Sight Picture

[KIM]

Hi all,
I'm getting closer to mid 50's in age I've been a smallbore shooting for 8 years, I still have a good sight picture of the target but the front sights where getting very hazy and my group was starting to get a bit wider, I got a prescription lens now have a great front sight picture but the target picture has turned into a fuz ball and of course the group looks a shot gun.
Any thoughts or suggestions of gadgets that might help?
Thanks Kim

[Anschutz]

You may want to consider the first two items below or just the last item below as that depends on your eyesight, situation, and etc. See #4 below, and look for Art Neegaard's response from Shooting Sight. At about your age, I used a recommended prescription change by Art, but eyes changed some years later so got #1 and #2 below a few months ago, which has worked great.

1. http://shop.shootingsight.com/Test-Lens ... ns-Kit.htm
2. http://shop.shootingsight.com/0125-Sing ... r-lens.htm

3. http://shop.shootingsight.com/Test-Lens ... -Frame.htm

4. http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... rt#p254225

[Tim S]

Hi all,
I'm getting closer to mid 50's in age I've been a smallbore shooting for 8 years, I still have a good sight picture of the target but the front sights where getting very hazy and my group was starting to get a bit wider, I got a prescription lens now have a great front sight picture but the target picture has turned into a fuz ball and of course the group looks a shot gun.
Any thoughts or suggestions of gadgets that might help?
Thanks Kim

Sharp target and fuzzy foresight au naturel sounds like long sighted to me; welcome to the club. However your new problem of a fuzzy-invisible target isn't so good. I wonder if the prescription in the lens isn't right for you. Ideally the lens should give a focal length in front of the target, typically double your sight radius, so the target is clearer. I'm thinking your lens has a focal distance of around 1 metre, slap bang on the foresight.

Go back to your optician and explain you want a lens for the hyperfocal distance of the foresight. For a standard length barrel (or one with a short extension tube) it's typically distance correction (including astigmatism) + 0.50 to give a focal distance of about 2 metres.

[KennyB]

Hi Kim
I'll second what Tim has said - the lens you have been prescribed is probably a bit too strong.

For comparison, I am a similar age to you and my distance vision is still pretty much perfect but I now need +1.5 reading glasses for the computer (and +2.0 for closer work). My shooting lens is smack in the middle of those two extremes at +0.75 (with a small astigmatism correction).
I used a +0.5 for several years as per Art's advice but recently felt I was still straining a little to get a sharp enough foresight over a long course of fire.

I have seen some wildly inappropriate lenses provided to shooters by opticians over the last few years. One of my clubmates was complaining about her sight picture through her new lens - I estimated it at around +2.25. She has very good distance vision and when she started using a +0.5 (from my collection of redundant lenses), her shooting improved dramatically.

Cheers,
Ken.

[TenMetrePeter]

I second all that. It's not something opticians seem to be are trained for, particularly in UK though Australia should be a bit more enlightened to things that go bang.

I would just add that as this is in the Olympic Rifle section are you using an iris rear-sight or open notch?

The whole point about using a 1mm "pinhole" iris is that it brings in a huge depth of field that is lost by age related presbyopia, Are you sure the iris is not too wide open? if adjustable close it down.

After a lifetime of no glasses, due to my age I use a +1 for walking about and +3 bifocal for reading. I had a +1.5 for pistol but with an iris rifle sight I need no lens at all. All is sharp.

If you have open notch rear sight consider converting to iris type sights if suitable for your sport.

[rally2xs]

I'd invest $20 and try this:

https://www.buydialvision.com/?uid=8ADA ... oCokXw_wcB

You could adjust them to see if you can get a cure for your problem, then take that magnification to your eye doctor and see if he can duplicate it in a special pair of shooting glasses.

[TenMetrePeter]

@Rally2xs Wrong link?? All I see on this side of the ocean is a bunch of irrelevant gadgets.

[Anschutz]

Hi Kim
I'll second what Tim has said - the lens you have been prescribed is probably a bit too strong.

For comparison, I am a similar age to you and my distance vision is still pretty much perfect but I now need +1.5 reading glasses for the computer (and +2.0 for closer work). My shooting lens is smack in the middle of those two extremes at +0.75 (with a small astigmatism correction).
I used a +0.5 for several years as per Art's advice but recently felt I was still straining a little to get a sharp enough foresight over a long course of fire.

