You could try monovision. I am nearsighted, and sometimes wear a contact in one eye to see distance and leave the contact out of the other so I can see the front sight without any correction. Be aware that It can mess with eye dominance.Originally Posted by steve
-Seconds Count. Misses Don't-
Thank you everyone for the advice and help. I believe it is time to admit age is here and I am not going to be able to go back to like it was. I broke out my favorite Glocks today and spent some time with red and green fiber vs RMR and Holosun SCS. The iron sights lost out. No matter what I did the red dot/green dot won. I have always been an iron sight junky even with my rifles and reality is dictating that I need to quit being stubborn.
Good thread!
Has anyone here considered how well you could shoot without your visual aids be it glasses or contacts? In that instance, is a RDS the answer?
Early 50s here and I've had corrected vision since I was 12 or 13. Was prescribed progressives in 2009/2010 but couldn't tolerate them. Went back to a distance prescription which worked for daily living but not so much for shooting. Had a blurry front sight. Lived with it for as long as I could then came across a thread here on P-F that mentioned Varilux progressive lenses. I don't know what secret sauce goes into the lenses but they are vastly different from the progressives I tried way back when.
My front sight is clearer now. Not 20/20 clear but I can see a definite top edge. I still can't see the bead on a shotgun though.
The lenses aren't cheap but in my case, were worth every penny. You might ask your optometrist if it's a viable option for you.
I've tried it without my glasses, using uncorrected cycling glasses. My dominant eye is near-sighted; the rear sight is in sharp focus and the front sight is a little blurry. My preferred big red front sight works well enough for close (~5 yards) range. I haven't tried it with a dot.
I haven't tried a dot yet but I now have a pistol that can mount one so eventually I probably will. A couple of thoughts based on idpa shooters I shoot with. Some of the dots have a skillion year battery life so you just never turn it off. Most of them are now 100% reliable. I hear conversations about window size, dot size, auto vs manual brightness controls, etc but not about reliability. I only know one guy who tried a dot and went back. He started last fall after he had taken advantage of the idpa change allowing 15/16 rnd mag loading in SSP class. The CO class is still at the 10/11 mag loads so there are some stages where he needs to do a reload now but would not have w/ iron sights.
This is me, too. I give up clarity at infinity distance, but can see my front sight and don't need cheaters to read anymore.
"It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
-Maple Syrup Actual
Does "tilting my head so far back" mean you see best (at front-sight distance) through the bottom of the lens? If that's the case, you can have the lenses of your new glasses ground so what would normally be at the bottom is repositioned to the top. A simple test is to hand an old pair of glasses to your optician and ask him / her / it to invert the lenses. You could quickly and affordably learn if this might be helpful.
Duces
Edit: Ooops. Someday I'll learn to read the rest of the thread before I respond. Mas covered this up in Post 4.
Apologies, Mas!
Last edited by Duces Tecum; 02-02-2023 at 07:30 PM.
Depends on how bad your eyes are. I'm 53 and use 1.25-1.75 cheater glasses to read and use computers depending on circumstance. I used monovision correction in my shooting glasses for a couple of years, but went back to no correction. It's much easier for me to stay target focused (USPSA A class) when I can't focus on the sight. You really don't need or want a "clear sharp front sight" for much in practical type shooting.
If (when) it gets too bad I will switch to a dot. (I'm an A in CO as well) Or possibly have cataract surgery earlier than typical.
I have somewhat mild presbyopia and miss the tack sharp vision of my youth.
Anyway, I saw Rob Leatham recommend reading glasses for shooting, so that's what I have been using for several years. He said he uses the least power which allows him to bring the front sight into focus While Rob is known for action shooting, he did make President's 100 at Camp Perry several years ago, so his bullseye passes muster. I shoot informal bullseye and USPSA club matches with 1.25 reading glasses. Since they're readers, there is no head tilt. Right now I have RB Pilot glasses from Amazon. Those give pretty good coverage so they are safer than small lens reading glasses.
Bullseye is getting harder but, and this does go against popular sentiment, I find the 80s style three white dot sights to be the best. The white dots on the rear sights do give me a better sense of alignment even though they're more out of focus than in years past. Similarly, Glock white outline rears are okay albeit harder to get great vertical alignment with.
I will say that I shot Carry Optics for a few years and the red dot does make life easier, but I am apparently too hardheaded to give up irons.
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