Can progressive lense glasses cause parallax errors?

[No.343]

I got distracted between relays of a match and wound up using my regular progressive lense glasses to shoot my last relay, I usually shoot with a pair of Decot Hy-Wide glasses. The whole relay just felt wrong and my score suffered. Now I'm wondering if progressive lenses can cause some sort of parallax errors. Have any of you experienced this?

 

[Triple BB]

I missed a nice buck twice with a friends rifle. Shot low both times. Did some practice with it afterwards and kept shooting low. He shot it and it was completely dialed in. Asked my eye doc this same question and he said in my case, yes.

 

[Geezedtee]

Not sure about them affecting parallax but they adversely affected my friends shooting. He couldn't understand why his proven load and rifle had suddenly blown his groups. I commented on his spectacles as I'd not seen him wearing them in the past? He said they were new. Try shooting without them I said and his group size mysteriously returned to normal.

 

[DiffEQ]

Amazed you could even see through your progressives to shoot.

 

[FNSafari]

I tried progressive lenses years ago. The idea of no line as in double vision intrigued me. In use though I could not get used to having to turn my head to see things in focus vs simply casting my eyes to the side or up and down. I tried for a month and just couldn’t get use to them. For me it was another solution in search of a problem.

 

[newbieshooter]

I shoot with progressive all the time. I dial out parallax on the scope as I normally do.

 

[jpx2rk]

I wear progressive tri-focals, and know that it causes me issues, I only shoot RFBR at the local club/state level, so I am very hesitant to change anything. CF rifles are for varmint purposes, (not competitions), so I just live with the changes in my eyes on a daily basis. Some days my groups are better than other days. LOL

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

I got distracted between relays of a match and wound up using my regular progressive lense glasses to shoot my last relay, I usually shoot with a pair of Decot Hy-Wide glasses. The whole relay just felt wrong and my score suffered. Now I'm wondering if progressive lenses can cause some sort of parallax errors. Have any of you experienced this?

You provide very little information.
Is there any prescription in your Decot glasses? If so, what is the prescription?

For your progressives lens glasses, I suspect you have bifocals. What is the prescription for distance vision? What is the correction for close up.?

Are you using a riflescope? (you don't even mention what kind of competition you were engaged in.) If yes, do you have the diopter set for your Decot. or is it for something else?

Progressive prescription glasses usually have the bottom portion of the lens with the close up vision (what you would need to see the reticle properly) and the rest of the lens is for your long distance correction. I have progressives and I find it impossible to view the riflescope through the bottom of the glasses unless I'm lying on my back or cranking my head so far back I'm actually looking at the sky behind me. Perhaps you are a better contorsionist than I, but I suspect it might be the same for you.

Now, parallax is induced by the fact the image of the target is not focused on the same plane as the reticle. That occurs inside the quality riflescope. You should never have to adjust the diopter setting once it has been properly set, to get a clear picture of the focal plane witht he target and the reticle.

However, if you are messing around with prescription, non-prescription and so on, you are going to have issues seeing the reticle properly. Things get very dicey sometimes with vision and changes to setups with which we are very familiar and comfortable can be very disturbing and lead to error.

I would suggest that it was not parallax errors but rather that you brain was trying to adjust to a different setup. If you are older, this issue is more likely to occur so make sure you keep it as consisten as possible.

Consistency in shooting involves everything: ammo, hold, sight picture, vision, etc...

 

[SSL]

I got distracted between relays of a match and wound up using my regular progressive lense glasses to shoot my last relay, I usually shoot with a pair of Decot Hy-Wide glasses. The whole relay just felt wrong and my score suffered. Now I'm wondering if progressive lenses can cause some sort of parallax errors. Have any of you experienced this?

Yep. In my case, I just make sure that my scope rings place the scope where my prescription tells me to then make sure I place my face in the same location each time I shoot. It doesn't take long to get used to it once you are aware of the issue. I don't shoot competitions, but it works for me out to 400 yards or so.

 

[Bronco302]

When I got progressive lenses (distance, arms length, and close) years ago my shooting group told me my shooting days were over. They were wrong, I never shot better in my life, went up a whole class in pistol, shotgun and rifle both improved as well. I think it has a lot to do with how you get behind the rifle and head position. I'm looking through the top of the lenses so the distance vision is the only part I'm using. I've seen a lot of people fight this but it's never been an issue for me.

 

[No.343]

You provide very little information.
Is there any prescription in your Decot glasses? If so, what is the prescription?

For your progressives lens glasses, I suspect you have bifocals. What is the prescription for distance vision? What is the correction for close up.?

Are you using a riflescope? (you don't even mention what kind of competition you were engaged in.) If yes, do you have the diopter set for your Decot. or is it for something else?

Progressive prescription glasses usually have the bottom portion of the lens with the close up vision (what you would need to see the reticle properly) and the rest of the lens is for your long distance correction. I have progressives and I find it impossible to view the riflescope through the bottom of the glasses unless I'm lying on my back or cranking my head so far back I'm actually looking at the sky behind me. Perhaps you are a better contorsionist than I, but I suspect it might be the same for you.

Now, parallax is induced by the fact the image of the target is not focused on the same plane as the reticle. That occurs inside the quality riflescope. You should never have to adjust the diopter setting once it has been properly set, to get a clear picture of the focal plane witht he target and the reticle.

