Presbyopia and iron sights

[Ron]

-spun off from Bens EOtech discussion-

Regular sight acquisition using my pistol is now blurry due to old age degradation of my vision. Like Ben I can see fine in the distance (except for fatigue at night due to astigmatism).

How do I get a clear sight picture on my pistol irons and still see the target clearly? In slow fire in a range stall I can compensate just using my readers. What's the solution for active or CC shooting situations? 

I noticed the same thing as Ben with my EOTech last time I had my AR out.

Maybe I just need to wear my cheaters down on my nose so I can do the head bob to acquire then aim. My assumption would be in most carry situations I'll be within in point shooting range but it is still concerning.

I'm thinking about a fiber optic front sight on the carry pistols.

[Ben]

Maybe fiber optic, but to get in before the Dogmush, red dot.

I think you and I are around the same age, so I'm betting RDs are the same for you as me - you're kinda sorta thinking about them, but not all in. I have some pistols with and some without. I'm not all in myself, and my regular carry pistols are still RD-less. That said, I don't have the same problem with the pistol that you do. The front sight is maybe a little fuzzy, but it's in the background anyway, so my eyesight really hasn't affected my iron shooting yet.

There's no question though, that when I bring up the RD on one of the pistols that has one, it is crisp and clear. My biggest problem with full time RD is still that I feel I'm faster with irons from 40 years of muscle memory. Dogmush will say to train through it, and he's right, but I'm still not at an eyesight level that would make me have no choice and force me to make a 100% switch. You might be.

[Kingcreek]

At almost 66 years of age, I can’t say how much is muscle memory or how much is preserved good vision. I had wavefront lasic in 2008 and it’s still good. I wear cheaters at 1.75 and sights aren’t what they were looking over them 40 years ago but I don’t feel any less effective at normal ranges.
One of my daily carry pistols has a CT laser and the other has fiber optic front sight.
My next handgun will have an optic but so far I don’t own one.

[HankB]

Depending on your eye prescription, you might try multifocal contact lenses. I got a set and worked with the optometrist to give me good focus at 30" and infinity - it seems to work fairly well, but there's still some "tweaking" to be done; once it's as good as can be, I'll probably get a set of safety glasses with correction for my astigmatism, which is mild at about 1 diopter.

The downside over my "no line" bifocal glasses is that I definitely need readers to see up close when I'm wearing these contacts.

For those times when I'm not wearing contacts, I decided to get an "optics ready" pistol - I got an S&W M&P 2.0 compact (4" barrel) and put on a Holosun green dot sight with a 6 MOA dot. I like it a lot - it comes up right on target much better than a G19 and so far it's been 100% reliable, even when I tried to deliberately induce a "limp wrist" malfunction. I've been thinking of getting a new optics ready "house gun" that I can suppress (FN 545 seems like a good choice) but I'm wondering whether or not I should just go the double NFA route with a suppressed SBR. Decisions, decisions. I may just drag my feet until the current brace kerfuffle is settled by SCOTUS.

[dogmush]

Maybe fiber optic, but to get in before the Dogmush, red dot.

 

There you go.  The dot will put the sight and the target at effectively the same focal distance so they will be the same amount of blurry or corrected. A nice big dot will allow you to see it fast without needing to be so bright the dot blows out.

[Ron]

I'd have to get a Novak low mount cut adapter to mount a red dot. My TRP in particular is the one I was thinking about, as the tritiums are dead and I was thinking about new sights anyway.

 

[dogmush]

https://www.mountsplus.com/1911-novak-red-dot-mount.html

[BobR]

All these new fangled dot things, when my eyes started going I switched to 3 dot sights on my 1911s. I am experimenting with a green dot on my XDm 10 and so far I like it. I have found that because it is setting on an adapter plate it is higher than my irons were so I have to tilt the muzzle down a twitch to get the green dot where I can see it.

bob

[RoadKingLarry]

For help with seeing iron sights on my "classics" I picked up some low power reader/safety glasses. I got .5X and 1X. Give it a try.

[Ron]

https://www.mountsplus.com/1911-novak-red-dot-mount.html

Interesting, the TRP is on most of the lists.

[Ron]

For help with seeing iron sights on my "classics" I picked up some low power reader/safety glasses. I got .5X and 1X. Give it a try.

I use the 1X at the range but my concern is more while carrying.

[French G.]

It's coming for me, first my 20/10 distance vision went and now the near is fun. Given I weld and machine to pay bills, it is irritating. I got an ace in the hole though, never much bothered looking at the sights so why start now! 

[zxcvbob]

It's been so long since I've done any target pistol shooting, I've forgotten something basic; is it more important to have the front sight in focus or the target?  I'm pretty sure it's okay if the rear sight is fuzzy.

[JN01]

Grant Cunningham had this to say in the Gun Digest Book of the Revolver with regards to having difficulty clearly focusing on the front sight:

I discovered that if I focused on the target, instead of trying to focus on my front sight blade, I could shoot surprisingly accurately.  Heresy!

The reason is simple: alignment guides still align things even if they're not in perfect focus.  The sharper the focus, the more precise the alignment, that's all!

Having the front sight in focus gives us the most precise sight alignment, but having the target in focus gives the most precise sight picture. A loss of precision in one seems to be compensated by a rise in precision in the other.

The technique is simple: focus on the target.  As you do so, bring the sights into your line of sight.  Keep your focus on the target, and look through the sights.  Now just get the sight alignment/sight picture that you already know.  The sights will be fuzzy, but you'll easily be able to discern when everything is as it should be.

I found this to work for me if the front sights are neon orange.

I also use dot sights, but astigmatism can make the dots on some sights indistinct to greater or lesser degrees.

[MechAg94]

I shoot my best when focusing on the front sight.  However, I can't shoot very well with dot or black sights anymore.  I need the bright colored front sight to help keep the front sight in "focus". 

I usually prefer bright red or green/yellow sights.  Night Fision is my preferred these days, but others work fine.