No Deadeye Dave Am I

Reality, in the form of aging eyes, dealt me a bit of a blow during today's weapons training. Our mission was to "zero" our rifles using high-tech laser transmitters stuck in the barrels of of rifles, in preparation for doing the same thing with real bullets this weekend. Zeroing is the process of verifying that the rifle sights are aligned with the barrel, so that the bullet goes where you are aiming. We were using the metal sights that come with the rifle, rather than the fancy combat optics. I soon discovered that my new army-issue protective eyewear, fitted with bifocal prescription inserts, allows me to see the rear sight clearly, and the target with no problem...but neither part of the lens brought the critical front rifle sight into sharp focus. Since we are taught to focus only on the front sight, seeing about 3 of them messed my shooting up pretty badly! After trying a few different suggestions from the instructors and "helpful onlookers", I ditched the combat glasses, and went back to my civilian progressive lens bifocals...Problem solved. I should have no such difficulty when using the combat optic at the range...otherwise they'll issue me a slingshot and a handful of ball bearings.