Bad Vision+Leaf sight= Misery.

[breid1970 327]

The older I get, the worse my vision gets. Its to the point where my standard iron sights are just too hard to use. I do have a Mills fleet farm side scope mount and a little bushnell red dot, but I really would rather have iron sites I can use. This problem persists even after getting new glasses. Any ideas would be awesome. Thanks guys. On a budget here, so no six million dollar man addons. Peace fellas.

[Matthew Hopkins 1,065]

easiest and cheapest solution there is paint your front sight post a vivid color, and on the rear sight highlight the opening. you could go with spending more on colored front sights, and pay the shipping and wait, but a fast trip to any toy dept. and buying a small bottle of model aircraft paint would be the cheapest way, and it will do the same as the 5+ dollar colored front sight.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Matthew Hopkins

[schultze13 354]

Get a colored front post and either a Mojo peepsight or better yet a Rifle Dynamic rear sight mod. done to your rear sight. I am wear coke bottles for glasses since the 2nd grade and have a hard time with AK/SKS sights and have both a Mojo and a RD sight and love both compared to a stock sight. The benifit of the RD sight is your gun still looks stock.

[Lone Eagle 839]

Easy out would be a colored front post and do the "V-notch mod" on the rear sight. I have a bad floater, but can still hit a man-size target out to 200 with irons. Just don't ask me to do any head shots without the scope, and I'll be OK.

[YOT 3,743]

Rear peep sight with small aperture. If you can center the front sight through the rear peep, the sights are lined up.

[Dogster 577]

I feel your pain, Breid. I am in tri-focals now, and iron sights are useless to me. lens for the rear, lens for the front, lens for the target. I'd need to be a bobblehead doll. I found holographic sights to be a satisfactory solution, and couple of my toys have lasers (green is easier to see in daylight). 2 have both.

[BigChongus 765]

Easy out would be a colored front post and do the "V-notch mod" on the rear sight. I have a bad floater, but can still hit a man-size target out to 200 with irons. Just don't ask me to do any head shots without the scope, and I'll be OK.

 

I've got bad floaters too. Always looks like I'm looking at everything through confetti.

[breid1970 327]

Thanks guys. Awesome as usual.

[Lone Eagle 839]

 

Easy out would be a colored front post and do the "V-notch mod" on the rear sight. I have a bad floater, but can still hit a man-size target out to 200 with irons. Just don't ask me to do any head shots without the scope, and I'll be OK.

 

I've got bad floaters too. Always looks like I'm looking at everything through confetti.

 

Mine is a big brown blob that likes to play hide-n-seek, especially when I try to focus on something. Doc can't do much until it stops moving. A red dot looks like a cluster of grapes to me now, and the peep on my AR seems to aggravate it more than open sights. I just put a 2-6x scope on it and called it good, but still practice with the irons every range trip.

[Juggernaut 11,054]

XS Big dot ain't a bad option, either... though not recommended for any type of precision shooting...

[Red Star 38]

I have this problem as well. My eyes are terrible. I just gave up on using Iron sights... still practice with them occasionally, but I have either a scope or red dot on all my rifles.

[dashowdy 141]

krebs custom rear peep sight, and a fiber optic front.

[thebuns1 4,323]

easiest and cheapest solution there is paint your front sight post a vivid color, and on the rear sight highlight the opening. you could go with spending more on colored front sights, and pay the shipping and wait, but a fast trip to any toy dept. and buying a small bottle of model aircraft paint would be the cheapest way, and it will do the same as the 5+ dollar colored front sight.

This is prolly going to be your best bet, and the cheapest.

[psl sniper 963]

hmmmm over sized sights....kinda like they do with phones................................

[thebobrusso 27]

tech sights

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

tech sights

 

This ^^^

 

They have various sizes of apertures you can get also.

[Mike U. 51]

I've had to virtually throw in the towel, too. Now, red dots live on all of my long arms. Magnification where needed.

I did find relief for awhile with the rear aperture sight solution, but, my 56 year old eyes seem to be fading, and, the iron apertures are getting a little harder to use, damnitallanyway...

Red dots and magnifying scopes are my new BFF(s).

 

Oh, BTW, I just had to put a scope on my pellet gun.

 

Gettin' old ain't fer sissies.

Edited August 7, 2013 by John U.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

Eyesight is one of those things you take for granted until you cant.

 

At short to medium range, 25-200yds, Ive found red dots in combination with my regular glasses to be enough and since I can keep both eyes open so actually it's an improvement for the cross-dominate eyed among us.

 

For precision work, BRIGHT (high light transmission) scopes with adjustable focus (required) and NO glasses do rather well enough.

[gunman1 1,753]

I've had to virtually throw in the towel, too. Now, red dots live on all of my long arms. Magnification where needed.

I did find relief for awhile with the rear aperture sight solution, but, my 56 year old eyes seem to be fading, and, the iron apertures are getting a little harder to use, damnitallanyway...

Red dots and magnifying scopes are my new BFF(s).

 

Oh, BTW, I just had to put a scope on my pellet gun.

 

Gettin' old ain't fer sissies.

