TargetTalk

Hi
Hope someone may be able to offer me some advice re shooting glasses I am quite new to the sport and have ordered some glasses made by varga,
these come supplied with a 37mm mount for a lens. I am 54 years old and have reasonable eyesight I wear glasses for reading, my question is do I need to have a lens made by the optician to suit my eyes to clarify the front sight or do I get the iris adaptor or do I use both?
Thanks
John.

I use an iris - which I do not like, but does work.

Personally, I do not see why the rules do not allow the use of a red-dot sight (with no magnification).

When using a pistol with a red-dot, I do not require the iris or any glasses - except my safety goggles. The red-dot is great for us old timers and any other shooter(s) with vision problems.

Use of the red-dot sight provides greater enjoyment of the sport, allows an increase in the numbers of competitors, yet does not create an unfair advantage over open sights. You can either hold the gun on target or you can't - but, it sure is nice to be able to see the target while you try.

Start with Warren's excellent explanation in the Hitchhiker's Guide. The short answer is for shooting with a dot you want your distant vision prescription and you'll need supplementarty lenses for shotting iron sights.

Hitchhiker Guide article is at http://www.pilkguns.com/c16.htm .

Make a trip to an Op thamologist or prescribing Optometrist, sometimes called a DO. Try to bring your shooting monocle with you and tell him you need a lens that will make an object clear at 1 metre---usually a trifocal middle distance lense works beautifully especially with a good iris. Most DO's do not care if you bring an air pistol with you (Minus the tank) to test the fit. However, the middle tri-focal lens diopter can help---especially if you have an astigmatic eye. This is how I have cleared up my shooting with iron sights and it has worked for many years. Also, depending on the glasses, (Champion, Knobloch) you can purchase various diopters for the lens holder.

Thanks to all for your help, I forgot to mention that `I am shooting 10 metre air pistol, and am uk based. many thanks,
John.

I have tried the iris, the correct diopter shooting lens and still find that my previous prescription trifocal glasses work best. The iris could not be positioned to work with regular glasses...and accomodate my normal head position and the shooting glasses just created more havoc. I have an occluder fashioned out of one half old clip-on sunglasses obscured with tape. Sounds a bit Rube Goldberg, but it works well for me and the focus on the front sight (when I am able to pay attention to it properly) is just right. In another year or ten when vision changes significantly, perhaps some of the other avenues will be better for me. For now, I am a happy camper and don't feel at a disadvantage with the sighting arrangment. I simply wanted to let you know that there are all sorts of possibilities which may work for you in addition to the specific path of dedicated optometry and money. FWIW Craig

If you're like me (also 54 and using reading glasses) you may have to do both. It depends if you can get that front sight in sharp focus and have the bullseye somewhat blurred. For a lot of us, that's hard to do.

As Bob says, get a lens ground (or try some of the various ready-to-go lens to see if one works well for you) so that you can get the front sight in sharp focus.

With luck, the front sight is now in sharp focus and the bullseye is somewhat blurred. If this is not the case you can use an iris to adjust your field of vision to sharpen or blur the bullseye.

The iris takes some getting used to (sits close to the eye) but works well. It also ensures you maintain a consistent head position because the center of the iris is adjusted so you see the target when in your normal shooting position. If your head starts tilting forward like mine does you'll no longer be able to see the target.

If needed, add an occluder for your non-shooting eye so you can keep both eyes wide open. More light usually means better vision.