TargetTalk

I have never been able to get a nice clear sight picture. At first I thought I just had lots of floaters in my eyes, but after some head scratching and hair pulling I discovered rust on the back sides of my adjustable iris. With the iris wide open is too bright so I close it down all the way. The front sharpens up around the target. I open until it clearest, but it always seems fuzzy. Now I think its coming from the rear iris...??? Help??/!!

Any thoughts as what I should do about it or try??

Thanks

Obviously you must check that your Iris is clear and clean first, by taking it off the Rifle and opening it right up and looking with a magnifying glass to check, See if the opening is round and clear at all sizes.
Shooting with it wide open will not give you any focus at all, try closing it to .9 and open it from there looking for the clearest setting.

You have probably done most of this but it is always best to try the obvious first then look at your own eyesight next. An eye exam is always helpfull to get you focussed on or just in front of the Foresight.

You're chasing the Holy Grail. There maybe some young shooters with excellent eyesight who can focus from the front sight to the target and back again so quickly that both appear clear and sharp. But this senior citizen can't even remember being able to do that. Reducing the rear aperture will give you greater depth of field and will sharpen the image of the front sight and the target but that's done at the expense of adequate light. The first step is to get your eyes tested. If your vision is 20/20 uncorrected, then shooting glasses with a +.50 lense will probably work with the typical smallbore rifle to give you a clear front aperture and less sharp target. But the level of sharpness of the front sight vs. the target that permits you to shoot your best is probably something that you will find through your own experimentation. Good luck.

It may be an oxygen issue. I am plagued by it. Try taking 7+ deep breaths as you begin your sighting. See if it helps keep the good sight picture a bit longer. Bp

As mentioned above, you really don't need (or even want) a clear target picture, it should be slightly fuzzy. The key point is to get the foresight in focus. An iris size of 1.1mm is generally considered around optimum for most people, but experiment a small way around that and see what works best for you.

Rob.

I for one would love to see a picture/image/illustration of the degree of fuzzyness that you better rifle shooters actually see (or perceive). Struggling with astigmatism and oblong blotches of gray nothingness for targets is a real frustration for those of us endowed with wonky peepers. What's the bar set at for "a fuzzy target is OK"?

One of the advantages of the Knobloch/Champion glasses is they permit a shooter to experiment with different corrections. It may be that you will shoot better with a sharp target and a fuzzy aperture. There's nothing sacred about the sharp aperture/fuzzy target. A lot of shooters shoot very well with that approach but there are a few of us who have shot well with the reverse. Google Art Neergard. He sells a kit that permits you to try different corrections.

WRC wrote:I for one would love to see a picture/image/illustration of the degree of fuzzyness that you better rifle shooters actually see (or perceive). Struggling with astigmatism and oblong blotches of gray nothingness for targets is a real frustration for those of us endowed with wonky peepers. What's the bar set at for "a fuzzy target is OK"?

You're not the only one! But if you have a lens set to focus on the foresight, it 'should' be pretty much correct.

My feeling is that as long as you can see a circular blob of a target and that you can accurately center it in the foresight then it's fine. If you see other things then you may need to compromise by making yourself ever so slightly longer sighted to make the target target shaped. You can also try increasing the foresight ring size as well, if you are not seeing enough white around the black blob.

Also just a thought, but how close / far away is your eye from the rearsight ?

Rob.

At this point (im new to the game) I like to get right up on the rear sight. With my safety glasses bumping the sight. I have experimented and find any further away than about 1 inch I lose focus.

Like a few others want to know, how fuzzy is too fuzzy. To me the targert is so fuzzy Its really a guessing game as to when the front sight is centered around the target. And when my eyes get a little tired it gets worse. I do know the deep breaths help, and I working on better breathing and exercising more too.

I got to look through another fellows sight the other day and he had a .3 dioptor and it did create a visible edge on the black of the bull and was much clearer than my basic sights. I have one on order. It did seem to create a visible edge around the black of the target that would help me center the front sight around it.

I hope this is my much needed answer to my problem.

just a friendly reminder in case you will want to compete internationally.

diopters attached to sight is not allowed and physical contact with the sight is not allowed either. (even though i still see many athletes who rest their visor on the sight...)