 

^^^^^^^^This one fits me to tee, even the age

[Lone Eagle 839]

I've had to virtually throw in the towel, too. Now, red dots live on all of my long arms. Magnification where needed.

I did find relief for awhile with the rear aperture sight solution, but, my 56 year old eyes seem to be fading, and, the iron apertures are getting a little harder to use, damnitallanyway...

Red dots and magnifying scopes are my new BFF(s).

 

Oh, BTW, I just had to put a scope on my pellet gun.

 

Gettin' old ain't fer sissies.

Red dots work......until you have glaucoma and cataracts. Then the dot looks like a cluster of grapes that constantly moves like a kaleidoscope. Luckily, I can still use irons and scopes. Now once the cattys get bad enough, then it's lens implants and all will be well again. My dad ended up with 20/10 after the surgery, and that was before the new innovations. He could pick needles off a pine at 50 yds with a .22LR all day after his surgery.

[XD45 7,124]

I have given up on leaf sights. Fortunately peep sights still work for me.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

Ive found aperture sights still work ok at short range until it gets out past 75yds for 10" targets. Oh I can keep them inside the 10" but the groups are just about that big, 10".

 

Seriously thinking of laser surgery.

[YOT 3,743]

Ive found aperture sights still work ok at short range until it gets out past 75yds for 10" targets. Oh I can keep them inside the 10" but the groups are just about that big, 10".

 

Seriously thinking of laser surgery.

 

 

I did that in Feb. 2010. Great thing. Just know that it doesn't fix you vision at all distances. Either near or far, not both. I knew going in that I would need cheaters for reading after the surgery, buy I can see bullet holes on white paper at 100 yards. They can also do monovision where one eye is done for far sightedness and the other is done for nearsightedness. I wore mono vision contacts, off and on, for a few years so I knew I didn't want my eyes like that permanently. You don't get the best of both that way. I don't mind putting on cheaters for anything within arms reach. Hell, most of the time I need safety glasses for up close work, anyway.

[Sirex 34]

I have pretty bad vision. On my old 1895 Tula M91, I got some of our parts labels at work and cut them to fit the sighs. The Mosin sights are not the best, but the bright color contrast greatly helped my sighting, they are not permanent and pretty darn cheap. Did the same to my SKS irons, and my M39, while retaining the original military sights. Cheap and easy for those that aren't scoped. For my Saiga 7.62x39, I plan to paint the front sight hi vis orange, and use the green label on the rear sight slide, or use a fiber optic front sight post.

Edited August 29, 2013 by Sirex

[rickyrifle 1]

Hyperopia or Presbyopia is the medical term for losing your ability to accommodate, that is, to focus on objects at close (i.e.reading.)

 

Before you lose your ability to accommodate (<40-50ish) LASIK/PRK are possible options if you're a candidate. After 40-50, I'd consider cataract surgery or a clear lens extraction (essentially, cataract surgery before you get a cataract) as you've already lost your ability to accommodate anyway but you get better color vision (you'd eventually need cataract surgery anyway and one surgery beats two surgeries.)

 

Red dots will not look good if you have astigmatism - you can correct that with glasses, contacts, LASIK or PRK, or a Toric IOL (intraocular lens, which replaces your cataract/natural lens.)

 

I'd skip all the fancy IOL's that are supposed to give you both near and distance as they're very expensive and won't give you near, intermediate, and distance vision like you some of us had when we were kids.

Edited August 31, 2013 by RickyRifle

[uzitiger 193]

I had a peep sight welded to my top cover using a laser to mark the aperture before drilling the hole. It helps me and increases the sighting radius.

[NuJudge 1]

I'm 56 and have been struggling with seeing front sights since my late 30's. There are a few things you might want to look at that have not been mentioned:

 

Lyman makes a suction cup equipped aperture that mounts on your glasses, which might help a lot. Looking through it, and then through your sights, will sharpen them up a lot. IIRC, it greatly increases depth perception.

 

I had a set of "Pistol Shooter" glasses made for me. I am right handed and have a right master eye. The right lens has its optical center near the top of the right lens, and is set up to let me focus about the distance the front sight is away from me. The left lens has its optical center near the top, but is set up to let me focus at infinity (where the target is). About 90% of the time, my brain puts the two images together and I have sharp sights and sharp target. The other 10%, I just close my left eye.

 

I have bought two topcovers which have aperture rear sights on them, one using a G3 rear sight, the other using something similar to an AR15A2 rear sight. Both worked well, but required the front sight to be elevated such that it was slightly taller than the ears. There really was not that much movement of the top cover, and they shot about the same as when using the original rear sight.

 

The direction I have been going in lately with AK's is the original sights with a co-witnessing red dot.

[XD45 7,124]

I painted a bright white bar under the notch on the leaf of my Enfield. That makes the notch easier to pick up. But it's a toy anyway. It's just fun to drag out the old gal and make noise.

[Rhodes1968 1,638]

Which Enfield do you have Darth?

 

Love those old Limey rifles. May be the last one they made I would want.

[XD45 7,124]

Ishy 2A1 shortened to 18".