Older eyes sights

[hawkeye]

With the age of 65 I count myself in for the older age, wondering what sort of open sights would be the easiest thing to to sight with older eyes without modern correcting shooting glasses
Thanks for looking and sharing
Hawkeye Hugo

[Pukka Bundook]

Hawkeye,
These days at 66 I see the sights different.   I shoot low.   
 I found if I punch a hole in a piece of card, and jam it up under my hat, and view through the hole, I hit centre again. It cleans up the sight picture no end, and is cheaper than glasses.
Not a Real fix, but nicer than changing my sights I reckon.

Richard.

[Dale Halterman]

There are lots of discussions of the this topic on the board already with some very good pictures. You can access them using the search function above.

Dale H

[Eric Krewson]

I went this route on my deer rifle, it was that or quit shooting, I am 73. I made it just to see if it would work, it does even though it is a little crude looking.

[recurve]

You can move your rear sight  towards the muzzle or use a wider front sight blade also peep sights clear up the front sight(but limit the light towards dark) a cheap easy way to try a peep is an old dog lic bent to try out(or a  heavy duty  magnet with a hole)

[recurve]

[MuskratMike]

Keep the rear sight as it is. Just install a ghost ring like this and it will help you ageing eyes see the sights and target. It will work for you it works for me and I am older than you!

[Daryl]

These work(ed) for me, for target shooting/rendezvous and for hunting.
My eyes are quite poor at seeing open sights.

[Pukka Bundook]

I Do like the express sight Daryl.
Wide open Vee and a bright fore-sight!

[Daryl]

They work for me, Richard and a couple others on this site who tried them.
The even work on the short 31" bl. on my .6, even better than normal sights
on the long barreled flinters.

[smylee grouch]

The diamond insert is silver solder.

[Daryl]

There is actually a tiny little notch in my 14 bore's rear sight in the bottom of the V, slightly smaller than your notch
Smylee G.
A few years back, I could pull the bead down into that little notch to give a perfect zero for 25 and just above that
notch, zeroed for 50. I can't see the little notch and more, too fuzzy, so the rifle shoots 3/4" high at 25 yards and
smack on at 50 as before. That's with the 3 dram load of 2F or 3F - same velocity and point of impact. 1,225fps.

[smylee grouch]

Daryl, that rear sight actually slants forward, no shadow. Not conventional but I like it in the shadows or lower light situations with my aging eyes. I hope to have cataract surgery sometime soon so hope that helps clear things up somewhat.

[Daniel Coats]

I've had cataract surgery on both eyes and will never need glasses for everyday tasks. However, my surgeon advised me to have my eyesight set to the distance where I spent the majority of my day. The results are great other than shooting which still requires a peep sight. Think about it since the one thing you can't get are the same youthful eyes like you once had.

[Daryl]

The surgery sure helped Taylor.  It was actually fun beating him on the trail-walk - then he got his eyes fixed.
The "beating him" pretty much stopped.

[Daniel Coats]

I sure hope so. Maybe things have improved since I had mine done 13 years ago.

Oh one more thing, get the cost in writing I payed much more than expected.

[alacran]

Before cataract surgery I would imagine center on my targets.  After surgery I can see the center. I found that after surgery all my rifles were shooting about an inch low.
 I go most of the day without using glasses but for shooting or driving I wear them. 20/15 with glasses on.
 I know a lot of younger fellows who shoot their guns without glasses. Suppose they are trying to be period correct. I consider them to be period stupid.

[Daryl]

After age 60, my corrective lenses gave me 20/15 vision. They however, do not improve my close vision, except for the bifocal part of the lens
but of course, this is just for reading. Both sights are fuzzy, the front one a little less so.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

On my Hawken rifle, I use an express style rear sight and a pure silver blade with a highlight bevel filed into the top rear corner.  It gives me a bead in a wide notch sight that is easy to see, very quick to acquire, and easy to adjust for long range shooting, by moving the bead further up the notch.  Apart from it being percussion, it is my easiest rifle to shoot accurately and consistently, over a long series of shots.

[Maven]

"The surgery sure helped Taylor.  It was actually fun beating him on the trail-walk - then he got his eyes fixed.
The "beating him" pretty much stopped."

Daryl, There's that sibling rivalry thing again!

All, There are two additional solutions not involving fabricating a peep sight or surgery.  (1) Your nearest drugstore and/or supermarket carry inexpensive reading glasses with the diopters clearly marked.  One of those may work for you as it allows you to seat the front sight clearly.  There are also clip on versions of these available on eBay once you know the magnification needed.  (2) For those who wear glasses or shoot with safety glasses, there is a commercially available "aperture" sight, which you stick on the lens of your shooting eye to improve focus (accommodation).  They're dirt cheap, but a mite tricky to adjust.

[Daryl]

LOL
Further to Paul's note on diopter reading glasses, if you do a search for Computer or Reading glasses, you should find a site that sells them as light as .25 and .50 dipoter.
These work quite well and don't fuzz the target too badly. The lightest dipoter I could get at an optometrist's store was .75, for me, these make the sights the best, but the
target is quite fuzzy.  The lightest I found in regular stores pharmacy's reading glass 'racks' were 1.0 dipoter.
I still shoot with just my regular prescription glasses and fuzz my way through, although now and then, I re-try the reading glasses.  I always go back to my bifocals as I need
their higher "reading" magnification to see what I'm doing with the loading.

[hanshi]

I don't know; but when we get to the age where great grandchildren become a possibility, the eyesight is pretty much "skee-rood".  Sad but too often true.

[al56]

I've  used a Hydro lens on my 18th century glasses.  A dot of water and instant bifocals.  You can cut the lenses to any size and shape before you want.  They sell them on the internet  and some drug stores.

[hawkeye]

I had cataract surgery last year September, but not truly fully satisfied with the result, I choose for a multi vision lens. I see now far very good, but see not enough perfectly clear on short distance, like on rear sight, works with a peepsight.
Question how you determine the hight on peepsight on the tang of your rifle?
Hawkeye

[Eric Krewson]

Adjusting my homemade tang peep; Shoulder the gun with your face exactly the way you would shoot. Look through the peep, if the front blade isn't exactly where it would in relation to the rear sight as it would be without the peep when you shot before, bend  the peep up or down until everything lines up.

In my case I like the front blade even with the top of the rear sight and bent my tang sight to achieve this sight picture. Same for windage. if the front blade isn't perfectly centered in the rear sight notch move it left or right until it is.