Tinted glasses for indoor comps - are they legal ?

[Corax67]

Early this year I had one or two sessions as a visitor at a local club's indoor meetings and now the dark nights are set to draw in I thought I might give indoor a more serious go to supplement my weekly outdoor at my own club.

I popped along this evening to their first indoor of this winter season and shot a Portsmouth for the first time - rather enjoyed it, scored 531 which was quite nice.


One thing I find indoors as opposed to outdoors is I am struggling with the lighting, we are in a sports hall with fluorescent tubes, cannot quite put my finger on it but it's making me squint and causing a bit of eye strain.

When I shot pistol I was in the habit of wearing yellow or vermillion tinted safety glasses (colour depended on lighting conditions), a great many other shooters did too as they significantly improved target contrast. Now I am much older and my eyesight isn't what it was I would have to have a tint added to prescription lenses - not a massive cost but before I venture down this route I need a spot of confirmation.

On the back of tonight's shoot it has been suggested I enter a WA18 (record status) competition later in the year but having scoured the online copies of the rule books to ensure I will not fall foul of equipment or dress standards I cannot find mention of eyewear.

Are tinted glasses acceptable/permissible in competition ? ?

The consensus of club members tonight was a mix of "yes / no / maybe / no idea" so I am looking for a definitive answer from one of the resident rule gurus please.



Karl

 

[bimble]

the question to ask would be, "why would they be illegal?", especially considering they are allowed outdoors. The answer is tinted glasses are fine. Just look at some of the World Archery coverage of the Indoor World Cup and you'll see plenty of archers using Pilla glasses.

 

[Corax67]

Thanks Bimble, knew I could rely on someone like you for a speedy answer.

I tend towards the "check everything first" approach to new things and as no one at the club wears tints I was unsure if they simply didn't from choice or if it was because of some ruling specific to archery I was unaware of.

The WA18 application form is quite intimidating as it quotes numerous rule numbers that need to be adhered to for equipment & dress as well as warnings about drug testing & stuff so I decided to err on the side of caution.

Will pop into the opticians over the weekend and price up a nice set of archery specs I think.




Karl

 

[Shirt]

Only slight twist is the whole lens has to be the same.

So you can't have a lens where most of it's frosted except for a small circle that you look through (as some rifle glasses are) or where part of the lens is yellow but part of it's green or clear... Equally no marks that could help aiming.

As long as the whole lens is uniform, it's fine. (Doesn't preclude you from having one whole lens yellow and the other one vermilion, etc)

 

[Rik]

The actual wording of the WA rule goes:
11.1.9.3. Prescription spectacles, shooting spectacles and sunglasses may be used.
None of these may be fitted with micro-hole lenses, or similar devices, nor
may they be marked in any way that can assist in aiming.
11.1.9.4. Should the athlete need to cover the spectacle glass of the non-sighting eye,
then it shall be fully covered or taped, or an eye patch may be used.

Which leaves a lot of leeway.

That's helpfully hidden in the "equipment" section, under a heading which implies that it's about spotting scopes, not eyewear....

 

[geoffretired]

Just a thought, would clip on polaroid sunglasses help?
I wear polaroid sunglasses outside to cut down glare without making everything look dark.

 

[Corax67]

The actual wording of the WA rule goes:
11.1.9.3. Prescription spectacles, shooting spectacles and sunglasses may be used.
None of these may be fitted with micro-hole lenses, or similar devices, nor
may they be marked in any way that can assist in aiming.
11.1.9.4. Should the athlete need to cover the spectacle glass of the non-sighting eye,
then it shall be fully covered or taped, or an eye patch may be used.

Which leaves a lot of leeway.

That's helpfully hidden in the "equipment" section, under a heading which implies that it's about spotting scopes, not eyewear....

The rulebook is a pain in the proverbial to try and find anything in - an online search facility would make life a whole lot easierYellow specs will be ordered on the morrow.



Karl

 

[Corax67]

Just a thought, would clip on polaroid sunglasses help?
I wear polaroid sunglasses outside to cut down glare without making everything look dark.

Not sure Geoff - I know yellow lenses have been successful in the past for me so will go the "tried & tested" route first I think. A spare set of specs with a tint via Tesco is only ?35 so won't break the bank.



Karl

 

[mk1]

The rulebook is a pain in the proverbial to try and find anything in - an online search facility would make life a whole lot easierYellow specs will be ordered on the morrow.



Karl

You can search through the PDF download

 

[Mormegil]

The blue pillas are also quite popular.

 

[Rik]

You can search through the PDF download

If you're using a pdf viewer which supports searching... (some of the ones on Android don't).

 

[KidCurry]

Depending what lighting sources are used will drive your tint requirement. Fluorescent lighting tends to come in 4 colour temperatures:
Warm-white 2700 K
Neutral-white 3000 K
Cool-white 4100 K
Daylight 5000 K to 6500 K

I suspect in a sports hall or agricultural hall it will be around 4000k, at the blue end, which means yellow tint will have a greater effect than outdoors, but any tint will cut down light levels.