Shooting Glasses
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Shooting Glasses
I am going to get a set of Champion shooting glasses. What is the best way to have a lens correction done. I shoot both open sights and red dots outdoors and indoors and anticipate the need for various diopter corrections. I need a correction for my distance vision and now need the bifocals as well.
My recommendation is to contact a well-reputed (among shooters) optometrist for this purpose.
For years I have used a shooting glass from Knobloch and was seemingly quite content. But only until I contacted a specialist in this area.
This experience was a true eye-opener. I live in Germany and travelled 250 miles for this guy but it was worth it. Nearly all our (inter)national champions are his customers. He has an own firing lane for several disciplines in his shop (It is presumably not an option but anyhow, here is the web site: http://www.mueller-manching.de )
The previous glasses were measured by a really competent (friendly, helpful, knowledgeable) optometrist but he was not a specialist in this area.
On that occasion I changed to champion glasses as well - the change was extremely noticeable but took me some time to get used to it.
best regards
Axel
For years I have used a shooting glass from Knobloch and was seemingly quite content. But only until I contacted a specialist in this area.
This experience was a true eye-opener. I live in Germany and travelled 250 miles for this guy but it was worth it. Nearly all our (inter)national champions are his customers. He has an own firing lane for several disciplines in his shop (It is presumably not an option but anyhow, here is the web site: http://www.mueller-manching.de )
The previous glasses were measured by a really competent (friendly, helpful, knowledgeable) optometrist but he was not a specialist in this area.
On that occasion I changed to champion glasses as well - the change was extremely noticeable but took me some time to get used to it.
best regards
Axel
Re: Shooting Glasses
jtg wrote:I am going to get a set of Champion shooting glasses. What is the best way to have a lens correction done. I shoot both open sights and red dots outdoors and indoors and anticipate the need for various diopter corrections. I need a correction for my distance vision and now need the bifocals as well.
You definitely do NOT want to shoot with bifocal or progressive lenses.
Start with Norman Wong's paper, BULLSEYE SHOOTERS' GUIDE FOR THE EYECARE PROFESSIONAL, found here- http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwo ... l#eyeguide
Make sure your doctor reads it before your exam.
My doctor lets me bring my pistol to the exam:-)
I second Axle's recommendation with regards to finding an Optometrist that has some knowledge in the requirements need for shooting. I'm lucky enough to have a doctor that specializes in sports optics and actually teaches it at the University, he has done glasses for nurmerous members of or national shooting team as well as many other athletes in different sports. He too lets us bring or air pistol in for the exam, which takes about an hour (as opposed to the 1/2 hour regular exam). he goes through main smaller steps than what is done in a regular exam as well as goes back a few times to confirm the corrections.
If you can't find one that has knowledge make sure you at least find on who is interested in learning what needs to be done, then you'll have to educate both yourself and him on the rquirements.
If you can't find one that has knowledge make sure you at least find on who is interested in learning what needs to be done, then you'll have to educate both yourself and him on the rquirements.
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Shooting Kiwi
- Posts: 321
- Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:33 am
- Location: New Zealand
Your need for bifocals suggests you are, how shall I put this delicately, not in the first flush of youth?
What is really irritating is that (as I'm sure you know), as we age, our eye lenses get stiffer and slower to change focal length when we try to focus. When all accommodation is lost, things get easier again, but middle age is a problem. The eye's residual accommodation can screw up the examination unless you and the optometrist are more than usually careful. During the eye examination, you can easily get to a stage where small corrections are tried by the optometrist when the eye's lens is not in an appropriate state: the eye is trying to accommodate, rather than being relaxed, as if focussed at infinity. (If you are at the stage of taking several seconds to see distant things immediately after a few minutes reading, you know what I mean.) You can easily get into the situation of good, corrected, vision during the examination, which is hopeless on the range.
My optometrist says that, for 'normal' purposes, 1/2 diopter differences aren't often noticed by the public. They can compensate with their lovely, flexible lenses. For us oldies, with critical requirements, he gets out 1/4 diopter correction lenses. Then it's really difficult to know whether it's his lens or your pathetic attempts to accommodate that is responsible for the change.
Another problem with 'standard' eye examinations is that they are often done at a fairly high level of illumination. This causes the pupil to constrict, and, like a camera, gives your eye a greater depth of focus, so small changes in correction are less obvious. Try to get your optometrist to do the examination in really dim light, so your pupil can be wide open.
As well as finding a shooting-friendly optometrist, you should both be prepared to take a lot of time for the examination and should have the courage to ask for time to rest at the first suspicion that your eye is fatiguing... and then more courage (and money?) to do it all over again, after you've found your prescription unsatisfactory on the range. (Been there, done that, even with an appropriate optometrist).
Sorry, long post, but I sympathise - it's a real problem; don't underestimate its difficulty.
