Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Competitive Shooting Shooting glasses iron sights

I'm in the market for a GOOD pair of shooting glasses for competitive rifle shooting. I shoot aperture iron sights at black bulls or black steel targets that are against tan, sand or dirt banks.

I need a little bit of correction in the top of the glasses, which must be tall enough to allow shooting when prone. I don't know exactly what sort of twist the optician put into my current glasses for distance vision, but he did something to help me with my shooting. I would guess that it is probably about a .75 diopter, but I don't know and will have to find out. The bottom of my gradient glasses have corrections for reading and that is required when I shoot because sight adjustments are not clicks and must be read quickly and accurately. Stick on 1.75 diopters would get this done but a full prescription might be better.

I need glasses that have relatively long bows I think. That's an issue with some of these glasses that have the flex loops that go behind the ears. A standard set of B & L Aviators will hurt like hell after 15 minutes because of this.

I NEVER shoot orange targets in competition so that color enhancement is not needed.

Anyway, I would love to hear what others shoot for dedicated shooting glasses. Those of you shooting high power competition silhouette or Creedmoor matches with iron, aperture sights would be most interesting but any experience is probably a plus over what I've been doing and a good discussion might help a lot of other guys.

Orange targets SUCK. Horribly.

You are doing different than what we do in highpower. But do the rules allow hooded rear sights in your game? If so have the correct lense cut to slip in there, and put an o ring behind it to hold it in place.

But that doesn't cover the reading part. Other than a bifocal thats bottom only and no RX top.

Beyond that the one thing I can say if I were going back to standard glasses, is get thee to the doc. Talk with them first and tell them you need to be seen with gun in hand. And then go prone so they can mark WHERE you look through the lense to aim, and then WHERE to read sights, write etc... thats super important.

BUT the other thing, typically your best vision lense is not your best shooting one. The other thing is talk with the doc, get him to open that ancient drawer of single lenses for testing the old way. Give him a deposit and get an idea of whats best and get 4 either side of that to take along to the range. You'll have to have someone hold each lense right where the glasses would sit, and the stronger your RX the more precise that location has to be. But you will almost never end up with what they thought was best in the shop. Both because you are focusing on things that are not letters, and under different lighting conditions.

And don't discount tints just because you are shooting a round black bull with a buff background. On dark days a slight tinge of orange helped crisp the target up. On bright days a tinge of green, not as dark as sunglasses at all, and on overcast clear was genearlly fine. The colors made a HUGE difference many times in what you see on the target end... and thats not that important, but its more important that folks give it credit for IMHO.

Granted I only shot irons with a post front by rules. And I only shot out to 1000 yards. But maybe some of this will be of help somehow and we can hope others chime in.

I"ve only a few times shot ap front and rear. So there should be some idiosyncrosies?? to them....

Rost orange targets do, indeed, SUCK. and so we don't shoot them competitively.

Rear sights are aperture disks. No glass is allowed anywhere but on one's face.

I've done the talk to the doc stuff, and we have the prescription pretty well figured, though we need to get better at locating the various parts of it on the lens better. The real issue is that the lens of most eyeglasses simply are not big enough to accommodate different shooting positions, esp. prone. So, I'm going to find dedicated shooting glasses that fit right, are big enough, have the right color (that's a big mystery to me), and then have the prescription in the right places, in some sort of gradient design.

Thanks for the suggestion go get some loaner diopters from the doc. That's an idea I hadn't thought of.

I like Knoblochs.
They have adjustable lens and nose stems that allows you to raise & lower the lens so that when you shoot prone, you aren't looking out the top of the lens. (Although a shooting hat usually limits how high the glasses can go.)

If you are looking for new glassed, at least look at Knoblochs.

I did not mention them becuase if all I was shooting was ONE position and it was the SAME, you can find glasses that will work or can be made to work.

But now that I think about it, the adjustable ones just flat work b etter to center the lense.

And FWIW Re the cap blocking.... its a lense holder on a shaft, and the holders are cheap enough and lenses are something like 30 bucks maybe? I just had a pair cut for my fire SCBA mask holders provided... 60 bucks for 2.... So for some issues I cut most of the stem off if it bumps a cap brim off. Basically means I have 3-4 different holders... some with different tints, some with smaller or larger lenses etc... for differing positions and so on.
They even make one thats set back(or foward depending) to keep the lense further from the rear aperture in sitting rapid... so it doesn't get knicked up in recoil from the ap continually hitting it...

There are others too... jard maybe, and neostyles IIRC.

If not you end up with big honking frames to get it the best IMHO.

Knoblochs and Randolphs are on my list to look at. Actually, I've looked at the Randolphs and the Ranger Edge glasses look pretty darn useable. The Knoblochs will take some more looking into. Now that I know what they are, I know I have seen others with them. They look pretty clumsy but I suspect they must be well suited for their purpose.

Anyone have any favorite colors? I'm waffling between clear, rose, and an amber color. But which is better for all around use? Maybe I should just pony up and buy a few colors and get on with it.

Thanks,
Brent

Note my color choices in first post also. I"ve done the rose and amber and not what I personally thought was best.

But then I had an optician that would dip the lense and let me look, and either darken or lighten from then on... was worth his money in gold almost...

The knoblochs are the only "type" of glasses that hands down allowed me to center our lenses for standing, sititng and prone. ANd each position is radically enough different.

One of the other things that drove me away from standard glasses was sweat factor.... I can't keep normal ones far enough off my face and still off the aperture that I don't have sweat rollign. And I can sweat easily enough in December.

Hell in August I"m sweating when I get to the fire station before I get my bunker gear on and get in the truck.... I think I sweat driving there just thinking aobut heat...

