TargetTalk

Hello,

I have recently start shooting AP again after a very long break and I have concluded that my $3.00, +2.00 reading glasses from ACE Hardware were probably not serving me well.

I purchased some Varga 2000 glasses with a +.5 diopter lense but I can't even come close to focusing the sights. The strongest lense that PilkGuns has is +.5 diopter.

I appreciate some insight on how to choose the lense and where to buy it from.

Thanks, Paul

your vision + .50
so if you're -2.50, the lense you buy is -2.00

Don't go cheap here. Get a scrip for exactly what you need from your eye doc (you only need one lens). That will allow you to focus on the sights plus cure other optical defects such as astigmatism.

Rover wrote:Don't go cheap here. Get a scrip for exactly what you need from your eye doc (you only need one lens). That will allow you to focus on the sights plus cure other optical defects such as astigmatism.

+1

I tried various glasses over the last few years but nothing was perfect until I went with shooting glasses like the Varga and had a custom lense cut for it. Because you can center the lense to you eye, if the lense is cut/ground perfectly you SEE perfectly! Worth every penny!!!

Chip

Rover wrote:Don't go cheap here. Get a scrip for exactly what you need from your eye doc (you only need one lens). That will allow you to focus on the sights plus cure other optical defects such as astigmatism.

Three times is a Charm! You MUST go to your eye doctor for a shooting prescription...Also.

It really doesn't cost very much.

Tony

Thanks for everyone's reply. I shoot BE with RED dot and AP with open sights so I assume that will need a lens for distance and one for close up, correct?

I had planned on getting a custom distance prescription for BE shooting but I thought (perhaps incorrectly) that for the close up lens my normal reading glasses prescription would suffice and I could buy something off the shelf.

I would be interested in peoples experience.

Thanks, Paul

Nope, one lense works great for both. My lense makes the front sight or red dot look razor sharp. Target is slightly fuzzy, but not bad at all.

Chip

ChipEck wrote:Nope, one lense works great for both. My lense makes the front sight or red dot look razor sharp. Target is slightly fuzzy, but not bad at all.

Chip

I was under the impression that with red dot, your focus is better placed on the target rather than the dot. Whereas in iron sights the focus is, of course on the front sight. I guess whatever works for the individual to get X's is best. I haven't tried using my shooting glasses for red dot - I will have to do that and report back.

I did go to the eye doc for a new script specifically for shooting. Here's a suggestion: It helps if you take your hardware of choice and hold it as you would aiming at a target, and have someone measure the distance between your eye and the front sight. This will help your eye doc tremendously in adjusting for exactly that distance. I've worn glasses full time for almost twenty years so its the norm for me. My distance to sight was 36" for my AP, so I used that as the distance I wanted to optimize to. With that my doc was able to give me the optimum sharpness for that distance....in my case that was +3.75 in both eyes. I'm currently trying simple reading glasses with +3.75 lenses and the front sight is razor sharp...far more so than with my standard progressive lens prescription lenses (+3.75 is actually +.75 more than the 3.00 my progressive close-up component is (lower). So if you go to get an eye exam with the intention of getting a shooting prescription, I'd strongly suggest going with the specific distance you are trying to optimize for. I also have a pair of +3.25 lenses and I can definitely tell the difference in that at three feet that front sight is not as crisp as with the added +.50 of the other glasses. I went with the advice to add +.75 to +1.00 to your normal close-up prescription to get your "shooting" ideal, but it was having that 36" front-sight-to-eye, distance that really helped my eye-doc hone in on what was best for me.

With a Red Dot, use glasses that allow you to perfectly focus on the target (totally different than iron sights). When shooting LOOK at the target, not the dot.

Vari-focals are a shooting disaster.

Rover wrote:With a Red Dot, use glasses that allow you to perfectly focus on the target (totally different than iron sights). When shooting LOOK at the target, not the dot.

Vari-focals are a shooting disaster.

That's what I thought, and have been doing all along. That would be an argument for using a pair of glasses set fixed at your distance vision for using a red dot, and if you use iron sights have a pair that are made specifically for that distance (eye to front sight). Typical recommendation seems to be your standard close prescription adding +0.5 to + 1.00. You can really tweak that for your own vision if you bring that distance to your eye exam. I recently swapped over to that for iron sights which I use with my AP and in two sessions I bettered my scores by about 10% quite consistently. It is also much easier to align the sights and concentrate on all the other things that help you get X's.

I've had mixed results with progressive lenses, but yes, they don't make sense for precision since you need to find the sweet spot by tilting your head up and down every time you fire and I doubt you're finding the exact same point each time. I have one pair that I've worn to the range by mistake a couple of times and each time was some embarrassing shooting on my part. I have a smaller pair where the majority of the glass is my distance correction. I shoot just fine with those smaller ones with red dot...BUT with iron sights progressives suck!

I have been through this over the past few years.

-Go to Dr and get your eyes checked
-You need to know if you have astigmatism in your aiming eye. If you do then you need a special lens set to your distance Rx.
-It is also nice if you can get them to check what your Rx would be when looking at something thing that is same distance from your eye to the front sight. Get some help to measure this distance with your AP and take this to your Dr appt.

Champions Choice has lenses from 0.0 upto I think +2.00 in .25 steps. I got one of each and a lens holder that clips onto my primary lens holder. In the primary holder I put a lens for distance which makes the dot when shooting BE look perfect. When shooting AP add the correct lens that you need to match what the Dr measured. Another option is to tape something on the wall with typing on it and stand facing the wall so the wall and your eye are the correct distance apart as if the wall was your front sight. Then you can hold a second lens in front of your primary lens until the picture looks clear.

A secondary lens holder can also be handy to hold a smoke lens for bright days.

A quick note on the WHY you don't try to have your lens setup to focus at the distance the dot is:

Basically the way the sights are setup they do their darndest to convince the brain that the dot is projected at infinity (or close enough),allowing the eye to focus on whatever it wants to and the dot stays sharp. If you try to focus on the dot you're actually bringing your focal plane back to the glass the dot is projected on/through. This does nothing for you as there is nothing to align there. We spend a good bit of a day going over this teaching guys to shoot with red dot optics on rifles for work.

-Jenrick

You need two different lenses.

For red dot, you need a lens that will focus you at infinity - this is basically your distance prescription.

For metal sights with a pistol, you want your distance vision plus +0.75 added to it (or just a +0.75 lens if you have no distance vision issues). +0.75 will shift your relaxed focal point back to what is referred to as your hyperfocal distance in photography. It is the average distance between focusing on the target and focusing on the front sight, so your eye's depth of field is naturally centered between the two. This way, without exerting your eye muscle, you can see the target and the sight together, and this will give you the clearest possible overall image. From here, you can still pull your focus in closer with your eye, if you prefer a sharper sight, and you will get there with a lot less effort, and a lot greater ability to sustain focus without getting 'fade'.

Do not get veri-focal or 'no-line' bifocals. If you want a bi-focal, get the old kind with a line. If the part of the lens you are shooting with has variable focus, it will give you inconsistent sharpness on the sights as you tip your head slightly or the glasses move on yor face. Inconsistent sharpness will make the front sight look slightly larger or smaller as the blur line varies, so you will string your shot groups up/down.

I make lenses for shooters with any power, including astigmatism correction, though I only do round lenses. Impact resistant PC, with AR coating is $40 delivered.

Art