Shooting without prescription glasses

[riceboy72]

For those of you who wear prescription eyewear, do you ever shoot without your glasses to see how well (or poorly) you do without corrective measures? In the event you lose or break your glasses in an encounter, or you wake up and knock your glasses off the nightstand and can't find them but need to react to a threat inside your house, do you train to see if you can accurately and effectively shoot without them? If so, do you regularly incorporate it as part of your training?

(Please bear in mind I'm only talking about prescription glasses; I advocate wearing protective eyewear always while training).

 

[Trent]

I'm blind without them. 20/600 in my dominant eye.

Glasses -> Gun.

There's an order to what I reach for when things go bump in the night and the dogs get riled up.

 

[dmancornell]

I'm -9.5 diopters in my right eye. I think that's around 20/1000. Maybe worse.

So no, I don't shoot without my glasses.

 

[Downeast]

I can't shoot without either glasses or contacts, I just can't see good enough at distance without them.

 

[Lex Luthier]

I do not need glasses for longer range shooting, but keep an old pair in the range bag for shorter stuff. I use the diopter ring on my binos for longer range. On clear sunny days, glasses just aren't necessary, yet.

 

[jimbo555]

I do.My glasses fall off my head on a regular basis,so I do shoot without them also.At close range(7yards or less)I'm good,no hostage shots without my glasses.

 

[JohnBT]

I can't see the front sight without glasses or contacts. I can see large objects well enough, they're just really fuzzy when they're six feet away.

Otoh, I'm so nearsighted I can read the Lord's Prayer engraved on the head of pin. I've thought about having eye surgery, but they say I'll need to start using reading glasses if I have it.

John

 

[Whacked]

I wear contacts so range time isnt an issue. I believe I can see well enough to defend myself at home with my 12ga, a theory I do not want to test.
But grabbing my glasses at night is the first thing I do. My cell phone is right next to my glasscase so thats the 2nd thing to grab.

I've been told that I'm a perfect candidate for LaSIK, but the thought of having my eyeballs cut gives me the heebiejeebies plus i'll go batsh** crazy not being able to see during the recovery.

 

[robertn]

I just paid for prescription shooting glasses from my eye doctor.. basically just safety glasses but with all the anti-this/that applied to them. I shoot just fine with them... otherwise I'd have to use sonar to shoot cause i am blind as a bat.

 

[bassdogs]

This thread raises a valid issue. If you are sight impaired, it makes sense to practice in a safe environment w/o your glasses or contacts. I'm not advocating shooting blindly at a potential threat and risk hitting a friendly, but knowing you can hit a target if you need to is a useful skill. Have been reading a book about personal stories of people [mostly in Alaska] who have faced Bear attacks. Several involve 2 or 3 hunters and partners often find themselves in a life or death situation of trying to save them self or one of their friends during a bear mauling. You may have had your glasses knocked off or your vision is blurred by mud, blood, or both. Its a shoot and risk hitting your friend or hold fire and he is killed by the bear. This is more than just practicing to "snap" shoot. Now we flip back to the dark house and the glasses get knocked off the table when you get up to investigate a possible threat. Hmm what do you do?

Good ??. What you would be practicing is not just shooting in a fog, but focusing judgement, target id, and risk level. Many urban combat courses deal with this without the blurred vision component. Remember the alternative of doing nothing is in reality choosing to let something very bad to happen.

 

[xfyrfiter]

Perfect use for a laser sight, most people can see the dot, even without their glasses.

[I did say MOST not all.]

 

[Furncliff]

I'm nearsighted and I've worn glasses since age 15, I'm 68. I practice with my handguns on chunks of 2x4 at 10 to 20 yards. Hitting the targets is easier without my glasses, the front sight is sharp and I pickup the target well enough so that hitting is no problem. I've tried with glasses and no glasses from the bench on bullseye targets, slow fire with some really basic revolver sights and the results are the same.

 

[riceboy72]

Thanks for your replies. I went shooting last night and shot a couple of magazines without my prescription glasses to see how I did. Thankfully I can still see somewhat decently without them, although it is less than clear (and seemingly gets worse as the years go by, of course). It reinforced to me how reliant I am on my corrective eyewear on a daily basis, and how I need to be able to shoot effectively and accurately should I not have them.

We encourage and advocate the practice of shooting off hand, as well as drawing and reloading with one hand, so the idea of shooting without corrective eyewear is another aspect I now will consider when I go to the range.

