The Eyes Have It
OSGWA Training Editor, SGW Bob Mullinax, Love County

I don't know how many of you have noticed, but several s ago Oklahoma started making the print on the driver's license smaller. As a cost cutting measure I'm sure saved a lot of money for the state, but it forced me to purchase a set of reading glasses. These worked well for a while though it was a minor hassle while working on lake. When making a contact I had to take off the sun glasses put on the readers to look at the license and conduct my business, take off the readers and put the sunglasses back on.

I operated like that for a while until I began to notice that numbers on the instrument panel of the pickup were fuzzy, as was anything within arms reach. It was time to get real glasses. To make the transition easier I had my prescription put in the same frame that I'd used for sunglasses for twenty-five years. That worked for a while then the front sight on my pistol became difficult to see clearly No problem, I just started tilting my head back to through my bifocals. That became a real pain in the in short order. My search for the solution ended when
trifocals installed in the top of my glasses. Now I can the tiny print on a driver's license, the speedometer on the truck and my pistol sights without carrying three sets of glasses around.

It was a little chilly this morning, so I wore a hooded sweatshirt on my walk. While walking into the wind cold air was coming around my glasses into the hood. No problem. I took my glasses off and stuck them in my pocket and cinched the hood down tight. Of course thing immediately snapped into a soft blur. While squinting around, I began to wonder if I could see to shoot if I lost my glasses or if they got knocked off.

I decided that I really ought to know how much trouble I would be in if something like that happened. I dug out my old pair of shooting glasses that I had from back when I could see, packed up my hearing protectors and all the need I would need and headed for the range.

I took off my regular glasses, put on my shooting glasses, and ran through a qualifier with handgun, shotgun and rifle. Here are the results.

With the pistol, as you can see in the photos, I did pretty well on the up close stuff, and fair past the 15 yard line, although I have no idea where the two shots from the 50 yard line went.

The shotgun is equipped with rifle sights and the patterns with buckshot at 7 and 15 yards were well centered, as were the 25yard slugs. The 40-yard slug went low and the 50yard slug went lower. It wasn't until after I finished the rifle course that I figured out what was happening and what could have caused it. With the rifle, the close range snap shots were ok, however once I got to the 100-yard line the group started to spread out. The problem was, of course, that with both the front sight and the target being out of focus it was very hard to tell exactly where the front sight was in relation to the target. I also noticed that the center of the group was lower than center mass. I think that I was subconsciously holding lower on the target in order to get a Fetter view of it. This would also explain the low hits with the shotgun.

I actually did a lot better than I thought I would. That may have been because I was under no real pressure. What would have been the results if I had lost my glasses in an altercation or a vehicle crash? What if my vision were degraded by my (or someone else's) use of OC?
At least I know what to expect, now that I've tried it. I will also devote a little of my range time to continued practice. If you wear glasses, maybe you should too.