Merit Optical says they are back in business, see
www.meritcorporation.com
But ... here's a simple, effective, and highly inexpen$ive DIY solution!
Like many of us I'm sure, my vision - even corrected with eyeglasses - is NOT what it used to be. You may have seen these Merit optical apertures that stick onto your eyeglasses or shooting glasses, like shown below. To me
they have a few drawbacks, including that they are
expen$ive (
$65!), are
tough to position or re-position and most importantly, they tend to
fall off in cccccccolder climates or in temp changes, like when you leave the cold range to go inside to a warmer environment.
Here's my solution, and what I've done to improve my ability to "see the sights"!
One caveat - You WILL find best results with NON-progressive lenses, as neither of these pairs of my personal shooting glasses to follow are 'no line progressives'. On progressive lenses, the optical center is soooooooo tight and narrow - and ONLY in the middle of the lens - that even without the attached aperture, seeing the sights 'as clearl' can be problematic. With progressives of any higher strength, if you don't look straight onto a subject ... you can't see it clearly, it will be fuzzy! If you yourself do OK with progressives ... then God bless you and consider yourself VERY lucky!
Note I am
left-handed, left eye dominant, hence the aperture of electrical tape is placed on my left eye, my master eye. The modern pair above are a single-line bifocal and I use them shooting high-power shoots on SATs with milsurp rifles. My ability to now see the sights clearly again places me in the top 2 shooters each week, usually rotating with
who got the #1 spot only by the # of X's shot. The other pair is a set of fairly period correct (less the plastic nose pads) glasses from Avalon Forge that just have a single distance (I am near-sighted) Rx prescription.
I have
never had one of my homemade apertures come off, but if they did, I also made a 'cheat sheet' template for each pair to allow me to quickly affix a replacement aperture right back in the same spot. I just overlay my glasses to the template and position it so that the 'hole" is over the black dot as shown. This aperture goes on the inside of the lens and I've had no issues with movement or falling off, even when MZL'ding shooting in temps < 20-degrees F and going into warmer places, nor even when cleaning the glasses.
Note the
'red dot' on these other pictures. This is the optical center of the lens, and
whether they tell you or not, the optical house grinds the Rx prescription to this point for where YOU look through, when they take that measurement for 'how far' your pupils are apart. However,
whilst shooting for the majority of the shooters, we do not and just cannot look through the optical center whilst shooting, due to how we cheek the stocks - as our heads are off to the side a bit and is not exactly 'straight' on towards the muzzle or target.
That is why these apertures, once affixed correctly, are positioned closer to your nose, whether or not you are RH'd or LH'd. Note these same pieces have now been in place for over 2-years! Doing so I can now see the front sight clearly, and average 1st or 2nd place in my weekly milsurp shoots offhand @ 100-yards and have placed within the top 10 shooters at the last 2 NE Flintlock Offhand Championship Shoots, but have taken 1st place at the 100-yard offhand match both years, of which I've only attended twice.
Not sure why, but my 25-yard scores prevents me from taking the top spot or top 3 spots, where only 1-point separates all of the top 10 scores.
Tip - I make a smaller hole on the modern glasses I use for all shooting, less that strictly for my MZL events or those where I have period clothing on. The smaller holes improves my sight picture, admittedly gives me a narrower field of view, but it is excellent for 'fixed distance/open range use. I find the larger field of view via a little bit larger aperture hole works better with the round lens of the 'old time' glasses and is much better for use in the woods, like whilst on MZL woodswalks, also where light conditions could be shades to dark(er).
Anyways ... I sure hope this info helps someone else out! Tight groups!
P.S. – Oh, you certainly don't need to see my full ugly mug ... but here's what those period glasses look like in use. I can see fine through them when not shooting and really don't notice the tape at all
when not shooting. In fact, very few people have said anything like,
"Hey, what's going on with your glasses or eye?" LOL!
