A lot of us spend around 3K on a really nice scope and they're worth every penny in my opinion. However, when at the range one must wear eye protection and most of the time the glasses have worse than bad glass or even worse plastic. If you don't need glasses to see correctly try looking through the scope with and without the eye protection, you'll notice a HUGE difference. Any suggestions on minimizing the downfall of eye protection? I kinda feel like I wasted a lot of money buying that S&B! sometimes.
Rifle Scopes eye protection
- Thread starter komifornian
- Start date
What kind of eye protection are you using? Brand, lens color, polarized?
Like optics, buy good/quality eye protection. Now thats easier said than done as most people equate known name eyewear brands with being of good optical quality, sadly, thats not always the case.
One of the easiest ways to determine for yourself is to use a polarized lens and pass it in front of the eye pro lens. If you see "stars" or anything other than a clear lens, you are seeing the optical imperfections caused either by the poor quality lens or the deformation/forming/bending of the lens to fit in the frame creates. Often times a lens will be optically correct and clear when it is not in the frame but when they shape it to fit the frame and or place it in the frame it creates stress points in the lens which appear as little starbursts when viewed with a polarizer. These starbursts and other imperfections are imperceptible to your naked eye but you are actually having to look through these imperfections every time you put the glasses on.
One eye protection manufacturer I know of that uses optically correct glass and retains that optical clarity once the lenses are in the frame is Liquid Eyewear (Store - Liquid Eyewear - Polarized Sunglasses ). The other added benefit is that they are ANSI Approved and offer true ballistic protection as they have met the ANSI and Mil Spec requirements for protective eyewear. Compared to what we spend on other doo-dads in shooting the cost for a pair of these glasses is not that bad and they are not only super durable, they are 100% made in the USA. I have several pairs of them and swear by them. They even do in lens RX's if you need corrective lenses.
I used polarized oakley..flourescent yelow..
Thanks for help!
Ranger Shooting Eyewear | Randolph Engineering :: Sunglasses and Shooting Eyewear
I got my sets for competitive trapshooting, but they work great for all shooting sports.
Places like Allan Lehman Optical in Arizona and Morgan Optical will grind prescription lenses to have the sweet spot where you would be looking with your head on the stock.
And the nose bridge is adjustable -- which comes in handy if you're going from rifle or shotgun to handgun.
You can get plano, prescription, polarized, and a multitude of coloured lenses. I must have a dozen lenses from clears with AR coating on both sides for low-light shooting to a variety of shades to optimize contrast and comfort depending on weather (and even target colour when trapshooting). Lehman has made me custom lenses tinted to my specifications.
They also work well with blinder kits (Morgan will include some if you ask) which help with wind, dust, your neighbour's spent casings, etc., getting you in the eye.
There's also Decot.
A set of frames and some custom lenses can set you back, but like you said -- you spend a lot on your gun and optics so doesn't it make sense to get the best you can?
I got my sets for competitive trapshooting, but they work great for all shooting sports.
Places like Allan Lehman Optical in Arizona and Morgan Optical will grind prescription lenses to have the sweet spot where you would be looking with your head on the stock.
And the nose bridge is adjustable -- which comes in handy if you're going from rifle or shotgun to handgun.
You can get plano, prescription, polarized, and a multitude of coloured lenses. I must have a dozen lenses from clears with AR coating on both sides for low-light shooting to a variety of shades to optimize contrast and comfort depending on weather (and even target colour when trapshooting). Lehman has made me custom lenses tinted to my specifications.
They also work well with blinder kits (Morgan will include some if you ask) which help with wind, dust, your neighbour's spent casings, etc., getting you in the eye.
There's also Decot.
A set of frames and some custom lenses can set you back, but like you said -- you spend a lot on your gun and optics so doesn't it make sense to get the best you can?
I generally just use some polarized Wiley X's.
Tagging this one, my eyes are starting to go, just started wearing reading glasses, guess its what happens when you hit 50.
You can have custom glasses made with plain lenses (aka plano lenses) using as high quality glass or plastic as you wish. I use a number of different shooting glasses ranging from prescription 58mm Ray-Bans in Rose Copper to ESS customs with multiple eyeshields and custom lenses. If you're shooting a $3,000 rifle using a $3,000 scope, I would invest in decent eye protection, but I do that for all my hunting and target shooting...and my rifle/optics in total don't cost what a S&B scope alone does. BTW, I like polarized lenses to control glare and reflection off water. Don't use them when riding your motorcycle though, you'll miss the oil spots.
FH
I just wear my Smith ballistic polarized sunglasses to the range. I haven't really noticed any serious diminished effect, but then again, I usually pull them up on my forehead when looking through the scope...
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