Hey all, this is a topic I've wanted to talk to some people about for a long time.

I think my eyeballs are shit. I have a bad astigmatism. I can't see a red dot worth a damn. It looks like a big blob instead of a dot, unless I use a magnifier, and then it's a nice clean dot.

Now, as a result I use prism scopes almost exclusively. So yes, my eyeballs suck.

But would that also apply to ironsights?

I love rifles. I know you guys do too, but straight up I'm a lousy shot. I'm a collector, not a shooter. I want to change that, but with covid and the price of ammo and everyone who IS a good shot buying up all the ammo because.... Well, you know.

But back to my problem. I collect old rifles and replicas of old rifles. To me, classic rifles means iron sights. Like I have a A1/A2 hybrid, (I bought an A2 and put A1 everything on it.)

I have a couple of AKs. I have a JRA Galil. I have a lot of stuff. I seem to find that (even with bore sight lasers, which I have kind of a lot of,) everything is WAY to one side or the other, and we're talking at less than 25 yards.

I put a 5.56mm laser in my JRA galil, and a 7.62x39mm laser in my Atlantic Arms AK, my A1/A2 hybrid, other stuff. I ignore the issue of 'up and down' and just focus on left/right. I end up with the adjustable sights ALL THE WAY to the left or right. At 15-25 yards.

Now, maybe my front sights are canted. But all of them? I don't want to blame the rifles if it's really ME, but hey, canted front sights seem to be a not-uncommon problem. What I'm kind of saying is I'm not the guy who blames the gun for his crappy shooting. I know my shooting is crappy. (Though weirdly, I'm actually a badass with a revolver. I have a rhino in .357 and I can't miss.)

But maybe you guys can help me get to the bottom of this. Am I radically using my ironsights wrong? Maybe I don't have my head in the right place to look through the peep? (Is that even a thing?) Is my messed up astigmatism making like.... maybe it's causing some kind of optical illusion that only I can see and it's making the front sight post look like it's somewhere it isn't?

With covid, I'm not in a position to get someone else to test my rifles. Still, thought I'd at least get a conversation going.

Important question:
If you take it out to shoot - do you hit where you aim ?

Reason I'm asking:
I had mixed experiences with these laser cartridges that you can chamber.... Laser dead on with 25 yard zeroing distance. Real bullets about 6 inches to the left :-)

It may be your laser that is “canted”. Most laser bore sighters have an adjustment to align the laser with the bore.

The process varies, but it basically involves placing the boresighter in the bore, and marking your target where where the boresighter points. Then you repeatedly remove the boresighter, rotate the boresighter some amount (1/2 or 1/4 turn) and reinsert the boresighter to check for deflection from the original mark. If there is deflection after rotating the boresighter, then you use the adjustment screws on the boresighter to realign with the original mark. Keep repeating the rotating/adjusting process until your boresighter points to the same place regardless of rotation.

Now you are ready to use the boresighter to zero your rifle. Try and align the laser to shine around 2” low of your aiming point at 10 yards or around 1-1/4” low at 25yds to achieve a 50yd zero.

If that doesn’t help, look up how to do a proper cheek weld. It’s an odd feeling where you sweep your cheek downward along the stock smashing your face skin upward until you are pretty much resting your cheek bone on the stock. If your face doesn’t look silly, you are not doing it right.

In my experience, a bore sight device just gets you on the paper.  Final adjustment is done my adjusting the sights or the scope to get the POI where you want it vs. the POA.

On some rifles (like an A2 AR or and M1 Garand, or M1A) you can get NM rear sight inserts with a small corrective lens in them so you can see/focus on that front sight.  I have one on my "shooter" M1 Garand and I installed one one (the sight insert with the lens) in a spare M1917 rear sight (concept for that one seemed good but in practice it was not as positive as with the M1/M1A rifles since the M1917 doesn't have the ease of sight adjustment the others do).

B Jones sights.  Check them out.  Page to the bottom to see the other sights for other rifles they offer.

b jones sights

90 +% of the time, a boresighter is good only for getting on paper. But that can be helpful to some. Regarding the problem, just have someone else shoot the firearms and that should answer your question. Many military hard sights are "in spec" if you can hit the intended area of the target even if windage is fully cranked left/right.

Do a "factory reset" on the iron sights and see where the laser winds up. Adjust the laser as was mentioned and tweak the sights from there. Also mentioned, military sights are typically very forgiving and will keep you on paper if you put everything to zero and dial it in for you. You can go wild crazy and still not get that far off bore.

