These eyes ain't what they used to be

[Bruce H]

I have a 50 cal. Pedersoli Frontier long rifle. It has a buckhorn rear sight and a front blade sight.

I am having a terrible time seeing the sights with these old eyes until it really becomes very light outside. I hate to say it, but I am thinking about putting fiber optic sights on it. I am just having a terrible time thinking about the appearance of that beautiful old rifle (even though it is just a replica) with modern sights :shake: . I tried painting the back side of the front blade with white paint and it helped just slightly.

Do you think the fiber optic sights will help? Any other alternatives I could try? Otherwise it's just wait til a good 30 to 45 minutes after sunrise to shoot; and that is a very real possibility even though it means passing up an early deer.

Bruce

 

[playfarmers]

Fiber optics are good, but a fiber optic front sight and a peep back sight is the way to go. My 50 year old eyes love the Lyman peep I have on my Deerstalker, and I have a fiber optic front sight on my Austin and Halleck. It may not be pc, but I am a hunter first.

 

[Zonie]

IMO, the fiber optics may be brighter but they won't be sharp and crisp looking like they need to be to shoot well.

They used to sell little black stick on dots with a small hole thru the center to stick on your glasses.
By sticking one to the lens where you normally look when sighting your rifle, you will be looking thru the small hole.
This greatly increases your eyes ability to see your sights clearly while leaving the target also focused.

If you can't find any of these stick on disks, you can try to make your own out of a piece of black plastic electrical tape.
The hole should be only about 1/16 to 3/32 of an inch in diameter. The larger it is, the less effective it is but the brighter the view is.

The hole also needs to be very round or it may distort the sight picture.

To make a very round, precision hole in a piece of electrical tape you will need to spend a little bit to buy the electrical tape (or duct tape), a roll of Reynolds Plastic Wrap (don't use waxed paper), two pieces of wood, a small C clamp and a few drill bits.

Cut a piece of tape about 1 inch long and stick it to a piece of the Plastic Wrap.

Sandwich this between the two pieces of wood and secure it with the C clamp.

Drill thru the first piece of wood and into the second making sure the drill hits the tape/plastic wrap.

Remove the tape/plastic wrap from the wood blocks.
At this stage, you might want to trim the tape around the new hole so it is about 1/4-3/8 square or round.
Remove the tape from the plastic wrap.

Here it may be best to get the help of a friend, your shooting glasses and your rifle.
With your glasses on, aim the rifle and have the friend position the tape mask so your eye is looking thru it. When it is in the right place, stick it to the lens.

Just to be sure I wasn't giving you something that wouldn't work I tried this before writing this post answer.
I found that the 1/16 hole works well but it does cut the light down a lot. For me, a 5/64 diameter hole seemed to work best.
Because everyones eyes are different, you might want to try several different diameters and use the one that works best for you.

zonie

 

[Alberta Black]

I have a Pedersoli Frontier carbine and it had the worst sights that I ever saw. I bought a replacement set from LA that came with fiber optic rear and front sights.

While out rabbit hunting the first winter I slipped and smacked the gun on the frozen gound and popped out the left fiber on the rear sight. Thankfully the gun was not harmed. Now I was looking a one open circle on the left, one red dot (front sight) and one green dot for the remaining rear sight. I ended up plugging the left hole with black masking tape.

I got the rifle sighted in early one mornig dead on at 25 yards and was very hapopy with the group. A little later in the morning I shot another group with the rifle and it was just as small but had moved four inches to the right. I glanced behind me and saw that the sun had risen higher in the sky over my left shoulder. The sun reflecting off of a different part of the fibre optic front sight caused the groups to shift.

I have since coloured the rear and front sights black to remove the fiber optic effect and I will replace then as soon as hunting season is over.

Richard

 

[JWP]

I know all about the eyes not being what they use to be - only problem is I shoot flintlock at local shoots and rendezvous that DO NOT allow fiber optics or the black dot on your eyeglasses (no peep sites).
I've filed a grove in my front site with an angle that helps reflect any light that may happen to touch it.
There are days that I do good and days that I don't - the younger eyes generally take the top places .... I say generally but not always - I sure do enjoy those times when I'm in the top 3 with them :thumbsup:

 

[ss1]

I have a simular rifle, and have just put a peep sight on it. Hope to get to the range this week to try it out. My eyes are so bad, I had to put a peep on the front as well.

 

[Charles/NM]

at the ripe old age of 66 I'm in the same boat. What I found works for me it to use a wider front blade and rear notch and Wal Mart +2.50 reading glasses. I'm using a .150" wide blade on one of my rifles. I don't like buckhorn rear sights. I tried various peep sight configurations but all gave me a dimmer view in early morning and late evening light even with a large aperture and were useless for quick target acquisition. I don't like ghost sights either. I will eventually have to use a low poser scope whether I like it or not. Maybe I can cover it with raw hide to make it look less modern, lol.

 

[2172]

Charles, your idea works for me, too. I've widened the notch in all of my rear sights, and have a pair of glasses that are set up for my computer monitor distance..they put the gun sights in clear sight, and the target is only slightly fuzzy...Hank

 

[Plains99]

I had to give up on the fiber optic sights as while they are certainly brighter, they often shimmer in wrong light... expecially when snow is on the ground. And I find it difficult to draw a fine bead with fiber optics. I made the move to peep sights on some of my hunters and do much better... but frankly I can see better through black iron sights than fiber optics.

