Shooting glasses and prescription glasses are both designed to help you see better, but they serve different purposes. Prescription glasses are meant to correct vision problems, while shooting glasses are specifically designed to protect your eyes from projectiles.
Differences Between Shooting Glasses And Prescription Glasses
The main difference between shooting glasses and prescription glasses is that shooting glasses are not meant to correct vision, while prescription glasses are.
Shooting glasses are designed to protect the eyes from projectiles, such as flying debris, pellets, or BBs. Prescription glasses, on the other hand, are specifically designed to improve vision. They may also provide some protection against flying objects, but this is not their primary purpose.
Differences:
- Prescription glasses are made for specific eyes for better vision.
- Prescription glasses are difficult to replace.
- Prescription glasses have more lens options, including polycarbonate.
- Shooting safety glasses are made for all eye strengths.
- Shooting safety glasses are often much cheaper than prescription glasses.
- Certain tinted lenses work better for shooting glasses than regular prescription glasses (yellow, orange, etc.)
Similarities:
- Both can include readers.
- Both can have prescription lenses.
- Both use similar frame and lense materials.
- Both can be stylishly designed.
- Both can protect the eyes (flying debris, UV rays, etc.)
- Both are necessary for certain situations (shooting, reading, driving, etc.)
Prescription glasses are also made to help for reading. Reading glasses have incremental ratings from 1.00 to 3.00. Some shooting glasses have readers built into the lenses which help with reading signs and printed material, including maps at the range or out hunting.
Shooting glasses are often less delicate and lighter in weight than prescription glasses. Since they are not made for one set of eyes, they can be lost and replaced without having to go to an optometrist.
Do Shooting Safety Glasses Fit Over Prescription Glasses?
The answer to this question is yes, but also really depends on the type shooting glasses that you use. If they have a large enough frame, then most likely they will fit over your other glasses. If the shooting glasses have a small or thin frame, then they may not be able to. In this case, you would need to buy a different version of shooting glasses.
Prescription glasses will help you see better at the range. Most shooting glasses have a wraparound style that hugs the face and fits snugly. So, this design can make them difficult to wear over prescription glasses.
However, there are a few shooting glasses on the market that have a more traditional style with a larger frame. These glasses will fit comfortably over prescription glasses.
Shooting glasses that fit over prescription glasses will have large, oversized temples. These are usually clear or tinted polycarbonate that are bulky and not very stylish. They resemble regular generic safety glasses for general purpose use. Basically, they do the job of protecting your eyes while you wear your normal glasses.
If you are looking for these to purchase online, the best thing to do is to search specifically for shooting glasses that fit over regular glasses.
In Closing
Shooting is a dangerous sport and you want to keep eye safety at the top of your list when doing so. If you wear prescription glasses and shoot a gun, you should get regular shooting glasses or prescription shooting glasses to wear.
