BAD Nearsighted shooter HELP PLEASE

[npolley]

I have had LASIK in the pas to correct my vision with was a -9.50 which is horrible.

If I open both eyes and focus on the sight I see two blurry targets about a 2 feet apart.

If I focus on target I see two guns bout an inch apart

In the real world everybody says you shoot with both eyes open. Is there anything anybody with bad vision has done to help shoot with both eyes open. I cannot change glasses like people have suggested

Please help

Thanks

[Jerome]

There has been much discussion on this in the past. I'm in a similar situation. I can keep both eyes open for short periods focused on the front sight and see 1 blurry target at a distance. However it will switch to 2 blurry targets at a distance at the most frustrating times.

I gave up and put a little patch of scotch tape on my left shooting glasses lens. It's the only way I can shoot consistently with both eyes open. To apply the patch, I take a sight picture with both eyes open, both focused on the front sight, then put a finger over my eye to block the left eye from seeing the front sight and that's where I'll apply a piece of tape. Upright, walking around, the tape does not block my left eye vision which can be annoying.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Jerome

[npolley]

I tried searching nearsighted and other things but there was nobody with vision as bad as mine. Everybody was 1.25. 1.50. I wish my vision was that great with corrections. But it's not and I've had bad vision for so long I didn't know if normal people see the two different blurry targets or two burry guns.

Thanks

[Dwight Stearns]

Let's face it, front sight focus isn't natural, especially with both eyes open. What is natural is target focus. Target focus shooting can be done with great success but requires increased concentration to make sure reasonable sight alignment is maintained. I don't recommend target focus shooting for everyone but for someone with vision issues, it's worth a try. My vision isn't in your league (mine is 4.50) but I still find it easier than front sight focus. I do find that some type of front sight enhancement such as fiber optic helps with seeing an acceptable sight picture. You mention seeing two sets of sights but that isn't a problem because your dominant eye will be aligned with the correct sight image. It's just like pointing your finger. It may be worth a try.

Good shooting

Dwight Stearns

[TwoShot]

Mine was -21.5 in the left and -18.0 in the right, cataract surgery has me seeing nearly 20/20 now. Before the surgery I wore contact lenses that got me by.

[Flatland Shooter]

Let's face it, front sight focus isn't natural, especially with both eyes open. What is natural is target focus. Target focus shooting can be done with great success but requires increased concentration to make sure reasonable sight alignment is maintained. I don't recommend target focus shooting for everyone but for someone with vision issues, it's worth a try. My vision isn't in your league (mine is 4.50) but I still find it easier than front sight focus. I do find that some type of front sight enhancement such as fiber optic helps with seeing an acceptable sight picture. You mention seeing two sets of sights but that isn't a problem because your dominant eye will be aligned with the correct sight image. It's just like pointing your finger. It may be worth a try.

Good shooting

Dwight Stearns

I've pretty much given up on iron sights. Any prescription that gives me a sharp picture of the front sight totally blurs out targets past 15 or 20 yards.

Using a target focus, how accurate can you shoot? Can you make "A" hits at 25 yards or is it just a case of getting some hits on the brown? Same question for steel plates at longer distance.

Next time I'm at the range I'll give it a try. Just don't want to get my hopes too high.

Thanks.

Bill

[npolley]

Mine was -21.5 in the left and -18.0 in the right, cataract surgery has me seeing nearly 20/20 now. Before the surgery I wore contact lenses that got me by.

Yeah mine was up around the -12.50 in both eyes before laser surgery cataract in left eye but not bad enough for surgery. My vision Is 20/20 now but I still see the doubles. If you hold one finger out in front and focus on something 20 feet in front of that do you see two fingers or just 1?

Let's face it, front sight focus isn't natural, especially with both eyes open. What is natural is target focus. Target focus shooting can be done with great success but requires increased concentration to make sure reasonable sight alignment is maintained. I don't recommend target focus shooting for everyone but for someone with vision issues, it's worth a try. My vision isn't in your league (mine is 4.50) but I still find it easier than front sight focus. I do find that some type of front sight enhancement such as fiber optic helps with seeing an acceptable sight picture. You mention seeing two sets of sights but that isn't a problem because your dominant eye will be aligned with the correct sight image. It's just like pointing your finger. It may be worth a try.

Good shooting

Dwight Stearns

I do have a fiber optic on my gun. I will definitely give what you mentioned a try. I just have to remember that the left gun is the one on target. Thanks.

Mine was -21.5 in the left and -18.0 in the right, cataract surgery has me seeing nearly 20/20 now. Before the surgery I wore contact lenses that got me by.

Yeah mine was up around the -12.50 in both eyes before laser surgery cataract in left eye but not bad enough for surgery. My vision s

Is 20/20 now but I still see the doubles. If you hold one finger out in front and focus on something 20 feet in front of that do you see two fingers or just 1?

