Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Aging eyes and open sights - any tricks?

Correct on all counts! I have one on my S&W 460…..it does take a bit of use to get proficient with getting quickly on target! But, from a rest I can occasionally get sub 3” groups @ 100 yards…….way, way better than I was getting with open sights! memtb

If it's simple presbyopia aka "old eyes", one of those apertures would probably be your best bet, at least the cheapest and easiest solution to try first. They work like the F stop on a camera and basically increase your depth of focus.

Presbyopia here as well, I got a Merit optical disc and use it on non-prescription shooting glasses since it can be moved around easily or swung out of the way but they are certainly more expensive than tape or any other stick on solution.

Glasses might work depending on your eyes, I tried a couple of solutions but none of them let me see the sights and the target in clear focus, it was one or the other. If you go that route it's far better to see the sights in clear focus since sight alignment is critical in handguns, if the target is slightly blurry you can still aim at the center of the blur and hit it.

Red dots are obviously good but even then if someone has an astigmatism that little dot in the sight will look like it has a tail or some oddity. I finally had some glasses made up that only correct my astigmatism and are focused at infinity like the dot sights. A side benefit is that the same glasses work well with scope sights so I don't have to keep switching glasses when going from a scoped rifle to a red dot on a rifle or handgun.


My ultimate solution was new Bausch and Lomb eyes but that's probably not a viable solution here. Had cataracts removed in both eyes last year and the B&L replacement lenses are set for "far" vision which means anything much past 28". Sights on handguns are still slightly blurry but lots better than they were and the front sights on rifles are sharp and clear so peep sights work great again. Anyway, handgun sights are clear enough to hit cans or steel or whatnot accurately enough. But when I want to really wring out a new load I still need the Merit disc on shooting glasses since it lets me see both the sights and the target 25 yards away in sharp focus.

Here's a handgun that'll put the front sight out there a ways....lol,

I have a pair of computer glasses.

Just like reading glasses but the focal length is closer to 30 inches than 14 to 16 inches as is typical of reading glasses. Your optometrist can adjust the focal length to whatever you wish.

I do not use mine for shooting as it leaves the target very unfocused for me. I use progressives or straight distance vision glasses for shooting.

LOL

I have 69 year old eyes, and discovered that shorter barrels work better for MY eyes.

That and aiming with just the front sight and ignoring the back sight.

Virgil B.

Bingo!

I had cataract surgery at 42, brought on by prednisone. Boy was I pissed after I discovered I couldn't focus on pistol sights like I used to. Can still shoot em, but takes longer to line everything up. In really good lighting it's a piece of cake, but a little dim lighting and I'm point shooting

Use a Merit Optical Attachment disc / aperature. Sharpens up the sights tremendously.

http://meritcorporation.com

Just had cataract surgery, amazing to see again.

Walmart carries some stick on lenses that are about the size of the bifocal section of prescription glass.You put a drop of water on them and stick them on you shooting glasses whichever eye you use.They come off easy if need be. You can put them higher than a bifocal would be.

Start with 1:25's or 1;50's . Not as much as your reading glass prescription. Just enough to sharpen you sights and the target gets bit blurry. About $7

Aging eyes turn you into a "Front Sight Only" shooter, believe me. I ONLY see the front sight, and it's for the better.

If you wear bifocals use the reader part of the lens. That gives pretty good focus on the sights although the target will be blurry. That works for me out to 25 yards or so.
Computer glasses work well too.

Yep.
Few new shooters understand that - probably why RDS are popular.

Yep, THIS^^^^^

It just works....

I just read this. I have no idea if it works, or will even help many of us. But, it is FDA approved, of course the “Rona” shot is medically approved.

Anyway, thought I’d share! memtb


https://www.newsbreakapp.com/n/0fjxWXY3?pd=01rIQkl8&lang=en_US&s=i4

I’m in my seventies. I have cataracts. I have far vision. I had West Nile and my left side was paralyzed for a few months. When I regained control of my left side, they took the eye patch off. My eyes don’t line up vertically from that day on.
I have safety glasses prescribed by my eye doctor that corrects for the miss-alignment. The glasses also have continuous bifocals (I think that’s what it’s called).
With those glasses I can still shoot quite well with open sights. Almost all my lever guns and a few bolt guns gave iron sights as do all but one pistol.
I don’t think I’d be good with pistol shooting w/o these glasses.
My brother and a sister-in-law had their eyes operated on and they can now see near and far w/o glasses. I would need glasses due to my vertical alignment issue, so I’m not doing the surgery. Besides I like having safety glasses on for my hobbies.
My suggestion is get these type of glasses or eye surgery.

I don’t recall the company name
But I bought shooting glasses with the corrective lense in the top of the glasses instead of the bottom

So when you are getting ready to shoot you look straight on
When I shoot I tilt my head down a bit it seems to help quite a bit

Very happy with these

Hank

I just bumped my previous thread that talked about the "One Hole" ghost ring sight that made a big difference for me......here are the pics:

[/quote]

I went thru this journey a few years back. First I tried a stick on lens at the top of my glasses on my dominant eye and that worked. It worked well enough that I had a pair of readers made with R eye correction and Left eye clear. (Cheap at readingglasses.com). I shot one of my best matches shortly after that. The front sight was exquisitely clear and made me realize how bad things had gotten. The only problem was I am super right eye dominant and my left eye basically shuts off so the targets were fuzzy. So super crisp front sight but blurry target is ok, but certainly not for concealed carry.

I shot a 3 gun match using these glasses and on a prone firing stage my rifle kicked up a lot of dust. It was east to adjust the scope to the glasses beforehand but the unrecognized problem was that the dust I kicked up was now all in focus and I could not see any semblance of the distant target. Remember left eye shuts off.

After that I switched to left eye correction and right eye was clear. I discovered the left eye added some visibility of the front FO for matches which made it ok for a while.

Finally I gave in to red dots.