How to shoot with Bi-focals

All things considered, it looks like it is time for tri-focals.
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I think progressives would work better at a far better price. Once you get accustomed to them, they work automatically. I recently replaced mine at Walmart. They had a pretty good frame for $9 and my out the door cost for my progressives was $88. They work well for me.
 
I wear dedicated right eye sight focus shooting glasses for most of my pistol shooting, but I occasionally exercise a SD gun in my street progressives. I wear the progressives for chronographing or function testing ammo so I can read my test program and make legible notes.

I saw a shooter with a flip down lens over his aiming eye only. The bracket for the other eye was empty, I assume he modified the $10 reader to suit himself.



Taking off glasses to shoot is not recommended, folks.
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Pistol shooters seem more careful about eye protection.
Glasses are required at the ranges/matches where I shoot.

Shotgunners seem to wear glasses mostly to get the strange colors advertised to make clay pigeons show up better.

Rifle shooters are very lax about it. Iron sight target shooters will normally be seen with one of those monocle affairs about an inch diameter over the aiming eye and nothing or maybe a thin plastic blinder over the other eye. I have shot BPCR and seen a lot of naked eyes behind Sharps rifles.
 
In a perfect world, one should hard focus on the front sight which would make the rear sight and the target fuzzy and out of focus.

However, with my old eyes and tri-focals, a perfect world is just something I vaguely remember from the past. I originally tried using my mid range lenses to acquire the front sight as I was coming up on the target. Sure that works when shooting at paper but I was taking much too long in defensive practice.

I now practice with the top or distant lens in my tri-focal glasses. Everything is a bit fuzzy but I am able to acquire both the front sight and the target with ease. And, as I got used to this I found the rear sight just naturally aligned.

The key, I believe, is to find what works for you and your glasses, and practice and then practice some more until you acquire a level of ability that meets your standards of excellence.
 
I got my very first bifocals a few weeks ago, the no-line progressive style. Once I got used to them, I have had no difficulty whatsoever shooting handgun or long gun. Perhaps as my eyes age and get progressively worse that might change.
 
I wear bi focals but seeing a front sight that is not blurry to me is something that never happens. For shooting my carry gun, I gave up completely on trying to used the sights, wasted effort! I've been practicing pointing and shooting both eyes open Not gonna win any shooting contest's but if the target is the size of a two pound coffee can, it's in trouble out to about 10'. My revolvers I still do used the sight' on, all three have 6" barrels and the sight's are fuzzy but I have time to look out at the target them resight across the gun. Never get a clear picture but I shoot slow and it's not all that bad. Where my bi-focals really get in the way is shooting with a scope. Pick up a rifle with a scope and look through it and for some reason I'm always looking at the line where the reg and bi-focals meed. Constantly adjusting to get rid of that lousy sight picture!
 
Progressive lenses

I used to work for the company that made them, I got all my lenses for free ground to the prescription. The Varilux Lenses were a snap to adjust to for me.
Since I was retired I have not had a new pair of glasses and have found for handgun and long gun I now do not use any correction. Nothing is in sharp focus but I can still see well enough to use open or peep sights.
 
g.willikers, a person who wears glasses for reading only might be the exception in needing to remove glasses before a self-defense shooting. I don't consider them daily wear glasses, even though many folks have them off and on many times over the course of a day. I suppose if attacked while at the library this might be an issue, otherwise it is not in my opinion.

I wonder how many folks still go to the library...
 
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FWIW, what I did:

I finally went to tri-focals. In IPSC I used the Weaver stance. I had an additional lens-insert, about 1/2" x 3/4", glued to the upper segment of the master-eye lens, right by my nose. The diopter was the same as the middle part of the tri-focal lens.

The sights were razor sharp. The target was slightly blurred, but not to any detrimental degree.
 
The key, I believe, is to find what works for you and your glasses, and practice and then practice some more until you acquire a level of ability that meets your standards of excellence.
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Or the standard of, "Well that'll work".

I think this approach is about best. Sometimes it takes time and experimenting to find what works best for any one individual.

tipoc
 
To Nick_C_S

You are welcome. I also like the flip-up readers that were posted by another responder.
 
although I am only 45, I have been wearing bi-focals for over 35 years, until about 10 years ago, they were plain glass for distance, and a reading prescription in the bi-focal part.
It's one of the few things that the Army doctors did right when I was a kid. The theory was that I wouldn't have to take 'em on and off as much, therefore less chance of damaging (or losing) the glasses.

Back then, there was no such thing as the "no line" bi-focal. I got used to wearing them with the line, and I don't even see it anymore. It's also a lot easier for me to 'transition' from distance to reading prescriptions.

My advice to the OP, would be to look into some 'regular' with a line bi-focals in his normal Rx and go from there. I don't have any issues with using open sights or with some sort of optics. I just focus on lining up the front sight with the rear sight, and I expect to have a slightly out of focus target.

Exco
 
Went to progressives years ago, with the progressive part raised up slightly. Now I shoot at blobs. Finally bought a glock about 2 months ago, and the "old man" large white outlined sights are nice. The sights are still fuzzy, but can line them up, without tilting my head back.
 
What Daily Wear Glasses Work Best?

I stick with my every day progressive lenses for shooting and have learned to use them, because that's what I'm going to have on my face every day when I'm not expecting to be shooting. Progressive lenses let me focus on the front sight and still see enough blurry rear sight and target, not much different than before the eyes got old on me. I started out with progressives, and they did take some getting used to for everything, not just shooting (hello stairs!). I can't comment on whether they work better than bi-focal or tri-focal setups I've never used, but I can say they work.
 
Even a normal eye cannot focus three points at once.
The front sight should be perfectly focused ! That's why in some of the IPSC matches shooters would wander around mumbling 'front sight ,front sight '
If necessary you can roughly line things up with target focus ,then just before shooting bring your focus back to the front sight !!
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You're right, nobody can focus on more than one distance at once.

The problem is that when you get to the age where you're wearing bifocals your eyes are no longer as flexible and you can't focus on the target and then shift to the sights with the same prescription. You can see the target with the distance lens OR the sights with the close/mid lens, but only one of them. I remember being able to shift focus back and forth in the manner you describe, I just can't do it anymore.

Which I why I no longer hunt with open sights.
 
Getting old is better than the alternative but it's definitely not for the weak or easily frightened.

I wear my street glasses when I shoot defensively at the range. More point shooting nowadays (looking over rather than through the sights) as the front sight is just a blur. For a longer, more accurate defensive shot I can tilt my head to bring the lower portion of the bi-focals into play. This enables me to see the front sight clearly.

I have another set of glasses for more precise shooting at distance, the second set allows me to see the front sights clearly without tilting my head. The target is a blob unless I switch glasses. While I can see the sights well I can't even see a bullet hole in the black at 10 yards or beyond, not even with a shoot-n-see. So I have a small telescope with me in my shooting box.

My bi-focals are of the executive style. These allow me full peripheral vision which is an aid in shooting and work. The full line across does not bother me as it does some.

I've tried progressives but the loss of peripheral vision and the constant tilting of the head is an irritant.

I tired trifocals, both at work and the range. They did not work for me, meaning that the shifting of the head to get the precise spot where the lenses were in focus was an irritant.

I need scopes or red dots on my long guns. Otherwise the sights are a blur.

There isn't one fix for all. Find what works for you. A solution is out there.

tipoc
 
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