I’ve made the comment, “If you can’t see it, you can’t shoot it,” no less than a million times. The shooting sports revolve around your ability to SEE a target and put the sight picture together correctly. Now, there was an astonishing young lady that was legally blind and shooting for a high school team. She and the coach worked together on having her zero in on a sound played from behind the target to assist her in aiming. It worked! This scenario is on the other end of the spectrum though and brought to your attention to showcase just how incredible we are as a species.
When I sit down with new students, I run through a “Shooter Checklist,” where I can record their pertinent basic data as well as info about any physical concerns or issues. It’s important for me to understand if students may have issues with rotator cuffs, knees or backs, any recent dental work or if they require prescription glasses or contacts.
In teaching, it’s imperative I understand how my students learn and identify any roadblocks we may encounter on their paths to success. One of the most common problems is the student can’t physically see a clay pigeon. If they are a new student or a new to clay shooting student, they may not realize there are fundamentals to the sport, and no one has ever shared those with them before. For a refresher, check out this article, an oldie but a goodie from the Syren Savvy archives on how to break bad shooting practices.
Sometimes the issue is a poorly fitted shotgun or a shotgun that has never been fitted to them. Syren shotguns are built specifically for a woman’s physique. There’s no “shrink it and pink it” production line over at Fabarm and Caesar Guerini. From the ground up, every detail has been conceived with careful consideration of how a shotgun will fit and feel to a woman shooting it.
Once the roadblocks of gun fit and shooting fundamentals are addressed, the only remaining issue to work through is can and how does the student see the bird. I’m referring to whether or not the student can physically see the clay target in enough time, with enough light and in the correct sight picture to pull the trigger and reap success?
Sporting clays courses are 99.99% of the time tucked into the woods. There may be a few stations out in a sunny patch but for the most part, the trees are numerous and so are the shadows. I kinda feel like this a bonus for those of that prefer sporting clays over the other disciplines, as it keeps us cool in the summer, shielded somewhat from winds and rain and allows us to utilize those trees to set some really great references for hold points. I’ve narrowed down my hold point in a flight path down to a specific twig or a leaf on numerous occasions.
Due to the shadowy nature of a sporting clays course, a shooter is always better served by a light yellow or even clear lens. This will allow a shooter to find a clay easier in the shadows and correctly react to a target at the break point.
Skeet and trap fields are usually out in the middle of a field-style setting, so a little darker lens is required on super sunny days. A vermillion, light purple or something along those lines make great selections for those fields.
Now, some of you are looking over at your personal collection of 67 different colored lenses and that’s totally fine. Professional shooting lens companies are super smart. They know that it’s their job to give you the competitive edge. They’re also in the business to make money. At the end of the day, they are not a charity, and they want more and more shooters to wear their brands, not the competitors’. So why do they have a bazillion different colored lenses if you really only need 2, maybe 3?
Shooting glasses are meant to perform two main functions: protect the eyes from injury and assist in target acquisition. Let’s breakdown the easiest component first, protecting the eyes. Students always worry about shooting in their prescription glasses. Why? Because they are concerned that either their prescription glasses aren’t going to afford enough protection when shooting and/or they are concerned their prescription glasses, that they need well beyond the end of the lesson, are going to be damaged and they won’t have any way to safely navigate the world.
A frame/lens height on most prescription glasses is inadequate and doesn’t come up high enough when the shooter mounts the gun. Therefore, the prescription is rendered useless as the shooter is never looking through the lens and instead is looking over the frame. Use frames that come well over the top of your eyebrows.
A quick Google search unleashes a bevy of options for someone seeking a good quality shooting lens they can have their prescriptions put into. Expect to pay around $200-$300 on average for a single lens package with frames. You can certainly spend a little less and definitely spend a whole lot more, but it depends on your wallet and your wants and desires.
Back to safety, most frames are built with a polycarbonate that meets ANSI Z87+ standards for high-velocity impacts and the lenses are shatterproof. Keep in mind, it’s not so much the shot we are concerned about getting into your eyes, it’s the shards of clay. I saw this play out in real life several years ago. Someone on the line shot a close, incoming bird and a small pinky nail sized piece stuck right in the middle of another shooter’s glass. The velocity of the clay shard coupled with the sharp edges turned it into a mini throwing star and it landed in the left lens of the guy next to me! HOLY SMOKES!!! I’d always been an advocate for proper eye protection, but man, that sealed it for life!
So, now that we have our sturdy, impact-resistant and shatterproof glasses, what color are we going to install? Depending on the brand you select will determine the expanse of the selection. Pilla offers a virtually endless supply of colors. They’re probably the largest selection, but they also ask the largest price tag. Ranger RE has a selection of 4 lenses and boasts AI technology. You’ve also got WilexX, Trevix, Oakley, etc.
Is the higher price tag worth it? How much are you shooting and how much will it hurt to spend over $1000 for a set? The short answer is if you are shooting occasionally for a hobby, probably not – but, if this is for competition, strongly look at your higher end options.
The technology in lenses today is incredible. The manipulation of contrast and color saturation is off the charts. The reason there are so many different colors in shooting lenses is there are so many scenarios when we go outside to shoot. As we move through the sporting clays course from bright to dark to medium light areas, our light conditions are changing. The pupils are dilating to bring in more or less light as needed to assist our depth perception and ability to differentiate colors.
We are all familiar with the various filters available on our phones when editing pics. Many of us love to play around with the brightness, contrast and saturation to make an object or person stand out in the pic. Shooting glasses work much in the same way. Your lens selection will depend on the lens color, the brightness outside and the clay presentation. There have been plenty of times that I’ve pulled off my yellow lenses at the end of the day and was taken aback at how low light the sky was, but I never noticed since my glasses bumped up the contrast.
When your target is a little orange disc, it helps when you can quickly acquire that target and see it so clearly you can actually make out the ridges on the edge. This is particularly helpful when the clays are at distance.
When it comes down to it, you should take advantage of trying on glasses and selecting 2-to-3 lenses to cover the majority of shooting situations, bright days, medium light and low light/night shooting. How your eyes react to a particular color will let you know if that will work for you or if you need to keep looking. If you are color-blind, the new technology in lenses can open up a literal brand-new field of vision. No matter what pair of glasses you select, make sure you have your favorite Syren in hand, and you know exactly where to start your swing.
Check out the beautiful line of Syren shotguns, made for women by women, along with the perfect complementary eye pro.
Kate Ahnstrom, owner of Virginia Shooting Sports, is a certified, professional instructor of the Paragon School of Sporting. She has dedicated her life to sharing her passion for the outdoors and diversifying the dynamics on the clay course and the hunt field. Her tireless dedication to her students’ success is obvious in each and every lesson. Kate is on the pro staff for Syren, the resident pro at Orapax Hunting Preserve and the Preserve at Dundee, department editor for “Woods and Waters” magazine and field staff member of the Sisterhood of the Outdoors. She and her husband, Mike, enjoy their small farm in central Virginia where they have a menagerie of animals and plenty of room to train and work their beloved GSPs. Kate loves getting behind the barrel of her Syren Tempio Sporting in 20 gauge for all things clay and feathered. View all posts by Kate Ahnstrom
Start the Conversation