Thread: Shooting with corrective lenses for short sightedness

Asking on behalf of a mate who prefers not to use computers.

He is short sighted (Can’t see distant objects without glasses in case I have it wrong way round). But needs to take his glasses off to see properly through a scope. No issues with his shooting ability the way he manages it but he does find it a hassle trying to shoot skittish rabbits.

If anyone here has had the same issue and found a good work around, old mate will really appreciate some ideas.

contacts and laser eye surgery im going in next week sick of glasses and contacts

I have the same problem , my eyes went to shit when I turned 45 .
I just wear my glasses a bit further down my nose than normal when hunting and then look over the top of them when it comes time to look through the scope .
I purposely chose frames that are thin metal so that the top of the frame doesn’t interfere with things .
When I look through a scope with my glasses on the image is distorted and a bit twisted even when I adjust the eyepiece on the scope correctly .
I’ve just learned to live with it , but have been thinking about contacts which I’ve never tried.

Ive been short-sighted forever . . . Can distinctly recall the day I first wore glasses, all of a sudden I could see ducks down the riverbed far further than my mate with supposed perfect eyesight (good enough to make airforce pilot training).

So Ive worn specs all my adult life and adapted to the changes in eyesight as one gets older. I can still read and do fine work with no specs although I will soon need something before Im 65.

For hunting I set the reticle focus to use with glasses on. For target shooting I refocus the scope and shoot glasses off. Its surprising the number of oeople I come across at the range who have no idea how to focus a reticle at all so make sure your mate is completely familar with the process (there are plenty of online tutorials that can explain it better than I).

I went back to glasses 20 years after laser surgery (I'm 50 so eyes naturally changing anyway according to the eye doc).
All my scopes had to be re-focused for use with glasses.

I completely agree with @Tentman that many people have never focused their scopes properly (if at all).
BB

As Tentman said, set the reticule focus with glasses on. I've shot for 45 years with glasses for shortsightedness, never had an issue except for fogging in our alpine country. Then I changed to progressive lenses a few years back, bottom of the lense for close up, to top of the lense for far away. Never had a problem, though I do find the progressives seem to be a bit more "accomodating" for want of a better word. On ducks I have no issues, but for clays I use to go back to single lenses until I learnt how to use the progressives. And lightweight, thin frames make a big difference too.

The secret is in focusing the reticule, not the target. The eyes will do the rest.

watching with interest...my eyes gone to shite in last 12mths...now really struggle to read or write without glasses,still shooting ok but starting to wonder....funny thing the current lot of glasses,including a set for long distance driving dont really agree with me like the last set of straight reading ones do...and if Ive got the old set on,I can walk around forgetting to remove them... not so with newer ones. too scared to try glasses when shooting,I may decide I need them.

Short sighted+astigmatism and wore glasses my whole life- shot for years through a scope with them on no problem, irons have always been a little bit blurry but made do.

Now use progressives for everyday life, but since you have to look through a certain portion of the lens for specific distances they didnt play nice with odd angles, like trying to sight down a rifle with irons. After realizing that my eyes were suffering from old age and couldnt focus as close any more splurged a bit. So now have 3 sets of glasses!

Progressives for everyday use. Good for most things.
A set of glasses with plain lenses that are in perfect focus at arms length and nothing else. Just for computer use - no need to move head to focus anywhere on the screens. But also ideal for pistol shooting. Front sight is always in perfect focus, everything else is a blur and cant distract me. My vision when wearing these is like one of those photos where the subject is in perfect focus and everything else is blurred out.
A set of glasses with plain lenses at about 1m - so ideal for service rifle / iron sight rifle shooting, and computer use when sitting a bit further away form the screen. Things at distance are very slightly out of whack but i can see the target at the other end of the range well enough to hit it.

Weighed up getting the laser eye surgery, but the person i spoke to put me off it. Said i was better to use glasses if i could, for as long as i could, and then get complete new lenses inserted into the eyeballs.

Have reading glasses but only for reading so don't need them for shooting yet

Greetings All,
Have had glasses since 1976 initially just for draughting (drawing plans not counting sheep). Have astigmatism in both eyes and am slightly short sighted. Now at 73 wear them for close work and have them for distance especially driving, shooting and hunting. Can do most things without them but the vertical wire in the scope is fuzzy without them. I don't use progressives. I use the computor and close work glasses most. If you are having trouble seeing things, especially if you are around 50 get your eyes tested. They will check your eye health at the same time which is just as important if not more.
Regards Grandpamac.

As I mentioned in my earlier post when I look through a scope with my glasses on the image is distorted, it has nothing to do with the clarity/ sharpness etc because adjusting the eye piece sorts that out .
What happens is the junction of the crosshairs isn’t at 90 degrees .
If you can imagine squashing the scope from 2 oclock to 8 o’clock.
The prescription that I require to correct my vision create this distortion when they are used in conjunction with the scopes lenses .
My eye problem isn’t easily corrected with laser surgery and the fix would be lens replacement surgery which is mighty expensive and gives no guarantee that my vision would be any better than I already can achieve with wearing glasses .

Does the focus on the objective not adjust enough to be in focus while he's wearing the glasses?

Woah, opened this thread a while back and didn't update it I think - a few have already asked my question I see haha...

Watching thread with interest,eyes have been getting worse over last couple years.Had my eyes tested recently and picked up my new pair of transition glasses on Monday.
On a side note .... "spec savers",should be called "arm and a leg" lol

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Originally Posted by seano

Watching thread with interest,eyes have been getting worse over last couple years.Had my eyes tested recently and picked up my new pair of transition glasses on Monday.
On a side note .... "spec savers",should be called "arm and a leg" lol

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Make sure you get a copy of your eye chart, with the correction needed, pupil distance etc etc. Much cheaper and simpler to buy glasses online at present.......if you have that info. And you have paid for it, so they have to give it to you.

If he has glasses that properly correct his vision, then he will be able to use a scope as well as anybody else; just tell him to turn the fucking focus knob around on the back until it looks right.