Cheap Glasses

I'm cheap.

The less I spend on other things, the more I have for bullets. And as any Bullseye shooter will tell you, to get good, you have to push a lot of lead downrange and, as most of you know, lead is not cheap anymore. Gone are the days of three or four cent heads. Today, you're probably looking at eight to nine cents for a 200 grain LSWC, and if you buy in 5000 unit quantities, that's not small change.

So when I get a chance to save some significant bucks, I do it.

I recently came across what has to be just about the cheapest place for glasses. Not surprisingly, it is in the People's Republic of China and everything is handled through the web. You choose your frames and lenses through the web, enter your prescription through the web, and you order and pay through the web. And then about two weeks later, your glasses arrive ... via the postman.

The place is Zenni Optical (http://www.zennioptical.com/) and I decided to order a pair of glasses for iron sights both to see the quality of their work and so I'd have something specifically for shooting.

Since I would be entering the numbers into their website for my prescription, I didn't want to spend a lot of money only to discover I had done something wrong. This would be a "test pair" to see if the system, mostly me, would work.

A pair of single-vision glasses in Zenni's cheapest frames would be $8.00 plus $4.95 shipping, or $12.95. That's what I would try.

Of course, I needed an accurate prescription and that's not something I can do. For that, I needed a professional and, as luck would have it, not very long ago my work had taken me to the bay area and I made an appointment with Dr. Norman Wong who happens to also be a Bullseye shooter. If anyone knows what a shooter needs for his eyes, Norman is the very best in the world. (He let me shoot his Masaki 1911 a few days later at the Sunnyvale club, but that's another story.)

At Dr. Wong's office, after the most thorough eye exam I've ever had which included the fine tuning of my prescription on both iron and red dot sights "shooting" out the front window of his store, I had three prescriptions, one for my daily use (the progressives), another for a lense for use with a red dot and Knoblock frames which I said I was going to buy someday, and the third for shooting iron sights. (I shoot with my right eye even though I am left-eye dominant. Again, that's another story.) Here are the prescriptions (O.D. = right, O.S. = left):

Progressive

		Sph.	Cyl.	Axis	Prism	Base
D.V.	O.D.	+125	-100	90
D.V.	O.S.	+125	DS
N.V.	O.D.	+200	ADD
N.V.	O.S.	+200	ADD

Red dot for Knoblock shooting glasses

		Sph.	Cyl.	Axis	Prism	Base
D.V.	O.D.	+150	-100	90

Iron sight

		Sph.	Cyl.	Axis	Prism	Base
D.V.	O.D.	+225	-100	90

The shooting glasses I wanted would have single vision lenses only with the left eye focused at distance and the right eye focused on the front iron sight. I used the left eye progressive prescription without the "ADD", and the right eye "Iron Sight" prescription as follows.

My Combined Order

		Sph.	Cyl.	Axis	Prism	Base
D.V.	O.D.	+225	-100	90
D.V.	O.S.	+125	DS

Because these would be my shooting glasses, I wanted to be sure they would also function as safety glasses. I emailed Zenni Optical to ask about the materials they use. Here is their reply:

Dear Mr/Ms. Skinner,
All of our Single Vision, Bi-Focal and progressive bi-focal lenses are premium quality high index Polycarbonate composite polymer high impact resistance lenses with full UV protection, special strong anti-scratch coating.
Thank you for your interest in Zenni Optical.

That sounds good.

The last thing needed was my inter-pupillary distance, the distance between the centers of my pupils when looking far away. Zenni Optical's website recommended having someone make this measurement for you. It's not something you can easily do for yourself. I found a metric ruler since they wanted the measurement in millimeters and had my son do it and we followed the instructions on Zenni Optical's website. We measured 64 millimeters. (Later, I had the optical department at CostCo repeat the measurement. They came up with 66 millimeters, close enough to 64 that the difference does not matter, especially for the single vision lenses I was ordering.)

