Champion Olympic vs Super Olympic glasses?

[PeterD77]

Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster. Keen 10m Air pistol shooter. I read an old thread some time ago, where, Rover I think, suggested to another member that they would be better off spending money on some proper shooting glasses rather than a new air pistol. With that in mind, I am looking at the Champion brand shooting glasses. Choosing between the Olympic and Super Olympic models. Is there any feature on the Super Olympic model that should make me want to spend a couple of hundred dollars more over the Olympic model? I welcome any advice anyone cares to offer on this decision. Thanks.

[j danielsson]

Have you looked at Jäggi? Not as adjustable as Champion but very much cheaper.

[OTD]

The differences are lens holder adjustability and an off set nose ridge. The Super Olympics has more adjustability options. It might be an advantage for people with a right hand left eye dominance but other than that, I don’t see any benefit over their more conventional Olympics frame. More adjusability means more screws to play with, more adjustments to test, more joints to worry about and a good excuse for not having found the perfect adjustment.

I was excited when I saw the Super Olympics but followed the advice of my fellow shooters to get a conventional frame and have it adjusted by an optometrist because once it’s set because here will be no for further adjustments needed, which I can confirm now after shooting five years with a conventional frame from a different maker. Recommended other brands are Jaggi-Nova, Knobloch and Varga.
Mine is a Jaggi-Nova. If it was not for the good deal I got, I would either have picked Knobloch or Varga. Flip a coin.

[Gwhite]

One minor difference is that Olympic pistol glasses are designed for 42mm lenses. Jaggi-Nova uses 42 mm lenses as well. Knobloch & Varga both use 37 mm lenses. None of these glasses provide much protection, but I like the larger lens.

I've got a couple pairs of different vintages of Olympics. At the time I got them, nobody in the US had heard of Jaggi-Nova.

[PeterD77]

Thank you all for your feedback.

[ShootingSight]

For pistol, I think it does not matter.

1. Key is getting the right lens. You want +0.75 added to any distance prescription you have if you are shooting pistol with iron sights. If you have never had distance glasses, I recommend going to a Wal-Mart or Sam's Club optometrist and getting a checkup to be sure. It is possible to go through life needing a correction that is so slight, you never know it, but if you are going to optimize for shooting, the $40 cost of the exam is worth it to get it exact versus 'sort of close'. I can make any size lens, optometrists can typically make 37 mm and larger, so that's a non-issue (though I suspect I'm a bunch cheaper at $40 per lens).

2. Lens positioning for pistol is less critical. In rifle, prone shooting requires that you look in the extreme upper inside quadrant of your field of view, so the lens needs to be adjustable to be close the the bridge of your nose, and the lens needs to be oriented at close to 45 degrees to your face. In pistol, this is not the case. You are looking relatively straight ahead, and you can tilt your head slightly to get optimal alignment, so all the complexity and fragility of lenses that can be positioned is not necessary. My personal favorite is Bob Jones glasses (BJonesSights.com). Bob had custom glasses made up in China with offset nose pieces, so the glasses sit crooked on your face (like Harry Potter after a bar fight). They are not adjustable, but they work. They cost $35, and come with flat lenses, so if you only install the single corrected lens for your shooting eye, you can get in for well under $100, and it gets you about 90% of what an expensive pair would cost.