TargetTalk

I'm new to Olympic Style 10m shooting ....I have a new IZH-46m....First some general info......Ive shoot all my life , Exmilitary, I shoot alot of bullseye pistol now, but I use a red dot on my BUllseye gun....I want to shoot the Izh with the iron sights......I'm 45 wear glasses with a corrected vison of 20/20 But my eyes dont focus sharpely on the target the front site and the rear sight at the same time.......I kinda think this is normal but what do I do to minimize it ?.....sharp focus the sights and blurr the target......? cover my none shooting eye........????I just do this as a hobby so a state finalist will never I be but I just want to enjoy the hobby ....any technics or advice is most welcome

keith

Keith, what you're experiencing is normal...and you're probably verging on presbyopia like the rest of us.

You need to have the front sight in sharp focus. The rear sight next. The target...forget it. Let it be blurry. Sight alignment is far more important.

Distance prescriptions don't work for shooting. Reading glasses work better...but the best solution is a set of shooting glasses set up for your eyes. I use Dr. Toler's kit at www.customsightpicture.com

Hope this helps.

keith wrote:I'm new to Olympic Style 10m shooting ....I have a new IZH-46m....First some general info......Ive shoot all my life , Exmilitary, I shoot alot of bullseye pistol now, but I use a red dot on my BUllseye gun....I want to shoot the Izh with the iron sights......I'm 45 wear glasses with a corrected vison of 20/20 But my eyes dont focus sharpely on the target the front site and the rear sight at the same time.......I kinda think this is normal but what do I do to minimize it ?.....sharp focus the sights and blurr the target......? cover my none shooting eye........????I just do this as a hobby so a state finalist will never I be but I just want to enjoy the hobby ....any technics or advice is most welcome

keith

When using open ("iron sights"), the sharp focus should generally be on the sights (or even on the front sight). It is generally expected that the target is blurred (if it is not blurred. you are probably not focusing on the sights). If you have trouble focusing on the sights, special shooting glasses may be needed. Most common for precision shooting is to adjust the sights so that you aim in the white area below the black spot ("six o'clock"). Hope this helps.

reading glasses .....? like the kind you buy at the drug store....? so I should use a set that gives me the best possible sight picture?????.....

Chances are good that reading glasses will work fairly well. I shoot almost as well looking through the bottom of my bifocals as I do looking through my shooting glasses. However the cheap reading glasses may not quite do it for you if you have an astigmatism or some other issue. Isabel

Keith,
If you can take back those reading glasses try getting several at different strengths. Such as +.50, +.75, +1, +1.25 depending on your vision you may need to go to higher numbers. Start with the lower numbers and work up. As you work higher you will see your focus length coming closer. You will find one that gets the front sight in its best focus the target somewhat blurry and the rear sight just slightly fuzzy. You will know when you you go too high of a prescription because then the rear sight will be in best focus not the front. Pick the two that seem to be best and and try them several times until you find the one that is the most comfortable to get the front sight in focus without having to strain your eye to get it there. You can get your eye to focus on the front sight even without the ideal + but will fatigue your eye. So you want to get the one that gets that front sight as clear as possible as easy on your eye as possible. With the setup of a clear front sight,blurry target and fuzzy rear sight you will be able to tell when you paying attention to the wrong spot. When you start shooting "irons" you will notice your focus fluctuating from front to target to rear to somewhere between. Its not easy to stay focused on that front sight only. The thing that helped me stay focused on the front sight was to hang a piece of white posterboard from the ceiling of my basement range right in front of pistol as closely as possible to the front sight. You can now dry-fire in front of this and when your attention to the front sight wanders beyond it can only go to that white posterboard which is almost the same distance as the front sight. After some practice like this you will build up the muscle memory needed to keep your focus on the front sight. Since you will be dry-firing in front of this posterboard make sure to keep your focus on the front sight well after the trigger breaks and this will teach you follow through. For me when I start putting shots in unexpected places it is all follow through. With every shot I tell myself "front sight, squeeze, follow through, ten". As far as blocking your non aiming eye it is up you. I use an occluder because if I don't I have two front and two rear sights floating around out there. Just don't close your eye. Good luck, have fun, buy the cheapest pellets that shoot acceptable to you and shred some targets Scott

