Tips for aging eyes?

[eric nielsen]

Depending on your vision, this might help you, page 14-15: http://www.frontsightmagazine.org/archives/FSEuroAnnual09.pdf

I've been doing this for the last week, one practice and one match and a lot of home dry-fire. I don't have aging-eyes focus problems, just an ongoing problem of double vision unless I scotch-tape the left eye's view of the sights.

So far it's helping a lot. My best success in a long time for trying to shoot with no tape. Big improvement in finding hidden targets & getting the sights on them. If you try it and reject it, as the article says - you're out less than one dollar.

The posts by Robert & Singlestack are pretty much perfect.

Edited May 15, 2010 by eric nielsen

[drysideshooter]

I ended up installing a -.100 red fiber optic front sight and it's made a huge difference, especially in low light. I don't have any trouble at matches because they're outside and natural light is more than adequate, even on a cloudy day. The indoor range that I shoot at has less than stellar lighting though, so for training it was hard to get a good, fast sight picture. The new front sight has helped a lot.

There is a lot of good info in this thread. I am going to print it and keep it for future reference.

[jaymcgranahan]

Ended up with some gas permeable contacts. I had the ophthalmologist "tune" the GP lens (transitional/multifocal) for computer distance/front site distance. Front site as crisp as it can get. I have to use readers 1.00 for real small print (the really small stuff we all complain about), otherwise excellent vision for a going on 57 year old. Didn't go with the Synergize Contacts because the cost is prohibitive. The newer GP lens seem great... these I believe are made by Boston.

[johnbh]

I wear progressive glasses, for me the reading 2.50 Divide in half,I went with

1.0 like for computer. Thats about the distance to front sight. I had a lab put

the presp. corner of rt eye top to bottom. I been trying to shoot with both eyes open,

lt eye for distance. I used some old Wileys. I really have a hard time to focus both eyes open.

Someone asked where you can find stick on bi focals, you can get them online.

[EkuJustice]

I have the opposite problem. I can see the front sight perfectly clear with no glasses. I just did end up getting a set of glasses to try and help on the distance shots so its not just hit or miss. With the glasses, the sight picture is totally gone. It blurs out so much that I would basically be point shooting.

Edited May 25, 2010 by EkuJustice

[kimmie]

I'm always looking for a way out of wearing the reading glasses on the chain around my neck. Up until I was 40, I had 20/20 vision. Distance is still good. I thought I'd try the new multi-focus lenses. Well, don't believe the hype. If I can read with them, distance is so blurry I might as well be blind. So my optomotrist played around with them and finally got something that let me see large print with the distance being 'acceptable'. But I still needed glasses for fine print. Anyway, after a week of trying to adjust to them, I decided it wasn't worth it. For some reason, one day I decided to put in just one lens and look at my front sight. It actually worked with the distance being o.k. I had tried this mono vision before with other contacts and found that it made me dizzy and I couldn't adjust. But that was with a stronger lens in the one eye. My front sight isn't crystal clear, but it's clearer than it was and I don't feel 'off balance' either and just about forget I have it in after a few minutes. I guess the key was to have the lens weak enough to not make it that big a difference between eyes, but stong enough to make the front sight clear and not totally kill the distance vision.

Edited May 27, 2010 by kimmie

[Dan Sierpina]

Donna,

I went with Decot glasses with a "compromise" prescription. The front sight is a bit fuzzy, but, I don't trip when shooting. I have another set of lenses that are a bit stronger, and the front sight is great, but .45 holes in targets almost can't be seen properly. I'll let you try them Saturday.

[kimmie]

Donna,

I went with Decot glasses with a "compromise" prescription. The front sight is a bit fuzzy, but, I don't trip when shooting. I have another set of lenses that are a bit stronger, and the front sight is great, but .45 holes in targets almost can't be seen properly. I'll let you try them Saturday.

Cool. I'm always looking for that 'fountain of youth!!!! I'll try anything. But.....if I get the glasses right - what excuse do I have then for missing the target??????

[Dan Sierpina]

Cool. I'm always looking for that 'fountain of youth!!!! I'll try anything. But.....if I get the glasses right - what excuse do I have then for missing the target??????

I no longer look for a Fountain of Youth, I just want to slow down the River of Oldth! There used to be a list of Shooter's Excuses...i.e.

"The sun was in my eyes"

"The light was bad".... etc

[kimmie]

Dan - I'm finding the multi focal lens in one eye works pretty well. And after a few minutes, my brain catches up! But after trying on your glasses, I decided to try that too. My eye guy said basically that a +1 for both eyes would work. And it did. Front sight is a 'little' fuzzy, but way clearer than with no glasses. And distance is pretty good too. Very similar to with the one contact. So, I'm going to have an insert made for my Rudy's so I don't have to worry about always have a contact available. Plus, after a few hours, the contact gets uncomfortable and I'm in the car on the ride home digging at my eyeball

Need to come up with way more excuses for missing the target

Edited June 21, 2010 by kimmie

[unclez]

Switching to a fiber optic front sight has been the biggest improvement for my old eyes

[PopPop]

+1 on the Decots. They set me up with monovision. Left eye distant focus and right eye front sight focus. My eyes work together better than I would have imagined with this setup so moving around the range is no problem. The Dawson red FO front sight is sharp and the A zone is too.

[Graham Smith]

Dan - I'm finding the multi focal lens in one eye works pretty well.

I have a prescription for multifocal contact lenses. These work well when I am at my computer and work pretty well for shooting as well but they do make it tough to see the targets clearly enough. To add insult to injury, I'm cross-eye dominant so trying to shoot with both eyes open is quite a difficult task.

