TargetTalk

Hi,
I have recently started 10m air pistol shooting. I wear prescription glasses for distance and a separate pair for reading ( just swapping to vari focals for day to day use. ) . I asked my optician about glasses for shooting, she said that my vari focal would be fine, but , a member of my shooting club told me that vari focals are the opposite of what I need.
So any advice ??

Cheers Diz

What you need is your scrip for distance (takes care of astigmatism and other problems) and about +0.50 diopter to bring the focus of your shooting eye to the front sight. Put a piece of matte cellophane tape over the lens of your non-shooting eye.

You can also buy a single lens combining both and put it in a pair of "fancy" shooting glasses such as Knobloch or Champion with a light colored "blinder" for your non-shooting eye. You could also add an adjustable iris to this set-up. It's not just for Air Pistol, but any iron sight set-up. For Red Dots just use your "distance" glasses.

Rover wrote:What you need is your scrip for distance (takes care of astigmatism and other problems) and about +0.50 diopter to bring the focus of your shooting eye to the front sight. Put a piece of matte cellophane tape over the lens of your non-shooting eye.

You can also buy a single lens combining both and put it in a pair of "fancy" shooting glasses such as Knobloch or Champion with a light colored "blinder" for your non-shooting eye. You could also add an adjustable iris to this set-up. It's not just for Air Pistol, but any iron sight set-up. For Red Dots just use your "distance" glasses.

+1. Although for me +0.25 diopter was best for me.

Chip

Rover wrote:What you need is your scrip for distance (takes care of astigmatism and other problems) and about +0.50 diopter to bring the focus of your shooting eye to the front sight.

+0.50 on top of your distance script seems to work for pistol shooters up to about 40 years old, after that +0.75 seems to work better.

If you have a prescription you can try modifying it as suggested above and get a pair of glasses for as little as $11.90 from Zenni. They aren't the highest quality glasses but at that price you can try different lenses until you find what works then get a dedicated set quality set.

+0.75 diopter good for older eyes.

I find that (at age 56) .50 works most of the time for me, but occasionally (depending on eye fatigue or weird lighting) other diopters are required. Often .75 (and fairly rarely .25) are needed, on at least one occasion, a full 1.0 was used to get the sights clear.

I used a pair of adjustable scrip glasses for a while (the ones I used were like $40 from Adlens - https://adlens.com/ ; there are quite a few other brands available now) which worked well for a short term fix. Longer term (and depending on how serious you are about shooting) a pair of shooting frames, lenses and accessories, while expensive, are well worth the price.

jky

Going back to the OP, don't use vari-focals as you will rarely be focussing on the thing you need.

Diz9000 wrote:Hi,
I have recently started 10m air pistol shooting. I wear prescription glasses for distance and a separate pair for reading ( just swapping to vari focals for day to day use. ) . I asked my optician about glasses for shooting, she said that my vari focal would be fine, but , a member of my shooting club told me that vari focals are the opposite of what I need.
So any advice ??

Cheers Diz

I'm going to go against the grain in this thread, but only because I'm in a similar situation to you (just started out shooting 10m AP) and found myself with a plethora of products in front of me that promised to fix things I didn't even know were wrong. Take my advice as a rookie for what it's worth: advice from a rookie.

I use prescription glasses for normal use (I literally cannot see details in front of my nose my nearsightedness is so bad), and while I need new ones, I don't have much difficulty in finding the target and judging the distance between the spaces of the sub-six hold when focusing on the front sight. If you are having difficulties with this, then I would consider getting new glasses. Otherwise, hold off and save your finance battles for more worthy issues, like hotel expenses for competitions.

Ya mean if it ain't broke don't fix it?

Rover wrote:Ya mean if it ain't broke don't fix it?

Yeah. Sorry, being an attorney "requires" me to use big words to explain simple concepts...I think it's something in the water they make us drink during law school.

My wife ribs me about this all the time.