The best advice I can ptovide is to forget sight picture and train yourself to perfect sight allignment and allow the shot to break with out disturbing the allignment or distrubing the stillness of your hold.A sharp, clearly definded target is a sure sign that your focus is wrong. Good Shooting Bill Horton

thx guys ....if i sight thru my bifocal I get the clear front , slightly blurry target and slightly blurry rear ....so I'm goin to my eye doctor monday and ask what strenght my bifocal is.....then I'll block my non shootin eye and i should be good to go ............keith

Read the BULLSEYE SHOOTERS' GUIDE FOR THE EYECARE PROFESSIONAL at http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwo ... guide.html by Doctor Norman Wong.

Take a copy to your Optometrist.

Then he'll know what to do.

Try an aperture.

Our host sells the Varga line:
http://www.pilkguns.com/varga.shtml

Anonymous wrote:Try an aperture.

Our host sells the Varga line:
http://www.pilkguns.com/varga.shtml

Try an aperture AFTER you have the correct lens, not instead of.

If you have the money, this would be the best shooting glasses.

www.superfocus.com

you can focus at any distance, under any light condition.

If you have the money, this would be the best shooting glasses

What knd of money are we talking about seamaster ?

According to the web site, these jewels start at $700US.

Sharp focus on the front sight is a wonderful thing, but not so necessary in pistol (unless you realistically have your eyes set on the Olympics). The pistol target is very forgiving.
As stated previously, executing the shot without disturbing sight alignment is everything.
My sights are blurry, but the shot is good if I can maintain a consistent brurry sight alignment while the shot happens. I wish I could blame my eyes, but it's this darn finger.

Raymond Odle wrote:Sharp focus on the front sight is a wonderful thing, but not so necessary in pistol (unless you realistically have your eyes set on the Olympics). The pistol target is very forgiving.
As stated previously, executing the shot without disturbing sight alignment is everything.
My sights are blurry, but the shot is good if I can maintain a consistent brurry sight alignment while the shot happens. I wish I could blame my eyes, but it's this darn finger.

Sharp focus on the foresight is very important for all levels of shooters. Blurry sights mean you cannot tell if they are aligned or not. That alignment is the most critical thing and is way more sensitive to errors than where those (blurry) sights are pointing at on the target.

Rob.

I've gone to the range a couple of times and forgotten my shooting glasses. Rather than waste the time driving home & back, I've shot without them. If you concentrate on lining up the blurs, and pay particular attention to keeping the front blur centered in the rear blur, it is possible to shoot moderately well. I found it to be a LOT more work than when the front sight was in focus, but I shot only a tiny bit worse for it. The biggest problem was not looking at the target, which was in pretty much in focus.

An interesting experience, but not one I wish to repeat.

well as some said earlyer with the astigmatizm this....reading glasses will not correct that and the on the shelf glasses only go donwn to 1.00 so thats to strong..... but I did try a apeture.....and it works just fine with my distance lens on my glasses...for now....so I'll just wear my glasses and get a merit or a AHG apiture but right now I have aold pair of glasses with a piece of black tape on the len with a 1/16 inch hole in it works just fine.....

I've gone to the range a couple of times and forgotten my shooting glasses. Rather than waste the time driving home & back, I've shot without them. If you concentrate on lining up the blurs, and pay particular attention to keeping the front blur centered in the rear blur, it is possible to shoot moderately well. I found it to be a LOT more work than when the front sight was in focus, but I shot only a tiny bit worse for it. The biggest problem was not looking at the target, which was in pretty much in focus.

An interesting experience, but not one I wish to repeat.

This has happened to me several times, wth a similar outcome. The unseen [ sorry for the pun ] negative is the eyestrain that results, and over a 60 shot match this can be painful/tiring at least, and possibly damaging.

My optometrist took a lot of time to measure and test my vision so that the clearest point of focus would be on my front sight. I would also recommend using a single vision lens for shooting. Your brain won't have to decide which part of the lens to use, and it's cheaper than bifocals.