I used the verifier made by Specialty Archery, and it comes in I believe 5 different strengths. Once he determines the correct one, he's good to go. He won't believe the difference it makes!
FWIW, not only did my clarifier clear up my pins, it also cleared up the target as well. Good luck!
That was my problem as well.
I had tried larger pins, switching out all my pins to flourescent green, then fiber optics, and finally lighted pins, and even those began to get fuzzier and fuzzier until they were pretty much useless starbursts of color obscuring the view of the animal or target.
The verifier lenses were available in five different strengths when I got mine. May be more strengths available now, I haven't checked.
They did help clear up the pins an were very useful for target shooting. I personally found them to be good, but less than ideal, for hunting, though, because they reduced the amount of light available to the eye slightly, right at the times when it is most needed at dawn and dusk when we get so many shots.
If your dad already wears glasses, or uses reading glasses for that purpose, he would probably find it better to adjust his aiming eye vision with a lens for that eye of reduced strength from his regular reading glasses, that would yield sharp vision at thirty inches instead of the sixteen inches or so that reading glasses are normally designed to target for best sharpness.
The answer I liked best for me, was to use some soft daily wear contacts, with the right eye under-corrected for distance vision by about one diopter, to give me my sharpest focus at about thirty-six inches. The sharpness at forty yards was still pretty good, and with both eyes open, the left eye's image was the one my brain chose automatically and it seemed like my vision was great all the way from arm's length out to the horizon. That approach is called "monovision" and is very handy for shooting sports where open sights are used, and for some other sports where dealing with a scorecard is usually done often, such as golf and bowling. Many people who use this method go ahead and enjoy the advantages of it every day, and some find it preferable to only use it while engaged in their activity where it's most needed, and use eyewear that matches the focal length in both eyes for normal daily wear.
Like most choices in the field of eyewear, there are several solutions with varying degrees of success and desirability among the various users.
At age 80, a good eye exam would probably be the place to start. I'm 72 myself and we often have other complicating factors such as cataracts that should be checked for. In the case of cataracts, the surgery to correct that condition also provides an opportunity to solve the focussing difficulty with another choice.
Anyway, good luck in your search, and my best to your dad. Anybody who's eight years my senior and still pulling back the string has my respect!
I bought the newly available 5/16" verifier this spring and it has addressed the only problem had with them. The 1/4" was too small for my large pin guard, being actually only 3/16".
Go to a drug store and look through "computer" reading glasses. Pick a verifier one strength lower than the glasses strength.
Or better yet, find an archery shop with a peep kit and try different strengths.
If he doesn't do that, then he will pick the lens that makes the pin look the clearest, which naturally makes sense, however...
If he does that (without looking at a target down range at the same time), then the pins will be crystal clear and the target will likely be fuzzy or blurry.
The trick is to get the lens just before the one that makes it look crystal clear - that way the pin and the target will still be clear.
I wish somebody would have told me this prior to my purchase - I did not look at something down range - only concentrated on making the pin crystal clear.
My other tip would be to carry Q-tips readily accessible once he starts using it to hunt. That is about the only thing you can use to clean it with - and if it is raining or foggy etc - it will fog up - just hit it quickly with the Q-tip.
Finally, once the lens is in the peep -sometimes they start to "unscrew" themselves over a period of time/shots, to the point of falling out. This also happened to me over and over - a call to the manufacturer fixed it. They said to put a dab of regular everyday bowstring wax on the threads, then screw it back in. This completely fixed the problem for me.
Joe
There are pros and cons to using a verifier, but the pros outweigh the cons when your options are limited.