Being able to use normal spectacles depends on the severity of your presbyopia which is the main reason for age related varifocals. Mine didnt have a zone suitable for shooting, I had distance and reading with a central zone for computer screen. That central zone was too strong for pistol. My restricted neck motion also meant the angle was all wrong causing distortion.
I finished up with knobloch frame, a lens of distance plus 0.75 and a variable iris .

But if they work for you, cool.

Not to be disagreeable, but I must disagree.
1. Don't start with your distance correction. Start with your near-vision scrip and adjust from there. Think about the tasks you need to perform other than maintaining a sharp focus on the front sight. They all happen on the shooting bench, a yard or less from your eyes.

2. You don't have to cover your entire off-eye lens. Have a friend place a 1/2 or 3/4" square of translucent tape directly ahead of where your pupil is when you are in your shooting position. You will find having the use of that eye valuable for all sorts of things

william wrote:2. You don't have to cover your entire off-eye lens. Have a friend place a 1/2 or 3/4" square of translucent tape directly ahead of where your pupil is when you are in your shooting position. You will find having the use of that eye valuable for all sorts of things

This x100. Being able balance is a big deal in target shooting, and it's not talked about a lot for some reason. You will balance better with both eyes open. If you want to test this, try to stand on one leg with both eyes open, then one closed, then both closed. Make sure you have a wall nearby for safety.

william wrote:Not to be disagreeable, but I must disagree.
1. Don't start with your distance correction. ....

I understand where you may be coming from in deriving a correct strength for shooting but certainly in my country opticians dispense lenses with spherical correction starting with the distance prescription then adding diopters for reading or mid distance.
So f you need 1 diopter for distance and 3 diopters for reading the UK prescription would read
+1 distance +2 near. Its just a convention, maybe not in all countries.

My prescription was Right Eye, distance +1, near +2, CPU +1, shoot +0.75

Something NEVER mentioned on this type post: you need to have your eye centered in your prescription. The specialized shooting glasses have a device ( a funny shaped piece of plastic with a hole in it)
that allows you (FORCES you) to set up the lens centered between you and the sights/target and square to the eye.

Good luck with this one.

Rover wrote:Something NEVER mentioned on this type post: you need to have your eye centered in your prescription. The specialized shooting glasses have a device ( a funny shaped piece of plastic with a hole in it)
that allows you (FORCES you) to set up the lens centered between you and the sights/target and square to the eye.

Good luck with this one.

It requires a little thought and a good optician who knows how to listen. Oh, yeah, and a bit of imagination.

Thanks for all the advice,
I think I need to go to an independent opticians , instead of one of the major chains. Chances that they will listen to my needs instead of the standard spiel for joe public .LoL
Diz

My optometrist is a shooter and is totally comfortable with the idea of me bringing my pistol into his office so that he can precisely measure what it takes to bring the front sight into focus. My previous provider was not and that's why I changed. I had to shop around to find someone who would provide the services I needed. I also gave him a copy of Dr. Norman Wong's articles on the subject of shooting glasses which he very much appreciated. With the proper prescription lens I clearly see the front sight and have eliminated one more variable in the equation.

Dennis in the PRK

dulcmr-man wrote:My optometrist is a shooter and is totally comfortable with the idea of me bringing my pistol into his office so that he can precisely measure what it takes to bring the front sight into focus. My previous provider was not and that's why I changed. I had to shop around to find someone who would provide the services I needed. I also gave him a copy of Dr. Norman Wong's articles on the subject of shooting glasses which he very much appreciated. With the proper prescription lens I clearly see the front sight and have eliminated one more variable in the equation.

Dennis in the PRK

Damn I forgot to bring those to my optometrist this time. He's a fellow gun nut and would probably love to do something like this. I wonder if my insurance covers eye frames for shooting...after all, it's "medically necessary" to shoot well in competition! Takes pressure off of the heart and all that, you know.

Thanks for the great idea, dulcmr-man!