Reading Glasses Revealation

[Old Snort]

Today I was shooting my .243 Rem 700 with a 3x9 Leupold. I must use my reading glasses to adjust the scope, inadvertently I left them on when I looked through the scope to take a shot. What a surprise. The target just jumped out at me, clear and crisp as if it was on my desk under a reading lamp. The glasses are just 2.5 diopter off the drugstore shelf.
Why couldn't a diopter be fitted over the scope ocular? This would be great for me since the only time I need glasses is for reading and close tasks.
Is this something I have missed in half a century of shooting? I'm going to talk to my optometrist on Monday.
Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

[DaRkWoLf]

Two Words: adjustable parallax.

Get something with a side focus knob and you will have better correction for your eye than the doctor can detect.

Question: Do you shoot with both eyes open?

[Old Snort]

Thanks, Dark. What is side focus? I have scopes with parallax adjustment which I use for target and varmints. Sure would be nice to get something I could attach to my big game scopes. I shoot with only my right eye open.

[neolithic hunter]

os what happened to you when its done intensionally is called boosting. the benchrest and f-class guys have been doing it for years. they take a 24 or 45 power scope put an optical quality magnifying lens on the back and end up with a 38 power or a 58 power scope.

[DaRkWoLf]

NH,

The clearness OS described seemed to me more of clarity and correction than just boosting. It's one reason I don't own any non-adjustable glass outside of CQC stuff; speaking of which, most boosted glass is more grainy than the Aimpoint + 3x combo (which isn't bad at all, but it's definitely not a benchmark of clarity). I may have mistaken OS's statements though.

OS,

Side focus is the knob on the left hand side of some scopes that adjusts for parallax. In application, the correction acts like the machine they make you look through at the optometrist's. I'm unsure if there is something you can just attach.

Shooting with both eyes open expands one's capabilities a tad if one knows what to do with the added perception.

[neolithic hunter]

NH,

The clearness OS described seemed to me more of clarity and correction than just boosting. It's one reason I don't own any non-adjustable glass outside of CQC stuff; speaking of which, most boosted glass is more grainy than the Aimpoint + 3x combo (which isn't bad at all, but it's definitely not a benchmark of clarity). I may have mistaken OS's statements though.

OS,

Side focus is the knob on the left hand side of some scopes that adjusts for parallax. In application, the correction acts like the machine they make you look through at the optometrist's. I'm unsure if there is something you can just attach.

Shooting with both eyes open expands one's capabilities a tad if one knows what to do with the added perception.

dw he said the glasses were 2.5 diopter from the drug store, not prescription reading glasses. goto brnchrest.com they can give you the full poop on optics boosting. you can buy boosters for several better scopes such as leupold, weaver, and sightron for as little as 100.00 bucks. the side focus is a parallax adjustment as you state, but one of the side uses that some people can do is use it to adjust the focus of there scope. the people that use it for focus are the ones that don't know that the diopter focus on the scope is adjusted at the eye piece at the back of the scope. the parallax is used to adjust where the perceived position on the crosshairs are in relation to the surface of the target. as for shooting with both eyes open if you brain is not blocking out what you are looking at with your off eye when you look through a scope, you've got problems, like seeing the target in the scope. you brain doesn't process images like you think dw. when you are concentrating on an object with your dominate eye, such as sights and a target the image that your left eye is completely ignored buy the brain. you would be just as well off if you had a white card in front of you off eye. the reason to keep both eyes open is to cut down on eye strain, and to better your ability to achieve the same head position time after time, when a sight picture is presented to you, and thats the only reason.

[DaRkWoLf]

as for shooting with both eyes open if you brain is not blocking out what you are looking at with your off eye when you look through a scope, you've got problems, like seeing the target in the scope. you brain doesn't process images like you think dw. when you are concentrating on an object with your dominate eye, such as sights and a target the image that your left eye is completely ignored buy the brain. you would be just as well off if you had a white card in front of you off eye. the reason to keep both eyes open is to cut down on eye strain, and to better your ability to achieve the same head position time after time, when a sight picture is presented to you, and thats the only reason.

I guess I have some serious "problems" then. They seem to work really well for me. :shrugs:

Ever since I started using both eyes my shooting has improved markedly. When using a scope on one of my precision rifles with both eyes open I see the scope and its view, a little around the scope, some unidentifiable/undefinable colors/distortions around the edges of my view field, and the target area with my other eye. I use my non-shooting eye to track variables, view what is around the target, and watch bullet trace.

Ya what you describe doesn't happen with me; sure its not just you? If not, does it help to mention my right eye is not so good whereas my left eye is more capable than typical after correction? I also used to get double vision when I used pistols because I couldn't process where to bring the sights up to and sometimes brought the gun centerline with my face, but now I can pick which eye I use semi-consciously.

As for boosting, some people swear by it but personally I think the image is more grainy than normal and I usually shoot at the 10-15x range so its not something I've gone and been all excited about. I've only seen one in person and it was on a Leupold.

[neolithic hunter]

well dw after a few decades of shooting scoped rifles and others. if you are busy looking at conditions with you off eye then what is you sighting eye doing. think about it if your watching the wind blow the grass with your off eye your not concentrating on the target anymore. from what i seen i do realize that your not trying to shoot little bitty groups at 600 + yrds, but could the lack of concentrating on your sight picture be causing you more misses than you deserve.

with a scope in the 30 to 40 power range i can see enough of the target area to know what the conditions are, without having to use my off eye. just something to think about guy.

P.S. my eyes are cross dominant also. i shoot a hand gun right handed but my site picture is with my left eye

[DaRkWoLf]

well dw after a few decades of shooting scoped rifles and others if you are busy looking at conditions with you off eye then what is you sighting eye doing. think about it if your watching the wind blow the grass with you off eye your not concentrating on the target anymore. from what i seen i do realize that your not trying to shoot little bitty groups at 600 + yrds, but could the lack of concentrating on your sight picture be causing you more misses than you deserve.

with a scope in the 30 to 40 power range i can see enough of the target area to know what the conditions are, without having to use my off eye. just something to think about guy.

I've dealt with enough multi-directional winds to not put complete faith into what I see in the small FOV of my powered optics. If its a drastic change that's one thing, and needing to notice that is something that only better happen at F-Class because if I'm working multiple UKDs and don't get a correction before "send" one of my buddies owes me lunch.

With my sighting eye, I'm holding and observing immediate surroundings; moreso for possible non-meteorological impediments to a safe and productive shot. Trapping is also done with my sighting eye. As long as I can confirm my intended POI my sighting eye is doing most of its job. I also haven't actually missed steel or a ring within 800 yards in a long time, just some groups are better than others and I usually know when I screw up; I actually ascribe a bit of that to some of the great advice you've given me.

The glass on my 338 is an 8-32x. How some can use 32x, or even 20, inside of 600 I may never know. Speaking of magnification, I actually got a new spotting scope I like. A Zeiss 85mm Diascope; much clearer and happier than the Bushnell. Which leads me to another question: any clue as to how I could get my UNSs to work with it? If I make a mount and a cone-housing around the two apertures should the UNS fill the Spotting scope or will it just result in costly fail?

OS,

Sorry to have brought so much OT stuff up in your thread.

[Old Snort]

Thanks for all the info. Maybe the differences you speak of have to do with age? !8 year old eyes see a lot better than 50 or 60 year old eyes.