Just for fun, at the match this past Saturday, I just put a contact in my right eye. I had tried this during some dry fire practice in the house and it wasn't that effective, but outside with greater distances, I was reasonably pleased with the results. It's not going to solve my cross-dominance problem overnight, but I think it will with time.

Cross-dominant or not, I think that this is something that is worth discussing with an eye doctor.

[GlennRasch]

I am trying to find any information I can on ways to help overcome the effects of age on getting a good sight picture. I am just starting to shoot USPSA in production class with a XDM 9mm. With good light I am very accurate with the gun as it came out of the box. In dimmer light though it is substantially more difficult to get a clear sight picture. I am willing to change the sights to anything legal in production division. Is there a color other than white that may be better? Would a different width front sight possibly make a difference, more or less daylight around the sides of the front sight? Am I just destined to struggle a bit until I make the jump to something like a red dot sight?

I'm also in that same boat ( 48 ) . Have you tried those Rudy glasses..... if so did they work you.

[kimmie]

Dan - I'm finding the multi focal lens in one eye works pretty well.

I have a prescription for multifocal contact lenses. These work well when I am at my computer and work pretty well for shooting as well but they do make it tough to see the targets clearly enough. To add insult to injury, I'm cross-eye dominant so trying to shoot with both eyes open is quite a difficult task.

Just for fun, at the match this past Saturday, I just put a contact in my right eye. I had tried this during some dry fire practice in the house and it wasn't that effective, but outside with greater distances, I was reasonably pleased with the results. It's not going to solve my cross-dominance problem overnight, but I think it will with time.

Cross-dominant or not, I think that this is something that is worth discussing with an eye doctor.

I still like the one multi focal contact - it works. I think the secret is that it's weaker than it would be for reading. But I had the chance to try on Dan's Decot glasses and those worked pretty well too. Since the contact tends to get unconfortable during a long day at the range, I asked my eye doctor about a 'compromise' pair of glasses like Dan's. I only wear glasses for reading, 2.75. He suggested I try just plain reading glasses at 1.0 for both eyes. I had this px made for my Rudy inserts and it actually really works. Distance is not bad at all and my front sight, while not crystal clear, isn't bad. So, I can alternate, the one contact or the inserts.

And - another old age thing - just noticed I repeated myself!!!! Scary

Edited August 5, 2010 by kimmie

[lugnut]

That's nothing!! I use +3.00 Left (Dominant eye), +3.50 Right to correct for far vision. This doesn't quite help me enough for close vision so I use +3.50 in both eyes when shooting. Gets me good enough to see good sight alignment. May try +3.75 in Left sometime.

Update: Dr got me some +4.00 and +3.75 for my dominant eye to try. She said an additional +.50 wasn't enough to help with close vision. I didn't seem to adjust well to the +4.00, I like the +3.75 best for now. Good for shooting and I can actually read small print with it too!

[austin rick]

So I've always shot a shotgun with both eyes open, but never a sighted rifle or pistol. As I read this discussion it looks like everyone is shooting with both eyes open and training their dominant eye on the sights and the other on the target(s). Since I didn't know this and it appears pretty basic, would someone like to recommend a good first video or book for practical shooting?

Thanks

[Aloha Robert]

Just to review, because I think folks might be mixing numbers a bit.

As I posted on May 2, absolute number of diopters is not the key thing.

For Open, both eyes corrected to whatever is your distant vission.

For Limited (that want to shoot with both eyes open), this is what I said

"Useful adds are between about +1 and +2.5. Less than 1 doesnt help much, more than 2.5 difference in left and right eyes make steroscopic vision difficult"

The absolute number is not as important as the difference between the two eyes. (the add)

What I am reminding shooters is when they go to their optometrist, if they are shooting limited, and need reading glass, the magic words are add diopters (to the dominant eye that will "see" the front sight) and the non dominant eye sees distance; that is if you want to shoot limited with both eyes open.

[footshot]

Was lurking, and saw this thread. Have you tried this:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=936878

Lyman diopter sticks on my glasses, in front of the dominant eye, and relly helps me focus on the sights.

[waynes_world_45]

OPEN!

yup....I'm getting myself a hell of a 50th Birthday present in about 3 years (I'll turn 50 - should I order the Brazos now???)

[Gary H.]

I'm in the same boat. 49 this year with 50 just around the corner. Had perfect vision until the age of 45. Distance vision is still good but up close is terrible. Shoot, I can't even make out the print on brass anymore even at arms length. Small print at arm length requires 150 reading glasses at the minimum. Recently purchased some of the stick on 125 bifocal pieces from one of the safety glass places and put them on my Decots in the right lense upper left hand corner. HUGE difference on targets up to 25 yards but still having difficulty with targets over that distance. I've been shooting IDPA but wanting to purchase an open gun and start USPSA. I agree that everyone is different. I really like the green F/O sights on my M & P and my STI Sentry but the vision thing has been bothering me.

[Wilson]

You might want to check out Dr.Norman Wong on the bullseye-L mailing list. His shooting prescription guidelines are very informative. Good luck.

[Neil E.]

I am one with old eyes. Turning 61 soon. Decide to get a new persciption for glasses last year. Been a while since my last visit. The doc said I had dry eyes and said I should use Soothe XP made by Bausch & Lomb(over the counter eye drops) three times a day. My sight is much better using the drops and they do not get tired as quickly as before. A cheap and easy way to help us old guys.