Iron sites and poor eyes

[andrewd41]

I'll admit it. I'm older and now I wear glasses for distance AND reading. I love shooting my Mosins and have been going to an outdoor range once a week. My issue is the 110 meter distance. When I site through the iron sites, I can se them great as long as I look the lower part of my glasses, but I can't see the target. If I look through the upper part of my glasses to see the target, the sites are a blur. Soooo, I end up looking over my glasses and keep both eyes open to shoot (I am right eye'd). This works fine at 25 to 30 yards, but I'm just guessing as to site placement on the target at 110.

How do you deal with the effects of age?? I know a scope would be the answer, but I love shooting with the Mosins.

[Junk Yard Dog]

How do I deal with the effects of age and increasingly shitty eyesight? I bitch about it pretty much constantly, and I have learned to use "The Force" when shooting at anything past 100 yards. Even at that range my groups are a joke these days, and Mauser type sights are out of the question. I have come to enjoy the rifles that have sights that I can see, the Soviet era globe and post sight Mosins, French Lebels and Berthiers, Finn M39's.

[BuckeyeSgt]

I
And he does complain about it all the time.
I'm sure I will be there at some point. I can't hear shit, so my wife says. But no glasses needed yet. If it comes to that point. I guess my pistol collection will start growing. Or shotguns.

[dou44]

i got new glasses with bi- focals and it helps some but it still bothers me.

[andrewd41]

I have these things called "progressives" and they are a bitch. I don't know where to look through the glasses. "This ones too close. This ones too far." But I can't find the one that's just right!

[Junk Yard Dog]

That's good to remember, "progressives" If my car sails off the road, or plows into someones house, I can just say that it's all the Progressives fault

[Three_Dogs]

I have lineless bi focals and have no issue shooting, my issue is when I loose them I can see anything close up at all without them, far away I am fine. It sucks getting old.

[dou44]

i have the progressive glasses as well .hard for me to get everything lined up sometimes.

[tjtM38]

If you have progressive lenses, you might want to get a pair that are "line bifocals." You need your distant vision to see the target and you need to be able to see the front sight clearly. If the rear sight is a bit of a blur, you may be able to work with it. Distant vision is what you need for shooting; that's the top part of the glasses.

I guess I am lucky, as a my distant vision is still good with only a slight correction for astigmatism; probably a holdover from my days as a USAF pilot. My near vision is what is going to hell on me, as I have trouble reading small print in books and labels. I can get by with readers only. I only use shooting glasses on the range (no correction).

You may want to talk to your eye doctor about what vision device would help you in your shooting. If you are just unable to see iron sights, then I guess it is time for an optic on the gun to help you. If you decide to go that route, make sure it is a mount and optic that will not permanently change your gun enabling full restoration in the future. I have often thought that a fairly good quality red dot sight mounted forward in the in the vicinity of the current rear sight would be an excellent setup for a Mosin Nagant.

[SA1911a1]

My opthamologist is also a lifetime NRA member and competitive shooter. I went to him with the exact problem and he agreed to write me a script for glasses with one lens optimized for infinity and the other for 30 inches. As it turned out, after the exam, my right eye focused perfectly at 30" without correction, so my glasses are to be corrected in the left eye and uncorrected in the right.

Doc said some folks could use this solution and some would get headaches.

I have an old set of glasses that I am going to knock the right lens out on and I will report back how it works.

[andrewd41]

Holy crap. I wanted to do the same... Knock out the left lens. Can't wait till Sunday.

