This may sound stupid but since I've always shot instinctive it's never been a problem. Bifocals that is. Now that I'm trying to learn to gap shoot, the closer I bring my eye to the arrow the more it puts my vision into my lower lens which makes everything at distance very blurry. Any ideas...? I do lean into my bow hand and I cant the bow.

Thanks

just keep shooting you will get used to it, it was a transition for me,, but I dont really notice it much anymore,,

Just hope you don't have to go to trifocals.It sure cuts down on the usable window to look through. I pretty much have to focus on the target.>>>----> Ken

I wear glasses but don't shoot with them (now). Every now and then I practice with them. I had to turn my head out a little to keep the arrow from bumping into the glasses. It's something I am trying to gradually prepare for in case i can all of a sudden shoot BETTER with them.

Been shooting no line bifocals for years now and never even notice.

I just recently got glasses and contacts. I have bifocal glasses but my contacts are for distance only. I can't get the glasses to work for shooting. It the contacts work well. I don't have a real strong prescription though

My bifocals are unusual because the smaller "reading" area is at the top. They do not pose a problem when shooting. I pose my own problems when shooting.

I gave up on bifocals, got single vision glasses for shooting and hiking/climbing ...leaving bifocals for everything else.

The transition from near to far caused me to make mistakes shooting as well as trail hiking/climbing. Several people who hike but don't shoot reported the same risk.

No-line bifocals are inferior to lined bifocals and are dangerous because they don't give you full field of corrected vision, but give you that illusion.

I am on the same page as JK. The graduated lenses are wonderful for regular life, but awful for hunting. The object of your desire is out of focus if you do not move your head and center the object. Far more annoying to me was that graduated lenses have a sweet spot in the center of the lens and off of that they blur, so that sharp peripheral vision is lost. I found this really bothersome when in a tree and trying to see an animal clearly. One doesn't want to move at all and this is aggravating.

I bought single distance lenses for hunting glasses, and they solved all those problems and I really like it. I have to admit that the ophthalmologist did talk me into putting a very small line of reading lens along the bottom. Frankly it is not helpful and just gets in the way , but easy to avoid as it is so slim. I won't do that the next time

Trifocals here. often I will just wear sunglasses orsafety glasses and just focus on the target I really get torn up shooting pistols- target on toplens, front in the middle lens and rear on bottom lens. Works for me. You might just have to work thru it carefully. Get a set of cheap readers to work on your equipment. Good on ya

You need Physio 360, progressive. Essilor Labs, make the best.

I shoot instinctive and I had to go to contacts because the bifocals caused me problems.

Bifocals caused me many problems. The biggest was falling down the stairs. Shooting was a joke. I had two pairs of glasses. One for near, one for far. I only took shooting the far ones. In those days we kept scores, I was never asked to keep score cards. That was a plus.

Bifocals were hard for me to get use to especially? when climbing poles or towers for foot placement. Don't even realize it now, although iron sights still give me a problem. It's been 12 years now and I'm shooting the recurve good as ever I think ;)

Progressive lenses are the worst !! I'm 52 and have worn glasses most of my life. I got talked into progressive lenses about ten years ago. They were great for working in surgery but suck for hunting. I use a pair of single vision military style frames. I really noticed my scores on the rifle range started dropping dramatically with the progressive lenses. Keep a pair of readers around your neck for when you need them and just wear single vision. Or cough up for Lasik. For the cost of a new bow or binos a person can be free of the slavery that is eye glasses !!

I shoot with bifocals.I have Liberty sports frames.I think a wider lens that put the botton parft of the lens farther away from the eye is helpful.I have no problem shooting.But don't shoot gap.

Single vision might be best for you.

Bifocals were a big problem for me shooting anything, with the way I shoot a bow the target was in my lower lense like you. With a firearm and a scope the line would split the scope and I would see two reticles till I tilted my head. A pair of glasses with just my distance lense solved my problems.

Get contacts.

I just got set up with a new brand of contacts, and they are AMAZING! Seeing better than 20–15 for the first time in years. Matter of fact, when I first got them I looked up at a passing jetliner and only saw ONE for a change! Usually it looks like a pair of them in tight formation...

Doesn't seem like a big thing until you can't do it ;) !!

I don't need any correction to see the point of my arrow clearly... unless I have enough of a correction to see the target. But I can live with that. Much better to need cheaters only occasionally and to be able to see the lines on a 60cm target face from the 65 yard marker.

Then when he gets around to seeing the point of your arrow, or the front sight on a rifle... somebody once told me that Center Sharp is the same as Center Fuzzy. Worth a shot, anyway!

I do not gap shoot, but I wear lined bifocals with no issues. This may be due to the fact I shoot instinctively rather than gap. I had to dump progressive lenses when I figured out I could not shoot a bow with them. I shot sights at the time, so that could be a factor.