However, if you are messing around with prescription, non-prescription and so on, you are going to have issues seeing the reticle properly. Things get very dicey sometimes with vision and changes to setups with which we are very familiar and comfortable can be very disturbing and lead to error.

I would suggest that it was not parallax errors but rather that you brain was trying to adjust to a different setup. If you are older, this issue is more likely to occur so make sure you keep it as consisten as possible.

Consistency in shooting involves everything: ammo, hold, sight picture, vision, etc...

You are right. I should have given more info. I was shooting mid range F-TR. I can't remember the prescription for my bifocals. I usually run my scope at 24x because cross firing is not polite. My Decot glasses have single vision corrective lenses. They are meant for pistol shooting. I am a pistol shooter who wants to learn how to shoot a rifle.
I distinctly remember adjusting the parallax on my scope and feeling I wasn't getting a sharp focus, nor could I find the mirage. I didn't pursue finding the mirage because the wind was blowing at 10 - 15 mph.

I was just wondering if this was a common issue. Thanks for all the replies.

 

[Knotwild]

Call Tom @ http://www.texasshootersoptical.com/

Of course he sells glasses, but he also knows glasses. He has taken time to explain things to me in the past.

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

You are right. I should have given more info. I was shooting mid range F-TR. I can't remember the prescription for my bifocals. I usually run my scope at 24x because cross firing is not polite. My Decot glasses have single vision corrective lenses. They are meant for pistol shooting. I am a pistol shooter who wants to learn how to shoot a rifle.
I distinctly remember adjusting the parallax on my scope and feeling I wasn't getting a sharp focus, nor could I find the mirage. I didn't pursue finding the mirage because the wind was blowing at 10 - 15 mph.

I was just wondering if this was a common issue. Thanks for all the replies.

Yeah, the conditions between you and the target will cause the image to deteriorate. On a clear day, especially in the morning, you can get a pretty decent image at 600 yards, and perhaps even at 1000 yards but as the day progresses, that goes to soft pretty quickly especially depending on the quality of the glass.

I shoot at 50X all the time, 24X is way to small for me to discern the X-ring so I can scare it by shooting all around it.

But yeah, observing the target through a riflescope is challenging and when the mirage and the wind gets involved, strange things occur on the target. One of the most common question is "what the fudge caused that shot?" That's F-Class for you. Try to minimize the issues by being consistent with glasses and so on.

 

[KY_Windage]

Amazed you could even see through your progressives to shoot.

He was no doubt looking thru the top half of his lens, like everybody else does when looking thru a scope, so the progressive section was not in play.

If one is seeing a good, clear image of the target and of the reticle, and the reticle is not on the target, there is no lens that is going to make the reticle appear to be on the target.

I wd look for another source for the problem.

 

[DGP4]

Simple answer is no. If you could see a sharp image through your scope with your progressive lenses there should be no parallax issue. You would probably need to adjust the objective if you used a different set of glasses to shoot. That would correct the parallax error.

 

[buckeye68]

I have progressive glasses I wear everyday but I can’t stand to wear them when I shoot. The top of my glasses hit where I’m looking through the scope. I take them off and set up my scope to shoot without them. I keep a set of readers to see close up when needed during my range session.

 

[No.343]

Lesson learned. Its amazing how many problems are solved during a well planned prep period. Its more amazing how many time I keep having to relearn some of those lessons.

 

[JEFFPPC]

I shoot with progressive all the time. I dial out parallax on the scope as I normally do.

Newbieshooter, thanks for an accurate answer. I have been shooting with progressive lens for decades. I love hearing the crazy ideas folks get in their heads. Nothing better to make them non competitive.

 

[striperfisher]

You provide very little information.
Is there any prescription in your Decot glasses? If so, what is the prescription?

For your progressives lens glasses, I suspect you have bifocals. What is the prescription for distance vision? What is the correction for close up.?

Are you using a riflescope? (you don't even mention what kind of competition you were engaged in.) If yes, do you have the diopter set for your Decot. or is it for something else?

Progressive prescription glasses usually have the bottom portion of the lens with the close up vision (what you would need to see the reticle properly) and the rest of the lens is for your long distance correction. I have progressives and I find it impossible to view the riflescope through the bottom of the glasses unless I'm lying on my back or cranking my head so far back I'm actually looking at the sky behind me. Perhaps you are a better contorsionist than I, but I suspect it might be the same for you.

Now, parallax is induced by the fact the image of the target is not focused on the same plane as the reticle. That occurs inside the quality riflescope. You should never have to adjust the diopter setting once it has been properly set, to get a clear picture of the focal plane witht he target and the reticle.

However, if you are messing around with prescription, non-prescription and so on, you are going to have issues seeing the reticle properly. Things get very dicey sometimes with vision and changes to setups with which we are very familiar and comfortable can be very disturbing and lead to error.

I would suggest that it was not parallax errors but rather that you brain was trying to adjust to a different setup. If you are older, this issue is more likely to occur so make sure you keep it as consisten as possible.

Consistency in shooting involves everything: ammo, hold, sight picture, vision, etc...

I think your backwards here....use the top part of your lenses to look through the scope....not the close up vision bottom part

 

[jackieschmidt]

I wear progressive lenses, I shoot Short Range Group and Score.

The glasses do not affect the scope performance at all.