[popgun]

OK1 had the s ame problem. ask the forum about fluorescence paint on the sites. ok i put yellow on the front site and red on the back. it helped as the small rear site is hard to see through. it helped me to get the site faster and see the target faster than trying to see the target first. i also wear glases but the forum helped. oh forgot i may be oldder than you! also if you do this clean the sites with alcohol and wipe dry. do make sure you do not drink all the allllcohollll first. darn i need a drink. popgun

[desertgunner]

Oh well, just to add another age story,
I need TRI-Focals to get around, progressive ones....
.....on the outdoor range we go to I can still do 200m into the black, but beyond that I need my son to scope me into the target.
It still is fun!!! , especially on 400m. None of our Mosins are scoped, red dot or glass. We have been able so far to put an itch towards that to where the sun don't shine , especially after seeing 2 scoped (GS) M44s and shooting them at 200m. The guy then saw our results with open sights and was flabbergasted enough to pull out his Savage .308, I guess to make a point. He folded after 10 shots on 200m. We had a sixpack with him and went home, grinning on all 4 cheeks.

[popgun]

here it IS!! i never got a beer? goood for you out shoot the ones who think thay no it all!!! more power to the mosin!! popgun

[bunkysdad]

Andrew, how are you on the 50 yard range? I am of the opinion that the most important thing to focus on is the front sight. As a matter of fact, my best groupings come when I am focused totally on the front sight, but when I do this the target becomes blurred. It doesn't sound right but it works better for me than focusing on the target, which blurs the front sight.

[andrewd41]

My shots are fairly tight at 50 yards. I can see the target well while looking through the Mosins sites, but again, I am looking 'over' my glasses. The range that I go to only allows you to move the same target down to the max distance of 110 meters. I can hit the target, but I'm not consistant as to the area of hit. Some times my eyes will blur looking at the rear site, sometimes they do not. I believe this is a result of looking at the target and then the sites, 'over' my glasses, and my eyes are not reacting fast enough. I know it's me and not the gun because I can hit the bright red clay's on the backstop. Those I can see well enough the place the sites correctly. I think that I'll just focus on having fun with my son shooting zombies.

[Junk Yard Dog]

Moving the target closer is a trick I use to improve my shooting performance, in a few years the target will be close enough to reach out and touch by hand

[zeebill]

I have these things called "progressives" and they are a bitch. I don't know where to look through the glasses. "This ones too close. This ones too far." But I can't find the one that's just right!

You know I must be built differently or something? I hear the complaint about progressive lenses in glasses all the time but since I got mine a couple of years agao I see and shoot much better? I have no explanation for it that is just what has happened to me that's all?

Years ago I couldn't shoot peep sights worth a darn and now I like them and shoot fairly good with them? I also remember buying a little peep sight thing for my glasses and trying it out and getting totally screwed up for awhile. It didn't work for me then but may now? I will have to see if I can find the thing and try it. It didn't cost much and if I look around here a bit maybe I can find the paperwork off it and give you the name. Bought it off Brownells if I remember right, maybe that will help.

I am now 68 and with all the griping about his shooting I would bet JYD and I would be competitive in our shooting, He downs himself all the time but I believe he is looking for a sucker to take a few dollars off him! Yeah I bet you are blind as a bat till the money is on the line!!!! Trying to reel in another sucker huh?

Getting back to the device I was talking about it attached to your glasses and made like a peep sight you looked through to see the existing iron sights. I was just getting ready to quit shooting in competition when that thing came along and trying to use that did exactly what I thought, made me quit! Might work now that my eyes have aged a bit more? Worth a try anyway I guess! Bill

[bunkysdad]

When Kari was alive he sent me a diopter peep for my glasses. It wasn't one of the fancy expensive ones like seasoned veterans use, but a simple plastic stick on, black circle with a tiny clear spot in the middle. It was like the little clingy oil change stickers that stick to the corner of your windshield. What these do is train your eye to block out the surroundings and focus, visual and mentally, on the front sight and target.

[polymerase2]

II like aperture sights because even if the rear sight is fuzzy, I can still center in a fuzzy ring. Same to lesser extent on the front.
I like the 6" splatter targets at 100yards. I can see the black against the white, even if it is a bit fuzzy, I can't pick up the red against the white.
If I remember to position my glasses, (progressives) they are ok.
I plan on trying sight paint in the future, lining up three colored dots is easier.