My aging eyes, a range report

Yea, turning old sucks, but there are ways around the eyesight problem.
I went to my optomogolist and told her what my problem was and she told me to bring in a toy hand gun. I borrowed a small plastic 1911 from a friend’s son.
What she had me do was to take a stance like I was shooting to see where I look through my glasses when I look down the sights.
Most people do not hold their head square to the target. I look through the upper left corner of my right lens.
This is where she put the sweet spot. They ground the glass so that the best optical point on the lens is not directly center but where I look through the lens.
Most lens are ground so that its centers on both eyes when looking at an object 15 feet in front of you.
Hold an unloaded gun and align the sights in a normal stance you use. Have someone look down the sights and place a mark (grease pencil) on the lens where the center of your eye aligns with the sights.
If this is not within the center 1 to 1 1/2 inches of the lens you’re not looking through the best optical alignment of the lens.
Talk to your eye doctor, they are a lot smarter than we are.
It helped me a lot.
 
Talk to your eye doctor, they are a lot smarter than we are.
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Don't know about smarter but they have technical skills and tools we don't. My first one was young and military and us shooting team members basically had an open prescription for the glasses of our choice at the focal point we wanted. My civilian doctor was 76 and a duck hunter so he knew exactly what I wanted. I wish he hadn't retired, at 20+ years old my prescription needs updating and my present doctor doesn't share my enthusiasm for shooting sports. Lots of advantages to small town life but there are a few disadvantages too.
 
Same situation for me (at 61) except I use tri-focal yellow lenses glasses. It's taken some practice, but I have the eye doc fitter mount the top lense a few mm higher then normal. Then I raise my head slightly to align the front sight for a clear view. The bottom lenses (+250) are used for reloading, etc. This set up works for me. But I'm sure many would go nuts trying to focus the front sight and get use to speed reloading and getting back on target. Unfortunately, many times in an IDPA match I simply have to view a blurry front sight or point shoot. :(
 
My eyes have gone down hill like most when they are on the north side of 60.

However I don't believe that should curtail one's shooting.

For me, I just have to use reading glasses, the cheap drug store glasses (2.75 ones).

Now I can see the front sight, and target, but I can't see the marks on my windage & elevation knobs on my sights/scope. No problem, I buy two sets of glasses. I got one that allows me to concentrate on the front sight. Then I buy a second set to allow me to adjust the sights, or make comments in my score/data book.

I don't want to keep switching glasses, so I pop out the lens of my non shooting eye and put in the reading lens. Now I have the proper lens to focus on my front sight in my shooting eye, and the reading lens on my non-shooting eye.

I can't use bifocals, they drive me nuts, I have enough to worry about when shooting without having to fight bifocals.
 
I have a little different question to pose to this group. Has anyone else noticed a change in their dominant eye? It came as a slight shock to me the other night as I was doing some dry fire practice and then tried the old routine of holding up a thumb on an object and closing first one eye then the other to see which eye was truly seeing the clear picture. I suddenly realized it was my left eye when I have always thought it was my right eye. Of course I have thought nothing of it for 50 years! Just always closed my left to aim with the right because years ago it always came up dominant. Could it be the aging process?
 
Aging eyes--71 years old

What might help you is to go to K-Mart, Wal*Mart etc. and check out their
READING GLASSES.
I had caterac surgery dun in October and November of 2009. The doctor said
go to Wal*Mart for my reading glasses. Experminting with the different magnifications will be an eye opener.
 
I also wear progressive bifocls. When shooting handguns, I just wear a cheap pair of 150+ reading glasses.
My distance vision is better than close up. I've had to find a happy medium between seeing the sights and the target.
It's hell getting old....:rolleyes:
 
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