I also have astigmatism.....and I know what you are talking about. I learned how to work around it when growing up shooting (before I had my eyes checked.....grew up dirt poor). Qualified easily with an A2 in BASIC even though everything was fuzzy. Not Expert but Sharpshooter. Only 2 off from Expert.....but I maintained it with no BCGs or lenses during my time in. Guess that it came from not having glasses when I was younger and learning how to discern the target before aiming. But we are all different of course. I had my way of coping and getting things done. You have your own.

Optometrists now do Lasic for astigmatism.  While I don't want to do it, others have had excellent results.

I actually had lasik. Didn't fix the astigmatism. Is that a recent change? I might go in for a touchup. They were talking about doing a PRK (which isn't lasik but pretty close to us laymen.)

I don't wear glasses anymore, but my vision isn't perfect. I'm thinking about getting a set of glasses for night driving, because every light source goes starburst.

That is really interesting. I'd love to know more, but I can't find an image taken from the 'shooter's perspective'.

Is there a video somewhere I'm not finding?

In most cases, LASIK can correct an astigmatism.

Young eyes can dart between post and target to simulate having both in focus. Older eyes adjust slower and not as much, so they tend to have a really clear post and really blurry target, really blurry post and clear target, or both blurry.
In my layman understanding, as a clearer post is more proper, the lens should help bring the focus a little further forward, sacrificing a little post clarity for a recognizable target.

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=275567

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yzfyw37q2zysggy/DOF4%20Comparison.pdf?dl=0

Here's a different angle (no pun intended).  

Do you shoot (aim) with both eyes open?  Do you know which eye is dominant? I was raised to shoot rifles with only one eye open, but taught to keep both open when shooting shotguns. It wasn't until I took an NRA pistol course that I learned about eye dominance and found out that I'm left eye dominant while being a right handed shooter. Shooting a shotgun with both eyes open meant that, as a right handed shooter, there was massive parallax error. I started closing my left eye when shooting a shotgun and I went from breaking 5 or 6 out of 25 to breaking 23+ out of 25 when trap shooting....the first time I tried it.

So...long story, but I don't shoot rifles with both eyes open, but I think some people do and a wrong dominant eye in that scenario would really wreak  havoc on your aim.

I am same as you. I found out just before covid hit I am shooting right hand but left eye dominant then severe back problems hit and had back surgery so I haven't been able to shoot before now. Tell me, do you use your left eye while shooting right handed? I am only comfortable shooting right handed.
Please advise

The image from the shooter's perspective with the lens is just that of a normal peep sight.

I had a lens in my M1A back when I shot highpower. I tried for a tight focus on the post as the theory is a small miss alignment of you sights was a bigger miss at each stage as you moved up in range. A proper sight picture (sight alignment) with a small miss alignment of the fuzzy aiming point was a smaller miss at each stage.

Think about it. If your sights are properly aligned and your aim is off at the lower left. Your point of impact will still be at the lower left at what ever range you are shooting at. (Of course you must adjust for the range)

I might be speaking out of line, being far less experienced than most of the arfcom gang here, but it would seem to me that if a laser bore sighter is only good for getting you on paper, then that laser bore sighter is either shiite or in need of alignment, which a decent one has adjustments for. Or you guys are using really small targets.
I could see if cheap ones might not seat in the chamber consistently, have issues with headspace or something, but mine works great.
Few things are more precise than lasers, which is why surveyors use them now instead of optical transits like my dear old dad used to use back in the days of Buddy Holly and malt shoppes.
To wit: I recently had an issue with a new AR w/ a front iron sight that was definitely canted to the left, and I bought a LBS to confirm, along with using my own eye to sight down the barrel.
The LBS agreed with my eye, but more importantly, also where the bullets were going at the range. Cant confirmed.  I sent the rifle in for an FSB  adjustment, which the company (fantastic service, quick turnaround, paid shipping both ways) did, and got it back within spec, though still a little bit off.  Again, I sighted through the barrel by eye, then by LBS.. Judging by the LBS, I needed about 13 turns of the rear sight to zero it in.  I then recentered the rear site,  took it to the range, it was off about 3 inches; I moved the rear sight back over 13 clicks as measured at home with the LBS, and bingo, got a few bulleyes at 50yd.  
Just be sure to test the LBS by carefully inserting, removing and reinserting, rotating it 1/4 turn each time.  If it's true, the dot should not move as it rotates; if it does, the LBS needs adjustment and is untrustworthy until aligned.