My shooting/hunting glasses have very low lines. I use progressives for everyday use. They totally suck for shooting a bow.

had bifocals for years, never had much of a problem after initial period of adjustment. Don't even think about them at all when using bow.

Everybody has had to help somebody find his lost contact, right?

JK, that doesn't seem to happen so much with the new contact lenses. In the days of hard lenses it was a common occurrence. I remember losing one on the basketball court in high school. My team, the other team, referees, scorekeepers were crawling around looking for it.

Well i have had progressives for 15 years a lot of it depends on the type of progressive lens they make several mine are varilux they work fine for me .

I use a single power pair of glasses that are crisp & clear at a distance. If i have to read my Gps, i must put on a different pair, much stronger.

No problem shooting

Bifocals suck for walking down stairs and wading/fishing. Never noticed a problem while shooting until yesterday. I had on a bright 'safety' shirt and the bifocal line was picking up the color when I was in direct sunlight. A bit distracting.

I wear glasses with progressive lenses for a couple of years now - best thing I have done for my vision ever! I put on the glasses when getting up in the morning and take them off when going to sleep. I wear them for archery, driving bike and car, hiking, reading, working, fishing ...

But - I did spent some money on them and didn't buy them at WallyMarket, I got them done professionally!

Michael

Kevin/K Cummings depicted the reality perfectly. Progressives always require adjusting head position to avoid their blurs.

Presumably that's little (or no) problem for mild corrections. This has nothing to do with "quality" of lenses, tho some opthamologists (the most highly trained people) and maybe even some opticians can minimize the problem by using certain labs.

For me, with lifelong heavy correction (same as my father's), and aiming down the shaft 3-under, it's critical that I NOT adjust my head position to comply with the demands of my "lined" bifocals partially because some/many situations make it difficult to avoid the "near" (wrong) lens AND because shooting 3-under requires stable glasses positioning on my head: my top anchoring finger can unexpectedly cause glasses movement, bringing the "near" (wrong) lens into my sight picture.

....it was a relief when I finally stepped up to the plate and paid for new single-prescription glasses (I opted for expensive lenses but plain cheapos would have been fine). Nice not to have to deal with that "near" lens.

I may be late to the party but I wear good progressive glasses and at first it was no problem shooting instinctively. Then after 6 months or so the target started to get blurry or even double. I tilt my head and cant the bow. Nothing else has changed, the prescription is still the correct one. What I discovered is that I was having a problem with accommodation. I had been using my eyes a lot for close up work and the eye muscles had gotten fatigued. They no longer could change focus quickly from near to far... which is needed when shooting, if you look at the bow and the arrow when nocking the arrow and then look at the target. This happened to me decades ago and an eye doctor helped me correct it with eye exercises. I started doing those again, and when I got to shoot I spend a few moments first relaxing the eye muscles while practicing looking near and far, back and forth, a few times. I even set up markers every yard or so to the target so I could control the accommodation better by focusing at one at a time until reaching the target, and then back again. All this has helped a lot.

Renewed Archer x2

That is the problem most guys have when switching to progressives. You have to train your eye movement and once you are used to it, it's like instictive shooting ;-)

And you really have to get excellent progressives. My first set I bought from a certified optician and the did cost a fortune. I struggled most of the problems described above.

A couple of years ago I was appointed as Safety Engineer at work and was in responsibility of protection glasses. During a meeting I described my tasks to the technician of our supplier for safety glasses: measuring/soldering circuit boards (10"), next moment I have to look at the control panel (2 yards) and next moment I have to watch the end of the production line (100 yards). He said: "Sure, we will provide you lenses which will cover all of that."

I got my safety glasses and stepped into a new world of vision! The difference between the lenses of the certified optician and those safety glasses was amazing. So I asked them whether they could provide me lenses for private use - they did. Meanwhile I have 3 sets from them, I provided the frames (Ray Ban, Nike, Oakley Sports) and they fitted the lenses. There is nothing magic about progressives, but the manufacturer has to get very detailed information about how to grind/hone the lenses.

And the best thing is - they cost a fracture of those from the optician!

Michael

Buy a pair of glasses for shooting without bifocals. Or buy a pair with a narrow strip of bifocal at the very top of the lenses.

Side note on plastic lens progressives. My progressives were made out of plastic that dang near all glasses are made from today. IME plastic is total crap for longevity. I'm a carpenter and need real glass lenses, because glass holds up to site abuse, let alone normal abuse. Plastic glass lens are pathetic. They attract airborne particulates due to magnetic charge. Mine were wasted within a month and they cost $300. Plastic lenses imo are a huge con job. The profit margin in eyewear is HUGE.

Also, I shoot my bow with lined (glass) bifocals with no problem at all.

I think the best answer is to buy a second pair just for shooting and distance sports. Thanks for the feedback. Another option I'll look into next year is contacts.

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