By: Decot Optician Sam Cherry
If you have reached that benchmark age of 40 years, you may have noticed a change in your ability to see your front sight clearly. If this hasn’t happened to you yet, just wait, it won’t be too long before it catches up with you. As we age the ability of the eyes to focus up close is diminished and we need help seeing at close and intermediate distances. For the pistol shooter it is the inability to focus at the intermediate range that creates the biggest problem. The solution for this problem can be handled in a variety of ways.
The most common direction Decot takes is to make a lens with your normal distance Rx in the major portion of the lens and the power needed to bring your sight into focus is put in the bifocal portion of the lens. The bifocal is inverted so you are looking under the bifocal for your distance vision. At this point you can drop your chin a little and you have a wide bifocal area to see your sight with. This allows you to see the sight as well as have your normal distance vision as you walk around and do things between your shooting stations. The non aiming lens can be single vision distance or have the normal bifocal lens put in it to facilitate loading or scoring. At this time this has been the most popular method of solving the problem, and most shooters find it comfortable and convenient.
If you are a Practical shooter this is not the best option for you. The next option will provide a better solution for the front sight problem.
This option, the easiest and least expensive, is to make a single vision Rx lens for the aiming eye that will bring the front sight into focus. This method lets you see the front sight clearly no matter which area of the lens you look through. Acquiring the front sight is quick and easy no matter where you hold the gun or position your head. The down side to this is that when you look at anything that is closer or farther than the same distance of your sight, most things will be a bit blurry for you.
Keep in mind that these options are offered in the context of using Decot shooting glasses that have the interchangeable lenses. Most shooters will have a pair of glasses for shotgun and/or scoped rifle/pistol. They will also get one extra lens to use for the pistol or open sight rifle. Depending on your needs, Decot can customize glasses for your shooting situation and give you the best advantage possible.
