TargetTalk

Hi, I am an air rifle shooter in his late forties that is back in the sport after 30 years and I fear that my sight is not the same it was when I was a teenager.

While I am using my normal prescription glasses for shooting, using a mask to prevent COVID causes my glasses to fog up all the time, so I thought that maybe would be a good idea to get a pair of shooting glasses that could prevent that (besides having special shooting calibration, of course). In the process of choosing the specific model to buy, I found that nowadays you can attach a monocle to the rear sight of the rifle instead of using a pair of glasses.

Examples:

• https://www.mec-shot.de/en/products/sho ... le/monocle

• https://shop.ahg-anschuetz.de/en/optics ... -monoframe

• https://shop.gehmann.com/en/lens-holder

It sounds really convenient, easier to be sure that you align your eye properly, for example, but I wonder if it is as good an idea as it sounds or if there are drawbacks that are not evident to me now.

What do you think? Taking into consideration that I only shot air rifle (ISSF 10m), what would be your advice? Monocle or glasses?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Nando

I don't know how bad your eyesight is, but for me, having the ability to see (even if only out of one eye) between shooting while looking at other stuff is useful. So the lens attached to the rifle is great for me looking at the target, but then if I need to see literally anything else, it doesn't help.

I am pretty blind without glasses though. I can't read two-inch-tall letters at arm's length. Incidentally my eyesight is as good as it was when I was a teenager, it's just always been very bad.

That's a good point. My eyesight is not that bad, but now I feel the need to check if I can see the scores in the monitor without glasses. If I couldn't, I definitely would go for a pair of glasses instead of a monocle.

I would not be fooling around with any of this crap. I'd be seeing the best eye doctor I could find. After he's through with you, then start thinking about shooting.

Don't get me wrong, I have been in contact with an eye doctor for all my life and using proper prescription glasses. I am looking now for options because they fog up due to the mask.

I use this type of product with with my standard glasses (polycarbinet safety lens). It has made my life easier not having a second pair of shooting glasses.

https://gehmann.com/english/products.ph ... tegorie=20

My eyesight is around 20/40 now days (49 years old). I used to have 20/650 before I had lasik in 1996. I have a MEC monocle and it is awesome and I highly recommend it. If my vision was really bad, like I previously had, I can see where glasses would be better. I did have Neal Stepp (ISS) work with me on my monocle lense. He had me bring my new glasses to his shop and had a bunch of lenses of various magnifications. He had me hold them up in front in front of my eye aiming thru a sight (with my glasses on) to figure out if we needed to adjust my prescription (which we did slightly). If you get a monocle call Neal Stepp at ISS and he knows a lot and could be and eye doctor from my experience. Monocle is about $65 and lense is around $60.

A few years ago I had a round rupture in my small bore rifle. I was lucky, no metal just powder came back on my glasses. If not for glasses. I might have had a serious problem. Glasses gets my vote.

Maybe try using some lightweight medical tape to tape the top edge of your mask to just below your shooting eye. Being a scuba diver, I know there are solutions you apply to your face mask to stop fogging. Not sure if these solutions would work I open-air or not.