Eyesight correction for service rifle sights

I'm 21 years old and I have astigmatism in both eyes. This makes shooting anything other than peep sights (like on my Garand) very uncomfortable. My astigmatism is caused by keratoconus (a coning of the cornea) which is solved by wearing a hard, small contact lense that produces a false, new cornea. I'm not sure if what you have is keratoconus, but these hard contacts may help you. I have been told that glasses won't work..

I asked about a script once just for shooting glasses, a little clearer, a little brighter, anything to be able to see target and sights plainer. After a 20 minute bs session with the eye doc, NOTHING. Just same old, inadequate for shooting script. Hope you fare better!

I have gone the route of non-destructive scope base and scout scope. Extremely pleased.

I have the same issue, mostly in my right eyw which is my shooting eye. I had glasses made that simply sharpen my overall distance and night time driving. They are almost like switching on the HD. They help a lot with iron sights but I still have some trouble.
I find myself pausing, looking away so my eye relaxes and starting over again.
My eye doctor said I needed specific lenses for shooting.
I'm also curious as to what others are doing.
It almost seems like you need bifocals in reverse since you are looking out over the top of the lenses at the iron sights.

For the AR15, M1 Garand, and M1A, there are inserts legal for some competitions: http://www.bjonessights.com/SR.html

I went through this exact thing recently.

I went the dedicated prescription shooting glasses route. I tried other solutions, but in the end decided if you need correction to see the front sight clearly, you need correction.

First, I went for an eye exam, and discussed my needs. My optometrist prescribed a pair of glasses that were corrected for distance in my non-dominant eye and for the front sight for my dominant eye. I then called Decot glasses, discussed my situation, read the prescription to them, and had a custom pair of shooting glasses in a week or so. Decot really knows shooting glasses, so I'd highly recommend them.

With different corrections in each eye, they felt funny at first when not shooting, but the brain adjusts. When shooting, though, they're perfect.

http://www.sportglasses.com/

A. try a smaller diameter rear aperture

B. try a diopter lens in the rear aperture

I have a very small amount of astigmatism in both eyes. My optometrist is also an avid shooter and told me that there were two situations that I would notice an improvement with contact lenses:

1. Long sessions looking at a computer screen... (I'm a software engineer)

2. Shooting with iron sights.... I have about a 4:1 iron-sighted:scoped firearm ratio in my collection. I got the contacts and it made Mauser battle sights almost usable. The Dr told me that my vision was still probably better than most of his patient's uncorrected vision, but it definitely did help.

Matt

Try putting some black electrical tape on your regular shooting glasses with a 1.5 to 3 millimeter round hole cut in it. Make sure the hole is positioned so that its directly between your eye and the sights.

You could also try taking a candle and "smoking" your front sight until its totally flat black.

Iv pretty much tried all the suggestions mentioned so far and then some. Spent a lot of money and come full circle.

I started with my regular glasses and standard AR15 A2 sights. Impossible to maintain focus on front sight.

Changed to hooded rear sight with an .040 aperture. Still hard to see front sight.

Changed to wide front post with a center hold. Better, but still seeing changes in front sight with changes in light.

Tried bigger and smaller apertures. Went back to .040. Still use that size. That is the most common size among people I know.

Went to the eye Dr. She set me up with shooting glasses that set the hyper-focal distance in my right eye to 44” and infinity for my right eye. WOW!! I can see the front post. To bad I couldn't see to walk up to the firing line.

For some strange reason I tried contacts with the same scrip. The contacts would rotate with my head position and create a parallax like issue because of my astigmatism. Not working.

Tried a Bob Jones lens +.5 diopter with my normal glasses. This helped a lot. I used this setup for several years.

Tried a Micro Sight. To dark for me. YMMV Sold it at a loss. At least I got something back.

Back to a Bob Jones lens. This setup has been the best most reliable setup so far.

Where am I now? I ended up with a .040 hooded aperture with a +1 diopter lens in the hood. A wide front post using a center mass hold. For me this has worked the best over the long run.

The Advise part. Call Bob Jones. 602 840 2176 He is a wealth of information on how eyes work and how to apply that information to shooting. I wish I would have contacted him sooner.
I could have saved a lot of time and money. He is a great guy, very helpful, and will get you going in the right direction. http://www.bjonessights.com/SR.html

A former coworker of mine started having trouble with his vision (his problem was a result of MS), and he was given an exercise instruction that let him practice focusing on different objects at different distances to strengthen the muscles. If your issue is just the refocusing part, perhaps that might be an answer.

Some time ago my Oculist (is that dating myself, or what?) had me doing exercises. The jest of it was to hold your finger out at arms length so you could focus on your fingerprint.
Then slowly bring your finger back and touch your nose keeping your focus on your fingerprint. You were supposed to repeat this 10 times, twice a day. I have no idea if it ever helped.

Not a competition shooter anymore but I collect bolt service rifles. I finally got a pair of Jaggi Novas and I use a 42mm lens that is built to focus on the front sight. Works great.

119,

Welcome to the world of old age.

I think everybody who shoots service rifles with a post front sight has the same problem sooner of later. I've struggled with it too. Here's my opinions:

Knoblach, or Jaggi shooting glasses were the best bet for me since you can adjust them to always be looking through the optical center of the lens. It allows you to get the most from glasses.

I've had corrections with my perscription diopter to focus on the front sight (I think it was .25). I now just use my distance prescription and don't notice much of a difference.

A smaller rear aperture is going to cause eye fatigue on all but the brightest days, and just make the problem worse.

The corrected rear apertures will be legal for NRA comp. I don't think they are allowed for CMP as-issued comps. They do make a "Marine Corps" wide front sight blade for the 03's that is legal and some people say it helps. For some reason I can focus of the thin front sight of the 03's just fine.

Laphroaig

MrBorland said:

....My optometrist prescribed a pair of glasses that were corrected for distance in my non-dominant eye and for the front sight for my dominant eye.......

Click to expand...

I did exactly this with my own optometrist after they talked about how there's contact lenses that do the same thing. So he agreed to work with me for my new glasses.

After a couple of tries we got to where I could see both the target and the front sight with crystal clarity. I shot the tightest group I've ever shot thanks to the improvement. Only one problem...... the group was 3 inches to the left.

Shooting with both eyes open my brain grabbed the clear images from each eye and overlaid them. But that resulted in my aim being towards the left eye that was seeing the target the best and as a result my group went left.

I sighed deeply once I realized I would not be able to use this solution and went back and had the regular distance lens put back in.

For the record I don't have any eye dominance that is enough to notice. Which is likely why my brain used both images and overlaid them.... or whatever it did.