INEXPENSIVE CURE FOR BAD EYES

[jsalas2]

I don't know if this will work for you, but this is what I did. I found this on another forum, looking for a solution of having to use bifocals.

(Bifocal/front sight problem solved!
I wear bifocals. But I take them off when shooting; otherwise, I've got to tilt my head way back to bring the front sight into focus through the bi-focal part of the lens of my glasses. Bummer. Then I came across an interesting product: stick-on bifocals. I bought a set (paid about $16, but since learned they are available for much less). The kind I found are called "OPTIX Stick-on Bifocals". I'm not associated with this company; there may be others.
Here's what I did.
1. I went to the big ChinaMart and put on pairs of their reading glasses right over my glasses, until I found a pair that let me read comfortably through the upper part of my lens, figuring if I could read print, I would also be able to see the front sight. I noted the magnifying power for that pair of glasses. That comes as a + 1, or +1.5, or +2 etc.
2. Back home I ordered the magnifying bi-focal lenses, in my case a +2.50. They are the familiar half-moon shape.
3. When the lenses arrived, I carefully scissored out a piece about 3/8" wide and 5/8" tall and shaped it as best I could to conform to the curve of the frame in the upper-left corner of my right-eye lens. It is not a perfect fit, but it turned out not to be critical.

The garage is where I dry-fire--no ammo available there. My firing stance is 30 degrees off-center and to the right, so I naturally tend to look through the left side of my glasses. As I brought up the weapon the first time, my right eye found that magnifying piece immediately; there was the front sight clear as could be (and the target fuzzy as it should be!). Wow!
Problem solved.
Oh, and that little piece of lens is no more intrusive when you're looking straight on, for example as in driving, than the bifocal at the bottom; I got used to it immediately. And so far nobody, including She Who Must Be Obeyed, has noticed it.
Hope this is helpful. )

These stick-on bifocals have worked great, if all you wear are reading glasses, you can use these on your regular shooting glasses, they are hard to find though, everywhere I looked they were sold out, I ended up finding them on ebay, they were $24. I am still trying to figure the perfect spot for them. The good thing is that you can take them off and reapply them and cut them into the shape that works best for you. With the two lenses that I got, I figure that I can get about 10 pieces out of them. Thats alot of replacements and should last a long time. This is what they look like,

I just used one and cut a small portion and put it on the inner portion of my glasses of my shooting eye, I am trying different positions. I read that some have glasses made with the bifocal on top. That is where I will try them next. I have a backup pair of old glasses that I am using them on. These will be my range glasses. I hope this can help you or anyone reading this

 

[Timber Wolf]

Interesting, I did not know they made such a thing. I too am getting to the point where I really need to do something about my eyesight and shooting. They say your eyesight is the second thing to go as you age and.....oh heck, I can't seem to remember the first.

 

[jajo]

Good tip!

I wear bifocals too - no line progressive, which really means nothing is ever in focus.

I get a new pair of prescription sunglasses every couple years - mainly for driving. Just my upper prescription so near vision is impaired. I've also thought about getting some cheap reading glasses and trying them for shooting, but I may try this suggestion.

 

[jsalas2]

jsalas2

just remember when looking for the strength that you need, to put the reading glasses over your prescription glasses and back up to the distance that your front sight would be at, try the different strengths till you can see clear, I just used the writing on the display to get the right strength that I needed. it will be a longer distance then what you would need for reading, depending on the length of your arms and barrel length. We are just using these to find the strenght that we need. Mine was 2.0 The hard part was trying to find these. They are sold out everywhere, I found mine on ebay. They are very popular for people that just use reading glasses to put in there sunglasses. I'm just glad someone found a way to apply them to us shooters. Jesse.

 

[Krogen]

I've been wrestling this since I got bifocals and couldn't see my front sight very well. Like you, I tried reading glasses in the rack at Walgreens to get an idea what power I needed over my glasses. For handguns, +1.0 diopter was about right. I bought some of these:

CLIP ON LOUPES

The lenses shown at the top of the page cover my entire eyeglass lenses and can be flipped up when necessary. They allow me to see the front sight again! Be careful of getting too much power, because your front sight will be in perfect focus, but he target can be too blurry.

Another note; the lenses shown directly below those at the top of the page sit too low to use for shooting. I have a pair with higher power for closeup work on my workbench. They work fine when you want to look through the bottom of your eyeglasses but not well for shooting.

 

[sheriff54]

I don't remember what they called them, the bifocal on the top but some of our older techs wear them. Think of a mechanic doing overhead work standing under a car placed on a grease rack. Our techs do work on tooling above. These are a bit off where for shooting BUT could be an answer... the peal and stick seem to be the best answer during training but I think me, my worst fear (concern??) is how will I be equipped if something were to happen. Glasses not available... dropped on the floor at night... knocked off my face during an encounter... so I still work some at the range without correction, just shooting glasses. so I know if I should shoot or waddle off... over weight old guy??? the stick on corrections are great for the older fellas who work trades... keeps them in safety glasses and allows them to see things like a tape measure, a mark so they can do their jobs accurately. I saw my 1st set of stick on several years ago. When they wear out, replace. We are required to wear safety glasses in many areas but still need to "see" so the add-on bifocals does wonders for near vision. Hint; hold the device on which you focus at the distance to the front sight. When you get correction, it matches the distance. Reading distance is not that. The generic reading glasses will tell you the correction needed just don’t hold them at reading distance. My computer glasses do a great job for shooting too. The distance vision to see the threat, the computer distance to see the front sight... good luck

 

[jsalas2]

jsalas2

Great answers, If you all can post what you have done, we will have many alternatives to choose from. And can find one that will work for us. Thanks, Jesse.

