Eyesight, sights and iris

[B Lafferty]

I've tried using the lens focused on the front sight with only minimal success. It just seems to me that when focused on the front sight the target beyond is just too blurred to properly (consistently) place the front sight at sub-six for accurate shots.

Exactly my point that got a good amount of pushback here :)

I've gone back to shooting with my progressive lens glasses. My scores presently with the progressives run four to six points better per target shot than with the fixed focus lens. I do occasionally try shooting with the fixed focus lens, but my scores are consistently the same as previous times using that lens.

Interesting idea with progressive lens. Question: doesn't it force you to move your head while lowering gun to the position?

No.

[B Lafferty]

Has anyone tried this with non-rapid fire?

"Quiet Eye, as established by Canadian Professor Joan Vickers, is a technique used to enhance attentional focus and improve motor learning and performance. It can help hockey and basketball players become better at delivering their shots and it can do the same for pistol shooters. The outcomes of this training is that directional activities are quicker, more efficient and smoother, requiring less corrections by the performer. For pistol shooters, this should result in smoother, quicker raises and more accurate and consistent points of aim.

After establishing your position and grip, focus on your area of aim, where you want your sights to land. Staring at that point of aim (with the target crisp and in focus), raise your pistol. Hold your vision on the target. Do not allow your vision to ride the sights during the raise (as this leads to slower raises and many directional corrections). Again, hold your focus on the target’s point of aim, until your sights enter your plane of vision. At that stage, quickly transition your vision to your front sight. Make the final adjustments to align your sights."
https://targetshooting.ca/raising-the-p ... re-events/

[UnGe]

After establishing your position and grip, focus on your area of aim, where you want your sights to land. Staring at that point of aim (with the target crisp and in focus), raise your pistol. Hold your vision on the target. Do not allow your vision to ride the sights during the raise (as this leads to slower raises and many directional corrections). Again, hold your focus on the target’s point of aim, until your sights enter your plane of vision. At that stage, quickly transition your vision to your front sight. Make the final adjustments to align your sights."
https://targetshooting.ca/raising-the-p ... re-events/

My understanding is that it may work where the common technique is raising gun to the target (like in RF), not lowering it

[bootneckbob]

Just to add my two pennies as a pistol shooter who's gone from low 500 to 555 over a few years.
The target must be out of focus
The foresight must be in focus

That's it.

Okay that's not it; but I've used an iris (along with a few other club mates) and we thought narrowing it down to get a perfect picture of the foresight and target would be best. It isn't. Groups will get bigger.

What has already been said on here is true and it's the hardest thing for me to pass on to new shooters; trust me, the blur is fine, concentrate on the foresight and alignment. The subconscious brain does the rest which does seem like magic.

Okay, I'm not a top shot but I do post my scores on here using TargetScan. I use a blinder (transparent) on my left eye, my dominance is slight and I can change it but it's a strain over time. The blinder just makes everything more relaxed for me. I have the iris on (as I bought it anyway) and it's wide open but I know its for lighting control, not for sight picture. The lens holder is empty and holds the iris. For now my eyesight seems to be okay but i haven't been tested by a shooting optician.

[B Lafferty]

Just to add my two pennies as a pistol shooter who's gone from low 500 to 555 over a few years.
The target must be out of focus
The foresight must be in focus

That's it.

Okay that's not it; but I've used an iris (along with a few other club mates) and we thought narrowing it down to get a perfect picture of the foresight and target would be best. It isn't. Groups will get bigger.

What has already been said on here is true and it's the hardest thing for me to pass on to new shooters; trust me, the blur is fine, concentrate on the foresight and alignment. The subconscious brain does the rest which does seem like magic.

Okay, I'm not a top shot but I do post my scores on here using TargetScan. I use a blinder (transparent) on my left eye, my dominance is slight and I can change it but it's a strain over time. The blinder just makes everything more relaxed for me. I have the iris on (as I bought it anyway) and it's wide open but I know its for lighting control, not for sight picture. The lens holder is empty and holds the iris. For now my eyesight seems to be okay but i haven't been tested by a shooting optician.

OK...I went back to the lens focused on the front sight for two targets. End of the day and I'm tired, but with the exception of two fliers on the first target and one on the second, the groupings were indeed better. I'll give it a go again over the weekend. To be continued....

[thirdwheel]

I went back to the lens focused on the front sight for two targets. End of the day and I'm tired, but with the exception of two fliers on the first target and one on the second, the groupings were indeed better. I'll give it a go again over the weekend. To be continued....

