I haven't been shooting my rifles in a while. Been shooting pistols & revolvers. I have a new rifle that I bought in 1986 and thought I'd give it some exorcise It has a Leupold M8 Target 24X scope on it. I put it on the bench and it was a blurry mess. I do wear glasses and their sorta round / oval. Getting my head in position I would get the top edge of the frame or the top edge of the bifocal in the picture. This is what was causing the blur. Then I noticed a mark on the glass and I took my glasses off to clean it and without thinking (I'm nearsighted) looked through the scope again and everything was very clear. WHY???
When I got home I looked through another 12X scope and the same thing. Howcome?
Thanks

This is a very common problem with glasses, especially with high power scopes. I'm also near sighted, and discovered along time ago, that sometimes the only way to focus a high power scope was to shoot without my glasses. Of couse contacts solved all these problems.

Yeah, this is a perennial problem for folks who need optical correction.

The sight picture of the target at 100 yards or the deer at 250 yards is not at 100 or 250 yards, but somewhere very much closer to your eye. Just exactly how far away from your eye it is has always been something of a mystery. The sight picture is somewhat blurred with corrective lenses for distance vision, and equally imperfect "reading" glasses.

As my eyes have aged and I have begun to need corrective lenses for best vision at either distance I find, like you, that my bare eye does best through the scope.

Maybe an eye doc will see this thread and provide a "better focused" response.

Thanks for the info.
I wish i'd known this years ago.
From now on I'm going to shoot naked (eyes).

"Maybe an eye doc will see this thread and provide a "better focused" response."
I hope so.

You know, these scopes surely have a focus on the occcular lens. You can focus the eyepiece for your particular vision problems.

I had the opposite problem. I have worn glasses for 50 years, but had cataract surgery last year. I discovered that I could not see a damned thing in any of my scopes. (I had them focused for my vision with glasses.) A simple adjustment of the occular lens fixed all that with no problems.

Be prepared if they are older scopes to make a rather large adjustment to make any real changes. Old Leupolds take a lot of turning to effect much change, while the new models have faster focusing eyepieces.

quote:

Originally posted by nvmichael I took my glasses off to clean it and without thinking (I'm nearsighted) looked through the scope again and everything was very clear. WHY???
When I got home I looked through another 12X scope and the same thing. Howcome?
Thanks

Your scope is an adjustable vision enhancing device, in other worlds, it is a higher power glass. You wouldn't wear 2 sets of eye glasses at the same time, would you? Think of your scope as half of a pair of corrective eye glasses.

I have to wear my progressives when I shoot, but do not use glasses when I look through binoculars. I have never tried to shoot without glasses...

quote:

You know, these scopes surely have a focus on the occcular lens. You can focus the eyepiece for your particular vision problems.

They can't correct for astigmatism. That's when the lens in the eye is not symmetrical. Correction requires a lens with a "cylinder" axis.