Can we talk about old guy eyes and sights and such???

[ABPOS]

In about the last year my eyes have started getting worse. I got a lot of good advice over on ARfcom about what to do about it and I'm not sure there really is anything good to do. Some say you can get different type of glasses that will help. But the only thing I don't really like about that is if I'm carrying my gun and need to use it, I'll have my normal glasses on. So I'm kind of interested to see if there are any other options I should think of. Something else dawned on me today and I'll run that by you guys.

First I'll tell you what's happening with my eyesight. I am nearsighted with an astigmatism in my right eye. Which is my dominant eye and I'm a righty. In every day life I am starting to need to look over or under my glasses to see fine print or small details up close. With my glasses on things are fuzzier when they're real close or real small up close.

Why that symptom affects my shooting is beyond me. It might be a separate issue. What I find when I'm shooting is that when shooting pistols or any gun with iron sights, the target is becoming a bit more blurrier when focusing on the front sight. And even focusing on the front sight may be a hair more challenging. But it is worse when the sight radius is short on any gun. I don't really get why open sights would change that but it does seem like it's harder for me to get a sharp front sight on my 442. When I pick up a pistol with a longer sight radius, it's not as bad. And then I don't know if it's just because the front sight on the 442 is kind of small. Or that it's all black.

It sometimes seems like sights with a white dot actually do make it easier to get a sharper sight picture on them. But that seems really odd to me. Those are also guns with a longer sight radius than the J frame.

Anyways.... It dawned on me that there is a possibility that there might be options for a different front sight on the 442. It's a newer one -2 but was bought new about 5 years ago. No lock though. Nice.

So... does anyone else experience these symptoms and has anyone tried different front sights or not? Or any input is helpful.

I don't really LIKE xs big dot sights. In the past I haven't. They seem like they'd make it hard to shoot accurately, they're so big. But now I'm wondering if their design aids in actually seeing them better, maybe they would help. Or I have seen some of the other J frames with different front sights I think. Ones that might be white or what not.

 

[Kernel Crittenden]

Laser grip.

With nearsightedness, as you get older your eyes lose the ability to look thru your prescription lenses (which are meant for seeing things at a distance) and simultaneously focus on things up close. When you were younger, your eyes could do it. Now they can't. Which is why you have to look over, under, or take off you glasses to clearly see things near to you.

This phenomena also makes it harder to focus on the rear sight, front sight, and target all at the same time.

 

[USAF385]

I'd recommend training mostly using point shooting.

If you're carrying a 442, I'm surprised you're relying so much on sights. Sure, I'll use mine now and then when I train with my 642, but most of my time training with it is spent point shooting.

It's an up close and personal gun. Point shooting, I can hit my 10" steel plate at ten yards 5 out of 5, that's good enough for me.

Or, as mentioned, a laser sight.

 

[Iggy]

Crimson Trace.

 

[bigwheelzip]

Try reading the 1942 classic , Shooting to Live by Fairbairn and Sykes. While some of the information is dated, it is still a good read.

One of the things the authors stress is the difference between shooting tight groups in "Bullseye" competition and being able to hit a man sized target at five paces in low light and firing from an awkward shooting position.

It is a good read, written by men who lived when the 1911A1 was still new.

 

[suckersrus]

Along with my eyesight I'm losing my coordination, strength, agility, stamina, etc.

I have a faint suspicion I may be getting older.

My plan to whack everything within reach with my cane and take sound shots at everything out of reach.

 

[sunnyd]

I think I have similar issues. I was always trained "FRONT SIGHT, FRONT SIGHT, FRONT SIGHT", meaning focus only on the front sight. Of course this leaves the target and rear sight out of focus, but it has worked pretty well for me for many years. 63 year old eyes, but everything else feels younger, well ok, not always. Golf balls just disappear at 150 yards!

 

[GypsmJim]

Boy this thread hit a sore point. I used to shoot a 270 bullseye score and now I can't see the bullseye...LOL

Red dots have solved the problem, but of course not for carry.

I don't have an answer, but my only comment is that I recently bought a Ruger with fiber optic sights and that works really well for me.

 

[ABPOS]

I hear ya about point shooting. When I first got the 442 I wanted to see if I could achieve any accuracy at all with it. And I figured out that I can. So I do need to start focusing more on distinctive shooting. Or point shooting. Shooting at speed at man sized targets and not for groups. Totally agree. For a while I was practicing this while dry firing where I just focus on the target and bring the gun into my line of sight. It might be the only solution to the problem of having old eyes. Besides like someone said a red dot. But I'm not putting one on my carry gun.

I still do wonder if a bigger or more pronounced front sight will help. Or not. But I guess if it's the fact that the eyes can't concentrate on all three planes as well anymore, that might not be the solution. Other than that it would stick out more when focusing on the target.

But what's weird is my son got a rossi .22 from my in laws a few christmas's ago and it fiber optic front and rear. I swear I thought the thing was horribly inaccurate. I could shoot my 10/22 with the open sights way better. Well I put a scope on that lil break action and it turned out to be pretty darn accurate. And I'm like, man, I just can't shoot those fiber optic sights very well. I think they're just too big and obscure too much of the target for me to shoot it well. I'm not sure if the same thing would happen on a pistol.

I also don't like lasers. I tried using one on a .22 pistol once and it just felt all wrong. Trying to focus on the moving red dot and I think it makes you want to jerk the trigger a bit. I was way more accurate with the iron sights. This was a long time ago though.

 

[Realgunner]

As others have said, you're carrying a small gun for civilian self-defense; practice point-shooting. Even better is a laser sight. Pictured below is a 340SC with Crimson Trace LG-105 laser grip.

 

[Jerry N.]

