Need some advice from the bifocal generation

M

mrmuffy

New member
I just bought a nice 870 Police Mag and I can't see both the bead and the target at the same time due to my glasses.
It's a nice little gun with an 18" barrel that will live in a quick access false wall in the bedroom most of the time.Home defense is covered with the gun as it is.
But I plan on getting a bird barrel for and taking it hunting once in a while.
I my also take a 40+ yard shot a deer or two.
Both of these non HD functions will require clear target aquisition.
I'm hoping that some of you have solved the problem with an optic.
I've been looking at a few lately and can't make up my mind.
If any of you have a proven solution to this problem I would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks much.
Blind in Minnesota
 
Welcome to middle age. I wish that there was something that I could tell you to soften the blow, but that's the way it is and that's the way it's going to be. With age, your eyes, actually the lenses of our eyes, loose elasticity and the lens will no longer bend to focus both near and far. That's why we have things like reading glasses and bifocals. A small apeture peep sight will help out. The smaller apeture gives you an effectively longer field of focus, but peeps like that are not really practical with a shotgun and it is only a temporary solution at best. As the years pass, the eyes dim.
 
If I knew the solution I would share it, but I currently am trying to solve my own proplem with glasses I just picked up on Thursday and most everything is slighly out of focus.

One problem that I had was these leetle lenses on the glasses my wige chose for me a couple of years back. When I established a cheek weld, I found myself looking over the top of my glasses. The new ones have larger aviator type frames and that helps.

I may have this all wrong, but for flying targets, be they clay of feathered, you don't use your sights. I have been told time and time again that if you look at the barrel or the bead you are going to miss. I will let the smart guys explain that one.

If you are shooting a stationary target, like deer, I believe you may want to use sites and even a scope. I don't know.

BTW, my gun is an 870 Express that I bought with a police type barrrel and corn cob forearm and I later added a 28" field barrel.

Call me half blind in California.
 
I also cant see the baseball and the bat at the same time :) just make sure the gun fits then focus on the target and your gun mount/swing randy
 
I got contacts for that problem helped a lot also for iron sights on my rifles and scoped rifles. I had my OD set me up with a pair that are bi-focal and they work but you need to tell the Dr. you cant see the target or sight etc. to get it right, it may take a few trys.
Mace
 
OP,
BTDT. Aimtech makes a saddle mount for the 870 that is a solid as a rock and will accommodate any optic appropriate to an 870.
 
Two ways to deal with this works pretty good.
1. Eyeglasses with two different lenses, one for the sights/beads, the other for the target. The brain works it out ok.
2. Dot scope, the target will still be fuzzy, but the dot makes it easy to hit it.
Or do both.
Works for me very well.
 
You could also try mounting one of those fiber optic sights in place of the bead sight. you can always change to the color that works best for you.
 
For home defense you will be up close, instinct pointing is all you need.
For longer range shooting concentrate on the target. Old or not it is impossible to focus at two distances at a time. Your refocus is just slower that is why you are having problems.
 
mrmfuffy:

Even when you're young your eyes can't focus on three points at the same time; so, when shooting you must focus on your sights and let your target blurr. When I was shooting my reading lens worked just fine for pistol shooting. Remember, the target will be there when you shoot, after you shoot and the bullet holes won't leave either so let it blurr and you will hit it. Moving targets with a shot gun is no different.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery sergeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired
 
Last edited:
As Gunny Hughes said, "…you can't focus on three points at the same time." I had a rude awakening at the pistol range last week. It was my first outing with my new prescription (progressives). I shot a few strings with a scoped rim fire then a scoped .45. Next was my open sighted S&W Master -- with my new glasses, the front sight was crystal clear but the bull was a faint fuzz ball. I'm used to the target and rear sight being out of focus, but this was ridiculous. Needless to say, my groups expanded considerably. Thankfully, with wing shooting, all you have to see is the target, and with my new glasses it's crystal clear.
 
Shooting flying birds or clays ...and deer are 2 very different issues on vision and technique, etc....

At only 60yrs old, I have terrible vision 20 / 250 with a stygomytism ....and now a muscle in my dominiant eye that blurrs things out ...but companies like DeCot HyWyd can accomodate prescription lenses / and adapt some things to help you out.

http://www.sportglasses.com/

DeCot will make a prescription shooting lens / to fit the right focul length ( you watch the bird never the sights on your shotgun - on moving targets ) with the prescription in the right place as you shoulder and look down the rib on your shotgun.

They can also make indoor shooting lenses ( lenses swap in and out of frames ) ...where one lense is made so you can see a front sight on a handgun and still have some vision on the target as well... and they have lots of colors - to accentuate the light in a low light or whateve situation you find ....in shooting clays or in hunting birds...

My lenses also have a bifocul lens built into a lower portion of lens ...so I can read and see settings on my guns as I look down ....

As your vision changes / keep the frames - just buy new lenses / or add colors as you need them.
 
I've lost count how many new prescription lenses I've put in my 25-year old DeCot HyWyd frames (the early ones weren't RX). Usually I just send in the fresh RX and they ship the lenses. From time to time I'll send the frames back, too, and they're returned looking like new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top