Canadian Airgun Forum

I did a query in the site search on this and what I found convinced me that this is a subject thread that many shooters in this form could benefit from...particularly pistol shooters.

Now when we say "shooting glasses" actually people can mean several different things. Just as nobody wants to get a ricocheting pellet in the eye, powder burners don't want brass fragments or gun shot residue (GSR in CSI lingo) blown into their eyes either. And so there are abundantly available "shooting glasses"...prescription or not...which do this quite nicely and at nominal cost. In fact standard industrial safety glasses work just fine. I have deliberately shot old pairs at very close range to test them and it is actually hard to put a noticeable mar in them. They are made of a polycarbonate plastic called LEXAN and various thicknesses are available that can stop just about any thing...in fact it is rumored that it may even be a component in COBAM armor.

These are not the sort of "shooting glasses" I am talking about....they are not a mystery...they are not hard to obtain...understanding what they are for and how they work is relatively simple....and everybody aught to use them...

What I wanted to talk about on this thread was more about those bizarre devices that Jocelyn Langlois carries a CIBLES.

Proper sighting of an open iron sighted pistol just "simply" is not simple.

A few days ago I had a conversation with an Olympic pentathlete on this subject...her grandfather was an optometrist.

After doing a few months of research on these questions, I think I have come up with a formula for the ultimate pair of shooting glasses....all things considered.

As it takes shape I will post what I have found out and what I have come up with on this thread.

If issues with your "eyesight" have led you to "insight" on this topic....please chime in here. I think this could lead to something very useful for pistol shooters.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

After doing a web crawl I found this article ....

http://fuzzylimey.net/coachtalk/glasses.html

Does anybody know why you are not supposed to close your non dominant eye and why the patch works better?

Also, when you are sighting in your gun would it not be better to elevate the bench rest to shoulder height so that you tune the sights to how you normally stand rather than slouched over sitting at a bench?

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

There was a shooter at the winter EOHC milsurp match who had a nice pair of homemade shooting glasses. He had taken his safety glasses and added a flip down blinder with a small hole to narrow his field of vision for his dominant eye. He was shooting a Mosin Nagant with standard sights (the match rules don't allow upgraded sights). He shot better than any one else with Nagant open sights. In this match, the sights really make a big difference when shooting so the Garand and LE #5's with nice sights tend to be top placing rifles. This lad came really close with his flip down "eye peep".

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NFA member
CSSA member

Another simple shooting aid for us aging shooters.
http://www.meritcorporation.com/index-2.html

Or for those of us on a budget
http://www.muzzleblasts.com/archives/vo ... 46-5.shtml

Matter of fact just before you posted this I ordered one of those Merit apertures and got to talk to Mr Merit on the phone.

I invited him to come and join this forum and get a feel for how he could come up with products that would fill a niche in the airgun sight market.

His stuff is made for hunters with powder burners and tends to be more robust than some of the Ghemann equivalents which come with a princely price.

I certainly hope he gets interested and follows up on it. Just the potential from people who own Daisy 853c's is enough to keep him very busy.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

That is absolutely brilliant......

So all it would take really is to determine the optimum aperture size at that distance from your eye and drill that sized hole in a pair of $8.00 safety glasses.......

I'm going to try that.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

Good advice.

With 10 meter air rifle you are at greatest risk of ricochet returning at eye level when shooting from prone.

With my outdoor range I have been hit in the chest and in the thigh a couple of times but the energy was pretty much out of the pellet and they did not even penetrate light cotton clothing. Still you would not want to get one in the eye.

Most of the ricochets have been as a result of forming a group of embedded pellets and then hitting the skirts.

It's not a good idea to use old tires, plywood with a hard laminate layer or oriented strand board as a backstop.

When plinking cans use aluminum cans for low energy pistols.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

Got my Merit eyepiece yesterday and spent a beautiful fall afternoon today sighting in my pistols with it. I think you will find it necessary to tweek your sights when you get one, but they work like a charm....

Now that I have it I could suggest to the guys who are on a tight budget to get an old pair of yellow saftey glasses, put your finger directly on the spot that would blind your dominant eye, put a dime sized circle of black electrical tape on that spot, Then take the smallest finishing nail you can find and heat it up with a torch or butane lighter until it is hot enough to punch through the center of the tape spot.

It then makes sighting your pistol more like sighting with aperture sights on a rifle.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

I would be interested in seeing a photo of you using your new eyepiece. And did your groupings get any better using the eyepiece?
-Wayne

I would post a lot more photos here except my Pentax makes huge RAW files that I just can't seem to find a software utility to compress them down to the board limits. I'll have to look into a photobucket membership.

