Problem getting a sharp view of the target

[terencefw]

I have a problem getting a sharp in focus view of both the forsight element and the bull at the same time. now i need to use glasses for close up reading and at 10m distance my bi foc glassses are only slightly corrected. so either i go for shooting glasses or get an adjustable gehmann iris which has a fac for adjusting the optical correction. have you had this problem and overcome it. and if so can you offer advice here to assist me, thanks. Terry.

[bigpete]

I have a problem getting a sharp in focus view of both the forsight element and the bull at the same time. now i need to use glasses for close up reading and at 10m distance my bi foc glassses are only slightly corrected. so either i go for shooting glasses or get an adjustable gehmann iris which has a fac for adjusting the optical correction. have you had this problem and overcome it. and if so can you offer advice here to assist me, thanks. Terry.

It is imposible to focus on both at the same time, you need to focus on the foresight and leave the target out of focus. Dont forget to keep both eyes open while using a blinder

[Bobupndown]

Hi Terry I had the exact same problem but having seen these http://www.eyepalusa.com/ I thought I would give them a try, I do not know the science behind how these work but in my case they have. You get 2 sizes one for rifle and another for pistols. You fit these to your normal reading glasses making sure you have clean lenses, There is a small pep hole into which look and if by magic the rear&front sights and target come into focus in my case I have found that by adding frosted paper to your non shooting lens it has helped improve the sight picture even more. I got my set of of E Bay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=jVeEwVFAWME

Bob

[p.m.h]

My eyes do vary, for fine detail, depending upon my sugar levels.

I have Champion shooting glasses, with an opaque eye blood which have helped, but I did have to adjust focus between the front sight blade and the target.

However, I then fitted an adjustable iris and problem solved. I can now find tune the required sight picture to suit.

Kind regards,



Phil

[blueflax]

I was shooting a pistol match in Port Townsend Washington, and commented to the shooter next to me that my bi-focals were not cutting it for getting a sharp image of the front sight.

"You should get a pair of glasses with twice your reading correction," He said.

"How do you know that that is true?" I asked.

"I have been a ophthalmologist for 40 years, and I am a lifetime master in this course of fire," he said.

You know, he was right. I have also found that this works for both rifle and pistol. I so happens that the front sight is the same distance form my eye.

Ron

[terencefw]

Hi Terry I had the exact same problem but having seen these http://www.eyepalusa.com/ I thought I would give them a try, I do not know the science behind how these work but in my case they have. You get 2 sizes one for rifle and another for pistols. You fit these to your normal reading glasses making sure you have clean lenses, There is a small pep hole into which look and if by magic the rear&front sights and target come into focus in my case I have found that by adding frosted paper to your non shooting lens it has helped improve the sight picture even more. I got my set of of E Bay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=jVeEwVFAWME

Bob

i will check it out as it sounds like it may help.. cheers

[bigpete]

i will check it out as it sounds like it may help.. cheers

At our club we recently had a training day from a couch. The question was asked about the focus issue and we were told exactly what I said earlier. We shoot 25m prone and you just need to focus on the foresight while leaving the target looking fuzzy. Hope this helps before you go wasting money trying to get both target and foresight to focus

[terencefw]

It is imposible to focus on both at the same time, you need to focus on the foresight and leave the target out of focus. Dont forget to keep both eyes open while using a blinder

will try that, sometimes its the obvious answer that escape you . will try it next time i shoot. i was trying to get both focused at same time.

[terencefw]

Hi Terry I had the exact same problem but having seen these http://www.eyepalusa.com/ I thought I would give them a try, I do not know the science behind how these work but in my case they have. You get 2 sizes one for rifle and another for pistols. You fit these to your normal reading glasses making sure you have clean lenses, There is a small pep hole into which look and if by magic the rear&front sights and target come into focus in my case I have found that by adding frosted paper to your non shooting lens it has helped improve the sight picture even more. I got my set of of E Bay.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...&v=jVeEwVFAWME

Bob

having had a look at the advert it looks ideal for shooting glasses, so if i go down that road i will consider adding one and try it out...

[RobinC]

