How do you shoot open sights w bifocals? Your experiences?

[hanshi]

My bifocals are useless for RIFLE shooting but work great for handgun shooting. For rifle sights I do best by looking through the upper half of the lens rather than the reading part. Handguns are different since the front sight is comparatively close to the eye.

 

[Tinker2]

I wear trifocal glasses; the center of the three lenses is set to focus on the front sight.
Target is fuzzy and so is rear sight, peep sight is better but I don’t use them on most of my guns.

I don’t shoot as well as I used to but then I don’t shoot as much as I used to.

Anyways have fun and good luck.

William Alexander

 

[ohio ramrod]

I managed to shoot fairly well with "line bifocals" but when the eyes got older and I got blended trifocals shooting was not good. My solution was to get a pair of glasses with just the long distant lens.( Thirty dollars with an older set of frames) It improved the rifle and was a BIG improvement for trap with the smoothbore.I have returned to winning enough to pay for the lenses with the prize money plus the satisfaction of better shooting. :idunno:

 

[Stumpkiller]

I have Varilux lenses and, when being fitted, I explain what I want to my optician. I need the upper right corner of my right eye to be crisp for archery and iron sights.

With a pistol I can tip my head to get a clear image. Rifled sights I can usually come to grips with. Not what it was 30 years ago but servicable.

I do find myself trending more to a smoothbore and letting them get in close.

 

[bpd303]

I'm lucky with my lined bifocals. The upper lens corrects my vision to 20/20 so I just shoot as normal using the upper lens.

 

[slumlord44]

I have had no line bifocals for years and no problems. Not perfect for sure but I can still hit an 8" circle at 80-100 yards with the open sights on my front loaders on a good day at 70 years old today.

 

[smoothshooter]

I have transition bifocals that work pretty well. After a little bit of experimentation, I found that having the optical people put the transition zone about two thirds or a little more up from the bottom, and making a slight movement of my head as necessary, works pretty good with rifle or pistol.

 

[pargent]

As long as the sights are clear the target can be a bit fuzzy, but I have been lead to believe that it is HC/PC for yanks to close their eyes and look away :haha:

 

[Billnpatti]

I don't know what happened to my previous posting on this thread but I will try again. Google "Merit Optical Device". You will get a nice, informative article about them. Then go to Brownell's website and you can purchase one. They are just the thing that you are looking for. I have one and I use it. It is great. :thumbsup:

 

[Rat Trapper]

I will be 67 in March and I have no problems with bifocals. It may be how you mount the rifle. Same with those who have problems with cheek slapping. You also need glasses that are higher than those tiny ones I see some people with.

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

I'm 55, a Diabetic, and use tri-focal progressives (no lines). I have astigmatism & am myopic. I just won yesterdays' hand gun Match, beating-out (4) other revolvers & (5) percussion single-shots with my out-of-the-box Uberti Colt Walker. Yesterday the planets aligned and I could see the sights and the target by keeping my head straight and using the "tilting method" while holding the 4.5 pound monster perfectly still at the point of ignition.

For rifle sights, I use the old, traditional, drift-adjustable (with a block of pine & a hammer) primitive sight that Lyman supplies. One of the clubs I belong to is a traditional club, so adjustables have to be nail-polished to render them fixed. Front sight alignment is more important and I've learned to see enough of the back sight to be able to still cut cards in half, so I must be doin' sumthin' right, lol!

Best advice I can give is to keep yer head on a swivel & learn where your "new normal" actually is as far as head tilt while sighting guns. There's an "art" to doing it right & it takes some practice, but I'm living proof that said practice can accomplish a goal---like keepin'-up with the kids!

Hope you get your "new normal" soon!