Let's face it, front sight focus isn't natural, especially with both eyes open. What is natural is target focus. Target focus shooting can be done with great success but requires increased concentration to make sure reasonable sight alignment is maintained. I don't recommend target focus shooting for everyone but for someone with vision issues, it's worth a try. My vision isn't in your league (mine is 4.50) but I still find it easier than front sight focus. I do find that some type of front sight enhancement such as fiber optic helps with seeing an acceptable sight picture. You mention seeing two sets of sights but that isn't a problem because your dominant eye will be aligned with the correct sight image. It's just like pointing your finger. It may be worth a try.

Good shooting

Dwight Stearns

I do have a fiber optic on my gun. I will definitely give what you mentioned a try. I just have to remember that the left gun is the one on target. Thanks.

Edited November 12, 2012 by npolley

[Dwight Stearns]

Let's face it, front sight focus isn't natural, especially with both eyes open. What is natural is target focus. Target focus shooting can be done with great success but requires increased concentration to make sure reasonable sight alignment is maintained. I don't recommend target focus shooting for everyone but for someone with vision issues, it's worth a try. My vision isn't in your league (mine is 4.50) but I still find it easier than front sight focus. I do find that some type of front sight enhancement such as fiber optic helps with seeing an acceptable sight picture. You mention seeing two sets of sights but that isn't a problem because your dominant eye will be aligned with the correct sight image. It's just like pointing your finger. It may be worth a try.

Good shooting

Dwight Stearns

I have been doing it for quite sometime and can get A zone hits at any reasonable distance. You have to really dial up the concentration.

Dwight

I've pretty much given up on iron sights. Any prescription that gives me a sharp picture of the front sight totally blurs out targets past 15 or 20 yards.

Using a target focus, how accurate can you shoot? Can you make "A" hits at 25 yards or is it just a case of getting some hits on the brown? Same question for steel plates at longer distance.

Next time I'm at the range I'll give it a try. Just don't want to get my hopes too high.

Thanks.

Bill

[Dwight Stearns]

Oops... messed up the reply.

Dwight

[Dwight Stearns]

If you can point your finger, you can pick out the correct gun.

Dwight

[TwoShot]

I am strongly left eye dominant so I have no trouble seeing one finger in this exercise. My issue was with the cataracts, looking thru the Cmore on my open gun, or any dot sight for that matter, I saw a cluster of 7 or more dots. The surgery pretty well took care of that.

[mudman]

Have you tried closing (or squinting) your non-dominant eye? It's not 100% necessary to shoot with both eyes open.

[Yachtmaster]

Doesn't sound my vision is as bad as yours but I had LASIK and left eye dominant. I finally went first to some scotch tape over upper part of left lens of safety glasses. That got rid of all double images and the left eye dominance issues.

Then I got a tip from another shooter and ended up having a bifocal lens put in the upper portion of my right lens.

I put only a strong enough bifocal in to clear up the sight (e.g., I need a 1.5 for good reading but only put a 1.0 bifocal in as that was enough to clear up the front sight). This allows me to still see full targets out at long distances. I can't see my hits farther out but can call my shots a lot better. If I need to look at the hit a quick tilt up does it.

Feel your pain. Good luck.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Forgetful]

Are you all saying seeing double isn't normal when focusing both eyes open?

Meaning when I focus on the target I see two guns and when I focus on the sights I see 2 targets.

I thought this was just how eyes worked?

[Stan-O]

When I started shooting about a year ago I went thru a few boxes of different power contacts to try to figure out how I can suppress the "double vision" with both eyes open. I have -2.5 on both eyes, and I've tried wearing contact on right eye only, experimenting with the power of the contacts on the left eye and what I found works best *for me* is:

1. Do not wear contacts. Maybe it's just my eyes are too dry or having the correction closer to the eye is unnatural, but I do get better results with the regular RX glasses or the RX insert in my shooting glasses.

2. FO front and *blacked out* rear help ALOT! I did have a problem focusing on the front sight quickly with the corrected vision but since I've switched to a FO front and blacked out rear it's so much easier. Also play with the different color of FO rods: my instructor finds it easier to pick green and as much as I've tried and shot his gun I still prefer the red FO rod in mine.

3. I still squint the left eye for the first shot and then I can open my left eye and keep the solid focus on the front sight with both eyes open.

Of course YMMV, but if you're running out of things to try you can try these, maybe obvious suggestions.

PS. I will actually try to put a small piece of tape on the left lens as described by Jerome. I've tried blocking it completely with the semi-transparent tape, but found it to be the same as the left eye closed.

[All-Gator]

This may be something everyone knows, but here goes anyway: Hold your finger at arm's length and look at it with both eyes open. You will see two fingers (everyone does)...one clear/bright with other being something of a phantom. Focus on the clear one and alternately close one eye at a time...the phantom will disappear when you view the finger with the dominate eye.. Now you know which image is from the dominant eye. Do the same with your sights and focus on using the clear one for your sight picture. Continue to do this and the phantom virtually goes away from your consciousness...the brain is a wonderful thing. You can assist your brain by having shooting glasses with a prescription lens that focuses the dominant eye exactly at the front sight and a prescription lens that focuses the other (non-dominant eye) at infinity. Again, the brain is able to combine the two desperate images together (although I have a shooting buddy who swears his brain refuses to do it...so, there you go) and you become unaware of the different foci.