Anyway, I have only really been working on pistol shooting since I acquired Sean's IZH46M. Prior to that my groupings at 10 meters with my Crosman were "barely within broad side of barn door".

Thanks to some coaching and pointers from some of my workmates who are former military, my groupings improved to being able to hit the can next to the one I was aiming at....

After a little advice from Olympic pentathlete Kara Grant I got my groupings down to the bottom of a pop can.

Yesterday, with Mr Merit's aiming aperture I was hitting sticks of sidewalk chalk and small Aspirin low dose bottles. I'd say that's an improvement....

Now that I can aim a pistol I have to work on form and technique.

I also have to give up coffee. I remember hearing about jazz musician Myles Davis at a teaching workshop being asked how he got his wonderful vibrato. He replied "Aw you young Turks...learn to play it straight without vibrato....you'll get old soon enough!!"....

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

Have you tried setting your digital pentax to shoot in jpeg format instead of RAW. The difference may not be as noticeable as you are concerned about and it is quite easy to compress jpegs to fit this forum. I also have an IZH46M but as yet can not reach the full potential of the pistol. I am slowly improving but I could benefit from some solid coaching. I am trying to use the one hand straight arm hold. But I also wear variable focus prescription glasses and a bit of arthritis in my shoulder does not seem to help either although I think the exercise of holding the IZH46M at arms length seems to be helping my shoulder, after all the IZH46M weighs about the same as a brick.

I'm going to get out the owner's manual and look up how to set my Pentax at smallest file size.

I think the IZH46M is a great training pistol. I've heard it said that the comparison between it and a Morini is like the comparison between Gucci shoes and Russian Army boots, but Russian Army boots kick a** much better than Guccis.

I had chronic tendinitis in my right elbow from splitting wood with a heavy maul, but using the pistol cleared it up. And I used to train for martial arts bo quarterstaff with the bar from a barbell set. The idea being the relative weight of the real thing would then be easy to wield.

And if I can learn to ballroom dance in a pair of Russian Army boots I'll be Fred Astaire in Italian shoes.

What I did to tighten my grouping was I started with a black olive can pointed mouth toward me. I practiced trying to get every round in the can. The bottom of the can is too dense for penetration but ricochets tend to stay inside the can. As I got better I started using magic maker on the rings inside fresh cans and verifying the mar left by pellets.

Start by using the full Weaver grip with elbows locked, Then, when you get the idea of what sight picture works go to the Nato variant of the one handed grip which is to support the elbow with the other hand. Then try pressing your armpit with the left hand. This will gradually build your confidence for the Wyatt Earp grip.

Never take more than 8 seconds to sight a shot. If you go over 8 seconds rest your arm and start again.

You often miss because psychologically you talk yourself out of confidence that you have acquired the target. To get over that habit learn to count seconds one Nova Scotia two Nova Scotia three Nova Scotia.

Then when you acquire the target call out audibly "ONE" and release the trigger before you can call out audibly"two".

One old veteran who was a crack shot with slider automatics uses his middle finger as his trigger finger and points at tthe target with his index finger. He said that you will never be more accurate than you can point with your index finger.

The Merit devise eliminates the confusion created by your non dominant eye and increases depth of field enough to form a much clearer sight picture, just like the rear peep sight on a rifle.

Now that I have tried them on a pair of ordinary yellow safety glasses I am going to get a nice pair made up by Vogue Optical from a new variable tint polarized material that is polycarbonate. They should be the ultimate shooting glasses, though this lady called Limalife on Youtube sure found an interesting set...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3PLzQO3B50

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

I have been trying some of your tips this afternoon and it is true, sight quickly and shoot, the same as I do with a rifle. I don't really know why but the longer I try to get a clear sight picture the worse are my groupings.

Freely and generously it has been given to me, so freely and generously I give.

That is the spirit of this forum.

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All my flyers are above the black ring because I have a tendency to aim high.

I like Mauser's last reply. Freely given info - in the spirit of the Forum idea. It resonates with all Canadians, because we may just be the last of the truly FREE; & we DON'T particularly appreciate our limited freedom further trod upon, yet again, by over-paid & ever-demanding politicians.
The vote on the "long-gun" registry was really close ... too close .. a waste of taxpayer's dollars is just that.
In the meantime, excuse me for the increasingly limited right to RANT, & allow me to invite ANY & ALL out to the Elmer Fudd match at Port Colborne this Year. We will unfortunately be shooting sub-500 fps rifles & pistols, but I hope there is a good turnout simply for the sake of the sport.
Just check the event or FT sections for directions & other info. - hope to see you there.