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Posted: 9/20/2017 11:33:55 AM EDT
My shots tend to be in a different place without the glasses as I am guessing where the exact edges of the front sight is. I'm positive I am not the first person with this problem. Is there a good solution? I don't wear my glasses for anything but reading.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 11:57:06 AM EDT
[#1]
Red Fiber Optic front sight might help.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 12:07:39 PM EDT
[#2]
Get a pair of glasses with your reading prescription (or even better your computer prescription, since your front sight is probably a touch further away than you read) on you dominate eye and nothing in your other eye.  Shoot with both eyes open.  A cheap way to try this is get a pair of top focal safety glasses.  They frequently come with interchangeable lenses.  Buy the strength lens you need for reading and only put that top focal lens in on your dominate eye leave the non-magnifying lens on the other eye.  Most people lower their head when they shoot a handgun and the top focal lenses drop into the proper place for sighting while staying out of the way for most everything else.  It works for some and not for other but it is cheap and easy to try.

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HD730YK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 12:18:07 PM EDT
[#3]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
Get a pair of glasses with your reading prescription (or even better your computer prescription, since your front sight is probably a touch further away than you read) on you dominate eye and nothing in your other eye.  Shoot with both eyes open.  A cheap way to try this is get a pair of top focal safety glasses.  They frequently come with interchangeable lenses.  Buy the strength lens you need for reading and only put that top focal lens in on your dominate eye leave the non-magnifying lens on the other eye.  Most people lower their head when they shoot a handgun and the top focal lenses drop into the proper place for sighting while staying out of the way for most everything else.  It works for some and not for other but it is cheap and easy to try.

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01HD730YK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
View Quote
That's a good suggestion I had not thought of and I appreciate it. It's perfect for the range.

But I was also looking at options for one of those many times when my local mcdonalds is attacked by terrorists wearing body armor, or when the zombies come and I need headshots only to get back to my house form my job at the mall, or actually when I am working around the farm and a coyote or fox shows up at 30 yards( this one has happened in the past resulting in predator headshots. I don't think I could make those same shots now.) The only thing I can think of for daily wear is true bifocals with the top having zero magnification.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 12:22:27 PM EDT
[#4]
I could not use the bifocal type for shooting so I grabbed these from Amazon and it made all the difference in the world.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E5NXH6M/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 4:42:28 PM EDT
[#5]
Quoted:
My shots tend to be in a different place without the glasses as I am guessing where the exact edges of the front sight is. I'm positive I am not the first person with this problem. Is there a good solution? I don't wear my glasses for anything but reading.
View Quote
Me too.  I found out by accident when I was chronographing loads and forgot to remove my readers.  It also clears up a scope reticle. 

For indoors, try a fiber optic sight.  That is what I am going to do. 
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 6:25:57 PM EDT
[#6]
I don't think I'm much help, but I've resorted to just focus on the target and let the front sight be what the front sight is going to be.  I don't plan on being able to switch out glasses in a self defense situation, so I just shoot with the glasses I'm going to be wearing.  

Having said that, a pistol with a longer barrel makes the front sight crisper.  My model 19's front sight is pretty crisp.  It's a 6" barrel.  So if your out and about at a farm, you may want to try a longer barreled gun.  6" revolver might work for you.    The closer it is to me, the blurrier the front sight gets and the more the target disappears if I try to focus on the front sight.   Being nearsided sucks for shooting.  But then again, I seem to be able to hit the target somewhat well still by just focusing on the target.

Also, I mostly shoot outdoors, but 1 part of the range is covered and the other isn't.  All sights are more clear when I'm out in the open and not under the covered shooting line.  That's a plus.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 7:23:29 PM EDT
[#7]
A red dot will do wonders for you. I've had similar issues as my eye sight has deteriorated and the red dot is a game changer for me.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 8:18:15 PM EDT
[#8]
The top focus lens suggestion is great.  I actually use this method with prescription lenses.  I have occupational trifocals.  Regular bifocals on bottom with distance vision above them and trifocals up top.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 8:32:18 PM EDT
[#9]
In the last couple of years my see-close vision has gotten a little worse. a trend which is likely to continue.