The iris is not the correct answer, it may compensate up to a point, but it is not the advised route for target shooting.
Firstly it is impossible to focus on the foresight and the target at the same time, the foresight is short focus and any thing greater is considered long focus, in young people they have the ability to flick back and forth between the two, once older its not possible due to old muscles, but doings so by any one is not a good principle for target shooting.
With a rifle which is from what you've said you are shooting, the principle is that you should focus on the fore sight and of course the aiming mark will be out of focus, BUT, the effect of the peep sight is similar to the iris in that it will compensate approximately so that with a sharp focus on the foresight looking through the rear sight you will see the aiming mark clearly enough to shoot accurately, that is of course if your eyesight is 20/20 ish.
Sadly most of us are not so we need a correctly compensated lens to see the best sight picture. I would advise proper shooting frames which will place the lens centrally and will have a non shooting eye blinder. The correct lens prescription is a comprimise of short vision and long vision looking through a rear sight, it works out to a focal length of 2 mts as the ideal comprimise. To get that is a standard adjustment for all shooters, it is long vision prescription plus +0.5 of a diopter, so for example if you are +1.75 in your shooting eye on long vision then for you it will be a prescription of +1.75+0.5 = +2.25 diopters. If you are short sighted and have a minus prescription it will be -1.75 +0.5 = -1.25 diopters. The lens should also include an astigmatism correction which is just as important. This is a standard correction and is perfect for rifle, I would also advise doing an eye test with a shooting savvy optician but the result will be the same. There is guidance on this on the Knobloch glasses website for opticians which is a good idea to take for them. The best shooting optician I have found is Stephen Hing at Shefford near Bedford.
Why should you focus on the foresight? Several reasons, primarily as raised, it is not fossible to sharp focus on two focal lengths, the foresight is the moving one and is with in your control, the target is fixed and stationary so why focus on that. The perfect sighting technique is to focus on the foresight and flick the eye around the white gap between it and the aiming mark to judge centralisation, (another reason to not have a too small foresight ring, but that's another subject!), that will produce the best end results.

Have you ever had what you thought was a perfect sight picture and the shots were going any where? That was because you had allowed your focus to go to the aiming mark, you were looking at that, the foresight was out of focus and the white was not even but you could not see it as you were staring at a perfectly still aiming mark (still, as its fixed!), result, bad shot.

Incidently, for pistol, the correct focal length and prescription is easier, its the distance to the foresight with the pistol on aim, same principle, sharp foresight, fuzzy target.
Have fun and good shooting
Robin

[hwtyger]

Agreed. Focus on the front sight. Its impossible to see both sharp cause they're at different distances. It may séém to some they see both sharp but they dont; they're switching front and back.
Which is very fatiqueing for once, and you loose yr frontsight alignment for a sec.

[Turnup]

Agree totally with comments re: focus on foresight and accept fuzzy target - I was always taught this.

As age increasingly affects eyesight, I have found it impossible to get the foresight in focus without lens correction, however for me this seems to make the target impossibly fuzzy.

The pinhole solution previously mentioned works well for me (look through a pinhole), provided there is enough light. For me this gets both the target and foresight in sharp focus.

I made my own and found that the optimum hole is 0.5 mm in bright light and 1mm in poor light. There may be a compromise between the two, but I have no .75mm drill bits.

[Chastiser]

i was always taught that your rear site and the target should be out of focus with the front sight in focus. your sight picture should be front sight sitting in the middle of the rear sight with the top part of the front sight level with the top of the rear sight. target should be sitting just on the tip of the front sight. sights adjusted so that with the target sitting just on the tip of the front sight, that is in fact target centre.

[adiepie]

Just to add to this discussion, how do you cope if, as in my case, the foresight is in focus, but the site datagram is so out of focus that it is (nearly) impossible to judge which of the ten spots you are aiming at?

My current technique is to find the "middle" one of the left five, then move appropriately from that.

However this doesn't always work, and I have repeatedly shot two on one datagram, and none on the adjacent one.

Help please!

Adrian

[RobinC]

Adrian
I presume you are talking rifle using target diopter sights (as some of the answers above are clearly talking pistol or rifle with open sights). Your problem is either you do not have any correction lens and should have, or it is much too rear focused towards the foresight. If you have a comprimise focal length, which should be two metres, and will be your long vision prescription plus +0.5 diopter then you will definately both see the foresight sharp enough and the aiming mark slightly blurred but certainly sharp enough to find it, centre, and then focus on the equal white gap at the foresight ring.
With a pistol where you use much more area aim the focal length should be shorter, the length from your eye to the fore sight post, this is much shorter than two metres. When we are down to these short focal lengths it becomes critical, a few feet in focal length makes a massive difference.
I used to shoot pistol at a good national level, I now concentrate on rifle, my pistol lens made the post sharp, and to be honest the focus on the target was such that it did not really matter if the target was in back wards it was so blurred and it was easier to shoot tens! As an experiment I did try the pistol lens for rifle and I got the effect that you have as it was too short a focus, even with looking through a reduced diopter iris.
I think clearly you have the wrong prescription (or none and need one), I recomend going to a good shooting optician, who will recomend long vision plus 0.5 and your problems will be solved.
If you can't see properly you can't shoot, and its surprising how many folk spoil their shooting because they can't see correctly.
My wife went to MEC at Dortmund last year for air rifle coaching and the first thing they did before they started was to have their on site shooting optician test her eye sight.
Have fun and good shooting.
Robin