Anyone tried Top Focal shooting glasses?

[mattiooo]

Anyone tried these? My eyes need help and these sound useful. Curious if anyone has tried them and what your thoughts are.

https://sspeyewear.com/collections/featured-products/products/top-focal-ultra-kit


https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=141&v=MixktP5Orko

[OldFogey]

Have something similar. Got safety glasses from my eye doc who is a long distance shooter. He had me stick my arm straight out and had me focus on my thumb since I shoot mostly pistol. Set that mag at top of lens with normal bifocals strength at bottom. Works well with pistol.

[Gman]

My SiL sometimes uses an eyepatch, particularly when shooting rifles. I could see a use for these for people that have eye dominance issues.

[Rucker61]

I'm nearsighted and wear contacts for competition. I use a little stick-on corrective lens at the bottom of the right shooting glasses lens for pistol sights. Works well enough.

[CHA-LEE]

Those magnification powers may be too much for iron sights on a pistol. This assumes that you have fairly "Normal" focal ability for up close stuff. More power may be needed if you already need to use +1.0 - +2.0 readers in daily life. These glasses also seems pretty expensive given that you are getting lenses that are not set with the optimal focal point to the center of your eye like you would get with prescription glasses.

Listed below is a cheaper alternative that also makes lower power lens safety glasses in +0.50, +0.75, +1.0, +1.50 and +2.0. These things have the same issue as the other ones where the focal point within the lens isn't optimized for the position of your eye, but they are also less than $9 each so you can get several different powers and try them out to see which one works best for you. Once you find a power that works best for you then you can have your optometrist write you a prescription for that power so you can get some proper glasses made which are setup perfectly for your eyes.

https://www.fullsource.com/elvex-rx-500c/

When I hit the magical age of 40 I also started having up close focal issues when shooting. Seeing iron sights became a lot harder especially in less than optimal lighting. I went through the whole gamut of trying different size sights and different power shooting glasses. The thing you really need to be careful with is picking a lens power that is not so powerful that it makes the target mega blurry at distance. For example a +1.5 Power lens makes seeing iron sights really easy and clear. But it also makes targets past 10 yards almost impossible to see with any reasonable clarity. You need a focal balance of being able to see both the sights and the target clear enough to get the job done effectively. Right now the optimal power lens for me is a +0.75. That power gives me improved sight focus without making the targets too blurry at distance.

[Aloha_Shooter]

When I was on the rifle team in high school, we'd just tape over the left (or right if you're left-eye dominant) lens so you could shoot without squinting. If you're needing prescription eyewear, I would advise either contacts or safety glasses that fit over your regular eyeglasses. I'm not a big fan of having to change glasses constantly to go from regular to sun to shooting to regular ...

[DenverGP]

Big thanks to the OP, I hadn't ever known these existed. I have to wear +2 reading glasses to be able to read menus, receipts, computer screens etc. My distance vision is still good, but reading distance vision has gone downhill starting around 45 years old. My shooting accuracy has been ok, but I decided to try these top focal shooting glasses out. I ordered the top-focal at a 1.25 power, less than I'd normally use for readers. The kit I got came with a set of top-focal lenses for both eyes in clear, amber and smoke, and a set of non-magnified lenses for both eyes in clear, amber and smoke. So far I've just used a clear top-focal on my dominant eye, and a clear non-magnified on the other eye.

The top focal requires tilting my head slightly forward to see out the magnified portion.

Finally got them to the range today. I got used to them very quickly, and my accuracy was greatly improved. I hadn't been the range in the past month, so I was rusty. Shooting at targets at 7, 10 and 20 yards, I shot more accurately than I have in years. I had previously tried a set of straight +1.5 reading safety glasses, but they distorted everything outside reading distance too much, especially for something where I'd be looking/moving around a lot (like at an IDPA). With these, they work just like normal non-magnified shooting glasses for walking around, etc. Then just a slight forward head tilt and I was able to see the sights perfectly. My shot speed improved as well, since I didn't have to move the sights around trying to figure out how centered the front site was.. I don't think I realized just how bad my sight picture was.

Really looking forward to my next IDPA.

[bellavite1]

Go see Sports Optical in Denver.
http://sportsoptical.com/
Right across 58th from the Tanner. The owner, Bret, is a shooter and a great guy:
He fitted me with safety glasses, with transition lenses, left eye bottom reader and right eye top aimer.
Tell him Luigi from Silverbullet sent you, he may give you a break (or cuss you out...[Coffee]).

[Ramsker]

I got a pair of these awhile back . . . still haven't tried them out. Shooting glasses with a "bifocal" area at the bottom and top of each leans . . . all the rest is just safety lens with no magnification. If these don't work, then I'll check out those Elvex models.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000I4LA5C

I have always preferred wearing my contacts, but the last several years my reading vision has gotten worse. I pretty much had to carry some small readers around with me. Shooting itself actually isn't bad (outside of the effects of an astigmatism) and I can see the sights ok and the target. But if I need to read something or look at something on the gun for some reason, I can't do that easily. So I ordered the magnified shooting specs to try.

However . . . also in that time, I went ahead and got some new glasses with the transition lenses and those have been great for daily wear and doing everything I need. So I've been wearing my glasses a ton more and I have some over-the-glasses shooting glasses that I've been taking to the range and have been happy with that. Haven't gone in contacts to try those other glasses yet.

Getting old sucks.