My Order

		Sph.	Cyl.	Axis	Add
D.V.	O.D.	+2.25	-1.00	90	0
D.V.	O.S.	+1.25	0		0

I entered my Pupillary Distance as 64 in the order for single vision lenses, no coating, no tint, and in the $8.00 frames. That went to the P.R.C. along with my credit card information on May 1st (2008).

My glasses arrived by USPS on May 13th. They came in a plastic case with a cleaning cloth, in a rip-open, marginally padded mailing envelope. The return address was in San Rafael CA which, I presume, is where my shipment entered the mail after arriving from China (by unknown means).

Of course, I immediately tried them on, showed my wife who then wanted Zenni Optical's web address so she could see what frames to get for her new pair of reading glasses, and I got out my 1911 -- checked to be sure it was unloaded -- and dry-fired a dozen shots to check the right-eye focus. Yep, the front sight was crystal clear, exactly as I wanted.

Since then, I've used the new glasses on the line a couple of times. The front sight continues to be clear as a bell in my right eye, and after a shot with the 45, I can peek around the blinder I wear on the bill of my baseball cap to spot the hole down in the 50 yard target through the left lense. Yes, I still use my spotting scope but as often as not, the left distance-focused eye is sufficient with the LSWC 45 rounds.

My next order from Zenni Optical will be for my walk-around progressives. Probably rimless but with the best frames Zenni has. For less than $50, it's going to be hard to go wrong.

But I must add that, by "off-shoring", I am continuing a trend that makes it hard on some Americans. I know because I've been on the dirty end of this same stick. Indeed, in 2002-2003, I was out of work for almost a year because the software industry in which I had been employed for 20+ years was deserting the United States. My job, and that of almost all other software engineers in the United States, was going to India, Russia, the People's Republic of China and a dozen other countries where engineers are paid significantly less.

Yes, I know all about off-shoring. But there comes a point when you have to ask, "What do I need to do to take care of my family?" And after a year with practically no income, I had to find that answer. I won't bore you with the details but, suffice it to say, there were some changes that I had to accept. And there were some realizations in the industry that helped somewhat as well.

Today, I'm still employed in the software industry but with some significant differences. And today, when and where I can, I spend each buck a lot more carefully.

So, now it's time to order some 200 gr LSWCs.

Yikes! Have you seen the prices?

In Recognition, Memorial Day 2008

From those of us who have ...

... never known the horrors of combat,
... never had to find the courage to stay and fight,
... not seen the limp corpse of a friend who was just himself 10 seconds ago,
... not had to put our lives on the line "here and now",
... all our body parts intact,
... never been struck by a blast wave,
... never heard a bullet pass by,
... never had to stop -- kill -- someone who was trying to kill us,
... not been afraid to think of going home for what that thought might cause,
... and most deeply, from those of us who, in our extreme ignorance, simply have no way of imagining what you have gone through and for what you have given us,

We am truly, profoundly, grateful.

It is only through the sacrifices that you made, that the ignorance we enjoy, has come about.

Thank you.

Finesse the Trigger

See that stack of rocks?

That's Steve Reiter, national champion Bullseye shooter many times over.

I call him a "stack of rocks" because if you finish your Slow Fire early and sit down to watch, he looks like an utterly immobile stack of rocks that's been like that for a couple of millenia. Nothing moves. The wind blows but nothing moves. A cloud hides the sun, nothing moves. A bird flies across the range but nothing, not even a muscle in his beefy, farm-boy arm moves.

Eternity.

Now there's no way I'm going to be able to stand that still. While I do have my better days when the wobble nearly stops for a second or two, when that happens, I so dearly want the gun to go "Bang" but, invariably, if I will it, I jerk it.

Years ago, Coach Pat had me hold the gun and do everything except pull the trigger. He did that. As a team, we shot a ten, two nines, an eight and a seven with five shots. Coach's lesson was that my "hold" was the seven ring even though my shooting (by myself) had a lot of fives and sixes.

He said, "Your problem is trigger control. Move the trigger straight back."

"Level and smooth," he would croon as I would try to follow his teaching.