In fact they do or did make a small funnel that you clipped onto the lens so that in position, you adjusted it perfectly to the optical center.

But also IMHO let your optician cut the lens for the holders... some commercial outfits try to get 2-3 or more out of a blank to pocket more cash and the aberrations can be horrible.

Your fellow Texan, Neal Stepp at ISS does a great job of selling, cutting lenses for, and servicing Knoblochs.

+1 on the Knoblochs, that is what I use for XTC and Palma. You will get the best optical solution with an adjustable like these or Champion, etc.. Not very good protection though.

I also have a set of Rangers, but no prescription lenses so I've only used them with my contacts. I can't shoot well with contacts so it is not a fair comparison. They are comfortable enough.

The Cadillac of shooting glasses is supposed to be the Decot Hy-Wyd with the adjustable bridge. Never used them but came close to pulling the trigger on a pair before I found the Rangers cheap at a gun show.
http://www.sportglasses.com/cart/pr...ridge%20/%20Spring%20Hinge%20Temples.htm

+1
Neil sold me the prescription lens for my Knoblochs and it was much cheaper than any local optician quoted. Nice guy to deal with.

I picked up a pair of Decots early last year. After using them for a full season they're definitely the way to go if you're shooting prone with a scope.

I keep looking at the knoblocks and wonder how they would work with a hat. I can see why you might be cutting stuff off of them. A wide brimmed hat is mandatory for me. At most ranges, we face north and an early afternoon sun over the right shoulder will put glare on my sight's eyecup unless I have a hat. My favorite range is Lodi and it faces east so that the early morning 800 yds relays have the sun issue really bad since the sun is still low in the sky at that point. Anyway, hat compatibility is important but it does seem like it would work.

I will try to call Randolph today to ask some questions about their Ranger shooting glasses as well.

Thanks for all the comments. I'll go poke around for Decots next. I've never heard of that one.

You gotta shorten the lens stems to get the hat brim low over your eyes. You are gonna have this sort of problem no matter what glasses you use because of head position in prone and the desire to pull the brim down to your eyebrows.

Decot hi/wide was what we looked at hard before we said no....

For different tints you have to have 2 lens and one frame for each color for starters.

The only downfall to the adjustable ones like Knobloch, much less protection. But I wore a changeable polarizing filter on my off eye so I had a bit more protection there at least.

A couple of points. This business of seeing and shooting is highly personal, and with a certain amount of subjectivity. What works well for one person, even with things seeming to be fairly equal, may not work for another. I can't offer an explanation of the whys and wherefores, it just seems to work that way.

Just about everything with optics and vision involves a tradeoff. You can't have it all, the best you can accomplish is to optimize according to your priorities.

I've been down this road, and I haven't found it too difficult to find a frame size and shape that works for shooting prone. My distance correction in my shooting eye is minimal, and somewhere between .50 and 1.00 provides a decent view of front sight and target. I prefer to favor the sight. Like Brent, I shoot silhouette and bullseye, and there is a significant difference, due to the irregular shape of the silhouettes, and the varying contrast in the backgrounds (berms). The concentric circles and contrast with bullseye makes everything much easier to see.

I have tried the offset optical center, in line with my eye and sight, and haven't found that it makes a big difference from my normal glasses. What I did learn from my optician is that they can't make an offset distance correction, along with a progressive gradient for near vision. You can have one or the other, but not both. That leaves me with either my regular glasses which work OK, or a dedicated distance lens for shooting, and a stick-on for near vision.

Paul

Id' think that the worse your RX is the more important you center your script to the sights/ lense center of correction.

.5 is really almost no correction at all.

I have a bit over 2 for a correction and according to many thats not much either.

I certainly don't deal perfectly with trying to run normal glasses and lookign through the non center.

What can be funny though, much as I have to use glasses with rifles... with pistols and irons in bullseye, I have to shoot WITHOTU correction or I'll try to focus on the target and not the sight which SUCKs.

As noted, for me, the ability to have multi tints for differing lighting( wondering how folks can shoot same clear or tinted lens for all conditions) is one reason to avoid full on glasses.... cost of multiple frames and multiple double sets of lens would be crazy, unless Sam paid for mine...

Another tradeoff involving tinted lenses. My eye doc says I have cataracts about in line with expectations for my age, about 30% loss of light transmission. Any colored tint of the lenses cuts down light transmission a bit more. The less ambient light, like a cloudy day, the more it may matter in terms of a good view of sights and target.

About all you can do is try lenses that seem to be the right combo, and just see how they work.

Old shooters talk about two things, their prostates and cataracts.

Paul

Yes and thats also why I only want tint enough to get contrast. I hate seeing some of the bright orange/yellow and dark gray/green lens touted as shooting lens. I don't think they do you any good personally.

In fact my orange lens IIRC, are pretty dang light, to the fact they only almost look sorta grimy, but not actually so much tinted.

As noted, you have to make it work for you, but there is some really good advice here of things to look at.

I was just in the docs 2 weeks ago getting an RX for my SCBA fire fighting mask. I asked about the relationship of distance of lens from eye, these frames pop in and out of the mask and I might not get em in the same notch each time...

She said with a minor RX like mine, not a big deal. But with something around 5-6 Plus it could be a big deal really.

Not that I can see squat in a house fire, but on a wreck scene with gear on, it can make a difference if I can see or not see hand signals from the engine or the hose men etc...

All Ya'all could quit your exercise in futility and shoot F-Class...

Just sayin

Anybody could shoot F-class

Besides, I like seeing my bullets fly on out there and land in the berm. You can't do that in F-class.


PS. Our rifles are more handsomer too.