The Gun Counter

Does anyone have any experience with prescription glasses for shooting?

I wear prescription glasses, and I cant manage without them, but they do present a problem in some activities I want to do. Shooting being one of them, so far I have not used any safety glasses except my ordinary glasses, but since they are my only decent pair I dont want them in harms way, so to speak. I'd prefer polycarbonate lenses.
What do others do? Wear safety glasses over their ordinary glasses, or is it worth investing in prescription shooting glasses? If so, what brand should I look at?

With fishing, I dont really need any other glasses there, but it would be nice to have a dedicated pair for it, with interchangable lenses for different colors depending on light condition. (Just amber brown clipons is a bit limiting)

Also, I'm thinking of taking up martial arts again. The sports glasses I have is not very suitable for sparring or any kind of fighting really, but they are the best I can find in stores here. Online there are brands like RecSpecs and Bolle, anyone have any experience with them?

The alternatives are ofcourse surgery or contacts, but I'm told surgery makes the eyes more prone to damage at impact. And last time I had contacts I had to quit using them due to problems, and I dont know if it's worth it to try again.

Any tip or info is appreciated.

I'm wearing contacts, my eyes feel so much better with them.
On shooting glasses, if you work with your eye doctor he should be able to optimize your vision for the task. Maybe not corrected to 20 20 but he can make it easier to see the sights as well as the target. That is how my contacts are, I have a prescription for a weaker lens in my sighting eye.

I used to have 20/15 vision, sigh... I had to start wearing glasses about ten years ago, and my eyes have steadily worsened since then. I've spoken with my eye doctor about a prescription to help in shooting, he wasn't much help, though. I'm a mechanic by trade, and need to see well from close up (reading distance) to past arms length, so that's what I have my glasses made for--the bifocal for close up, the upper part of the lens for arms length plus, and I just look over the top of the glasses for distance vision. When shooting both pistols and rifles, I focus on the front sight through the intermediate distance (upper) part of the lens, but the rear sight and target are then out of focus. My eyes have gotten to the point that I don't really see sharply even at distance anymore, and I have considered getting a pair of bifocals made with intermediate/distant lenses for driving, shooting and such. I don't know if I could maintain focus on the sights and target simultaneously, though, since I'd still have to shift between the bifocal and upper part of the lens before firing. Oh, and I've tried lineless bifocals a couple of times and didn't like them at all.

When shooting a scoped rifle, I can usually achieve fairly sharp focus either with or without the glasses, just by adjusting focus on the scope, though with some scopes I have a hard time getting the reticle and target in focus together. Oddly enough, I seem to see red dots better without glasses. Of course I always wear glasses when shooting, I just peek over the top of the frame if needed.

I remember reading in a gun magazine years ago about some wonderful prescription setup for shooting, I wish I could find it. My eye doctor basically told me he could write a prescription so the glasses would be in focus at a selected distance, whether it be near, middle or far.

ETA: Google is your friend--I found these guys, just using the search term "prescription shooting glasses":

http://www.shooting-glasses-guide.com/r ... lasses.htm

They recommend ESS ICE glasses, with attachable prescription inserts behind the polycarbonate front lenses. They're selling them, of course. I'll see what else I can find.

ETA2: The bad part of such a google search is that what comes up is all stuff people want to sell you. What I'm looking for, per the article I read years ago, was more about getting the right prescription.

ETA3: Well, if you try "shooting prescription" instead you get some better results. Here's a ton of information on selecting prescription shooting glasses, written by an optometrist:

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongarts.html

He states that you will never be able to achieve focus on rear sight, front sight, and target simultaneously with a single lens, which does make sense. He gets into the utility of red dot scopes for target shooting, and slightly modifying the distant prescription, which sorta makes sense (maybe this is why I see the red dot better with no glasses, as I'm presently not using a distance prescription at all). Interesting read and tons of info. I'll keep digging, and would love to see what others have to say. Erik, thanks for starting this thread, this has been on my mind for some time now.

i wear prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses, both made by Oakley and both are polycarbonate... they work just fine... when they were made they were treated with something called Crizal (crizal.com) which gave them a scratch resistance guarantee...

havent had a problem yet.

Sounds like you ned to get a set of "sport goggles" and call it good. The strap will keep them on no matter what. I had 20/10 but they got worse and now I wear glasses all the time. lately I have started needing bifocals mores the pity.

I've worn glasses for years. I always just had safety lenses put in them, due to my work and to the fact that I shoot. I have removable side shields I wear when I need them, eg when I shoot my muzzleloader.

My eyeglass prescription is strong enough that I have to get the high-index plastic lenses anyway, so my regular everyday glasses are shatterproof. I pay a little extra for scratch-proof coating and I'm good to go for at the range.

I've worn bifocals since I was ten. A few years ago I switched to the progressive bifocals and like them. I just use hardware-store safety glasses over them, and I always wear a ball-cap when I shoot, I saw a guy get a hot empty between his glasses and cheekbone, left a lovely burn mark but it would've been worse had it lodged against his eyeball.

For fishing, I have magnetic sunglasses that attach to my prescription glasses (came with the frames), they work fine in most cases. I've seen yellow clip-ons too (the type made for night-driving), but never tried them.

Can't help you in the martial arts though.

Erik, your ordinary eyeglasses will do just fine for shooting. The reason for wanting glasses is the potential for a burst cartridge case to spray brass and high-pressure gas into the eyes. This is EXTREMELY unlikely with modern firearms and ammunition, and vanishingly improbable for pistol.

Having said that, a dedicated set of shooting glasses will be a help to your scores. Knobloch and Champion both make very good frames. You will need lenses made to bring the natural focus in to the distance to your front sight...about 1.3 meters.

As to martial arts, I would suggest doing without for sparring...that's what I do. Or take up fencing...you can wear glasses under a fencing mask.

Yeah, I think they'll do fine too. It's just that I've had some brass bouncing up and back down and land inside the glass against the eye, and I'm kind of worried I might scratch them if a brass bounces wrong.
Since I cant see much without glasses, I think it would be a good idea to get an extra pair. I've been thinking of getting an extra pair for fishing for a long time, but never really found a model I liked for what I needed it for, so I've been putting it on hold.

Now I googled around looking for Oakleys and found the ESS I.C.E glasses that are made for military and law enforcement. They're made of polycarbonate and can take a hit from a shotgun even, seem to be both fairly cheap and decently good looking. And I could buy a polaroid lense for it, so I could use it for fishing too if I have to.
I'll think about it, it's no rush anyway.

I dont think I'll buy a pair of those shooting glasses that moves the focus, unless I get into serious bullseye competition sometime in the future.

I actually have sparred without my glasses once, and I'm not going to try it again.
What happened was that without my glasses I can hardly see anything, or really notice movements. So when I tried kickboxing without them, I didn't see a roundhouse kick coming, walked right into it and got knocked out. And it wasn't even that good of a kick, we were just sparring lightly. Hurt my pride more than anything that I didn't see it.

So if I'm starting MA again and will sparr, I will need sportsglasses or contacts. Most likely I'll get a pair of RecSpecs or something.

Thanks for all your tips and advice, I really appreciate it