The suspense is going to be killing me :)

[UnGe]

The suspense is going to be killing me :)

To add to suspense, I've ordered couple glasses with "calculated" prescriptions, left - distance for both, right - front sight and distance + 0.5, but they will come in 2-3 weeks :)

[B Lafferty]

I went back to the lens focused on the front sight for two targets. End of the day and I'm tired, but with the exception of two fliers on the first target and one on the second, the groupings were indeed better. I'll give it a go again over the weekend. To be continued....

The suspense is going to be killing me :)

Nah. It's just going to make you stronger and a better person. ;-)

[B Lafferty]

I went back to the lens focused on the front sight for two targets. End of the day and I'm tired, but with the exception of two fliers on the first target and one on the second, the groupings were indeed better. I'll give it a go again over the weekend. To be continued....

The suspense is going to be killing me :)

On the assumption that the suspense hasn't done you in, I've tried using the lens that focuses on the front sight for the past few days. It hasn't really made a significant positive difference. It could be that the prescription is now a bit old. I suspect that my vision has changed slightly, so the lens may not be quite what is now needed. Anyways, I'll continue to use my regular progressive lenses and concentrate on front sight focus with the target being less blurred than with the front sight specific lens. All is good..... :-)

[william]

Couldn't you eliminate all this searching / experimenting whilst improving your scores by...
...closing your eyes and letting the bullets "zen" their way to the target?

[B Lafferty]

Couldn't you eliminate all this searching / experimenting whilst improving your scores by...
...closing your eyes and letting the bullets "zen" their way to the target?

Wrong sport, Sport. LOL!

[Drdinglab]

Couldn't you eliminate all this searching / experimenting whilst improving your scores by...
...closing your eyes and letting the bullets "zen" their way to the target?

step 1: find a Zen master

[Drdinglab]

Think you may have found you have answered your own question as you have found if you bring your target into focus by using an iris your shots go all over the place. What you want to do is to be able to see the molecular structure of the front sight - meaning it it perfectly in focus. That will mean the target is out of focus and that is exactly what you want as it stops you being drawn to it and not focusing on the front sight, the rear sights will be out of focus slightly this is again good as it makes the front sight stand out more. This total focus on the front sight throughout the shot process including the follow through controls everything and it is what is used by your subconscious mind to deliver the shot.
By the way, astigmatism is the defect caused by a slightly miss shaped cornea and this distorts an image out of shape eg a round circle to oval, this is corrected by your optician quite easily and is separate from the correction they make for your focal distance at different distances.
You will train your non dominate eye to do the job over time using the blinder, ever seen small children with a patch over a good eye, the optician is doing exactly what you are doing forcing a weaker eye to do some work and become used to working well.
The iris for shooting is not used to bring things into focus but to adjust for different light levels at different competition venues (it can reduce shadowing around the front sight for some) or to give tunnel vision to blank out distractions and in all instances the aperture is large and not narrowed down enough to effect focus.
I can hear the next question already - if I cannot see the target how can I hit it? - "Area aim" in the area below the now black fuzzy blob, "just do it" and follow through keeping a perfect alignment of the back and front sight.

If I understand correctly, having a slightly weak non-dominate eye is perfect?

[thirdwheel]

Nope, the dominant eye bit was for someone in an earlier post to make them use their other eye, it does need a quantum jump of belief to just focus on the sight picture and the front sight alone and hold it in the light area under the black and slowly increase the pressure on the trigger even though it feels like the front sight picture is moving too far out of the aim zone, this is where people fail and stop the trigger pull and stop themselves from progressing. You do need the best vision you can accomplish by using correction if necessary to see the molecular structure of the front sight.

[UnGe]

To add to suspense, I've ordered couple glasses with "calculated" prescriptions, left - distance for both, right - front sight and distance + 0.5, but they will come in 2-3 weeks :)

As tis thread re-surfaced, I've noticed that I did not update here.
- Calculated correction works well, no real need to visit optometrist (that said, if anybody knows a good pistol-friendly optometrist in WA...)
- The only tricky part is PD, but good quality lenses may work pretty well with shifted position (alternatively you can measure your PD yourself)
- My eyes feel strain with different left vs right adjustments, better to have the same
- +1 is perfect for short(er) barrel (BE), does not work well for air pistol. +0.5 makes rear sight too blurry (for my taste). +0.75 is what I'll get next