For many of us, open sights are a problem. Either the front sight isn’t clear or more likely the rear sight is fuzzy.

This is called PRESBYOPIA, and is due to a reduction in the ability of the human eye to shift focus from far to near and back again. As we age, our range of focus reduces.

     If you got past age 45 without noticing this, congratulations! This is about the time at which people begin noticing some difficulty in focusing, or shifting focus from far to near.

Young people with normal eyes will insist that everything is always clear. In reality, their eyes rapidly shift focus to clear up the thing they are looking at. Our brains are programmed to do this. Changes occur so fast that many people think that everything is clear all the time. This is very similar to the “auto focus’” system in modern self-focusing cameras.

Bifocals or trifocals allow us to see more clearly at the distances required for reading, watching TV or working at the loading bench.

Open sights present a special problem: how to see clearly at three distances through a single lens. There is no perfect solution; but there are several ways to ease the situation.

Use a rear peep sight with a fairly large aperture, and a globe front sight. The eye will automatically center through the rear aperture, and the front aperture will enclose the target.

An aperture attached to the shooting glasses does the trick for some competitors. One device that attaches to shooting glasses is the “Merit Disc”.

Another possibility is to use an “In-between” set of lenses, a pair of glasses a bit “stronger” than the "distance sight" glasses. Understand that no single lens will allow the target and the sights to be “crystal” clear. The “In-between” lens sets eye focus at a somewhat closer distance than the target, reducing the blur of the sights and slightly blurring the target. Some target shooters find this an acceptable compromise.

“Drug Store” glasses may help some shooters. If astigmatism is not significant, glasses of from +.50 to +1.00 diopters of lens power over and above the distance prescription may be tried. Keep in mind that this is a compromise.

If you wear trifocals, try the middle portion and see if this will allow the target and sights to be clear enough to score reasonably well. If this works, your optician can make up a set of single vision lenses to this prescription. It is assumed that the shooter is wearing prescription glasses, if needed. (No one should shoot without some sort of eye protection). The eye doctor needs to understand what the shooter is trying to accomplish. In some instances, it may take a bit of discussion to convey the idea that the shooter does not expect to have critically sharp vision at all distances. The shooter should measure the distance from his sighting eye to the front and rear sights; and take this information with him to the eye doctor.

The easy solution is to use a telescopic sight, even of very low power, or a red dot projection system.