I tried the cheap glasses from Amazon with the reading portion on top. Cost all of $14. They did bring the front sight into perfect focus but unfortunately they badly distorted everything beyond five yards or so. Likely a pair of prescription glasses would not be near that bad but I decided against a prescription pair with my own see-close prescription. My distance vision is 20-20 which is pretty good for a person my age but I do need reading glasses for most reading and always for reading indoors.

As another poster suggested, I have found that fiber optic front sights work well for me as they stand out well. I have them in three different brands on my handguns. Truglo TFOs are my favorties so far.  Also the Trijicon HDs with the big orange sight works well for me as does the standard luminous sights on my VP9. Those luminous sights are much better in the daylight than the night sights that came on my VP9 LE version. Of course, those LE night sights are very good at night while the luminous ones are not.

OP, good luck with your search for a vision fix. Good shooting.
Link Posted: 9/20/2017 9:50:43 PM EDT
[#10]
Do what ever it takes as far as corrective lenses to keep your front sight sharp and in focus. Some things like fiber optics may help but a fuzzy sight is fuzzy regardless of what color it is. For any sort of precision shooting you need to read the front sight end of story. For those that worry they won't have reading glasses on in a defensive encounter keep in mind shooting for precision on the range is actually rather different than the extreme close range involved in defensive shooting where any sort of sight picture at all may not even be part of the equation
Link Posted: 9/22/2017 6:35:40 AM EDT
[#11]
In a vision sense relative to normal pistol sights, your problem is not astigmatism, a football shaped lense/eye rather than a normal round.  It is more on the order of:

1)  your distance vision begins to focus clearly farther in front of your eye-hands-pistol sights than your arms are long, and

2)  the relative invisibility of black on black or even three white dot pistol sights.

3)  a side issue is the prescription quality.  Astigmatism makes lense prescription "rotation indexing" critical.  Specs are 5 degrees rotation on axis, BUT I can tell the difference in vision between perfect axis rotation and one degree off.  The doc has to make sure the lenses correctly fit the frames.

A workable solution without optics hung on a pistol for me and some old friends has been to:

1a)  find an eye doctor, take your gun or a substitute, with discussion demonstrate what you have trouble with, and have the doctor "pull" the distance vision prescription correction back just a little so that the sights enter your distance focus correction at arms length, and

2a)  use some sights that are bright AND large so that you can see them AND by their nature align much easier than black on black.  To me, it means HiViz light pipes or something like that from Ameriglo.  Bright green dots side by side are easy to align.  Or the big Ameriglo square fronts.

3a)  the doc has to send the lenses back unless they are close to zero.

Done correctly, these are wearable full time.  Not a switch at the range or Zombie time.   Distance vision stays almost perfect but close things at arms length become seeable.

These things work for near sightedness.  I think you have the normal age related far sightedness.  The translation is beyond my limited knowledge, but the idea is there.

See the photos in the following posts:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Glock-21-The-Real-Deal/13-178333/

https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Shield-Sights-HiViz-and-AmeriGlo-Combination-Follow-up-to-an-archived-thread/16-177728/

https://www.ar15.com/forums/handguns/Glock_19_and_SandW_Shield_9mm___Use_and_Shooting_Comparison/4-162813/

The stories don't much matter.  Its the photos of sights.
Link Posted: 9/22/2017 8:46:35 AM EDT
[#12]
Discussion ForumsJump to Quoted PostQuote History
Quoted:
A red dot will do wonders for you. I've had similar issues as my eye sight has deteriorated and the red dot is a game changer for me.
View Quote
Absolutely.  I resisted it for years.  The RMR cost a little more than my P07.  The machining, back up sights and slide refinishing cost about half what the P07 cost.  I have an expensive EDC pistol.

But, even if my glasses fall off, or get knocked off, the dot is still there and easy to put on a target.

No glasses with factory iron sights = front sight is pretty much "gone".

No glasses with the RMR = a fuzzy amber dot on the target.

It works.

On the iron sights/glasses question, a good set of reading glasses works well for me.
Link Posted: 9/22/2017 8:32:30 PM EDT
[#13]
I recently switched from reader on dominant eye to reader on non-dominant eye.  Now I shoot both eyes open, the front sight is more visible than it used to be but I can see the target too.  The first match I used it in I won limited division and have jumped up a class since.

Readingglasses.com will make you a pair with different lenses.  I bought a pair with extras for $39.  I have since changed my shooting glasses.
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