 

[twotoescharlie]

Bruce H.
if you wear glasses I can tell you a way to help your vision. go to the dollar store and get a cheap pair of the clip on-flip up sunglasses.aim one of your rifles and have someone mark a dot on the lens with a magic marker where everything lines up, remove lens from opposite side, drill a small hole at the dot(you can inlarge it later if you want), spray paint flat black. you can trim the lens down to a much smaller size if everything lines up OK. beauty of this is when you don't need it, it can be flipped up out of the way.


TTC

 

[clayfeld]

An adjustable commercial version of the eyeglass pinhole device that Zonie talked about making is available from Brownell's:[url] http://www.brownells.com/aspx/ns/store/productdetail.aspx?p=8767[/url]
It works pretty well. I have one that I often use for pistol shooting, as the indoor range I use is a little on the dark side. (I'm 70 years old (can't believe it!), by the way.

Clay
San Jose

 

[varsity07840]

I've used the Merit eyepiece in the past. Works very well for target work and ok for hunting, though it takes some getting used to for the latter. The peep can be pivoted out of your line of sight when you're not ready to shoot leaving the suction cup part as a bit of a distraction. It's also a good idea to secure it to your glasses with a length of light fishing line in case it pops off. Not a good thing to happen in the woods, especially if you're in a stand.

 

[twotoescharlie]

the clip on sunglasses deal will not fall off, when flipped up will not interfere with your vision and is 15-20 times less expensive than the merit device. I had a merit device but didn't like due to the smudging of my glasses lens. I removed the adjustable Iris and mounted it on one of the clip on flip up frames, works much better. I have made or shown how to make these to a great deal of shooters, no complaints as of yet.


TTC

 

[CoyoteJoe]

The so called fiber optics are not fiber optic at all and are just one of the many scams foisted on shooters to relieve them of their money. They do intensify the brightness of the light falling on them, but that is seldom useful. In good light they are dazzling and make it impossible to draw a good sight picture. In dim light they disappear.
I invite all to try a simple test. Take in one hand a pistol or shotgun with a plain white bead and in the other a gun with those plastic sights. Holding both before you, slowly walk into a dark corridor or walk-in closet and have someone slowly close the door so that you have progressive darkness. You will find the white bead still visible after the red, green, orange and yellow plastic has faded to invisibility. Additionally, they are very fragile, exactly what a hunting rifle must not be. I've seen the factory equipped front sight of a T/C Encore loose it's plastic rod while being shot from benchrest.
They are too bright in good light and too dim in poor light and too delicate for anything. If they worked, the military would have adopted them years ago but they haven't because they don't.
For hunting you can't beat a rugged rear peep with large aperture and a low mounted 3/32" ivory bead up front. Well, ok, you can beat it with a scope, but we won't go there. :grin:

 

[walruskid1]

a gold front bead on a post and a rear peep does the trick for me! i agree with the original post that fiber optics just wouldn't look right on that rifle. i know others disagree, but each to their own...

 

[john s mosby]

I had the same problem with fuzzy rear sights and older eyes, I'll tell you what I did. I had the rear sight moved futher away from the breech end. It used to be 10 inches from the breech to the rear sight, I had it moved out to 12 inches and it made a world of difference. Now my rear sight is clear as a bell. I also had a wider front sight installed.
Try holding your rifle out from your shoulder a few inches and see if that helps any before you actually move it.
Of course if your sight is dovetailed you'll need to cut a new one and fill the old dovetail. I had my old dovetal filled in with a piece of brass.

 

[Zonie]

Another solution that works for me is to spend $10 at the local drug store to buy some reading glasses.

Before you buy them, try on the lowest dioptor available and look at something very small (like the price tag on the shelf :grin: ) that is about 14 inches away, then look at something the same size that is about 3 1/2 feet away.

If the glasses your trying don't sharpen things up, try the next higher number.

You don't want the real powerful glasses so avoid the higher numbers. These may make things up close sharper looking, but they also make things far away out of focus.
The idea here is to get something that leaves distant things clear but at the same time make things up close sharper.

As I say, these glasses only cost about $10 and as a bonus, they do provide fairly good eye protection from cap fragments or pieces of flint that break off and get propelled by the pan flash.

zonie

 

[Bruce H]

Oh my gosh, what a great bunch of suggestions! Now I have a lot of homework and things to try in the next couple months before deer season. Also nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem. Getting older is sometimes a real pain, but it sure beats the alternative!!

You guys are great :thumbsup:

Bruce

 

[rj55]

I also have a 50 cal. Pedersoli with the buckhorn rear sight and a front blade sight.
With the 39" barrel it puts the front blade 45" from my eye and I also found myself having problems seeing it the last few years.
What I did was I got some white fingernail polish and made a small dot at the very top of the sight on the flat that faces me when I'm aiming.
It really helped me out and its so small that it really don't show up that much when the gun is sitting.
The first full year I used it like that was last year and I ended up getting this for 2nd place.

How did I do LOL

RJ

 

[Coot]

Shooting became fun again after I met a father & son team of optometrists who are also serious competion shooters. They made me a pair of range glasses. The glasses are in a shade of grey that gives me good contrast in sunlight & are made with the optical center of the lens offset far to the side of the frames & higher than normal so that I am looking thru the optical center when in shooting position. :thumbsup: The only downside is that to read or score a target I have to either shift to my reading glasses or hold the target way out to my left :grin: Might not be good for hunting but great for punching paper.