Scota4570]

I need to get new glasses too, I noticed a crack in a lens today.  I have two sets of bifocals, one for computer/ gun work and reading.  The the other is infinite distance and reading.   I may try a pair that is about 6' focus and reader under.  That should be pretty good for the front sight/ target and loading on the bifocal. 

The target does not need to be in perfect focus, the front sight does.  If one believes that they can see both clearly then they are fooling themselves.  They are quickly switching focus between the two.  I they think they can see the both sights and the target at the same time all the more focus shifting is going on. "Use the force", focus on the front sight! 

Avoid progressive lenses.  I see guys doing contortions to focus, it does not work.  My eye doctor is a pretty serious shooter, I'll see what he suggests. 

Pinhole glasses and peeps work.  I wish we could use peep sight for score.  They are historically correct after all.

[mountainman70]

What I am about to tell on myself is most likely heresy,but it works.   I have same probs as most of you. Distance glasses are great to see front sight and target, rear sight fuzzy as my old head..A long time modern gunsmith friend,now passed on to the  Big Gunshop, got me a set of tru glow sights for a lever gun. Rear sight folds down,and aperature is adjustable with really small screws.

On the Hawken style 54 I just finished in the spring, I fitted them in the new dovetails. Have a red dot on front,rear has 2 small greens. I can line everything up with my distance specs,and go to rear and line up level with the green dots.Boom!!! At 50 yds I am hitting target,at the present time,I am in process of dialing it in,but at least I CAN SEE the things,and enjoy shooting again.
 Now,in our club, I don't think these sights are kosher for match shooting,but I aint kosher,anyway,tho I do like the Kosher food.
I just shoot for my own enjoyment,and the fellowship of the other guys.   Dave

[Dale Halterman]

Peep sights may not be the answer for those (I am one) who have astigmatism. I put one on my latest rifle, but with a small aperture the hole appears kidney shaped and I still can't find the center. A hole large enough to appear round is seems way too big. Still trying to sort it out.

Dale H

[WKevinD]

I like the look of small sights and install them on most builds (by request) and I have put new taller fatter front sights and taller rears with deep V cuts or the TOW peeps on a whole bunch of guns this year as well as rear sights on smoothbores.
I just changed my little, low sights on my personal flinter to fat and tall and shot a fifty last week, first time in a long while!
Must be that everybody's eyes started failing at the same time or we have been in denial.
Kevin

[Scota4570]

"I put one on my latest rifle, but with a small aperture the hole appears kidney shaped and I still can't find the center."

Try a larger hole?  Tiny pinhole apertures do crisp up the sight picture but they are difficult to use unless you have great light.

Your over thinking it.  Stop trying to, "center it up".  It is unnecessary to pay any attention to putting the front sight in the center of the hole....really! 

I also have an astigmatism.   Try wearing your glasses?  I also do not see a round hole.  They all look like a piece of lint is stuck in the hole.  Ignore it.   

[hanshi]

IMHO, a large ring - called a "ghost" ring - is preferable to a tiny peep.  On my modern rifles that have receiver sights, I took out the peep inserts and just use the ghost ring.

I still remember - prior to learning my lesson - clearly seeing a buck approaching my stand.  Raising the rifle and aiming through the peep; he just disappeared.  lowering the rifle showed he was still there.  That's when I got rid of all the peep inserts in the receiver sights.  True peeps are fine in good light while viewing targets; but nowhere else.

Sometimes "a man's got to do what a man's got to do".  The Duke.

[Dale Halterman]

I'm sure I am over thinking it. I was an engineer before retiring and it is a hard habit to break. I am making up a new aperture with a compromise between the two I have tried already. Need to make up a smaller front bead, too.

Hanshi, that is exactly what I did on my modern hunting rifle back before I could afford a decent scope. Mounted a receiver sight and, just like you, lost a buck because the insert was too small. But this rifle is strictly for target shooting.

Dale H

[smylee grouch]

Ah yes, 70+ year old eyes. If you arn't there yet I hope you make it. I got tired of trying to find those skinny sights I used to see almost in the dark but now cant find any time. On my last rifle I put a rather course front sight brass bead on top of a steel blade and made a rear sight with the sight blade slanting to the front like the dangerous game guns of the British. I engraved a triangle under the facing side under the notch with the peak right at the bottom of the notch. I then tinned the engraved part over with silver solder and dressed that down with sand paper so only the engraved lines still had the solder in them. It isn't target grade but it works good for these 70+ year old eyes for hunting.

[thecapgunkid]

The worst part of getting old is...getting old.

I got the cataract part fixed but sights were a real problem still.  Soooo....

On my own guns I annealed a .45LC casing.  I cut a strip off the rim of the shell, put my gun in a vice, wrapped the brass around the rear of the front sight and tapped it tight with pliers and ball peen.   Filed it down and  soldered, or even crazy glued it on.

This thickened my already thick sight and I just needle filed the notch of the rear sight a llittle to get everything more visible.  On one gun I went so far as to install one of those rear sights that was more of a crescent than a buck horn so I could frame the target.

More importantly, the local Guru gunmaker amongst the Catskill clubs I shoot with taught me to place the rear sight where you can best see it on the barrel before you start dovetailing.

Works for me.

[smokinbuck]

Macular degeneration took away the use of my right eye about 15 years ago. After more than 50 years of shooting right handed, learning to do it left was a long term PITA. While learning the left thing I put a pair of mirrors on a rifle that allowed me to shoot right handed with my left eye. It made the transition a little easier.Now I just do it lefty and use peep sights on my target rifles. If using open sights I use a Merit peep in my glasses.
Mark