TargetTalk

My daughter wears prescription glasses for distance and they are bothering her, I have seen monocular style optics on some rifles, are these ever prescription? She is shooting an Anschutz 1903 and has been shooting for about a year now prone on the HS team and Club team,

I don't know what rules she is shooting under, or how far she wants to progress, but remember that under ISSF rules the lens cannot be attached to the rifle.

Do you have any recommendations? Anything we might be able to try?

Knobloch glasses you can get lenses made for them so you are focusing on the right thing and if allowed you can use an iris to help with clarity and depth of field.

You can get them at Champions Choice
http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.a ... y&c=OPEYKN

Dave

What sort of glasses is she wearing currently, and what is the prescription - distance or shooting specific?

The lenses fitted in shooting frames should always be prescription, and specifically for shooting. A lens of the proper prescription focuses your eye in the right place, so it's one less thing to think about. Essentially for rifle shooting you want your focal length to be about 2 x the sight radius. Opticians may call this the hyperfocal distance. Normal distance glasses won't be quite right, so you may have to consciously focus on the foresight. With a standard length barrel it means you want a presciption about +.5 over your normal distance set up; so if you use +1 normally, you want +1.5 for shooting, or -.5 if your normal glasses are -1.0. The exact number varies slightly between individuals; consult an experienced optician to get the prescription.

The idea of shooting frames is to place the lens properly; so you look square on, through the centre. Normal ready/distance glasses don't do this, especially in prone. Those who only follow US-NRA or NSRA rules can also look at fitting the prescription lens directly to the rearsight; this is easier to set up, but if your head position isn't perfect, you won't be looking through the centree of the lens. As David noted, ISSF rules prohibit this; lenses have to be worn as glasses/contacts.

During a routine exam my eye doctor allowed me to bring in both a rifle and pistol. She put here multi lens device on and fine tuned a solution for a specific shooting glasses. She also gave me the correct reading glasses magnification (+0.5) for use in lens holder in front of my distance prescription.

So I have a 0.5 and a 0.75 lens in my knoblock glasses that sit over my distance glasses. Use same lens for both pistol and rifle use.

Every exam since then I bring in a pistol and now the corrective is 0.75.

Easily the least expensive way to go. Flexible for future exe changes. I still get good eye protection from my normal glasses and correction for highly adjustable shooting frames.

With the shooting frames I use side and off eye blinders as allows by the rules. Since they sit a little farther away from my face than my primary glasses fogging up issues are less. Another benefit from this solution over a single specific set of glasses.

If your daughter is shooting prone, and you have a budget (who doesn't!),
I highly recommend Bob Jones's "Harry Potter" glasses as a very good, and inexpensive option. The frames run $35 and lenses can be had (in my area) for ~$40, making the total ~75 bucks.

Take a look at; http://www.bjonessights.com/glasses.html

Not affiliated in any way, just a happy shooter (that can see the sights without breaking the bank).

Frank

Thanks, i will look into it.

Absolutely agree with everything posted here.

Take your distance prescription and add +0.50 for a rifle, or add +0.75 for a pistol or carbine/AR. That will put your eye at the hyperfocal distance of the sight, and will centralize your depth of field between the sight and the target, so the sight is just in the near edge of your depth of field, at the same time as the target is in the far edge, so you can see both at the same time.

I too am a fan of the BJones 'Harry Potter after a barfight' glasses. Excellent value at $35. That is with two plano lenses installed. He charges $30 for each prescription lens with no coatings, or else you can get AR coated lenses from other sources starting at around $40.

The host of this forum Pilkguns sells the Varga line of shooting glasses. I have not used or seen these so I can't comment further, but they seem to do the same job as the more expensive versions.

There's a pair of Knobloch glasses listed in today's Buy Sell Trade for $100. I have used this style for years and would be a good choice for your daughter.

It there some place that gives good descriptions of Knobloch v Champion v Varga glasses?

The individual manufactures sites are pretty much worthless (Knobloch & Champion) and I can't find anything on Varga except the tiny amount on Pilk's site.

DLS wrote:It there some place that gives good descriptions of Knobloch v Champion v Varga glasses?

The individual manufactures sites are pretty much worthless (Knobloch & Champion) and I can't find anything on Varga except the tiny amount on Pilk's site.

They are much of a muchness. The more expensive ones have more adjustments and are made of lighter metal. But you need to try them and see which ones are comfortable. I now use the cheaper champions as they are comfortable for me. Previously used gehmans (I think) - they dug into the back of my ears and were therefore discarded.

Rob.

Jmlpa

My wife shot for 35 years with glasses and I know its very important to be comfortable with your glasss, she used some Harry Potter style ones that I made and modified. She then had a double cataract op and is glasses free and now I with age have the problem of trying to shoot in glasses having been glasses free for 35 years!
I would urge that your daughter uses shooting glasses rather than a lens on the rifle as apart from the eye relief issue being critical, some day she may progress to a level where it is not permitted as in ISSF.
As a new to glasses shooter who had shot for many years with out I really struggled to find comfortable glasses, I tried all the well known makes of frames and just could not get on with any of them. I eventualy tried the Swiss Junkers frames which are like an up market version of the Bob Jones, the only significant improvement I can see is they have un even length side pieces, (and they are ten times the price!) but I shall be ordering some of Bobs frames for kids we coach as they are terrific value for money.
I would also endorse the focal length which has been reinforced by our UK top shooting optician as the long prescription plus +0.5 of a diopter for a focal length of 2 metres.
If you can't see you can't shoot,
Best of luck and good shooting,
Best regards
Robin

DLS wrote: I can't find anything on Varga except the tiny amount on Pilk's site.

www.euroshooting.eu
Top right corner is the icon for the english version

I own a pair. Very good value for the money.

Hope this helps

RobStubbs wrote:... But you need to try them and see which ones are comfortable. ...Rob.

The only problem is that these products are not available locally, I'm stuck with mail order. I'd love to be able to go somewhere to handle and test wear the product.

I can't imagine there is not some product literature, or a product catalog for these things, but I have never been able to find one. I've found sites that sell the product, but they pretty much expect you to know what it is your are buying. Descriptions such as "most popular" really don't tell you anything.

I'm very tall and broad, and have a face to match. I would like to know the temple lengths available, the width of the frames, the height adjustability of the nose pieces so I can have some idea if they will even begin to fit.

I can't find such info. I'm pretty sure I'm out of luck because I have not ever found anything out of Europe that fits with the exception of one style of Birkenstock sandals, and they really were too short but I made them work.

I guess this is part of a bigger rant I have with Continental companies, and that is the dearth of marketing / technical information they provide to their consumers.

Okay ... sorry to clutter up the thread ... thanks for the help everybody, I do appreciate it.

I don't think technical details cut it when it comes to comfort or not. All are adjustable, some are very adjustable, and as usual the more you pay... If you must buy blind then look at the pictures and description and either buy what you like, or look on the likes of eBay. If you can buy mail order with a view to returning them if you don't like them then even better. You can also go and see what other shooters are wearing and ask to have a look. I'm sure most shooters would be fine with you taking a look at theirs.

Rob.