Sights vs. Eyesight

[mtmeredith]

Try shooting without the glasses. I can't read a sigm very well without them, but I have found that I shoot much better without them on.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

If you don't want to go to a peep or use a Merit/electrical-tape pinhole, another thing to try, besides opening your rear sight notch (which works - just find the shape and the width you like), is a pair of low power reading glasses - in the +1.0 - +1.25 - +1.5 diopter range. You might even try +0.75 diopter if you can find them. You can get a partial idea in the store by looking at something at front-sight distance and at something on the far wall or out the window, and seeking the best compromise between having the "front sight" in focus and the "target" so blurry that you cannot pick a good aiming point on it.

I'm myopic, astigmatic, and old enough to need trifocals, so I can't do anything that simple. I have an old pair of now-nearsighted safety glasses that work fairly well with open sights and even better with the electrical-tape-with-a-hole trick, and I got a pair of inexpensive mail-order progressives made up at +.75 diopters to my regular prescription that worked fairly well except that I found that I hate progressive lenses.

Good luck in finding what what works and suits you.

Regards,
Joel

 

[Joel/Calgary]

Hmm... how'd I manage to post that twice?
Joel

 

[F.G. Ford]

Joel,
Perhaps you didn't have your glasses on???
Fred

 

[necchi]

a pair of low power reading glasses - in the +1.0 - +1.25 - +1.5 diopter range. You might even try +0.75 diopter if you can find them.,,,

,,,seeking the best compromise between having the "front sight" in focus and the "target" so blurry that you cannot pick a good aiming point on it.

Good advice but Joes right, there's trouble with reading glasses or lense magnification.
There's a trade off,,

As stated earlier it's the rear sight that goes fuzzy first.
My Optomitrist is a CF Pistol shooter and after explaining my problem he recomended a full .25 magnification across the lense for "Shooting Glasses"
That magnification works great to bring the rear and front sights back into focus,
but the target gets bad past 15-20yrds. Anything past Pistol range the type, size and color of the target is a big deal.

Not mentioned so far is light, a simple aid can be to take your hat off if you wear one and take measures to remove glare from the top of the barrel. I rust browned my barrels and that helps, prior to that I masked off the top flat of the barrel and spray painted with
"stove black" flat paint.

 

[Joel/Calgary]

I don't need the rear sight in good focus, as long as the notch dimensions & shape are such as to avoid "ghosts" near my front sight and I can still pick a consistent line for the top edge. I need the front sight as sharp as I can get it and still (switching focus as needed) see the target (animal, paper, or metal) well enough to pick a good and consistent aiming point out at however far it is. And for me at my age, +0.25 diopters is nowhere strong enough to bring my front sight into reasonable focus, let alone the rear.

Regards,
Joel