Wanted - gehman/varga/champion glasses for pistol shooting - borrow or buy

[stelfy]

I know, I know, I'll post it in the wanted section too, but thought it would get a more focused response here

I'm looking for a pair of glasses, any of the brands in title will do, with the following

Opaque blinder
Largest possible lens holder with plain (or no) lens
Iris, or at least still able to get an iris to fit from manufacturer

Despite my best efforts to concentrate on the foresight I still find that at 10m the target appears sharper, and at 20yds it is less defined (and I tend to get better groups)

Experimented this morning with shooting at 10m so did a couple of cards as I would normally with left eye blinded and wearing prescription specs, then a couple of cards left eye blinded no specs, and then a couple of cards shot both eyes open

Best groupings were achieved with left eye blinded and no specs, but target area was very vague - seemed far less wobbly, and group was spread slightly vertically, but well centred

Squinting slightly makes the target a bit more defined - had range to myself so made an 'iris' using finger and thumb of left hand which gave the best compromise between sight and foresight focus but was not the most comfortable stance for shooting

Would love to try out a pair of glasses before I commit to spending money, so if anyone out there has a spare pair that would suit please PM me so we can sort out a loan

Thanks!

[McTrucky]

Hi,

First thing to understand is that the shooting frames will not make any difference - it is the lens that counts....

You need to get a lens about 0.5 diopter 'shorter' than normal distance glasses - eg if your prescription is -1.75 you need a lense which is -1.25. You can go to spec savers and get a really cheap pair of specs with the appropriate prescription for about £25 - just put a bit of obscuring tape across the other lens so you can shoot with both eyes open.

The optician should give you what you need if you spell out to him/her that you need to be able to focus ONLY on the fore sight - and make sure they understand this by demonstrating the distance you are talking about, stand and line up as if you are shooting with the wall infront of you about the distance the foresight would be away - and thell them you need the prescription for that distance.

If you do this, you can then keep watching the for-sale sections and fleabay for a set of frames to come up later, and you will have a better idea what you need. Frames give you adjustability and ease of swapping lenses and clipping on filters and so on - all very nice, but you will get 90% of the benefit by just getting some ordinary specs with an appropriate lense.

Cheers
McT

[BicTown285]

mcTrucky is right about focal length. Most imprtant is focusing on foresight (sharp) let target be blurred and wobbley. A cheap diopter - stick a reinforcing ring from file binder on centre of specs. This will also make you hold your head up and central. Bit of milk bottle makes an effective blinder. All cheap, when you find it works is the time to buy the high costing branded goods.

[zooma]

mcTrucky is right about focal length. Most imprtant is focusing on foresight (sharp) let target be blurred and wobbley. A cheap diopter - stick a reinforcing ring from file binder on centre of specs. This will also make you hold your head up and central. Bit of milk bottle makes an effective blinder. All cheap, when you find it works is the time to buy the high costing branded goods.

A good DIY answer that enables you to check what works for you without spending the cash and is definately worth testing.

If you do decide to splash the cash after trying the ideas above, I have a boxed s/h Champion set with one yellow tinted lens, one clear lens and an adjustable iris diopter, a two stage drop down blinder for the non focusing eye with one solid and one translucient sheild and a pair of solid side shields - but this is a hundred quids worth even s/h, so it will pay to see if you find any advantage first before buying anything.

The dioptre can save you needing a prescription lens due to the tremendous depth of field it can give and places your head in the correct position each shot, but if you opt for a prescription lens ( as already decribed in this thread previously) it can be made for the lens holder instead of the included clear and/or tinted ones included.

This is not a sales pitch - I have not advertised them ( I keep them as a good spare), but it does let you see what sort of costs these things can be, and with a litttle ingenuity a similar result can be had for a lot less.

I started with a pair of workshop glasses with the left eye lens taped over with masking tape and it worked well for me. Later I repaced the masking tape and put fine emery cloth scratches on the left lens to prevent focused vision but to let the light come through to balance out both eyes a little better rather than having one in the light and one in the dark.

The other thing I have found helpful is when a new prescription is needed for reading, the old glasses could well be just the job for focusing at arms length - about where your front sight would be!

So there are a couple more ideas that work to avoid buying expensive shooting glasses!