If you are over 50 and havng trouble getting those iron sights lined up like you did a few years ago, this may be a solution:

"New optical technology from the Idaho National Laboratory could make a big improvement in non-telescopic iron sights. INL’s new “MicroSight” uses a Zone Plate design to focus light so that BOTH front sight-blade AND the target appear in sharp focus. This technology could be a major breakthrough for iron sights shooters, particularly older shooters whose eyes have difficulty focusing at multiple distances."

Breakthrough MicroSight Technology Improves Iron Sights Daily Bulletin

This is a very interesting little optical gizmo that might solve the diminishing eyesight problem we older shooters have. Supposedly they are negotiating with sight makers and it should be available soon.

But if you put an optical lens in your sight, is it still considered an iron sight?

I assume you are concerned about whether it would be legal in NRA competition. I don't know the answer but maybe somebody who is more familiar with the various NRA rule books will know more. I assume the Microsight would be considered the same as a diopter and I think they are legals in some competition, but I don't know the details.

Not really, I don't shoot competition. But it sounds like that is what they're hoping to get it ruled as.

I'm also trying to imagine what the real sight picture would look like with that lens. I'd have to see one before I'm convinced it's a good idea.

There is also a device called a SureSight - Looks like a good idea, but isn't made for anything that I have or will have.
I'd like to try one on my 686 and Commander...

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In dog years I'm dead.

I just read all that garbage in the SureSight ad, and I can feel my blood pressure going up fast. I'd better go.

I'll take a dozen if they mount on what I'm shooting....

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

Collecting guns from the 1700's to the present day has some advantages...

One constant in the time period would be that as we age, older eyes need certain advantages. Eye correction wasn't a exact science in the early years of the time period. But moving the rear sight forward on early guns seems to have been a good correction for agin' eyes. After those days, the rear peep sight came into it's own. Again allowing the eye to concentrate on the front sight.

Look at early Flintlock fowlers. There is rarely a rear sight, even though these guns were also meant to shoot ball.

Kick it up to the modern past and you'll find Scout Rifle scopes....

Nothin' new under the Sun...

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Non gratum anus rodentum

I had a Steyr 40 with that sight system. I say had because the gun itself was so bad I threw it into a very deep lake. I would not have sold or given that *** to anyone, well almost anyone, I was looking for a terrorist to give it to, but could not find one.
However the sighting system has some distinct advantages, particularly for fast close range stuff. I would rate it as good as the Xpress big dot/shallow V that I have on one of my BHPs, and maybe a little better for precision shots. Not sure it is woth all the hype, but I certainly would not feel undersighted with one. On the other hand I will stick with my wide open Novaks and my gold dots. They seem to work and when it works I don't mess with it.

Yeah, some of the early M40s did have extractor issues. Were they unable to fix it? I have fired a Steyr M9 and I liked the sights for quick acquisition.

Here's a solution that has worked for me. I shoot bullseye on the USAR Service Pistol Team. That means iron sights. As I've gotten older, like everyone else, my eyes (once perfect) have aged, too. Alan Toler in Richmond, VA, makes a neat kit with different lenses corrected for from near to far sighted people. You clip on one of the numbered lenses, shoot it, and keep going until you get the proper one. Then you send in a set of shooting glasses and Alan installs them on your (shooting glasses) strong eye side, using the numbered corected lense you selected. I did it and it helped tremendously. The lenses are corrected out at extended gun length, instead of arms length for reading. It works. Alan has played with this for awhile, and I recommend him highly. He is also the team cpt of the USAR Service Pistol Team.
Bob

This is great news. I gave up Bullseye several years ago because of the difficulty in focusing and I never liked the optical scope systems.

I have painted the front sight with bright colors. As of present, white is my color of choice.
Jimmy

I've been having some trouble in cowboy action with the iron sights. Then the other day, Charlie and I were shooting at a 4x6 inch piece of cardboard on the dead tree with his ancient single-shot .22 with open iron sights. My two shots were both on the far right. So I put on my reading glasses (+1.75) and I was dead on center.

Last night, I used my reading glasses for cowboy action practice rather than the usual shooting glasses, and I was faster, smoother and consistently on target. The targets were a slight blur but the sights were crystal clear.

I have this idea now to buy Optx 20/20 Stick On Bifocal Lenses and stick ONE on my right safety lens exactly where I want it to focus on my front sight. The theory is based on monocular vision where my left eye will be for distance focus and my right eye will be for close focus.

