B585

As I stated in previous posts, it is unlikely that amblyopia would develop in an 8 year old under these circumstances, but it is not impossible. A more likely problematic scenario would be to induce a strabismus in a child with limited fusional amplitude or make an underlying strabismus worse (such as an intermittent strabismus becoming constant). In any case, the purpose of all of my posts was to make people aware that messing with the visual system without first discussing it with a qualified doctor can result in problems a kid's visual system. I would bet that most people who don't work in a profession relating to vision would have no idea that patching a child's eye COULD create unnecessary problems for that child.

Look closer at what causes amblyopia. It is caused by one eye not receiving clear vision during development. This could be from an eye turn, a difference in prescription between the eyes, or occlusion (a patch, eyelid droop, etc) to name a few. Yes, a patch is often used to treat amblyopia to block the good eye (non-amblyopic eye) from seeing so the kid has to use the bad eye (amblyopic eye). Since the good eye has been doing all of the detailed seeing and because when there is no patch on, the kid will use the good eye, there is a very low risk of inducing amblyopia on the good eye. While wearing a patch on the good eye, the amblyopic eye is forced to be used and can improve (if caught early enough). When you are dealing with “normal “ eyes on a kid and you decide to block vision in one repeatedly with a patch, eventually you cause the eye you are patching to become amblyopic because it is not being used. Also, true depth perception doesn’t fully develop until later than 20/20 vision and this only develops by using both eyes at the same time. Good true depth perception requires 2 good seeing eyes.

Never patch a young kid’s eye unless prescribed by optometrist/ophthalmologist!!!! You are risking creating amblyopia which is an eye that is not capable of reading 20/20, a strabismus (eye turn), reduced depth perception, etc. You don’t have to believe me, but at least Google it. There is a reason vision screenings are recommended at 6 months old and that is trying to catch amblyopia before it becomes permanent. Patching a good eye on a young child can cause amblyopia and/or the other problems I just mentioned.

^^^This. Walking the stage is not the same thing as visualizing exactly where the place I going to aim on EACH target is. I used to walk the stages a bunch and think I will shoot this array and then that array, etc. I would often make mistakes. When I started to visualizing (I actually close my eyes) and picture every target. If I can’t instantaneously identity each target with my sights on the target where I want them to be, I am not ready to shoot. I try to do this every time there is a new shooter until it’s my turn.

It really depends on the specific platform. When I start shooting a new platform, I start experimenting on what is going to work for it. For the most part I have found that my elbows are slightly bent out. The larger the frame (what I prefer), the less out (lateral) my elbows go out. I am shooting a Tanfo right now. When I shoot a CZ I have elbow flared out pretty far. When I shot an M&P, I was somewhere in the middle. I do not actively push the gun down or up, it just returns on its own. For me, I play around with the grip by adding grip tape or silicone carbide and it amazes me how a little here or there makes a difference. I have 2 indentical Tanfos but they have ever so slightly different grips (I made them myself and tried to make them the same but they didn’t come out that way) and just that very little difference causes one to shoot perfect on fast splits and the other tends to track slightly low. Again we are built different so that may not be the case for you, but it definitely works for me.

In my less than expert opinion, I believe the wrist lock is more important than elbow bend. We are built a little different so YMMV, but after shooting multiple platforms I get the most consistency and best tracking by locking my wrist. The doubles drill really works well for helping you figure out what grip/wrist/elbow position will work best the platform you are shooting.

I was going to send this is as a PM, but decided that since we are talking about children’s health, this response should be public. Do NOT occlude one of your kid’s eyes at this age without getting approval from an eye doctor first!! There are too many variables for me to type, but there are risks of creating visual problems at this age from occlusion. I admit the risks are relatively low, but they are present and being able to shoot a pistol better at the age of 8 is certainly not worth it. You are welcome to PM me about this if you have any questions. For the record, I have no problems with using occlusion in ADULTS and have used that method myself.

Assuming your kid has fully functional vision (20/20 or better in each eye, normal depth perception, normal contrast sensitivity, no eye turn) count your blessings. Without knowing the strength of the dominance in hand and eye, a definitive answer can’t be given. Let your kid try different methods and see what works best for him. Never occlude an eye with tape or any other method at this age unless his eye doctor states it would ok. Although the visual system is mostly fully has developed by age 8, there is still some risk of creating problems by occlusion, incorrect glasses, etc....the last thing you want to do is mess that up.

