I purchased prescription shooting glasses about a year ago. I've tried 2 different prescriptions and they bought gave me terrible headaches.

Now they just sit in my bag,,,I'm afraid to use them. Today, I was thinking about them and had an idea.... Has anyone put the prescription for near vision on the top of the lens ?? I once saw an electrician who had this and he was pleased.
Anyone ever tried this for shooting handguns ?

Take your gun with you to the eye doc. Tell him you want the front sight to be in focus for your dominant eye.

I have a very hard time with this. The instructor at a pistol class I took said she had seen some people shoot with their glasses on upside down for a free solution.
I thought about just glasses with no distance vision would work as well. But I decided to deal with just my regular prescription, because, are you going to ask the bad guy to wait while you change glasses? LOL! And I want to practice with what I would have shoot with if ever forced to shoot in self defense.

It is very simple. Go to Costco. Optical. Ask for the special computer glasses grind. They make the majority of the glass focus point at front sight distance. They put the reading prescription at the bottom. Progressive grind, not bifocal. Works very well. $100.

Headaches happen when you look at far away stuff with computer glasses. I just shoot competitions with these glasses and let the target blur.

quote:

Originally posted by PD:
Take your gun with you to the eye doc. Tell him you want the front sight to be in focus for your dominant eye.

Monovision. Lens for dominant eye is focused on the front sight; that for the other eye for distance. Shoot with both eyes open.

flashguy

I'm 59, been chasing a shooting solution or solutions for years now. My glasses for High power have a single bifocal at the top of my right lense and a plain distance lens in the left.

Optician had me bring my rifle and shooting mat. Spent about half an hour out in his parking lot till we got the tint and placement correct.

I was expecting LE to show up at any moment

I went to Costco and got trifocals. Different prescriptions for computer, pistol shooting & distance vision. Much improvement in shooting accuracy.

Fairly steep learning curve for regular use. Costco could not do lineless trifocals. Found a lensmaker who said he could, but am getting along fine with the lined trifocals.

These work very well for less than $20:
https://www.safetyglassesusa.com/bf85.html
The bifocal part is in the center of the lens, top to bottom.
If you dig around on that site, you’ll also find bifocals with the magnification on top of the lens as well.

I have shooting glasses with inserts. That gets the front sight in view. The inserts come in varnish strengths. I modified them by cutting off the left lense. That gives me one eye fitted for the front sight and an eye to see distance.
http://spitsadventurewear.com/...nt-ansi-z87-247.html

quote:

Originally posted by Icabod:
I have shooting glasses with inserts. That gets the front sight in view. The inserts come in varnish strengths. I modified them by cutting off the left lense. That gives me one eye fitted for the front sight and an eye to see distance.

"Varnish"? Did you mean "various"?

flashguy

I had problems reading a screen at intermediate distance while using bifocals. I found using trifocals with an intermediate distance worked well on a screen, but also worked well on a pistol sight. I also do a lot of close up work, and use a larger area with near focus on the bottom, to allow a greater field of view. I also found a progressive (lineless) lenses allow a smoother transition.

One other thing that helps. Glasses, for me are also a safety issue. I use power tools on people. This is associated with blood splatters, something you want to keep out of your eyes (a few of the patients I see and operate on may carry something I don't particularly want). The larger lenses have the additional benefit of allowing you to pick up the sights in focus easier. My wife has commented that after I retire, I can use glasses with a smaller frontal area. I probably won't. They're handy for shooting.

I moved to progressives years ago---world of difference is shooting and every day tasks.

Flashguy made a suggestion that does indeed work very well.
I had a pair made up with my front sight in focus for my dominant eye and with the target in focus for my weak eye. I put them on about 10 minutes before I shoot to allow my brain to adapt. I shoot with both eyes open and it works like a charm for pistol shooting.
It's a pleasure not having to crane my next to look thru my bifocal to see the front sight AND the bonus is that the target is also in focus. It sounds weird but it WORKS.

As mentioned above get your eye doctor involved. I wrestled with this problem for several years until I took a training pistol in for my eye exam. Doc tuned the prescription to focus on the front sight. Then we made two pair of lenses. One pair are single prescription that I wear when on the range all day or shooting a match. The other pair are tri-focals. The bottom Rx is for reading, the middle is for the front sight, and the rest of the lens is for distance. The other benefit is the intermediate lens is great for computer work.

Progressive lenses do not work for me so the tri-focals are pretty obvious but one should not mistake that for my being an easy mark.

Lot's of good info and experience. Thanks ! mike

One other consideration. If all you plan to do is shoot on a range, specific glasses for shooting are fine. If you plan to carry concealed, it might be a good thing to be proficient with what you usually wear and use.

A very inexpensive solution to the problem is to buy a pair of "clip-on" reading glasses like these:

https://www.amazon.com/Daiso-J...p-on+reading+glasses

They are available in various strengths but I found +1.0, +1.25 or +1.5 works best. Amazon sells a full range of diopter strengths and this +1.0 is just an example.

Remove the lens from your non-shooting eye side and clip the remaining lens on your regular glasses over your shooting eye. It gives you a sharp front sight and a soft target just like the expensive prescription glasses at a small fraction of the cost.

MY right eye is my master eye. Left eye has macular degeneration with 200/20. I use a different pair of glasses for shooting, one that focus at arms length which lets me see the front sight but the target is fuzzy. Try a special pair of glasses to use just for shooting.

I need "cheaters" to see the front sight.

This year I bought some SSP eyewear with the magnification (2.0) on the top. Works great.

https://sspeyewear.com/pages/maginification

As many have said; find a doctor that will work with you while aiming a pistol. I found one here in Manassas that has a Glock (disabled) that he uses for this.

I wear computer/reading glasses and he put the computer prescription at the top of the right lens and the rest of the lens and the left lens was clear. With just a small nod of the head, I can see the front sight and/or the target and it works great.