I share your issue and unfortunately have found no good answer. It was really hard this weekend. I bought a gun that was not sighted in (a used gun) so I had to do it. If I put on my glasses (reading glasses), I could focus on the front sight but not the target. So basically, I just had to do the best I could. I might have someone with better eyesight fine tune it.

Anyway, I agree with the comments about not needing to be so accurate with SD. I'm not sure if it's point shooting, but in the class I took for my carry permit, the instructor had us cover the sights with tape and aim and shoot the gun by using a grip with an extended thumb and basically point your thumb at the target and by default you were aiming the gun. It actually worked pretty well and is probably a very good skill to master for SD. As has been said, SD is likely up close.

Now, back to target shooting. If anyone has a good answer for that (bi-focals?), I'd love to hear it. Range shooting has been getting more and more frustrating.

 

[Pisgah]

Sounds like bifocal time -- and do NOT get the no-line style. Let your optometrist know what you're after, and he'll be able to set the positions of the up-close and far-off sections properly.

 

[white cloud]

I am 62 and wear bifocals. I am lucky because my wife is my optometrist. When she gives me an eye exam she makes sure my bifocals work with my front sight and the cross hairs of a telescopic sight (so I don't see two cross hairs). If you find an optometrist who will work with you I think you can get decent results. I will tell you my eyes will still get "tired" after a lot of shooting but I think for hunting or a nice range session I do just fine.

 

[TucsonMTB]

As usual, "The Kernel" nailed the technical details of this side effect of aging. <sigh>

I have been wearing progressive lenses for many years and have found that with a few changes of head angle, I can usually get a pretty good sight picture.

When I absolutely have to see the front and rear sights, along with the target with perfect clarity, such as while sighting in a gun with conventional sights, looking through a pin hole poked in a piece of dark blue masking tape does the trick for me. Yes, I just stick it on my glasses.

I often use blue masking tape to put up targets, so there is usually some on hand. It sticks to the lens of my glasses on the shooting eye side, but it easy enough to remove. The hole does not have to be perfect and you may have to experiment with the size. But, I guarantee that you will be amazed, as was I, at how well this works.

There are also commercial shooting aids available that use the same pin hole focusing principle and fasten more elegantly to your glasses, but I am cheap, as is making tape.

 

[ISCS Yoda]

I wear "progressive" or "no line" tri-focals. They're not for everyone. My twin brother wears standard bi-focals or tri, I forget which, because he can't handle the invisible progression. Then again, he can't handle having a cystoscope procedure without anesthesia and I've had 40 or 50 without anesthesia so I just think he's a wuss medically speaking.

Jokes aside, I carry a 642, and the mid-range "lens" of my trifocal pretty much is spot on for the front sight of that little gun. If you're talking precision shooting at the range, even on close in targets, it can be accomplished with trifocals without looking over or under the lenses.

However, there's precise and then there's precise - everyone above is correct in re point shooting and man sized targets. You don't need precision from a J-frame when you're up close and personal.

Your trigger control is probably way more important than your sight picture - there's almost no target that's so close or so big that you cannot miss it - as soon as there's significant daylight between you and your target you can find ways to miss.

In summary, I have no problem shooting J-frames and seeing the front sights with my progressive lenses - but they come with a warning - THEY AIN'T CHEAP!!!!!

 

[wrangler5]

I've begun painting the front sight bright orange (nail polish over a white model paint undercoat.) While it doesn't help my ageing eyes focus any better, it does make it easier to line up that slightly out of focus blade. (On stainless guns with fixed sights I also paint the rear notch black, which helps even more.)

My daily carry gun has a CT grip, but it's no good in bright light. (I'm waiting to see if a green J frame grip will be much better - if they ever release one.) And while my practice sessions include multiple fast shots on multiple targets up close and personal, where it's more point than aim, I ALSO like to shoot 38 snubs at a steel plate rack at ranges up to about 35 yards. For that, the more visible sight helps a lot.

 

[silentflyer]

Gee I thought I was the only one! Most of my shooting is targets these days, long barrels (8 3/8) help as does reflex or red dots or scopes. It's darn near impossible to get eyes focused on the sights and the target at the same time, and optics solve that problem. I realize for and kind of self defense that not so good an option, but out to 25 feet or so point shooting is OK, and with a .357 or .44 special the knock down power of the round sort of over rides the pin point accuracy issue. At home at night a 12 gauge pump and buckshot is my choice. I have spent a small fortune on various glasses with no real help, though my far vision is still pretty good it's the sights that give me trouble.

 

[pinto]

Had my optometrist make up a monovision prescription.
Right eye is corrected to focus on the front sight.
Left eye corrected for infinity (target).
Works well enough that I'm still able to compete pretty successfully.

 

[Bat Guano]

I like the XS "big honking golf-ball size tritium" sight on my (gasp) Glock 19. Don't sell them too short on accuracy potential until you work with them a while.

And I still have a "jeweler's spot" optimized for front sight clarity on my distance-only outdoor glasses. Been using that basic setup for about 25 plus years.

Now when it comes to rifles--OPTICS.

 

[Pogo84]

My shooting glasses are what they call, I believe, D glasses. My ophthalmologist had me hold my pistol in the shooting position and measured the distance from my eye to the front sight and gave me a precription to have that in the upper part of the right lens, in other words, the bifocal part is in the upper part of the lens so that it is more natural to see the sights without having to raise my head to an unnatural position. Works fine, but of course they are not what I wear all the time.
I have a Crimson trace laser on my LCP and thinking of getting one on either a Commander or SP101. I have also been practicing point shooting which the laser really helps.

The shooting glasses are a big help to my 85 year old eyes plinking and target shooting pistols and revolvers. My rifles all have scopes and I don't use the sights on my shotguns...just point.

mitch