Best Shades?

R

roy reali

New member
Yesterday I had two birds flush no more then a few feet from me. I couldn't shoot. The Sun was smack straight in my eyes, if the birds were the size of elks I still couldn't have done a thing.

I do wear sunglasses. I wear cheap ones that I buy at drug stores. One reason is that I am hard on them. I loose or break them all the time. I know that there are "special" sunglasses that are suppose to help hunters. They do cost more, but I am willing to shell out a few extra bucks if they do indeed help.

Does anyone here use those fancy hunters' sunglasses? If so, how well do they work? Do they really mitigate sun glare or a cheapie ones just as effective?

Thanks in advance.
 
I am guessing from the way you asked the question that you either don't need corrective lenses or that you wear conctacs.

If that is the case buy GOOD sunglasses and learn to take care of them. One of the big reasons to buy GOOD ones is so that there are not distortions in your field of view. You may not notice them but often times cheep glasses or glasses with to much of a "base curve" will tend to distort both your periferal and your depth perception. Neither of these distortions are good when hunting.

I was ignorant of this until about 10 years ago when I finally had to break down and get glasses for distence. It was a real revelation as soon as I got them as to how much my visual acuity had deteroriated. Everything was crisper. The glasses I got were very light and thin and there was little curvature to them.

I followed them up with sunglasses, mostly for fishing because I really do not like sunglasses in the woods. Sense I was buying them mostly for fishing I went for a model that wrapped the face to block out as much side light as possible. This helps when looking at fish in the water.

What I noticed immediately though was that because the "base curve" of the sunglasses was different from that of the regular glasses I preceived a distince shift in depth perception between the two. The flatter glassses produced depth perception that was equil to my regular vision. The sunglasses on the other hand had a much greater curve to the lenses and that was anoying.

I noticed it the most while fishing. Every time I switched to the sunglasses from the regular glasses my casting accurecy, as far as judging distance, went into the toilet.

Finally got rid of the more curved sunglasses and replaced them with a set with flatter lenses. That solved most of the problem. I would second the Costa Del Mar as a good brand with a very good warrenty/service reputation. I use their aviator style with sidesheilds for fishing and they are very good.

Lots of the guys around here, NE FL., also like the Ocean Waves brand. They too have a good record on service and warrenty.

Buy good ones and be sure there is NO depth perception change before you buy them.
 
+1 for hogdogs, you have to go polarized. You can find them in the drugstores for around $15.

Costa's will run you about $150. I rock them too.
 
I'm kind of a sunglass nut. I probably have 10 or so pair of higher end sunglasses. I drive up and down the highway all day and without them, the sun pretty much just burns my eyes up. You need to go with a pair of polarized lens. Of all my sunglasses, the Costa Del Mar are by far my favorite. There pricey, but worth it. They sale them at academy. I have a friend that's a dealer, so I get them for less than half of the cost. If your hard on them, I would go with the plastic lenses. There not quite as clear, but there hard to break. The glass lenses are awesome as far as clarity, but they will break and Costa won't warranty the glass lenses. The Oakley's are not to bad either.
 
I am of the opposite camp... If you are ruff on sunglasses... GO GLASS. One or 2 fine scratches on plastic lenses and I am sure to get head aches so out the window they go. Never fragged a glass lens though. Costa has excellent service if you treat the folks on the phone with dignity.

My father had a pair sent in but they were no longer able to fix that model... They invited him to pick a new model and sold them to him for below dealer cost as a good will gesture,
Glass lenses and all the tinting and coating being sandwiched between 2 thin glass layers is the main reasons I choose Costa... But I assure you... They sink like a rock so looking over the side of the boat 50 miles off shore without a "croakie" is very bad with your brand dang spankin' new Costas first day out:o:mad:
Brent
 
I used to loose sunglasses all the time until I spent the money for a pair of Oakley Flak Jackets. Cost around $150 with polarized lenses 6-7 years ago. I still loose ther cheap ones but have managed to keep these. The thng I like about them is the frames have a lifetime warranty and everything else can be rebuilt. I just spent $70 for another set of polorized lenses.

My wife has a set of Costa Del Mars. They are good too.

There are some good glasses for under $50, often for under $30, but you never know for sure until you have had them for a while. I've picked up some over the years that really were just as good as the Oakleys, but I've had others that distorted my vision or did not hold up long enough to be worth even the $30 or so they cost.
 
Depends on what I'm doing...

... but for shooting, I either like Oakleys or Natives. Both my Oakleys and my Natives can have the lenses swapped out for other colors, depending on light conditions. I use the Natives for skiing; I bought the Oakleys for deployment.

For flying, polarized lenses actually don't work well at all. They make the heating elements in the windscreen stand out in technicolor, for one thing. Try looking at an angle at a gas pump display, while pumping gas, with polarized lenses and you'll see what I mean. So for flying, I used to use non-polarized Ray-Bans, and currently use non-polarized Serenghettis

Note: in all cases, I prefer optical quality lenses. Whether shooting or flying, distortion is undesirable.
 
I was always a cheap sunglasses guy too until this year I would buy some at a gas station or wear some safety glasses. When I started my new job where I am dealing with with public a lot I decided it was time to step up the image a little bit so i bought a pair of Spy Heilos and really like them.
 
Oakleys guy as well. I like that you can easily swap out the lenses for different coloring as per your situation. The other thing that sold me on them was that the lenses meet ANSI impact standards.
 
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