So, I've learned to do a lot of dry-fire and to watch and see what the front sight does when the hammer falls. And recently, I've been seeing the front sight take a little bob downward. Sometimes I put the gun down, rest a moment and try again and it goes away. But other times, it's still there and ultimately I decide to stop because I'm obviously teaching myself to do the wrong thing. But what am I doing that causes it?

Not long ago, our car had a slight pull to the left. To compensate, we drove with a slight pressure to the right, not much, just enough to offset the left pull. The car goes perfectly straight as long as you keep up the pressure.

Pressing the trigger back on the 1911 and holding the gun really tight can end up in a similar situation. If your trigger pressure isn't perfectly straight, a strong grip can exert a counter-pressure and end up holding the gun perfectly straight.

But unlike the car, at some point the trigger hooks release the hammer. At that instant, the trigger floats free for a fraction of a second before bottoming out on the over-travel adjustment. During that fraction of a second, whatever unaligned force your trigger finger was adding is suddenly removed and the compensating force from your grip that was previously offsetting the crooked trigger pressure is released, and the nose of the gun twitches out of alignment.

Bang!

I once asked the members of the Bullseye-L emailing list how long it took, with everything in place and all lined up, from the time they committed to firing a shot to when the gun went off. Answers varied but the norm seemed to be somewhere between a half and a couple of seconds, no more than 2-3.

But when I watch Steve Reiter, I think it's longer, much longer.

Same with John Zurek. I know because I asked him what he was doing for the 30+ seconds I watched him routinely hold.

John said, "Movin' the trigger straight back."

Here's an interesting observation: The harder you grip the gun, the more it will mask a mis-aligned trigger pull, and you'll only know it when the hammer drops.

Oops, too late!

With a very strong grip, mis-aligned trigger pressure can't be seen before the hammer falls.

A gentler grip, on the other hand, will immediately show poorly directed trigger pressure; it will push the front sight away from alignment. Long before the shot breaks, you'll see the sights being pushed out of alignment.

Brian Zins says he "steers" the front sight with his trigger finger. He calls the sights his "trigger purity indicator."

A word comes to mind: finesse.

BassPro.com says finesse refers to "slowing down and using smaller lures, line, and rods."

And in Bullseye, perhaps it can mean using a less-than-crushing grip and finer "control" of the trigger.

Finesse the trigger.

Shiney Brass, More Xs

Shiney brass makes for more Xs.

It works like this. A shiney piece of brass will press a smoother surface onto the sides of the bullet. When such a bullet is then fired, it becomes subject to external forces and one of those is the impact of photons being reflected from the target face.

The white outer rings, being white and therefore reflective, put pressure on the bullet in flight and tend to push the bullet toward the center of the target where the black center is exhibiting a lesser or, if you will, a "sucking effect" by its absence of reflected photons.

Shiney (smooth edged) bullets are affected more uniformly than dull (bumpy edged) bullets and, hence, bullets made shiney by shiney brass are more likely to strike the X ring.

Interestingly, the white of the "X" in the center of the X ring does, however, tend to deflect shots. That's why hitting the *exact* center of the "X" is so rare.

This is nothing new, however. The Lone Ranger knew of this property and, therefore, reserved his famous silver bullets for bad guys whom, as we all know, wear black and therefore attract shiney bullets.

Simple.

---

Hey, it's a joke!

Mindless Entertainment

Shooters learn Bullseye much the same way they do any other sport. They study, they experiment, they practice, they talk to others, they get coaching directly and indirectly. They commit things first to memory and then to body actions and, if everything goes well, they become as proficient at the sport as their abilities permit.

But it is also true that Bullseye is significantly less physical than some sports. In Bullseye, for example, there is no running. On the contrary, Bullseye shooters stand for relatively long periods of time nearly motionless. And when they do move, it is what appears to be a leisurely stroll down to the targets and back. But this is not because Bullseye shooters are lazy or laid-back. On the contrary, that leisurely pace is very intentional. Bullseye shooters do not want to elevate their heart rates. The sport requires it. When firing a string, Bullseye shooters want as motionless a stance as possible to minimize their wobble and, in turn, improve their accuracy on the target. Walking fast raises the heart rate, increases the wobble, and worsens the shots. No, Bullseye shooters walk slow for a reason. They take it easy for their next shot.