I might add a couple of things to consider and why match performance may not be the same as practice. Assuming you haven’t developed any near-sightedness, a +1.00 by itself will still be focused at 1 meter from your eye which isn’t even to the front sight of your gun. The reason why you are seeing the front or rear sight in focus is because your eye is accommodating (focusing). In this case it is over-focusing. If you can’t get the front sight in focus with a +1.25 it is because your eye focusing muscle won’t relax. Some of this is automatic.. you know at a certain distance your eye needs to focus at certain amount. The problem is it doesn’t relax now that you have put a +1 in front of it. The thing that complicated this is that at 43, your focusing system is struggling to keep up all day if you have do any significant focusing at near. Basically the focusing system tends to “spasm” when it gets tired which results in the eye not completely relaxing nor will it completely focus as much as it would first thing in the morning when it is fresh. I would at the minimum recommend to do all of your testing early in the morning, especially don’t sit in front of a computer several hours and then do your experimenting. You may not get the same results because your eye muscle is fatigued even if you can’t appreciate symptoms. If you love Limited, you can make it work in the future, but it will require a lot of effort which may not be worth it...only you can decide that one. Unfortunately another strike against you is your lack of strong eye dominance (which is why you have to squint to call your shots). By you making the targets blurry with the +.75, it is easier to make your brain pay attention to the front sight and see what you need to see. I hope you will at least try .75 left eye and +1 right eye early in the morning and see how it works especially with the FO blacked out on top.

Charlie, I am again going to ask you to retry monovision as soon as you shoot your last major this year if you want to stay in Limited. Although your best-corrected vision won’t get worse, your focusing issue will. It is not debatable, it’s a fact. To become the shooter you are, you have had to overcome more obstacles than I can count (none of us are GMs/top 16 national contenders). You can overcome this one, but you have to commit to it just like you would if you had a technical flaw in your shooting. If you give monovision a serious try (I would wear that all day initially), I would look at progressives or bifocals although the latter 2 do require you to hold your head different or have different heights which brings about other challenges. Nobody can know exactly what you are seeing, but I suspect you use the fiber optic to at least reference where your sights are during transitions,etc. In the short term I would recommend dry firing at speed and then live fire in various lighting conditions WITHOUT a fiber optic in your front sight or at least blacking the top with a marker. Teach your brain to use the black portion of the sight or at least the light between the sights as a reference. Finally I would recommend really analyzing the details of when lighting and the sight problems occur. Is it more likely with complete overcast, shadowed targets, hard cover, etc. and try to predict that during walk throughs. Will these techniques fix all the sighting issues? Of course not, but I would bet it will help your consistency.

No expert here, but I have had to work through accuracy issues and this is a few things that helped me. I started shooting with ONLY one goal in mind. SEE THE SIGHT LIFT. That was the thing that helped me the most. I suspect that part of the reason that helped was I was getting a perfect sight picture and then jerking the trigger. Also as I got more into USPSA and started to practice shooting at weird angles, shooting in and out of position, etc I figured out my wrist tension was inconsistent. I don’t know if that was an issue back when accuracy standing still at 10-15 yards was an issue, but I suspect it was. This is similar to what Memphis said. I also think it would be wise to verify that it’s not just the sights or how you align them/focus on them. I have purchased 3 used guns which were sighted in from experienced shooters and every time I found I would shoot high with them. My groups were good so I assume it is just the way I align/focus on the sights. I always just adjusted the sights and the guns worked fine for me. The good news for you is that you aren’t pulling them left or right.

Glad to hear others state what I always thought was happening but didn’t know for sure.

I have been trying to figure out exactly where this is catching. I think if I had a dental mirror, I could tell for sure, but I don’t have access to one. When I run something like an Allen wrench, I feel it catching on the interstate. Is it catching on the bottom of the mag tube (ie the mag tube’s diameter is smaller than the basepad). The only other way I could see it happening was if the mag tube’s diameter was larger than the basepad, but this seems less likely to me). Am I wrong? Also is anyone else now not able to see picture provided by CarlB86?

Yep. That is what I was referring to in my earlier post. From how the OP described his problem, your book on this covered it completely. The angle you approached it was something I had never thought of before reading it.