1 Attachment(s)
Whale oil beef hooked! A breakthrough, I can see again ...
Sorry newfies lol for the swearing and I know I must look like an extra from a certain science fiction movie, but its been an amazing discovery.Probably the biggest dampener on my shooting in the last few years has been the lack of sharp focus in my vision, I have to use reading glasses now, about average in strength, and it's really affected my shooting. Stock sights like the no1mk3 are out of the question for target shooting, and even the no4 type isn't easy either.
I bought these gimmick glasses from a chinese $2 shop a few months ago, they're promoted as being for strengthening ones eyesight and eventually getting rid of your glasses one day. But...I just tried them out over the top of a couple of rifles, one with stock no1 mk3 sights, and one with a PH5A ,and incredibly the rear sight and front sights are in sharp focus, with the far away target also in either sharp focus or just slightly soft focus. The last time I saw rifle sights so clearly and in simultaneous sharp focus I was 15 years old. I can't wait to try this out at the range, and just had to pass this potentially great news along.
I know they cut a bit of brightness down, so a bright sunny day is going to be ideal, and with the PH5A sight also being a little aperture to look through, very similar to the glasses, its not quite as easy to get a good sight picture as with open stock sights, I had to move my head around to get some of the peep holes to line up.
I know that aperture sights are supposed to have the same effect but I don't get the same clarity or sharpness I just did, at last I have an option to shooting with scopes and I'm really happy it looks like I can get my stock sighted rifles out again. Yahoo.
Anyone else can verify?
Information for information
Whale oil beef...
Most illuminating - in the spirit of FUBAR, I see.
As to where to find shooting glasses with iris attachments - simply climb out of the milsurp trench for a mo, and take a look at a catalog for serious small-bore shooters - from Anschütz, Gehmann, and the like.
If you have reached advanced teenager status, then you probably know how to shoot well enough, but targets aren't as large and clear as they used to be, while open sights have become figments of the optical imagination.
For rifle shooting, driving glasses are WRONG. Reading glasses are WRONG.
Go to an optician who knows how to set up shooting glasses. Ask around for recommendations. Ask a small-bore competition shooter. The glasses +iris will save their cost in wasted ammo and trips to the range.
Shooting with bad eyesight is like firing a rifle with a bad crown on the muzzle - until you get it corrected, fiddling with any other parameters is a waste of time.
Patrick
:wave:
---------- Post added at 10:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:01 PM ----------
...er, now I would like to know what a newfie is?
If you really want to know why...
... here is the full story:
"10 SHOOTING AS A GRANDPA
And not as a teenage gold-medalist
So you got your rifle, refurbished it as well as you can, and now you want to get the best results with it? Make no mistake, for us advanced teenagers, we are the limiting factor.
The vision thing
Let us start with the eyes. That also means, most likely, your spectacles. The typical optician has a repertoire of a) glasses for reading or looking at a computer screen b) glasses for driving c) varifocal lenses for those who want it all in one package. Let us take them one by one.
a) Spectacles for reading.
These days they are often optimized for looking at a computer screen. The optimization distance is around 50-60 cm, so that if you look through open sights you will see none of the following clearly: backsight, foresight, target. You may be able to see a spot about halfway down the barrel quite clearly, but that won’t help much. Reading glasses are obviously useless for shooting.
b) Spectacles for driving.
These are typically optimized for about 25 yards or meters, as the authorities insist you must be able to read a number plate at that distance. Personally, I do not normally want to read number plates while driving, considering them to be less of a hazard than the vehicles they are attached to, but I would like to be able to read the dashboard instruments without having to look around the lenses in a peculiar sideways squint. Tough luck, that’s the law! If you use these glasses for shooting, you will be unable to see the ammo to load it into your rifle, and can spend an interesting afternoon watching the butterflies out on the range. You can see the target well enough, it’s just a pity you can’t see the sights at all.
The incompatibility of a) and b) has lead to the development of:
c) Varifocal lenses. If you can get used to these so that you no longer trip over your own feet and do not have to feel your way downstairs, then varifocals are the thing for you - but not for shooting. You can move your head so that you can see target, foresight and (maybe) backsight. But you cannot see all of these at the same time. The slightest movement of your head is going to upset the picture. I know of no-one who shoots successfully with varifocal lenses, but I would be pleased to hear differently.
Why do we have such trouble with spectacles?
