Reading glasses or no reading glasses

[rmilchman]

I've found that more and more I need to wear my reading glasses when reading just about anything. Since you are suppose to focus on the front sites, I was wondering if I should wear them when shooting.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[SIXTO]

I'm no doc, but I'm going to say no unless you just cant see the sight at all without them. Otherwise, its time to start point shooting.

[gpsxplr]

Just talked with my mom about my dad, as he got older he couldn't read without his big magnifying glass (could never get him to where glasses). In spite of this he was still able to see the sights just fine and shoot very accurately. But then my dad was always an exceptionally good shot.

[obxned]

I now can not read without glasses, but even thought the sights are fuzzy, I still shoot pretty well without them and not so well when using them.

[rmilchman]

Thanks guys.

[Tangle]

I have the same problem. I shoot almost every week and between 100 - 300 rounds every time.

It seems to me that sometimes I actually shoot better, meaning accurately and maybe a bit faster. I think what happens, if I shoot in reading glasses, I can see the front sight in focus, and I tend to take a split second more to sight; if I don't shoot in reading glasses, I see the fuzzy sight and that's close enough so I break the shot a bit faster. It's kinda hard to put in words.

But, if you practice in reading glasses and have to use your gun for SD, and don't have your reading glasses on, you're gonna be seeing a very different sight picture.

[ghost tracker]

As our eyes get older, it's the eyes' speed in adjustment & ability to "flex" to the near focus that requires the eventual use of reading glasses. But the use of those same reading glasses inhibits our ability to clearly focus on remote (far) focal planes (rather like an A/O on a rifle scope). Practice SD shooting with your reading glasses OFF. It's more important to clearly see the threat & be a little fuzzy on your front sight...than the other way around.

[cphilip]

I don't have any barrels long enough to make my reading correction portion of my line-less bifocals to give me any trouble seeing the rear sight. But its difficult for me to tell what corrective factor I am getting in each phase of the lens too. And my "reading glasses" are also my shooting glasses (Safety Glasses with corrective lense) and have no correction for far distance. The close up correction phases out as they go up from the bottom to the top of the lens. So, I shoot with them on. But I doubt I am using the corrected part of the lens at all while doing that. But I can readily refocus on something on the gun if need be.

I do practice a lot of point shooting with handguns though.

[rodc13]

Just a couple of additional thoughts.

1) Get your eyes checked!
2) See if you're a candidate for Lasik. My young bride and I both got it done 7 years ago. I went from 20/9999 to 20/20. No more glasses or contacts.
3) See if you have cataracts. We'll all get them sooner or later, and they're easily corrected. Once corrected, you'll never have another. Done quickly as an outpatient, the corrective surgery makes an amazing difference.
My 89 year old mother got hers fixed last year. She was having a lot of trouble reading. She checked out at 20/20 at her last checkup.

Good luck!

[rmilchman]

No cataracts. I'm 42 and have been sitting in front of a computer every day for 20 years. I'm surprised it took this long for me to need reading glasses. The comments about SD shooting and not having glasses makes total sense. I will continue to shoot without them. As far as Lasik, not sure if my eyes are bad enough for that or if I want someone poking around in my eyes.

Thanks for all the comments.

[ccw9mm]

Everyone's different. In my book, "reading" glasses are for arm's length problems. Shooting to defend yourself is going to be toward a shape much larger than a dimestore book. Unless your eyesight is horrible, generally you should have no problem reliably striking 1x1ft zone at 2-10yds, even without glasses.

I wear glasses, sometimes. In my case, it's for distance. Without a scope, for example, I suck at target practice on the rifle range at anything beyond 25yds, due primarily to the eyesight. But when shooting pistols? Doesn't matter, for me. Out to 10yds on a field course, I am accurate to within a handspan or so, almost without regard to how quickly I engage the targets.

[Redneck Repairs]

I now wear glasses , in fact i got bifocals some time ago ( on my 40th birthday in fact ) . I went with the " no line " or progressive type bifocal from the start and have found ( with about a week of walking " uphill " and other getting used to the dammed things ) that with the glasses i wear i can get a fine focus at any distance by changing where i look thro the glasses . Now understand that being somewhat diabetic my glasses prescription is more a suggestion than a cure and i do use a jewlers loope for fine , close work such as some machining ect.
Dont be vain ... get the dammed glasses , and get real ones lol .

[nn]

bifocals