All the best,

Dave

 

[don hepler]

I made glasses, for a living. I worked on the R&D team at Johnson & Johnson when they developed the progressive "Definity" lenses. The process was sold to Essilor. With glasses, you get what you pay for. With the computer generated, CNC cut and polished lenses, you'll get a wider progressive channel, with the best coatings. People are always interested about the frames, but never ask about the lenses. I have every eye problem you can imagine, and at 64, can shoot better than most young people. Yes, I shoot a lot but a good quality pair of progressive lenses, will make a world of difference.

 

[thecapgunkid]

I put a thicker front sight and wider, squared notch on the rear sight. At the half cock, just before I shoulder, I thumb my bi focals up the bridge of my nose.

I sight with the distance lense, not with the reading lense. That's because I can get the minimum blur on the sight and focus on the target.

Then you gotta follow through....

 

[Captjoel]

I wear the old traditional bi-focal and until this question was asked, never gave it much thought. I never seemed to have an issue with sighting on my rifle's. Then I checked this morning while out in my deer blind. I shouldered the rifle and drew up on a tree branch about 30 yards out. Seems I automatically move my face muscles to slide my glasses down my nose over the nasal bone. This puts the top lens right on the view point of sights and target. I have always done this unconsciously.....or without thought.

 

[wpjson]

I use VA health care so I have several different bifocals. The pair I wear usually has progressive lens and darken in the sun. I have found that while hunting in the snow on a bright day, they darken so much I can not see back into the timber. So I have a clear pair with the lines for hunting, when I remember to wear them. So I shoot with both kinds of lens. I do not remember sighting ever being an issue. But reading the comments makes me realize it could be. Now that I a aware of it I probably will never be able to sight again properly.

 

[pargent]

+1 for the Merit if allowed in matches some do and some don't .

 

[Grenadier1758]

I went a slightly different way. I wear contact lenses. When the need for bifocals was becoming obvious, my doctor prescribed monofocal lenses. This means the front sight is sharply in focus. The rear sight and target are slightly fuzzy. I can deal with that. Its great for smoothbore shooting with both eyes open. Everything is in focus.

 

[Canute Rex]

Years ago I went to Montreal and got the Lasix surgery. I went from 8 diopters of myopia (about 20/400 by the usual scale) plus astigmatism to around 20/25. Now, of course, at 53 my arms are getting too short for reading small print.

For shooting I wear low power distance glasses and accept the fact that my rear sight will be blurry. No matter what lens I put in front of my eye I'll never get something 5" away, something 30" away, and something 50 yards away all in focus.

I filed a 1/32" wide 45 degree chamfer on the back of my rear sight so I get two bright lines like this:
- -
on either side of my front sight.

Eventually I'm going to get one of those old style adjustable sights with the long bar between the dovetail and the sight and install it backwards. That will move the rear sight away from my eye a couple of inches.

I saw a 19th C. target rifle at the Precision Museum in Windsor VT that had filled-in rear sight dovetails every couple of inches. The final position of the rear sight was halfway up the barrel. Food for thought.

 

[AZbpBurner]

I went a slightly different way. I wear contact lenses. When the need for bifocals was becoming obvious, my doctor prescribed monofocal lenses. This means the front sight is sharply in focus. The rear sight and target are slightly fuzzy. I can deal with that. Its great for smoothbore shooting with both eyes open. Everything is in focus.

According to my optometrist, often contacts are set up so one eye focuses at distance, while the other is set to focus closer. I had a set of shooting glasses made with shooting eye focusing at arms-length sighting distance, and the other lens for my normal distance vision - works great.

That Merit Optical Device is an overpriced ripoff. You can punch a 1/16" in a piece of black electrical tape and attach it more securely for a fraction of the price.

 

[Cbriggs57]

The "electrical tape diopter" is a good test. I will try that one. I may have to knuckle under and order firesights or use some bright paint on the front sight, too. I'm also looking for an original T/C tang-mounted aperture sight. My cartridge guns may get the same treatment, except for my Marlin Guide Gun. Have a Leupold Scout on that one, but will not treat my sidelocks thusly. They shall remain iron sighted in perpetuity.