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Darkhorse, many of us are capable of making a rear sight such as you have made - the picture literally is worth that thousand words! So no need for you to wear yourself out making them for others.

I have a beautiful front and rear sight combination for a "Hawken" type rifle I was going to build. Nice sights from Montana Vintage Arms, with a tang-mounted rear, a level+ aperture front.
I realize that many, if not all, shooting competitions bar such sights - but there usually aren't any complainers where I go hunting! And if I build something that looks like a J & S Hawken, and put my sights on it, no one I care about is going to register a complaint.

And the same thing for your tang-mounted sight. Looks like a ghost ring sight I made for a customer about 9 years ago - his ability to take a deer was restored by a simple piece of 4130 steel. And most of us are all for things like that.
 
I modified a jewelers eye piece so I can move the EyePal out of the way.
 

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Got the last ten years or so I would describe my eyes as “aging/old””. Need reading glasses(borderline, especially in low light). Corrective lenses, for distance, also borderline, particularly in low light. My bifocals with a slight modification with the lens gradient from corrective to reading is designed a bit higher in the lens to bring focus on the front sight while maintaining distance clarity without having to **** my head unnaturally when shooting. While this works well for rifle shooting, it doesn’t help much for closer range handgun work where the sight distance/radius is at a shorter distance. For this, best results are with cheap(CVS) readers in the 1-1.25x range. These approaches have materially improved my shooting/hunting accuracy.
As an aside, taking quality, daily multivitamin(over 50 years old) does seem to have helped with keeping the eyes in good shape, and slows the deterioration process that comes with age….IMO
 
Darkhorse said:
I am blessed with excellent long range vision, it's the close stuff that gives me problems. I knew it was coming so over the years I gave a lot of thought to what I'd do when I could no longer see well enough to shoot. I am a hunter now but I used to shoot a lot in BP matches, and I regulary do a lot of shooting on my home range, so I knew the end result I wanted to achieve.
So just a few years ago I checked the sights on my .54 and .40 flintlocks and I could see to shoot fine. But that same season around christmas I shot the .40 in prep of a squirrel hunt. To my dismay I could no longer shoot accurately, there were 3 distinct lines where the top of the sight should have been.
But I was prepared due to thinking about it. I made up a few peep sights I had been thinking about. These were to be small and unobtrusive, almost like they were meant to be on a longrifle. They have a small amount of verticle adustment, windage adjustment is by the front sight. The key for windage is how accurate I can drill and tap the center of the tang. There is a good bit of hand work involved but I'm a retired Tool & Die maker/Aerospace structural data SME , so it was no big problem.
I have it on both my .40 and .54 and the next rifle I build will have one also.
My vision cleared just as I needed. I know my peeps could be fancied up but I like them as they are.
No I am not selling them.
SS850099.jpg
Click to expand...
Darkhorse. I love this sight. With my latest eye issues I may well have to use one of these soon.
I don’t see a screw head on it. May I ask how you attached it to the tang ?
 
This may take a little bit of work to replace one of the magnifiers in the loupe with an aperture. The advantage is that the loupe can be attached to your safety glasses and the aperture can moved away when not shooting. A small 1/8" hole in a sheet of cardboard trimmed to fit in the frame of the loupe will function very much like one of the EyePal attachments or the diopters such as the Merit optical device.

Not only can it be affordably modified, there will also be a magnifier available to read small print.

16.5X Jeweler's Clip-On Eye Loupe (harborfreight.com)
 
Darkhorse said:
I am blessed with excellent long range vision, it's the close stuff that gives me problems. I knew it was coming so over the years I gave a lot of thought to what I'd do when I could no longer see well enough to shoot. I am a hunter now but I used to shoot a lot in BP matches, and I regulary do a lot of shooting on my home range, so I knew the end result I wanted to achieve.
So just a few years ago I checked the sights on my .54 and .40 flintlocks and I could see to shoot fine. But that same season around christmas I shot the .40 in prep of a squirrel hunt. To my dismay I could no longer shoot accurately, there were 3 distinct lines where the top of the sight should have been.
But I was prepared due to thinking about it. I made up a few peep sights I had been thinking about. These were to be small and unobtrusive, almost like they were meant to be on a longrifle. They have a small amount of verticle adustment, windage adjustment is by the front sight. The key for windage is how accurate I can drill and tap the center of the tang. There is a good bit of hand work involved but I'm a retired Tool & Die maker/Aerospace structural data SME , so it was no big problem.
I have it on both my .40 and .54 and the next rifle I build will have one also.
My vision cleared just as I needed. I know my peeps could be fancied up but I like them as they are.
No I am not selling them.
SS850099.jpg
Click to expand...
very nice
 
Grenadier1758 said:
This may take a little bit of work to replace one of the magnifiers in the loupe with an aperture. The advantage is that the loupe can be attached to your safety glasses and the aperture can moved away when not shooting. A small 1/8" hole in a sheet of cardboard trimmed to fit in the frame of the loupe will function very much like one of the EyePal attachments or the diopters such as the Merit optical device.

Not only can it be affordably modified, there will also be a magnifier available to read small print.

16.5X Jeweler's Clip-On Eye Loupe (harborfreight.com)
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nice idea
 
I see all these gismos and glasses and have to shake my head. Medical technology has fixing eyes down to outpatient status and its often free!!!!
 
Belleville said:
Looked at the Eye Pal web site and am concerned that they do not show the device only the case it comes in and no details on how or if it is attached to glasses?


Doc S.
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Here's a pic of them in their case and one attached to a pair of specs. As said above, they have a sort of tackiness to them but no adhesive. If you've ever seen those non-permanent vinyl decals you can put on windows that stick through some sort of magic (static cling? natural tackiness?), that's what these are like. As also noted, you can keep putting them on and removing them at will to get them just where you want them. Eventually they will get stuff stuck to them and stop sticking to your specs so well. Just gently wash them off in some soapy water, rinse and dry them, and they'll be good to go again.
 

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Musketeer said:
Here's a pic of them in their case and one attached to a pair of specs. As said above, they have a sort of tackiness to them but no adhesive. If you've ever seen those non-permanent vinyl decals you can put on windows that stick through some sort of magic (static cling? natural tackiness?), that's what these are like. As also noted, you can keep putting them on and removing them at will to get them just where you want them. Eventually they will get stuff stuck to them and stop sticking to your specs so well. Just gently wash them off in some soapy water, rinse and dry them, and they'll be good to go again.
Click to expand...
thanks for posting they are on the way
 
Medicare and most insurance companies only pay fully for the most basic lens correction. You will still need reading glasses for reading and maybe the front sight. Full distance and reading correction will require a copay.
 
So before getting custom eyeglasses made what if you shoot ml rifles with all different barrel lengths and different distances from tang to front sight and tang to rear sight? It seems that if one moved all the front sights to the optimal distance (from the breech) then the prescription might work. The question about focal length with pistols is food for thought. There are available peep sights that fit into the dovetails of the conventional open rear rights but that is a different sight picture than a tang mounted peep. On some smooth bores for hunting I use the screw driver slot on the tang screw for a rear right. At 25 yards works but beyond is not acceptable for hunting accuracy. I tried a friend's Meritt (sp? two 't's" or two "r's") and helps on target range, not what I want for bird or big game hunting. It helps if one's optometrist is a shooter.
 
Jake2454 said:
Does anyone use any special glasses for old eyes and if so what are they and do they work?
Click to expand...

I posted this about a year ago in response to a similar post, might consider this option.

My eyesight was never ideal for shooting so about 40 years ago after trying several commercial eyesight shooting aids I found this eyesight rig worked the best & allowed me to become a decent competitor & my handgun scores increased substantially !
I preferred this swing-away disc option above all others commercially sold because the suction cup models fell-off & were in my way when not shooting & hated the sticky crud tape left on my eyeglasses lens.
This swing-away device enables you to see both-sights & the target clearly, I also use it for hunting.
I replaced the glass lens with the bottom of a plastic 35 mm film canister & drilled a .040 hole. That dia. hole works perfect for my eyes but you might require a smaller or larger dia. hole so maybe best to try a smaller hole first at the range & take a few larger drill bits with you ? you want a hole with sharp edges, can often use a larger sized bit to trim away any plastic residue.
My 40 year old original jewelers loupe 'frame' that is shown with the black disc is no longer available but the newer style of loupe frame shown in 2nd photo works equally well. This loupe is available on Amazon for about $5.00 shipped, the extra disc with arm can easily be removed or used to provide different peep options if needed.
Happy trails...

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