Do warn your opthamologist/optometrist that you will bring a pistol to the examination to establish the exact focal point for near vision lens.

There are good physiological advantages to using both eyes open, so stick with it.

A-G

[Graham Smith]

There is no simple answer to this. One thing to consider is that closing one eye is not going to get you disqualified. If you shoot better that way, then do it.

Your best option may be to switch to a red dot sight. It means going to open and you'll likely get your butt handed to you by most of the open shooters, but it can't be any worse than not being able to see what you are shooting at.

[Rio]

I can see the tremendous advantage to shooting with both eyes open in a combat situation but I don’t think it has that great of an effect on your shooting skills in USPSA. If you need to squint or close one eye to get a clear picture of the front site and keep your shots on target, I don’t think that it will hurt your ability to compete in any division. IMHO.

[Stan-O]

I've read somewhere that if you squint/close your weak eye you lose 20% or 30% of your eyesight in your strong eye.

[Jerome]

if I close one eye, it takes several seconds for that eye to recover once I reopen it. I'm guessing it's because I'm an older guy and the eyes don't bounce back as fast as they once did. I've had Lasik so my distance vision is fine but my near vision is bad. I use a mild corrective lens (+.75) that enables my right eye to see the front sight fairly well and not mess with my distance vision too much. So, I use the scotch tape over a small part of the my shooting glasses lens to avoid having to squint. I have just enough tape to block my left eye from seeing the sight as I'm shooting. When I'm walking around, the tape is high enough that it's out of the way and doesn't bother my normal vision most of the time. I've tried everything else I've thought or read about and this is the best way for me.

When my near vision gets worse, I'll be going to the dot in Open.

[pjb45]

I am left eye dominant with mono vision-I wear contacts. The dominant eye sees distance and the right eye is for reading and front sight focus. I have been this way for years.

I have experimented with changing the contact in my dominant eye so I could see the front sight. This was ok but I lost all distance vision. I switched back to using my non-dominant eye. My classifiers scores were almost the same using both types of vision.

The key for me is probably I have used mono vision for years so, closing my dominant eye when I am actually sighting the target/pulling the trigger is not a problem. I did not enjoy using tape on my dominant eye.

So with practice you can develop a habit, the habit will become an unconscious act.

[hanexp]

I had lasik along time ago. I had really bad nearsightedness and astigmatism. I am right handed and left eye dominant. They gave me mono vision, distance vision in my left eye and near vision in my right eye. Over time my eyes returned toward their prior state. As they did, I began correcting my right eye for distance and "using" the developing near sightedness in my left to see the sights. Recently, I have had a lasik touch up. Now my left eye is for close up and the right eye for distance. I recently switched to open so now I correct my left eye for distance.

Crazy!

Anyway, I have two comments on lasik: After your brain has coped with nearsightedness for many years, when you correct your vision it needs to develop new skills. The eye muscles need to work differently. This caused me to be really slow to pull my focus from the target to the sight at first. My brain also had to learn to pick out the relevant target image and the relevant sight image from the two sets of images. This takes time.

The most important factors in this adustemnt are the desire to hit the target (causes your brain to learn to see what it needs to see to make the shot) and patience.

I hope this helps. Keep at it.

[ardo]

I had my RX glasses made so that my dominant (right) eye focuses on the front sight, and my left goes for distance. The double-imaging was too much for me to handle, so I put a piece of scotch tape on my left-eye's lens. Still, the image is a bit fuzzy. I have to remind myself to keep my left eye closed at the beep, then opening it when I have a good sight picture on the first target. If I need to move, say, to another side of a barricade, I have to close & re-open my left eye again. This is a real PITA.

I will try the exercise, just hope that my aging brain can still be trained.

[Sin-ster]

I'm going to take a different approach to this, because I REALLY wanna experiment with it myself...

Have you considered not caring about what the target looks like beyond the pistol, and just trusting your NPA?

You can see the target clearly; you can see the sights clearly. The peripheral "noise" is what's giving you fits-- but theoretically, that's the stuff that shouldn't matter at all.

Locate the spot on the target you wish to hit; the gun should follow your eyes. Bring the front sight into clear focus; break the shot; call the shot; recover the sights; repeat (if paper); move your eyes to the spot on the next target you desire to hit.

Personally, I am 90% certain that a lot of my accuracy issues come from focusing on "nothing"-- or more specifically, somewhere in between the target and the sights. At speed, it can SEEM to me like I'm seeing the front post in clear relief... when in reality, my eyes are focused past it and my sight alignment isn't correct. When I find myself doing this most often is when I'm hyper-aware of the target BEYOND the sights, fuzzy/blurry though it may be. If it wasn't the off season (and if my guns would get built faster), I'd have tested it enough to know for sure... But it's something to consider.

It demands a lot of you as a shooter, for sure-- perfect NPA, perfect recoil management/returning of the sights... But in theory, so long as you can see the target clearly and the front post clearly (independently of each other), it shouldn't matter if you can see anything else at all...

Edited December 10, 2012 by Sin-ster