Old Eyes? Optical Disc Attachments Can Help with Focus
Those of us over-50 types can use some help when shooting iron sights. As one gets older, your eyes lose the ability to rapidly adjust to different points of focus. In practice, when shooting a rifle, this means the target image may be sharp but the sights are blurry, or vice-versa. Or you may be able to see the target and front sight reasonably well, but the rear sight is a complete blur. (That is this Editor’s problem when shooting a rifle, such as a Swedish Mauser, with a notched blade rear sight.) Even if you are using a rear peep sight, you may see a blurry rear circle (or two circles if you have astigmatism). Placing a diopter sight (sighting disc) on your shooting glasses can help many people see open sights better, when shooting both handguns and rifles.
Merit Corp. in Schenectady, NY, offers an adjustable optical disc that attaches to shooting glasses with a rubber cup. Though primarily intended for pistol shooters, the Merit optical attachment can also be helpful when shooting rifles with open sights, such as military bolt actions. Priced at $65.00, the Merit device features a shutter-style, adjustable aperture iris.
Merit explains: “The human eye, whether or not prescription glasses are required, cannot focus on both sights and the target at the same time. The eye will constantly shift focus from the sights to the target trying to ensure proper alignment. Unfortunately, as we age, the eye loses the flexibility which allows it to do this; thus, sights and target begin to grow fuzzy. There is a simple way to combat this by increasing your eyes’ depth of field (range of focus). If you look through an aperture or pinhole of the correct size, you will be able to see both sights clearly, and the target will be clearly defined as well.”
In addition to optical attachments for eyeglasses, Merit produces a variety of adjustable iris sight products for rifles, including the Variable Iris Aperature for AR15s. Visit MeritCorporation.com or call (518) 346-1420.
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Tags: Diopter, Iron Sights, Merit, Vision
The Merit Master Disk attached to the rear sight is not legal for Service Rifles by NRA & CMP rules
This is not a “diopter” it is an “aperture.” A diopter is a lens that changes the point of focus of an optical system, an aperture alone will only change depth of field.
Editor: The term “diopter” and “diopter sight” is used to describe an optical rear sight with a circular aperture. By common usage it does not have to be a glass lens element (although the term “diopter” lens is used often to describe adjustable ocular lenses in cameras and other optics). Adjustable aperture rear sights, aka “Diopter Rear Sights” are commonly used on competition rifles. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diopter_sight
“Old eyes” that can no longer focus on the front sight need a lens, (a “diopter”), to recover that focus. Both young and old eyes can benefit from an aperture near the eye to improve the rear sight image.