Issues with sights and reader (cheater) glasses

[Royalwapiti]

Hi, I am relatively new to handgun shooting. I've recently picked a up an LCR and SR1911. I have shoot each a few occasions, 200 rounds each.

I am having trouble picking up the sight and the target since I can't see up close. I use reader glasses for seeing things up close but when i put them on to see the dots I can't see the target.

This weekend with the SR1911 I was trying to shoot 10 rounds in 1 minute into a center mass target. Hurrrying was one factor, which after a while I realized I had plenty of time. But I either couldn't see the sights well enough (without cheaters) or the target well enough to pick a spot.

My archery shooting taught me to pick a spot, don't just aim at the deer's vitals, so I need to see both!

I was thinking a different color for the center (front) dot would help me align them. Right now it is a white blur.

Any assistance appreciated?

 

[DGW1949]

I have the same vision problem as you.
Focus should be on the front sight, which should be placed in the center of the (blured) point of aim. It helped me a lot to remember that blured or not, center is still center. It also helped to paint over the white dots on my rear sight because, when my vision changed, they became an additional distraction that I didn't need.

DGW

 

[wingnuut]

had the same problem bot lasers for the guns they made them for, just got a green laser wow much brighter even in sun light .

 

[Royalwapiti]

I will be trying a red HiViz fiber optic sight on the LCR. And I will use a small piece of electrical tape to cover the white dots on the rear sight of the SR1911. We'll see how that works.

DWG: do you shoot with your reader glasses on?

Thanks

 

[Snake45]

Your mention of a "center mass" target leads me to believe that at least part of your interest in handgun shooting is for defensive use. Am I right?

If so, you need to do at least a significant portion of your practice without your glasses on*, as you have no guarantee that you'll be able to wear them if you ever need the gun "for real." They might get knocked off in a scuffle or chase, or you simply might not have the time to put them on. The ability to put all your shots on, say, a dinner plate at 10 yards should be all the accuracy you need; you don't need to be able to centerpunch the BG's third shirt button down on demand. :wink:

There have been cases where more accuracy than this was needed in a self-defense shooting, but they are very, very rare.

*DO always wear clear plastic protective shooting glasses, though. :wink:

 

[DGW1949]

Naturaly, I can shoot better with my cheaters because they allow precise focus on the front sight. But I've also discovered that I can do perty-well without them.

The thing that helped me the most was when I taught myself to quit fighting the problem and just go with it. What I mean by that is, my biggest problem was me. Once I began putting the center of the small blur(front sight) into the center of the big blur(target), I began getting (meaningfull) hits again. After about 1200 rds of that (and a couple of gun-mods), I got to where I could actualy do head shots on a half-size target again....at least,most of the time....even if a couple only took the target's ear off.

Gun mods that helped:
The white dot on the front sight helps prevent me from shooting low or elevating the sight too high. I can't actualy see the dot, but it does appear as a small "brite area" within the blur.
Painting-over the rear sight dots helped a bunch because doing that kept my eyes from becoming confused as to which "brite area" was which.
Slightly widening the rear sight notch also helped. Prior to that, I was fighting the sight picture because I couldn't make out where one blur stopped and the other started. Afterwards, finding the front sight blur was much easier.

Hope this helps.

DGW

 

[Bkat]

Here's something that really helped my range shooting: It's called a diopter and it's just a small round piece of rubber with a small hole in it, like a peep sight. It attaches to your glasses (or safety glasses) with a small adjacent rubber suction cup. For me, it really sharpened the sights without blurring the target. Got mine from Brownell's.

Bkat

 

[Cracker-American]

This idea worked for me for awhile then my eyes quit accepting it. You might give it a try.

I took an old right lense from a pair of my readers and super glued it to the right lense of an old pair of shooting glasses.

This allowed me to use my left eye to see the target and my right eye to see the sights. Sort of the same principle as putting a set of reader contacts in one eye.

But just like some people cannot use the contact in one eye my eyes quit adapting to my little trick. While it worked it was slick.

Now I use the apeture type sight made my Steve (Sixshot) here on the forum. This is my first twenty yard offhand group with it.