The trouble is almost universal with increasing age, and is properly termed presbyopia. As you age, your eyes become less elastic. The ability of the ciliary muscle to shape the lens to focus at a specific distance becomes more and more restricted. The accommodation range of the eye becomes narrower and narrower. The range of accommodation also tends to move further away, as your muscles lose the ability to contract for focusing at short distances, which is why one can end up needing spectacles for driving and another set for reading. As a result, you end up with a pair of “semi-fixed focus” eyes – and it may not be even the same focal length for both eyes. With my left eye I can see revolver or pistol sights with the outstretched arm, but not a rifle backsight. With the right eye I can focus on a spot about halfway down the barrel, but not see pistol sights at all. So I shoot pistols and revolvers left-handed, using the left eye, and, and shoot rifles right-handed, using the right eye. None of the standard optician’s solutions mentioned above can help you solve this problem. And my problem is not at all extraordinary; in fact you could say it is typical for the age.
What to do
The solution (unless you have discovered the secret of rejuvenation) is to have special shooting spectacles made to fit by an optician who is familiar with shooters’ requirements. I traveled halfway across Germany to visit one who is known as the prime address for equipping national team members, but it was well worth the journey (which was arranged to fit in as a diversion on a vacation trip).
It was, literally, an eye-opener to experience the difference in sighting with purpose-made lenses. Believe me, if you are still using your everyday driving or reading spectacles for shooting, then such professionally measured and fitted shooting lenses will put a few points on to your score as soon as you wear them. And the cost is soon amortized by the practice shoots and ammunition you will no longer be wasting in trying to overcome a defective vision setup."
End of quote. If you want any more, get the book!
Patrick
:wave:
More later, I need a break!
The full story ... (continued)
What follows is a simplifed explanation that is not scientifically exhaustive, but adequate for present purposes...
No-one of mature years is going to be able to see backsight, foresight and target all clearly at the same time, so you have to make a choice.
The one element you must see clearly is the foresight - whether blade or ring. If you have an aperture backsight, this is usually so close to the eye that a) not even a teenager with 20-20 vision can focus on it and a foresight simultaneously, and b) it is not necessary to focus on the backsight, as the eye naturally tends to center in the fuzzy aperture. Conscious control to make sure that the field of view really is central, and not just accidentally so, is the clue to better aiming with an aperture backsight (and for telescopic sights as well).
So the lens for shooting with an aperture backsight is optimized so the the depth of field (the range over which everything appears adequately focussed) has the foresight as the near point and the field extends out towards the target, without any attempt to get the backsight aperture in focus.
Of course, the depth of field is also dependent on the aperture. The depth of field increases as the aperture is stopped down. So the optician checks the setup with the maximum size of aperture you are likely to use in practice, and if the light enables the use of a smaller stop, the depth of field will be even larger.
With an open backsight the adjustment must be different. There is no automatic centering trend, as with an aperture backsight. So the foresight is taken as the far point, with the depth of field extending back towards the open backsight. Once again, the depth of field is increased by stopping down the optical aperture, which is why those spectacles with a grid array of holes produce a sharper picture with open sights. But a better solution is to have an adjustable iris on the shooting glasses, so that the aperture can be reduced as far as the light permits.
Please note that you cannot shoot well with an aperture backsight combined with those hole-grid spectacles. The aperture backsight is both the optical stop and an aiming reference. An additional aperture behind, whether as an iris or the hole grid can only act as a stop and increase the depth of field if it is optically smaller (i.e. subtends a narrower angle at the eye) than the backsight aperture. Which means that you lose the aiming reference of the backsight aperture. So the iris/hole grid element is only for shooting with open sights!
You will also have noticed that the best solution actually requires two lenses - one for shooting with an aperture backsight, and one for shooting with an open backsight.
The optican who made my shooting glasses has a well-deserved national reputation. He examined my eyes with equipment of a sophistication that I have never seen in an ordinary "downtown" optician's room.
I had wondered for some time why I had a marked tendency to produce double groups, separated vertically by a couple of MOA, even when shooting off sandbags when I could be pretty sure that an unconscious shift of hold was not the explanation.
He (or rather his equipment) was able to detect a flaw in my right eye that causes a double refraction. I literally see double in the vertical direction. The second image is that ominous couple of MOA above the "true" image, and much weaker, but strong enough to allow a false aim if I am not careful. This flawed region is about 1 mm below the center of the iris, so although I wrote above that one should make sure that the eye is looking through the center of any aperture, in my case I can improve the picture by deliberately looking low, so that the defect area is out of the sight line. With this insight, I have been able to vastly improve my aiming capability with open sights by learning to hold the blade very deep in the backsight, almost to the point where it disappears.
Ten to one AM here now!
G'night!
:wave:
