LENS TESTING PART 3 By CAP-N-BOB

After a 3 week delay for other duties and a few shootin contests here is part 3 of my lens testing. The last testing to be done was with the .5 front lens in SUPER PICKLE, my # 1 MRP rifle chambered in 240 NMC. After the first tests at 600 yards I repeated a few checks at 100 yards on my home range. The results were essentially the same so I accomplished test 3 at 100 yards. Rather than repeat what was done in the first 2 tests Ill just say I did the same procedure in this test using the .5 lens in the 22MM front. The results with the .5 lens and any combination of rear lenses were unacceptable. All sight pictures were worse than with just the .5 lens alone. I then reinstalled the .3 lens and repeated with all combinations of rear lens including the Micro Sight. The results were the same as previously reported. Since we last talked I have fired eight 20 shot matches at 600 yards with 2 different 240 rifles & iron sights and my 6BR NRA match rifle. My 2 best sight pictures and scores were with the 22MM .30 front lens alone and the Anschutz 9530 rear iris with 1.5 power & no front lens. Scores fired at 600 yards with my 6BR match rifle were also best with the .3 front lens and nothing in the rear. And finally, best sight picture with the Palma rifle was with the .37 30MM front. When using the .5 front the aiming black was clearly bigger and at first glance it seemed easier to hold on this bigger black. However the black did also seem to be a little fuzzy around the edge. I did not think this was a problem but I had more off call 9s & 10s with the .5 lens than with the .3. These off call shots were all around the clock and mostly not wind losses. For the record, I wear glasses for near & distant vision and the prescription has been very stable for about 15 years. My shooting glasses have the Ambermatic or Autum Gold lenses with the same prescription as my street glasses. I have found the Ambermatic to give me slightly more contrast and a slightly better sight picture than clear or yellow lenses. This is true under about any combination of bright or cloudy days. About 3 years ago my eye doc told me during the routine check up his test indicated I could use a very slight increase in the power of my shooting glasses. I got the new prescription with clear lens. It was immediately apparent that this new prescription was slightly worse than the old prescription with Ambermatic lens. The doc was unable to explain why the new prescription was worse than the old other than the lens color. My shooting box also contains the snap on 6 color lens set available thru OK Weber and others. I have tried all 6 colors under about every possible combination of bright and cloudy conditions. For what its worth the only 2 that have ever seemed to help a little are the grey/smoke color and the yellow under dark cloudy sky. At this point I have decided to stick with the Ambermatic glasses and the .3 front/.37 or Anschutz rear 1.5 iris for all my shooting. My AR15 service rifle has a Micro Sight and the front post is probably more clear than it was 30 years ago but the aiming black is far to fuzzy for holding. So, Im going back to the Bob Jones service rifle lens. Ill leave testing on a 22 small bore rifle to another shooter! So many rifles, so many lenses, so little time! Bob