Front Sight! Top bifocals for old people.

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Moylan

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I've been beating up on myself during dry fire for the last few weeks because I've been trying to really concentrate on sharp front sight focus and I just don't seem to be doing it. I draw, present, bring my eyes back to the sight, try to focus, snap. Think on it--and say, yeah, I was looking at the sight but it was still blurry. I've got to be more careful. Do it again. Same result. Well, I'm a slow learner. I recently got bifocals because I'm old. Yesterday during dry fire I finally stopped and thought about it for a bit. I tilted my head way back, looked for the sight through the lower lens and there was this giant crystal clear front sight out there. Duh. I'm old. I can't focus on the front sight anymore without help. But I can't shoot with my head back, either.

So far, I've come up with this product, which puts the bifocal lens on top. Does anyone here have experience with this product, or any other such thing to help old people shoot?
 
I have the same issue and someone suggested Safety Reading Protection. Theyā€™re around $10 at Amazon and come in the same gradients as normal ā€œreadersā€.
 
For the range is one thing but I don't think I'd want to start training with a crutch I won't have when I need it. If you're OK with your current defensive abilities then no biggie, but if you're vision is impeding you there is might be time to consider an optic on your carry piece?
 
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Old eyes! I wear bi-focals every day, all day. I've tried a couple of solutions...

I tried a pair of glasses made with the entire right lens ground to be in focus at the distance of my front sight. The left lens is normal.
So, my right eye is always focused close-up, left can focus near-far as needed. If I must use open sights, they work. I can see my front sight clearly.
But, they're no good for all day wear, and it's not like I can pause an emergency while I switch to my "Superman" glasses.

Then I tried an RMR red dot sight. I can see it clearly with my normal eye glasses. In an emergency, I can even use it with NO glasses.
The added benefit is that my groups are smaller than when I shoot iron sights.
It took a little getting used to. But, worth the time and effort without a doubt.
 
Flashpoint said:
For the range is one thing but I don't think I'd want to start training with a crutch I won't have when I need it. If you're OK with your current defensive abilities then no biggie, but if you're vision is impeding you there is might be time to consider an optic on your carry piece?
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I agree completely. There would have to be a balance. But I've only been attempting to train with the pistol for a bit over a year and I'm still trying to get my fundamentals sorted. So I'm trying to really train myself to study up on that front sight as I practice so that under stress there will be a much better chance that I'll look at the sights and actually make good hits. The glasses would be a training aid in that sense, not a crutch, and most of my live fire practice would be just using normal carry set up--so no special glasses. I can still make good hits at distance at this point with my eyes just as they are.

But if my vision continues to deteriorate at this pace, I'll have to start thinking about a red dot before too many more years go by.
 
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I shoot with .5 diopter full lense glasses .
Strong enough to see the front sight but not make things at a distance blurry
Makes a big difference for me anyway
 

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S4f said:
I shoot with .5 diopter full lense glasses .
Strong enough to see the front sight but not make things at a distance blurry
Makes a big difference for me anyway
Click to expand...
I have the same in a +1, great option for the $!
 
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Moylan said:
I recently got bifocals because I'm old
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Dang! You haven't even hit 50 yet, I bet! LOL.
Talk to me when you hit 60.....

My plan for this month was to get some glasses made specifically for un-fuzzing the front sight. You need the focus to be about 4" past your fists held out like you hold your gun. This is what I was told by Larry an others....
Maybe I'll get these miracle glasses next month.
 
I have to use my top lens to see the target and my bottom lens to see the front sight. In all seriousness, it is part of why I have a rail mounted laser on my EDC. I don't think I can count on having my glasses on in a stress situation.

I wear my bifocals at the range, but I also practice point and shoot with non-prescription safety glasses.
 
Millie said:
Dang! You haven't even hit 50 yet, I bet! LOL.
Talk to me when you hit 60.....

My plan for this month was to get some glasses made specifically for un-fuzzing the front sight. You need the focus to be about 4" past your fists held out like you hold your gun. This is what I was told by Larry an others....
Maybe I'll get these miracle glasses next month.
Click to expand...
64 & I can't see crap anymore.
 
73 and Great vision. Dollar Tree readers. Go to DT and get glasses that will make your front sight sharp as a Tack! Everything else will be outta focus but that front sight will be Dead On. Hell, try it....One Dollar.
 
I have a pair of those SSP shooting glasses you referenced, with the "upside down" bifocal in the dominant eye, and they do give you a sharp front sight. I also have a stick-on bifocal on the top part of the dominant-eye lens of a pair of regular shooting glasses. This works too, though for me the target is blurry at (say) 50 yd with either "solution". Shifting from one eye to the other helps; what works best is acquiring the front sight with the dominant eye, then opening the other eye too to verify the target, shooting with both eyes open. But this takes time, and still doesn't solve the problem of needing to shoot when you don't have them. In that case, I'd only be good at distances where sights are irrelevant.

I tried a red dot (Vortex Venom) on a pistol a while back, and with no glasses, it beats plain open sights, but it took noticeably longer to acquire the dot than to acquire the open sights. I didn't like that. I decided I'd be better off doing the best I could with plain open sights, but having purchased a P365 XL, I am thinking about trying the RomeoZero. I just hate the idea of depending on some battery-operated gizmo hanging offa my pistola. We'll see (maybe, heh).
 
I just modify my prescription a bit and order dedicated shooting glasses. My normal everyday glasses are bifocals. My shooting glasses are single vision. The left eye uses the as-prescribed numbers the right eye uses a modified number. Neither side uses the +add part of the scrip as that's for multi-focal lenses. I order cheap from Zenni... like $15 a pair cheap, and here's how to do it:

 
 
I have been fighting my bifocals for a long time, about 10 years shooting a pistol.
I resisted using an RMR because of the cost, cutting the slide and the RMR cost. That cost has went down a lot with lower cost high quality cuts from people like NCengraver's.

Now I love the Holosun because it has greatly improved my pistol shots and I don't have to worry about that ole blurry rear sight.
 
For the first time I have to wear glasses... oh the irony of it being 2020.

It's only a 1.5 prescription, but it went from being near perfect in 2018, to 0.5 in 2019 now to 1.5... predictions from the optometrist are not good. :(
 
Thats a pretty drastic change in a short time. And your optometrist can only do so much... You should maybe see an ophthalmologist and get checked out.
 
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