 

[Trent]

Another valid point here is ALWAYS have a back up set of prescription glasses in case the first breaks. When I travel I always have a spare set with me. Same when I go hunting.

 

[Mike OTDP]

I'm at the point where I need both reading and distance correction. Which means that my reading prescription is very close to my shooting prescription (I use dedicated shooting glasses)...but my distance prescription is noticably off when sighting a pistol. I'm very close to going to a red dot sight on the house gun for that reason.

 

[Ehtereon11B]

My prescription glasses are made to almost the same tolerances for strength as my ballistic eyewear. I have dropped, sat on, and accidently stepped on them a few times. So the likelihood they will break in an encounter are slim although I am not so confident to say it cannot happen.

I sometimes practice point of aim and drawing using a dry gun and laser trainer without my glasses at rude person distances. I am more likely to forget my glasses than have them break in the middle of the night.

 

[Trent]

Those tiny little screws always work themselves out at the worst times.

Or, if you have a screw-less lightweight flexible tie-them-in-a-knot design like I do, the arms tend to snap after awhile, or the plastic piece lets go and the posts fall out of the lens, making the arm fall right off...

I've never had glasses break at a GOOD time.

 

[Trent]

Also, being able to hit a "blob" isn't the problem. I'm sure I could still hit a target at distances I'm likely to experience.

Being able to clearly identify that the target is a hostile intruder and not my teenage 6'2" son in a hoodie sneaking out to meet his girlfriend in the woods, that's the relevant point.

Clarity gives you the ability to properly identify a target in the dim middle of the night light.

 

[Cosmoline]

I just ran into this issue when my glass glasses were icing up badly at the range. I'm pretty nearsighted and could only make out the blur of the target at 100 yards looking over the top of the glasses, but it was enough to get a 6" group with A1 AR-15 sights.

 

[r1derbike]

I have to use optics on rifles. Sidearms, I use +1 shooting glasses, so I may see the sights and target (not over 10 yards) reasonably well, at the range. I have a very small .45acp for SD.

Have been fretting about getting a laser for the sidearm, however. There may come a time where it is the only sight available for me, instantly. I have meprolights on the sidearm, and an LED light, but a combo laser/LED light for the front rail may be my best choice.

 

[Iramo94]

My eyes are so bad (-7 diopters in my best eye), I would never even try to use a firearm without glasses. I'd be afraid of making a mistake in target identification.

 

[Cosmoline]

Have been fretting about getting a laser for the sidearm, however. There may come a time where it is the only sight available for me, instantly.

I've tried a laser and found it far more difficult to see and focus on than iron sights. It's also glacially slow to use--which surprised me. Plus so much of aiming is in the body position and muscle memory, if you've done it enough you'll find you're already 90% aimed before even getting a bead on the front sight and target.

 

[Trebor]

I have very, very bad vision. I'm practically blind without my glasses.

I have tested shooting without my prescription glasses in a controlled environment. I found that, in a fight, my HUGE issue will be locating and identifying the opponent and telling friend from foe. After my experiment I had a much better understanding of what happened to the FBI agent who lost his glasses in the Miami gunfight. He's quoted as saying "Where is everybody" in the middle of the fight and, after shooting without my glasses, I can completely understand.

Although my accuracy decreased noticeably, I could still get "acceptable" hits on target. (larger groups with more shots outside the -0 or -1 rings on an IDPA target). The big problem in a fight though would be locating the right person to shoot and then making the hits in a dynamic environment with absolutely zero ability to focus on the front sight. The best I could do was to use the back of the slide/back of my hand as a crude index.

In real life, in a home invasion type scenario, I'd hope that my wife was behind me so I could be more confident that anyone in front of me is a bad guy and "ok to shoot."

On the street, if I lost my glasses in a car accident or attack and then had to fight, I am concerned about my ability to tell who to shoot (outside of contact distance) and my ability to put hits on target quickly enough.

It's not a good situation.

 

[VINTAGE-SLOTCARS]

I also use a lazer, my eyes (I'm 58 yrs old) can't focus on sights and target at the same time. I use a CT unit on my Inox Beretta 92. I can concentrate on my target and not on sights or looking for my glasses.

 

[spikedzombies]

This thread got me wondering... How much legal trouble you would be in if you shot someone without ur glasses on if your required to wear glasses to see...

"Sent Via Time Traveling Blue Police Box"