What's the trick to shooting open sights with glasses?

[Smaug2]

I just got glasses this year. I was lucky to have 20/20 vision for my first 40 years of life, and it's been getting worse these past 5 years. They told me I need trifocals, but I tried them and didn't like them at ALL. I wear computer-specific prescription during the work day, distance glasses when I'm out and about or watching TV, and usually no glasses when I'm at home.

Shooting scopes is no problem, but some of my guns are not ideal with scopes.

I'm near-sighted and I'm finding that I can't see both the target and front sight well at the same time. Do you have a trick, or do you just give up and shoot scoped guns?

[c_m_shooter]

The target should be blury.  The front sight in focus.

[avator]

Peep sight work best for me. You have to open that hole until the spider webs go away.

[mobilemail]

The target should be blury.  The front sight in focus.

This.  Even with perfect vision, the eye can't focus on both sights and target at once. Target shooters tell us to focus primarily on the front sight, the rear sight and target should be slightly blurry.  Seems counter-intuitive, I know, but it works.   

As avator said, peep sights with a correctly sized aperture make things easier because the eye naturally centers the front sight in the opening of the rear.  I recently put a peep sight on my R7 for shooting 10-12 meters, and I shoot as well with it as I do a scope.  ...of course that may say something about what kind of shooter I am...but I digress....

Another option is to have a pair of glasses made that are basically distance only so you don't fight the segments in a bifocal/trifocal lens.

I have worn glasses since I was six, and I'm now 57.  I can still shoot open sights with a good degree of success, so I'm sure you can too.  I am nearsighted enough to make my wife panic if I take my glasses off while driving. 

[Bayman]

Another vote for peep sights. I'm 56 and need reading glasses. I can't hardly use regular Buckhorn sights in perfect lighting. I can use peeps and both the target AND front sight are in focus. Very effective.

[desertplinker]

Welcome to the club, Funny you mention 40 cuz that is the age that a lot of people's eyes start to go down hill. Depends on what kind of shooting and how much you care to spend. Easy solution if you can is just use a scope and make sure you set up the rear scope adjustment for your eyes. As others said peep sites are very helpful. I bought a pair of competition shooting glasses that actually have a white piece of plastic that flips down over the non shooting eye and the dominant eye has an adjustable iris that really helps for open site pistols. you can also get an iris that sticks to regular glasses. lot's of options.

[WhatUPSbox?]

If you use reading glasses, I got some full lens safety readers that work well.

[Harv24]

I've been shooting my whole life and no one beats father time... I still enjoy shooting irons but they become more challenging over time. larger front sights and larger rear notches help. Apertures also help.

But what really helps the most.... Red dot sights... I have them on my AR's and withing the last 2 years, my carry pistol now sports a red dot...

Allows you better target focus and only one point of focus.

Service Rifle had always been iron sights, but has lost a lot of older shooters who could no longer be competitive due to aging eyes. This is the reason they changed the rules a few years ago to allow a 1-4.5x optic to now be used. It has allowed older shooters to jump back in the game. Contrary to what a lot of shooters believe, Optics don't make you shoot better, they male you see better. The fundamentals of trigger control, sight picture and breathing are still required.

If you just have to shoot irons.

for pistols try front sights with green or orange inserts and black rear sights. Helps with contrast.
for Rifles, look up Blitzkrieg front sights. They make them for AR's along with mag pull plastic and metal back up iron sights. they can be had with white or green or orange in large vertical posts or triangles/dots or combinations.

Another option is seek out an optometrist who is familiar with shooting sports. he/she can prescribe Bifocals where the close-up portion is above vs. below you distance portion. 

[KevinJBrown]

I know this isn’t the answer you want but practice may be the answer you need. Learn to hold your head/glasses/eyes exactly in line the same line all the the time. You’ve added a prism in your sight path. You might as well have put your sights on a ball bearing.
I was lucky. 🤓 I got my glasses as a kid and had to learn this stuff early on.

[Ghosth]

For me the answer was Red Dot sights on my pistols and carbines. Scopes for longer ranged rifles.

You can with some practice use one eye for the front sight, other eye for the rear. Target is going to be fuzzy.

But a 2" shoot n see bullseye dot in the center of a large black or orange target helps a lot.

[MichAir]

While I just starting shooting anything this past week I have been wearing bifocals for the last 2 or 3 years.  Prior to that for 4 years or more I wore one prescription at work most of the time that was for reading and computer screen reading and another prescription for anything else when not working in the office at work or when not on a computer at home.  I learned after I got bifocals that some lens shapes and sizes are better for bifocals than others.  I also learned that while some may say it will only take a little time to adjust to bifocals it may have taken me 6 months or more to be comfortable most of the time wearing bifocals.  I now only use the computer glasses when working on my car or other activities where it is difficult to view through just the lower portion of bifocals when working up close to something. 

So I think some people may need to give bifocals or trifocals more time.  It takes time for the eyes and brain to adjust to the lenses. 

[triggerfest]

Since this year I wear glasses as well, near sighted too on my 50th but also needed reading glasses.

I could choose for multi focals, but did choose for two pair of glasses. Both pairs have the same frame, only the lenses are for daily life things like driving etc and the other pair is for working behind my laptop as reading glasses. I could choose here for 1yrd sharp sight, 2yrds sharp sight and 5yrds sharp sight. My pick was 2yrds and it is perfect for everything I do in and around the house and gives me more than over 2yrds sharp sight actually (up to about 10yrds). And that pair of glasses is perfectly suited for shooting with my open sights airguns. So bottom line is, if you have or need reading glasses as well, those might be very suitable for you too to shoot with open sights.

