Shooting with varifocal glasses?

[peterb]

As I approach 50, my eyes no longer focus over a wide a range of distances, and I've started wearing varifocal(progressive lens) glasses. I am having trouble getting used to them for shooting. If I use an aggressive forward lean I look through the top of my glasses, which means that the target is sharp but my sights are blurry. I can correct that by tilting my head sharply back, but that feels strained and uncomfortable.

I've tried standing straighter and lifting the gun higher. That puts my head in a more relaxed position but my hand ends up slightly above my shoulder. I shift my strong-side foot back for balance when I straighten up.

I know I could have prescription glasses made specifically for shooting, but that seems foolish unless one is training for competition.

All thoughts and advice appreciated.

[MEH]

I'm in the same boat, except that I can't wear varifocal lens. One thing you can do, to test feasibility, is put removable plastic lens material (+1.5 or +1.75) at the top of the right lens where your eye will see thru. If this works for you then you get your optician to put that into the glass for you at the high position. You should be able to see normally except when you are tilted forward then your right eye can focus on your front sight.

My own personal solution is a LASER. I keep my normal distance prescription and the laser has made a righteous improvement in my shooting. Now I can see the target and sight (laser) at the same time. If Todd can shoot a laser then so can I. :) I am a recently converted laser believer! Only drawback with a laser is that most games (USPSA and IDPA) don't allow lasers. There I have to use special mono vision glasses that I would never wear in real life. Kinda defeats the purpose, huh?

A red dot sight can help here too but i have no experience with them. Kinda expensive to experiment with.

[cutter]

I know I could have prescription glasses made specifically for shooting, but that seems foolish unless one is training for competition.

All thoughts and advice appreciated.

Get some prescription shooting glasses made, you will be glad you did. Either with a dumbbell trifocal or bifocal set on your front sight focus for your dominate eye. You should be wearing some sort of safety glasses over or in place of your every day glasses anyway, so why not wear something that improves your shooting.

The laser is a great idea if you are not planning to shoot competitively. I'm lucky that my eyes without glasses get a sharp focus on the front sight and my stance causes me to look over the top of my everyday glasses, so I'm good if I am in a self defense situation. The target should be blurry anyways ;)

[rsa-otc]

I also am in the same boat. Have been using progressive lens for years. When the styles changed to smaller lens it became more difficult because the required focal area became smaller. I then tried dedicated bifocals with the bifocal portion cut higher into the lens, didn't really like that either. Next was to go back to a larger progressive. Unfortunately my vision had deteriorated to the point that I had to use the lower portion of the lens and was tilting the head the OP described.

I understand that Jerry Miculek uses one lens dedicated to seeing up close and the other for distance.

[MEH]

@Erik, no, I have not done that, just known others who have. If you can handle a multi-focal lens it may just work.

Personally, I have problem with multi-focus lens. My brain just can't handle/cope. Can't wear them even for a short time. Oddly enough, I can wear mono vision (front sight focus in right lens, distance in left lens). My brain seems to handle mono differently than vari focal. I don't know why.

[jkm]

I can overcome the issue by wearing a pair of 'readers'. I don't need very strong reading glasses, so they work for keeping the front sight in focus, and I can still see a fuzzy target.
I also tried a high viz front sight and that worked.
A thinner front sight blade helped too. Apparently it lets more light around it and helps with focus.
And, a longer sight radius can help.
www.optx2020.com has stick on reader lenses that work for other things I've used them for, but I've never tried them on my shooting glasses. One of these times I will.
Good luck.......jkm