best shooting Glasses

[guest]

This question is for all of you experts who can answer it, which kind of glasses is better? One you get from an optometrist with added prescription, or specific shooting glasses made only for the purpose of shooting.

Thanks

[Bill Poole]

below is an explaination of the "lens" I wrote in another thread

The knobloch/Champion etc style frames allow the LENS to be positioned directly in the field of view, with pistol you may get close with regular glasses with rifle you almost always end up looking thru the corner of the lens if you use regular glasses.

IF you need a vision correction, the prescription comes from the optometrist, the added 0.5 dioptor or so of "defocusing" comes from your best estimation.

You can have a lens (sized to fit the knobloch/champion frame) ground to your prescription, OR your prescription PLUS +0.5, 0.75 etc as works best, or use the stock +0.5 etc in front of the prescription lens (then you have TWO pieces of plastic in the light path) OR if you don't need prescription (or wear contact lenses) you can try with and without the +0.5 etc lens for best performance

Poole








normal vision focuses at infinity with relaxed muscles.

tensing the eye muscles pulls the focus in closer

the range to which you can pull you focus in, is called accomodation. The more flexible the eye lens and eye muscles, the more accomodation

someone very young can focus on their own eyelashes. (I might be exageratting)

about the time you get to be 40 or so your eye lens and muscles get so stiff you no longer have enough accomodation to focus on the book your are trying to read. So you get reading glasses, or large print and hold it further away, until your arms get too short.

We are always told to focus on the front sight.

When your eyes get so stiff with age that you can no longer focus on the front sight (especially with the distraction of the target in the distance) then a helpful trick is to de-correct the vision, so that relaxed-muscle focus is no longer at infinity, but rather somewhat closer. (although perhaps not at the front sight, so that some eye muscle tension is used to focus).

A unit of power of a corrective lens is a "diopter". Starting with vision that is focused at infinity, +1 diopter of correction, will bring the relaxed focus in to 1 meter, you'll see better up close but won't be able to see distance any more. +2 diopter to 1/2 meter, etc. +10 diopter to 10cm. Drug-store reading glasses are positive numbers from about +1.25 to about +3.5. Lenses with a negative number are for near-sighted eyes to focus to infinity.

If you look in the shooting catalogs, you will see lenses at +0.5, +0.75 and +1 diopter, these will bring the relaxed focus in to somewhat in front of the front sight, and the eye muscles won't have to work as hard to focus on the front sight. Many people will try different strengths of lenses and pick the one that works best on that day with that light etc.

There are lens frames that look like bizaar glasses (knobloch, champion and others) that allow the mounting of such a lens or a corrective lens (often offset from the full prescription). They also allow the mounting of a blinder for the unused eye. An iris style aperture, color filters etc. There are ISSF rules on blinder size.

Eye protection is another reason for wearing glasses of some form.

Hope this helps

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

[David Levene]

This question is for all of you experts who can answer it, which kind of glasses is better? One you get from an optometrist with added prescription, or specific shooting glasses made only for the purpose of shooting.

Just look at the pictures from the major international matches to see what the top shooters are using. To save you the trouble, of those who use glasses the overwhelming majority use special shooting frames.

It is not just the prescription that is important, you also need to be looking squarely through the optical centre of the lens with your head in the correct position. Shooting glasses have the adjustments to let you do this.

[william]

This is 2 questions - 1 about frames and 1 about lenses. The specialized frames from Champion, Knobloch, Varga, etc. let you position things where you want them and to easily add accessories like iris and colored filters. Then go to an optician (after a vision exam) to have a proper lens fitted. Most people have some level of astigmatism needing correction, and off the shelf lenses don't help with that.

[Tom Bowen]

I use the Champion Olympic's and think they are great.

I measured the distance from my eye to the front sight post and had lens ground for that exact distance. It really makes it nice squarely through the center of the lens. Make sure you have them put an index mark on the lens at the 12 o'clock position so you can correctly orient it in the frame.

I use my .25 diopter for well lit ranges and the .75 when the lighting isnt great, like when I'm shooting in my basement range.

[David Levene]

I measured the distance from my eye to the front sight post and had lens ground for that exact distance.

Just as important, especially for those with a negative prescription of greater than about 4, is the distance from the eye to the lens. For that reason it is better to have a vision test with your pistol in hand and the test frames set at the correct distance. If your optician/optometrist says it cannot be done then find a new one who knows about shooting.