What is really irritating is that (as I'm sure you know), as we age, our eye lenses get stiffer and slower to change focal length when we try to focus. When all accommodation is lost, things get easier again, but middle age is a problem. The eye's residual accommodation can screw up the examination unless you and the optometrist are more than usually careful. During the eye examination, you can easily get to a stage where small corrections are tried by the optometrist when the eye's lens is not in an appropriate state: the eye is trying to accommodate, rather than being relaxed, as if focussed at infinity. (If you are at the stage of taking several seconds to see distant things immediately after a few minutes reading, you know what I mean.) You can easily get into the situation of good, corrected, vision during the examination, which is hopeless on the range.
My optometrist says that, for 'normal' purposes, 1/2 diopter differences aren't often noticed by the public. They can compensate with their lovely, flexible lenses. For us oldies, with critical requirements, he gets out 1/4 diopter correction lenses. Then it's really difficult to know whether it's his lens or your pathetic attempts to accommodate that is responsible for the change.
Another problem with 'standard' eye examinations is that they are often done at a fairly high level of illumination. This causes the pupil to constrict, and, like a camera, gives your eye a greater depth of focus, so small changes in correction are less obvious. Try to get your optometrist to do the examination in really dim light, so your pupil can be wide open.
As well as finding a shooting-friendly optometrist, you should both be prepared to take a lot of time for the examination and should have the courage to ask for time to rest at the first suspicion that your eye is fatiguing... and then more courage (and money?) to do it all over again, after you've found your prescription unsatisfactory on the range. (Been there, done that, even with an appropriate optometrist).
Sorry, long post, but I sympathise - it's a real problem; don't underestimate its difficulty.
Re: Shooting Glasses
If you are near or can find yourself an excuse to be in the San Francisco area that is where Dr Norman Wong (article mentioned above) is located. His office is a short walk from one of the BART stations so you can reach it from almost anywhere in the area. He is an avid Bullseye shooter and has made a study of prescriptions for shooters. He not only does a full exam but will then take you out into the front of his place and give you a little wooden device with sights on it you can hold like a pistol (remember, this is San Francisco) and put some test frames on you so he can swap out lenses to vary the prescription in very small increments to confirm the results. Worth the effort if you can get there.
Clark
Clark
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Steve Swartz
Of course.
That's why most shooting glasses have irises and lenses of varying diopters.
The amount of ambient light falling on your iris will affect the size of the pupil.
Also, the amount of differential between the firing position, the front sight, and the target area will create very different contrast effects.
For example, with a dark firing line and dark front sight, with a brightly lit target, I need to crank teh adjustable iris down to a pinhole. Which means I then need to add about +.75 dopters in order to take the target back out of focus.
Under the opposite conditions, i could shoot with my "street" glasses.
I think Don Nygord's article is in the archives/on the TenP file pages? He discusses all this in detail.
Steve
That's why most shooting glasses have irises and lenses of varying diopters.
The amount of ambient light falling on your iris will affect the size of the pupil.
Also, the amount of differential between the firing position, the front sight, and the target area will create very different contrast effects.
For example, with a dark firing line and dark front sight, with a brightly lit target, I need to crank teh adjustable iris down to a pinhole. Which means I then need to add about +.75 dopters in order to take the target back out of focus.
Under the opposite conditions, i could shoot with my "street" glasses.
I think Don Nygord's article is in the archives/on the TenP file pages? He discusses all this in detail.
Steve
Google "Custom Sight Picture" and look at Dr. Allan Toler's web site. He's double Distinguished, President's Hundred, High Master, and the head of the U.S. Army Reserve Pistol Team in addtion to being an eye doctor. So, he has a clue from both sides of the issue. I've used him and his test kit for over 10 years with very good results [Distinguished Pistol Shot Badge, President's Hundred, and a few other good things].
Dr. Wong's article is very good.
Changes in light effecting clarity of the front sight: I shoot air gun on my 10 meter range in the basement; and NRA three gun pistol and black powder pistol on covered, baffled ranges in the mid-Atlantic area, and in full sun light at Camp Perry and other locations. What works perfectly in the basement [nice dark front sight with fuzzy bullseye], does not necessarily work as well on the covered ranges, and works less well in full sun light [front sight getting fuzzy, with bullseye getting clearer]. For me the difference is about one half diopter. It is interesting that the progressive increase in light which occurs in moving from the basement to full sun light has that much of an impact on the older eye.
Dr. Wong's article is very good.
Changes in light effecting clarity of the front sight: I shoot air gun on my 10 meter range in the basement; and NRA three gun pistol and black powder pistol on covered, baffled ranges in the mid-Atlantic area, and in full sun light at Camp Perry and other locations. What works perfectly in the basement [nice dark front sight with fuzzy bullseye], does not necessarily work as well on the covered ranges, and works less well in full sun light [front sight getting fuzzy, with bullseye getting clearer]. For me the difference is about one half diopter. It is interesting that the progressive increase in light which occurs in moving from the basement to full sun light has that much of an impact on the older eye.