This is a question looking for advice from shooters who have experienced age related changes in vision and how it affects, or how you adapt to this as it applies to shooting. In particular, in regard to handgunning.
I'll give you the exact scenario that led to my question. I've had myopia since early 20's (44 years old now) but this was easily corrected with glasses and didn't present a problem with shooting. Being a waterfowler and primarily a shotgunner, my aging eyes adapted well to shotgunning b/c I shoot with both eyes open. With pistol shooting, which I havn't done in years (until tonight!), this is a different story. As now I have age related presbyopia (need reading glasses), I was surprised with this condition going to the range for the first time since this has developed.
While wearing my glasses I find that I cannot see the sights in focus on my Ruger .44 Mag Super Blackhawk. If I take my glasses off, I can see the sights clearly enough to make sight adjustments, but the target is not in focus!! What a challenge, dang it! Shooting with glasses on the target is in focus but I can't see the sights in focus, so I tried to just develop shooting form and primarily see the front sight blade as a reference. This worked well enough to hit center mass without difficulty at up to 25 feet but would win no competitions. I also tried glasses off to focus better on the sights with blurred target and maybe improved my group size accuracy at 10-15 ft, but somehow this didn't seem very satisfactory either! I actually shot my best when I relied more on instinctive faster action shooting with glasses on both eyes open focused on target with blurry front blade sight as reference!
Anyway, anyone had similar experiences or found better ways to compensate? Thoughts?
Dave
I'll give you the exact scenario that led to my question. I've had myopia since early 20's (44 years old now) but this was easily corrected with glasses and didn't present a problem with shooting. Being a waterfowler and primarily a shotgunner, my aging eyes adapted well to shotgunning b/c I shoot with both eyes open. With pistol shooting, which I havn't done in years (until tonight!), this is a different story. As now I have age related presbyopia (need reading glasses), I was surprised with this condition going to the range for the first time since this has developed.
While wearing my glasses I find that I cannot see the sights in focus on my Ruger .44 Mag Super Blackhawk. If I take my glasses off, I can see the sights clearly enough to make sight adjustments, but the target is not in focus!! What a challenge, dang it! Shooting with glasses on the target is in focus but I can't see the sights in focus, so I tried to just develop shooting form and primarily see the front sight blade as a reference. This worked well enough to hit center mass without difficulty at up to 25 feet but would win no competitions. I also tried glasses off to focus better on the sights with blurred target and maybe improved my group size accuracy at 10-15 ft, but somehow this didn't seem very satisfactory either! I actually shot my best when I relied more on instinctive faster action shooting with glasses on both eyes open focused on target with blurry front blade sight as reference!
Anyway, anyone had similar experiences or found better ways to compensate? Thoughts?
Dave