But, Bullseye is very much like other sports in one key way.

Consider a world champion tennis player. They are certainly very physical running left, right, forward and back, stretching and stooping for each shot. But consider also that player's mental state while playing. Specifically, for a world-class player, how much self-talk are they doing once a volley begins?

Beginners do a lot of self-talk.

"Do this, do that, grip the gun tightly, focus on the front sight," are among the common self-talk statements that beginners use to train themselves in Bullseye.

And no doubt beginning tennis players do the same. "Spot the place where I want the ball to go, loft the ball high and stretch up for the serve, now execute a smoothly increasing swing," they might tell themselves.

But for the world-class tennis player, all of that is automatic. They've trained and practiced and everything they do has become completely unconscious. Indeed, it probably feels instinctive and the conscious mind simply watches as the ball is served and the volley played out.

In this, Bullseye is the same.

Indeed, many experts would probably agree that, as a given player's skill rises, all sports become mental games.

"Attitude is everything," some say.

"Visualize what you want," others recommend.

"Focus on the goal."

As the champion tennis player launches the ball up in the air to be served, his or her thinking has stopped. There is silence in the head. The body is on automatic. The eye sees; the body moves. It is a fully integrated machine.

The brain is only permitted to watch, not to act.

Think of sitting on the sofa and watching TV. The brain watches, it is entertained, but it does not participate.

Mindless entertainment, we call it.

At the upper skill levels, all sports have this in common.

Mindless entertainment.

In Bullseye, after the basics are learned, after shooters learn how to hold the gun, set their natural point of aim and move the trigger straight back to release the shot, an active, talkative, "do this, do that" brain is a hindrance. It messes up the shot.

The brain must be silenced.

Tell it.

"Please be quiet now. I'm going to shoot. Just watch. You're going to like this. This is going to be good."

It's OK for the brain to watch. In fact, it's good for the brain to watch. It likes to relax and be entertained. The brain enjoys the action and when the string ends, then it can become active and talk to the other shooters, score targets, notice that the body is thirsty and direct it to get a drink of water.

Bullseye must be intensely entertaining to the mind or we wouldn't keep shooting for all the years it takes to become expert at this sport.

Think of anything non-essential that you have, nonetheless, voluntarily done for years. Why do you do it? Because you enjoy it. It is amusing. It is entertaining. It has to be or you would have abandoned it long ago.

In Bullseye, the brain's recognition of improvement feels great. It likes it. And recognizing what caused some bad shots during a string can be amusing. I've had a lot of shots that made me laugh. I don't particularly like them, but I do enjoy them when they happen.

And the brain talking with the other shooters is a vital part of the sport. We are, after all, social creatures. We find it enjoyable to talk with the other shooters when we're not in the middle of a string, and I'm quite certain they do to.

But, when it comes time for the next string, the mind must again become quiet. It must not speak. It must not be active.

As with TV, the commercial is over and the program is starting again.

So, dim the lights and unmute the sound. Turn off the brain and watch the show.

Shooters to the line!

During a string, Bullseye must become mindless entertainment.

Maybe we should change the cadence:

• Shooters to the line.
• Brains, switch to silent mode. No talking inside or outside of the head.
• Bodies, this will be your first string of Rapid Fire.
• With five rounds, load.
• Brains, be silent on the line.
• Are the brains silent?
• The brains are silent.
• No thinking on the right.
• No thinking on the left.
• The line is not thinking.
• [Targets face, the string is fired, targets edge.]
• Make the line safe.
• Make the line noisy.
• Brains wake up, open mouths, start talking inside and outside of your heads.
• Is the line noisy?
• The line is noisy.
• Go down, talk as you walk, score your targets, make noise, visit with your neighbors, cover up that mess and stroll back talking all the way. Enjoy!

Bullseye done well is mindless entertainment.

Silence on the line!