[Harv24]

While I just starting shooting anything this past week I have been wearing bifocals for the last 2 or 3 years.  Prior to that for 4 years or more I wore one prescription at work most of the time that was for reading and computer screen reading and another prescription for anything else when not working in the office at work or when not on a computer at home.  I learned after I got bifocals that some lens shapes and sizes are better for bifocals than others.  I also learned that while some may say it will only take a little time to adjust to bifocals it may have taken me 6 months or more to be comfortable most of the time wearing bifocals.  I now only use the computer glasses when working on my car or other activities where it is difficult to view through just the lower portion of bifocals when working up close to something. 

So I think some people may need to give bifocals or trifocals more time.  It takes time for the eyes and brain to adjust to the lenses.

It took me a few weeks to get use to progressive no line bifocals. Stick with it, your Brain and eyes will make the adjustment. I was told to point my nose at what I wanted to read, look at.

[subscriber]

If you use reading glasses, I got some full lens safety readers that work well.

Ditto.  Just strong enough to focus on the front sight.

I used to think that color optic fiber sights were dinky.  Not anymore...

I used to be able to focus down to 6" until I was 45.  Could see grain in inkjet printed images that my colleagues needed magnification to appreciate.  Now, I can't focus properly at less than 3 feet without help...

Bright light helps because it makes your pupils "stop down".  That "smaller aperture" effect increases depth of field, thus sharpening what you can see over a wider distance.

[azgman]

I have the same issue with choosing one or the other to focus on. An open reflex "red dot" sight has helped greatly with my pistols.

[Ribbonstone]

Can’t swear air gunners are worse about safety than other shooters, but we seem to be. We often ignore safety rules.  Maybe because their “air guns”, and even though we take them seriously, are a little more lax about things.

Really should wear glasses...safety or prescription.  ...but we often don’t.

Red dot are popular for a reason...makes things easier...it all looks like one distance to your eye, are focusing on one flat plane. Better to dial it down to where you can almost see though the dot.  Am seeing on-duty police officers with them on duty guns.

Open sights are more of a challenge.  Likely that's why I prefer them.

Nearsighted (things only get blurry with distance).  Still a decent open sight pistol shot, can see the front sight clearly which seems to be the main point of pistol shooting.  Still manage to shoot decent scores; fatigue gets to me sooner now.

As I got older, WIDER front (and rear notch) sights worked better. Easier to see an align the wider sights, the skinny sights might suit young perfect vision shooters.  Only proof I have is that my scores went up once I changed to wider.

Can’t really use the “aperture sight” trick on a pistol used as a pistol, but you can put a kind of aperture on your glasses.  Works like an F stop on a camera...smaller hole, deeper depth of focus.

Can try that one for free.  Just a bit of black tape with a small hole punched in it stuck to your glasses.  Will take awhile to get the tape in just the right place for a natural feel, but it works.  If you like it, there are nice commercial versions that adjust (Merit Lens Disc has been around “forever”).

Does make things dim, might need brighter lights indoors/basement shooting.  Only light you get to your eye is whatever passes though the tiny hole, but everything is in focus...rear sight, front sight, and target.

Have some day-glow sights on some of the “plinking”/sporter pistols.  As the light shifts, get more shift in POI with the glow sights.  Those sights seem better suited to quick/fast shooting than precision.

[Knothead]

I have an eye doctor that let's me bring the gun in, measured the eye to sight and cut the lense to focus there...
He really made my life better.

[north country gal]

Hi Jeremy

I've been wearing glasses my whole life, plus I'm also at an age where that front sight (and, especially, the rear sight) isn't as sharp as when I was younger. I still shoot open sights and peep sights, though, because I very much enjoy them even after all these years. And, I'm still an effective iron sight shooter, though my eyes do tire more quickly, now. My advice is to keep trying with the new glasses. It's still very doable.

The advice of concentrating on that front sight, regardless of open sight or peep, is spot on. A peep sight setup has the potential of sharpening the front sight a bit, but for me the main function a peep sight is to take that now very fuzzy rear sight out of the sight picture.

I also second trying a red dot if the peep option doesn't work for you and you don't want to go scope. Red dots are definitely easier for me to use than peeps and they are much easier on these old eyes than irons, to boot.

[Smaug2]

Lots of good advice and experience in this thread; thanks all!

I'm spoiled, as I grew up 20/20 and could easily focus on the front sight, and the target was also pretty sharp. Not any more.

I didn't think about the aperture thing. I'm an photography hobbyist too, so I should have. I'm mainly shooting in my dim basement now, so my pupils are almost fully open. Then, I'm shooting with black sights and some of my targets have large black centers. I have one of those self-resetting paddle rig that has a black metal cabinet; makes it very hard to pick up sights and my bullseyes of my targets are black. I'm doing a lot of things wrong, it seems. 

The first step I think is to print targets with white bullseyes and only the very center black.

[Smaug2]

I have two pair of glasses, too: one for computer distance and one for 5' and further. I had been using the long distance ones, but since I should be focusing on the front sight, I should be using the computer ones.

I'm also going to start painting all my front sights with white nail polish; that seems to help a lot, at least in the dim basement.

I'm going to get my LED worklight and shine it on the targets, which should help even more.