I have seen some wildly inappropriate lenses provided to shooters by opticians over the last few years. One of my clubmates was complaining about her sight picture through her new lens - I estimated it at around +2.25. She has very good distance vision and when she started using a +0.5 (from my collection of redundant lenses), her shooting improved dramatically.

Cheers,
Ken.

KIM,
Recently, my eyes have done much the same as KennyB except a little more extreme for reading. He's made a great point about opticians providing incorrect lens. Why? Most don't understand what your'e trying to explain about an iron sight picture - hyperfocal vision. In addition, as Art has and will point out, it has to be done on a range actually looking through the sights at a target. Otherwise, it can be a "crap shoot," of getting a lens made that isn't correct then back to square one = more wasted time and frustration. Been there, done that. Also, after using the test lens kit, I had to get a new prescription written by my doc, because had the lens made at another locale.

[rally2xs]

@Rally2xs Wrong link?? All I see on this side of the ocean is a bunch of irrelevant gadgets.

Darn. The link was supposed to go to a set of glasses that are adjustable for their focus. Here's the Amazon link - about double the $$$ that the "As seen on TV" link, unfortunately.

https://www.amazon.com/Instant-20-Adjus ... B00GM01TMA

Otherwise, you might just be able to simply search for "adjustable glasses."

[rally2xs]

Just FYI, anyone facing cataract surgery and liking to shoot should be sure and get the "multifocal" lenses. I did that, and because my vision needed more correction than they made the lenses for - I needed 31.5 and 31.0 diopter, and the multifocals only go to 30 - my doctor did Lasik after using the 30.0 diopter lenses. Anyway, the result is, at age 64, I qualified to go to Iraq with 79 out of 80 on the M16 and 39 out of 40 on the M9 handgun. This was after not having touched a firearm for a couple decades. The upshot was that BOTH THE FRONT SIGHT AND THE TARGET WERE PERFECTLY IN FOCUS. That's what multifocal lenses do. I would never recommend the surgery for simply improving sight, since the surgery isn't 100% successful and some people lose the sight of an eye, but for cataracts, taking advantage of that situation for better shooting is just an opportunity I think people should know about. I'm 69 now and my vision is still tack-sharp.

[KIM]

Thanks for all your feedback.
The thing is I live 450km away from the nearest capital city with decent Optometrists that looks after the international shooters. The local Optometrists hear don't know anything about our sport I've said in the past that I may need a new lens for ISSF prone target shooting and they have come back with, "is that what Michael Diamond does with a Shot gun", not nearly enough publicity for our sport hear in Australia too many anti guns in the media hear (don't get me started ).
I've been doing some research and what would the Centra Hawk 4,5 be like? could I adjust it myself to get the sight picture that I would like?

Kim

[Tim S]

An optician should understand the hyperfocal distance though.

[bugman1955]

I had the same problem as you, but found by adjusting my cheek piece the problem cleared up. Something to investigate.

[Jason]

Are you using actual shooting glasses or regular glasses? If you're not using them, get a pair of shooting glasses (Olympic, Knobloch, MEC, etc.) before going any further.

Based on Art's advice, I had my optometrist add +0.50 to my regular prescription and +0.25 on top of that for the increased distance of the lens from my eye (compared to my regular glasses). I also used my SCATT to determine the best sight radius for my vision. It took awhile but a fuzzy sight picture has largely disappeared. I say largely because if I'm tired or have had too much sugar/caffeine my eyes don't work as well.

I'm almost 43 and have awful vision: -9.75R, -10.25L with wicked astigmatism. I'm also red-green colour deficient, too. Yes, my eyes are a mess.

Jason

[KIM]

Hi Jason,
I have a little rig on my rear iris that held my lens, then I loaned a club members shooting frames and put my lens in, still a sharp pic of my foresight and a fuzz ball for a target pic.
I'm a bit like you Jason, it depends on what I was doing before I shoot, if I hve been in the office in front of the computer all day or working outside in the dust, sometimes the sight pic not too bad, but most times it's frustrating bloody FUZZY.

Kim