Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

I'm near-sighted (about -2.5 diopters) and use progressive lenses in my glasses.

I can choose to focus on the target or on the front sight, by tilting my head so the right part of the progressive lens in being used. Unfortunately, I have to tilt my head back to see the sight, which is unnatural and uncomfortable.

If you have a similar problem, how do you solve it? I'm willing to buy a new/special pair of shooting glasses, but three eye docs all said they haven't a clue what to make for me...one said to focus on the target, not the front sight, one said to call the NRA, one said to call someone else.

I had the same issue. Progressives caused more problems than they solved. I went with just plain eye protection, no correction, for a while. Then I got a red dot sight and read somewhere where progressives worked well with a red dot so I tried them again. The progressives let me focus on the target and the red dot is then easy to line up. And it's cheaper than new prescription lenses!

There are several options, the one I went with was to get a bifocal with the lower lens set to the front site distance and the top for far distance. I had this prescription made into safety glasses. My doctor set the dividing line higher than normal for bifocals but it could have been a tad higher, I have to tilt my head a little to shoot.

He had me bring in the gun so we could try out various strength lenses until we got the distance correct.

You can also get safety glasses set for distance viewing then add a small area of higher power, I think you can even buy these as stick-on lenses. Some of these end up looking weird but i would definitely get an eye doctor who has experience in this area if you want to get real fancy.

I have never used a red dot site but have heard good things about their use.

wally626 wrote:He had me bring in the gun so we could try out various strength lenses until we got the distance correct.

Good service there.