 

[jfd]

Great post for us older folks who still like to shoot....and see things in general! Always something good to be found on this forum. Thanks for the idea.

 

[gdauth]

I had cataract surgery some years ago and the lens implants were set for distance vision which makes getting a clear sight picture of the front sight impossible since I can no longer focus. I have found that using my computer glasses gives me a good view of the front sight and a reasonable picture of the target up to about 50 feet. Beyond that, forget it. However, I got a good red dot sight for my pistol which enables me to shoot at distant targets.

 

[silentflyer]

I had to go the red dot/reflex sight route, don't particularly like the "look", but at least I can hit the target again, tied all sorts of lens combinations nothing seemed to work. I am OK out to 25 yards, but beyond that open sights just don't work for me anymore.

 

[konertjm]

I have worn glasses for 50 years. My eye problems have run the gamut from astigmatic issues only, to distance correction, then reading correction.
At one time, my distance correction changed 3 times in 6 months. My doctor wouldn't let me buy new glasses.

My current distance correction is -0.4 left and -0.1 right. I.E. I don't really need distance correction, except for the astigmatism. At my last DL renewal, I passed the eye test without any correction and they removed the requirement from my DL.

However, my reading/computer screen usage is impossible without corrective lenses. At my request, my eye doctor tested me, and wrote a bi-focal prescription where the bottom was focused out to approximately 12 inches, the upper part was focused out to approximately 24 inches.

Though not inexpensive, they have worked well.
BTW, I cannot use a computer terminal without them.
Upper part for the screen, lower for the keyboard.

These have worked really well for shooting as well.

 

[shawn mccarver]

I don't know if this will work for you, but this is what I did. I found this on another forum, looking for a solution of having to use bifocals.

(Bifocal/front sight problem solved!
I wear bifocals. But I take them off when shooting; otherwise, I've got to tilt my head way back to bring the front sight into focus through the bi-focal part of the lens of my glasses. Bummer. Then I came across an interesting product: stick-on bifocals. I bought a set (paid about $16, but since learned they are available for much less). The kind I found are called "OPTIX Stick-on Bifocals". I'm not associated with this company; there may be others.
Here's what I did.
1. I went to the big ChinaMart and put on pairs of their reading glasses right over my glasses, until I found a pair that let me read comfortably through the upper part of my lens, figuring if I could read print, I would also be able to see the front sight. I noted the magnifying power for that pair of glasses. That comes as a + 1, or +1.5, or +2 etc.
2. Back home I ordered the magnifying bi-focal lenses, in my case a +2.50. They are the familiar half-moon shape.
3. When the lenses arrived, I carefully scissored out a piece about 3/8" wide and 5/8" tall and shaped it as best I could to conform to the curve of the frame in the upper-left corner of my right-eye lens. It is not a perfect fit, but it turned out not to be critical.

The garage is where I dry-fire--no ammo available there. My firing stance is 30 degrees off-center and to the right, so I naturally tend to look through the left side of my glasses. As I brought up the weapon the first time, my right eye found that magnifying piece immediately; there was the front sight clear as could be (and the target fuzzy as it should be!). Wow!
Problem solved.
Oh, and that little piece of lens is no more intrusive when you're looking straight on, for example as in driving, than the bifocal at the bottom; I got used to it immediately. And so far nobody, including She Who Must Be Obeyed, has noticed it.
Hope this is helpful. )

These stick-on bifocals have worked great, if all you wear are reading glasses, you can use these on your regular shooting glasses, they are hard to find though, everywhere I looked they were sold out, I ended up finding them on ebay, they were $24. I am still trying to figure the perfect spot for them. The good thing is that you can take them off and reapply them and cut them into the shape that works best for you. With the two lenses that I got, I figure that I can get about 10 pieces out of them. Thats alot of replacements and should last a long time. This is what they look like,

I just used one and cut a small portion and put it on the inner portion of my glasses of my shooting eye, I am trying different positions. I read that some have glasses made with the bifocal on top. That is where I will try them next. I have a backup pair of old glasses that I am using them on. These will be my range glasses. I hope this can help you or anyone reading this

Or, you could just take your pistol with you to the eye doctor (after getting his permission, of course, and in a non-descript case, so as not to frighten anyone), and you could have him measure the distance to your front sight and fix up your prescription invisible line bifocals to fit you. Many shooters do this and have very good results. Lest you think this is an expensive solution to what is essentially a "range only" problem, I would state that you might want to think about what happens if you need to see your front sight for a real life, honest-to-goodness self-defense situation, whether that is at home or away from home if you lawfully carry a pistol for self-defense. In such a case, you don't want to have to request a "time-out" from the bad guy while you go get your range shooting bag and "range glasses."