PS - I just ordered them. I'll let you know how well it works.

Barb: I'll be reading your comments with interest. I'm having the same problem; now I'm shooting with my bifocals and using the reading lens for sighting. Gives me a crick in the neck. I wonder how you select what power Optx lens to use.

I selected the power of my reading glasses that worked that evening. 1.75. I figured they were strong enough to see the front sight clearly but not too strong that it would greatly distort my distance vision.

For 9.99 I could always try a different power.

This sighting system looks promising. I started shooting highpower for fun last year. I shoot a RRA AR-15 service rifle. I was about to give it up, when I discovered the Bob Jones sighting system. It is available here: AR-15 BJONESSIGHTS It clears up the sight for me and I can see the target too. It conforms to the CMP rules and NRA rules.

I tried this system with the "law enforcement" setup some months ago on an M4gery. In my case, no go. Too narrow a field of view and not enough clarity on a short sight radius. It's all about compromises and after a while I think we are asking for more than can be achieved. Maybe it can be made to work for known distance formal target shooting but I was not satisfied. I had thought I could make irons work out but I'm sticking with the 1.5X ACOG (which is of course considerably more expensive, but get the job done nicely).

I also have the set of test lenses left over from that experiment, which will be going to a gun show near me soon.

I have used a "jeweler's spot" in my upper LH corner of my right hand glasses lens for pistol shooting for many years with very good results. I can still do what I need to do with a pistol without much trouble and enjoy it. But the demands of pistol shooting are much easier to meet. With rifles matters get much more complicated. Sight radius in comparison with the distance involved is a problem as is target detection and clarity.

If a fairly affluent military is issuing optical sights en masse to troops who are mostly in their twenties--and probably have far better eyesight than most of us--maybe iron sights are not the sight of choice anymore--unless economy is the primary consideration. Perhaps the sighting systems and courses of fire from 1918 aren't any more suitable for today's tasks than the Model T.

Don't get me wrong--I like my Garands, and miss my young eyes--but I now prefer e-mail to writing letters in longhand. The point is to get the job at hand done better and faster, and times change...

I put the stick-on bifocals on my polarized shooting glasses and shot Sunday in a 5-stage cowboy action match. I had placed the lenses on the upper right side of the right side lens. The first three matches were great - I was on target much quicker.

By the end of the day, it was hot out there and the glasses would slide down a bit, causing a double image because the half-moon shape of the lens left a small section between the edge and the glasses frame.

In retrospect, I should have wiped down the glasses before I shot but I just didn't think of it. However, I'm going to re-place the lens sideways so that the round edge of the half moon is against the inside nose bridge area as close to the top as possible.

Bottom line: I could see well enough to walk around and do everything else but when shooting, the front sight was clear. The experiment worked but just needs a bit of placement tweaking.

Im considering this...
http://www.goshen-hexsite.com/index2.htm


Jim

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Big bullets leave big holes

I have a pair of 'shooting glasses' that never did work out. I think the problem was poor communication between myself and my eye doctor; pistol sights would be in clear focus if my arm was one foot longer. As it is, they're a little fuzzy and that ruins my pistol shooting.

I insatlled an OPTX20/20 Reading Lens in the middle of the right lens. The sights are sharp and clear; all you guys and gals with young eyes, better watch out, I'm on your tail. Don't know how they'd work in IPSC or any game where you had to look for your targets, but they'd sure be fine for bullseye shooting.

The lens is easy to install; it looks a little strange, a half moon shape sitting in the middle of the right lens. I'm going shooting tomorrow and I'll try it out. It's going to be 102º degrees, and I'll find out of they come off with sweat. You get a pair of them, so if one falls in the sand I can always install the other. $9.95 sure beats the cost of a doctor's visit, a new prescription, new lenses and installing them in my frames. I'm a happy camper.

I've had the old age eye problems myself. After two operations and 10 months I can see again. However, with my trifocals it was almost impossible to focus on my front sight, I tried all the gadgets without much luck. Eventually another shooter suggested getting a Red Dot sight. Got one, mounted it on my M&P9c and the problem is solved, in fact I like it more than the iron sights, or lasers.

That looks like a good idea. I've been thinking of trying out some reading glasses.

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Common sense isn't so common.

Thank you for this post. I've been getting along w/ various reading glasses for seeing my sights. Of course the target has been blurred. Hopefully they will come out with this sight system available for the M-1 Garand... maybe the 03-A3 and of course our beloved S&W's!!!

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