Eye glasses

[BillSWPA]

I wear progressive lenses. Wraparound lenses are not compatible with progressive lenses. You do not necessarily need anything super large, but you do need a certain minimum lens height in order to allow room for the progressive lens.

I never pick out glasses without taking my wife with me. I would be certain to make a bad mistake without her input.

From the standpoint of comfort, if you can get an earpiece that extends back and inward against the side of your head, rather than around the ear, this is much more comfortable and secure in my opinion. Replace the hard plastic nose pads with elongated silicon nosepads - not the small round ones.

Get separate prescription sunglasses. Lenses that darken in sunlight rely on UV light to dargen, and will not reliably darken in a car.

Get polycarbonate lenses. They will provide the best impact resistance.

Progressive lenses require a small learning curve. You will need tolearn to read through the lower portion of the lens. You want to look straight out the middle of the lens for driving. The upper portion of the lens will have a small amount of distortion.

The good news for shooting is that progressive lenses have a mid-range section between the distance and reading portions of the lens, which is ideal for front sight focus. The bad news is that it is in the lower part of the lens, not the uppear part where it would do a shooter the most good.

[Shawn Dodson]

Prescription safety eyeglass frames are less "hip" and more rugged. I have mine fitted with glass lenses because they resist scratches much better than polycarbonate and plastic lenses. Also polycarbonate lenses will distort images making them appear fuzzy when you view through them at an angle, like when you're shooting a long gun. Glass lenses are optically superior. My glass lenses are also progressive bifocals which I found to give me the most natural vision at all distances. I have the optician replace the nose pads with larger ones to better distribute the weight on my nose - all you have to do is ask. Finally make sure the lenses are properly radiused around they circumference otherwise they can cut your brow or cheek if there is a sharp edge if your glasses get smashed into your face. Good luck!

[Duelist]

Prescription safety eyeglass frames are less "hip" and more rugged. I have mine fitted with glass lenses because they resist scratches much better than polycarbonate and plastic lenses. Also polycarbonate lenses will distort images making them appear fuzzy when you view through them at an angle, like when you're shooting a long gun. Glass lenses are optically superior. My glass lenses are also progressive bifocals which I found to give me the most natural vision at all distances. I have the optician replace the nose pads with larger ones to better distribute the weight on my nose - all you have to do is ask. Finally make sure the lenses are properly radiused around they circumference otherwise they can cut your brow or cheek if there is a sharp edge if your glasses get smashed into your face. Good luck!

Aren't polycarbonate lenses supposed to be better at impact resistance?

[BN]

Aren't polycarbonate lenses supposed to be better at impact resistance?

Yes. Make sure the glasses are rated Z87 or better. I have wire rim glasses like peterb showed. I would never shoot with glass lenses.

[Flamingo]

Thanks for the input gentleman. I wound up getting Oakley Straightlink frames with polycarbonate lenses.

[Shawn Dodson]

Aren't polycarbonate lenses supposed to be better at impact resistance?

Yes, but polycarbonate lenses scratch much much easier than glass and standard plastic lenses, even with anti-scratch coatings.

[critter]

This week I have had to face one of the realities of getting older. I went to the eye doctor for my check up and was reminded that holding papers/documents at arms length to read them is not normal.

Just get the Acme Telescoping Reading Arm Extension Kit and look cooler longer. even cool glasses suck... out loud.

[MGW]

I went through this last spring. I ended up buying Oakley frames through Standard Issue. I went to several different stores and tried on everything I could find. Used the wife and daughters as sounding boards. Get what you like and get what you think looks good on you otherwise you won't wear them.

I'll add a couple things. I much prefer the weight of plastic frames and polycarbonate lenses. Think about peripheral vision. My frames are a little thicker than I would have preferred but bought them because I was told they look good. It kills my periferal vision and I hate them.

[Tokarev]

On the topic of shooter's glasses and older eyes; I am near sighted and have worn glasses for distance for 35 years or so. I recently allowed the optometrist to con me into getting bifocals. All this really seems to have accomplished is making my near vision even worse and I've found myself having trouble focusing on objects held at arm's length such as a pistol's front sight. This wasn't the case with my old "pre bifocal" prescription.

Anyway, I poked around on some Internet forums and boards and found an optometrist who "specialized" in shooting glasses. I went to this fellow to inquire about "shooter's bifocals." Glasses with the bifocal prescription in the top of the lens rather than the bottom. This optometrist said I did not want something like that an ultimately wouldn't be happy with them. What he did set me up with is a "midlength" prescription in my right eye and my standard distance vision in my left. The right eye can now more or less focus on the front sight (can still focus pretty well on a rifle front sight too) and use my left eye for distance. Wearing the glasses is a little offputting at first since my right (dominant) eye is slightly blurry at distance but it only seems to take a few minutes to get used to the change and I now find I can switch pretty easily back and forth between my daily wear glasses with distance vision and bifocals and my shooting glasses for midlength distance/extended distance. This seems to work well since I shoot both eyes open and I can now shoot more precision bullseye type where front sight focus is importance and more 3gun/action pistol type stuff where more of a target focus is my preferred method.

For frames I went with the Revel from Decot. Total with my lenses was a little over $200. I only got clear lenses but may buy a set with a slight tint for bright days.

Overall, not perfect, but certainly satisfactory and I am happy with the setup.

http://www.decot.com/cart/products/47/Revel.htm