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prescription - bifocal or monovision


robmont

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Trying to decide whether to order bifocals or seperate prescription for each eye. I see the front sight perfectly with my reading glasses and the target perfectly with my distance vision glasses. That seems like bifocals but won't I end up having to move my head to focus? Brian Enos said that he was trying mono in each, one for distance and one (the dominant) for close up-front sight. Wonder how that worked out for him? Wonder if I'd just end up running into things. This subject has probably been discussed to death, but I can't find the thread. Sorry.

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I have tried with limited results distance in left and a soft focus correction on front sight in my right eye and its better that nothing but not the same as a good vision. Plus you need to put them on early in the day to get used to them.

Switch to open class and go red dots!!

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I have been using mono vision for years. It worked for me. However, I would strongly recommend you see an optometrist who also shoots. It is easier for both of you to understand your situation. I usually go thru 3 pairs of trial contacts before I am satisfied.

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I have tri-focals. I took my gun with me to my eye doctor. He set my prescription for my shooting glasses as follows. He set my dominant eye with a mono- lens set to be perfectly focused on the back side of my from sight. It is so clear I can see the horizontal serration's on the front sight. My lens on my non- dominant eye was set to be just like my normal trifocal lens. This works great for me. A friend has both lenses set to the back side of the front site. That works great for him.

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Monovision works for me. I have the same setup as PopPop on my contact lenses so I can shoot using uncorrected eye protection

Ironically, I am now presbyopic (age related farsightedness), so I end up wearing bifocal glasses over my contacts, so that I can read and write with the lower Rx's and drive with both eyes at 20/20. Essentially, my eyeglasses correct the correction in my contacts. Hey, it works for me.

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I can't imagine how progressive or bifocal glasses could work. Most of the time we're not stationary when shooting and sometimes you can't control where your eyes would be looking out of the lens. Not good IMO.

If you were to use glasses- use one strength in one eye, another in the other eye. Mono vision. Have your lens set up for front sight focus with your dominant eye. Your other lens can be set up for distance (non dominant eye). I know people that use weak reading glasses to shoot... but everything at distance will be blurry all the time... I don't like that.

I use contacts and mono vision works well for me. I have a +1.00 over my distance prescription in my dominant eye when shooting. The great thing about contacts is it's easy to try different combinations. I started with a +.50 over my distance prescription and that wasn't enough. My eye doctor was very helpful in all this. A note- my prescription for my dominant eye is NOT as strong as I use for reading... it isn't needed. But I get a clear front sight and that's all that matters.

Best of luck to the OP.

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I went with monovision: left lens with my normal distance correction and the right (dominant) focused at the front sight distance. Worked great for about 5 years but last year I started to develop headaches if I wore them more than 2-3 hours. My eye doctor says that is due to my aging brain (!). This year we cut back the dominant eye correction so the difference between the two lenses is less. Front sight is not as sharply focused but I can see it clearly. We will see how it works.

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My distance vision is good, but at 52 I am using reading glasses @ 1.5x. Do any of the regular shooting glasses company offer the service of monovision with the magnified lens in one side only. I was wondering if this could be done without having to go to the eye docter.

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My distance vision is good, but at 52 I am using reading glasses @ 1.5x. Do any of the regular shooting glasses company offer the service of monovision with the magnified lens in one side only. I was wondering if this could be done without having to go to the eye docter.

I use Rudy Exceptions with bifocal prescription inserts, one pair for pistol and one pair for hunting/rifle/sporting clays. I just take the inserts to Lenscrafters with my "pistol shooting" prescription, which my optometrist has tweaked in the right lens for a clear front sight.

Unlike some other makes I've tried, the Rudy's put the insert right into the glasses frame and move the outer shields to a flip up that attaches to the noise piece. Avoids the problem of some shooting glasses that attach the prescription to the inside of the frame, which puts it so close to the eyebrows that you have sweat and fogging problems.

Fixed the problem in my 50+ year old eyes just fine.

Curtis

Edited: 'cause I hate tipos typos!

Edited by BayouSlide
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Not quite what you want, but my Bolle Vigilantes can have prescription lenses fitted to a frame that will lock into the regular frame just behind the shields. Mine have plain glass in the left eye, which is already 20/20 for me, and will correct the Production/Limited front sight focus in my dominant eye to 20/20 so I can shoot a red dot or use a scope. Unfortunately, neither works for me with an iron sighted rifle.

Edited by kevin c
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decot will set up your glasses anyway you want. you will have to send them your script and your pd distance. mono is the way to go if you can. if you can't bring your gun or slide

to your doc. you can hold your pistol at your normal shooting position and have someone measure the distance from your front sight to your eye, then tell your doc you want your dominte eye focused for that distance. my eyes are pretty bad my front sight script is 3.25 diopters and sight is pretty good but not really clear.

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My distance vision is good, but at 52 I am using reading glasses @ 1.5x. Do any of the regular shooting glasses company offer the service of monovision with the magnified lens in one side only. I was wondering if this could be done without having to go to the eye docter.

Walmart Prescription sunglasses for me. Since I wanted just a reading glass lense 1.0 in the dominant eye and plain lens in other eye they did it for me without an actual prescrition.

Eric

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My distance vision is good, but at 52 I am using reading glasses @ 1.5x. Do any of the regular shooting glasses company offer the service of monovision with the magnified lens in one side only. I was wondering if this could be done without having to go to the eye docter.

Walmart Prescription sunglasses for me. Since I wanted just a reading glass lense 1.0 in the dominant eye and plain lens in other eye they did it for me without an actual prescrition.

Eric

Thanks, this looks like a good option to experiment with , without dropping a lot of $$$

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I have a seperate set of glasses with both eye set to the front sight. Targets are slighly out of focus but seems to work out so far.

Same for me.

And the same for me, now if i could only remember to change them just prior to the stage!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I'm now using ESS with monovision. Jury's still out. Close my left eye and the front sight is good, close my right eye and the targets are clear, but both eyes open.....not so good. It's taking my 64 year old brain some time to sort this all out. Shot terribly at the club shoot last night. Too much new stuff to get used to at once. Next week I'll try shooting with both eyes closed. Expect to do better!

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's best - on match day - to put them on when you get up. That way your eyes/brain don't have to adapt to two different vision helpers in the same day.

I shoot open mostly, but when I shoot limited or Singlestack I go mono vision. I put them on when I leave the house and within an hour I don't even think about it anymore. In some ways it is easier than open, because I can barely see the score sheets with my regular RX shooting glasses on! LOL

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There are multi-focal contact lenses available now. This is what I am trialling now in my dominant eye.

These will give you better distance vision than traditional mono-focal contacts.

The down side is the up close vision will not be as sharp. I like them better since I shoot 3-gun. I am occasionally getting double images

of the front sight that resolves with blinking.

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There are multi-focal contact lenses available now. This is what I am trialling now in my dominant eye.

These will give you better distance vision than traditional mono-focal contacts.

The down side is the up close vision will not be as sharp. I like them better since I shoot 3-gun. I am occasionally getting double images

of the front sight that resolves with blinking.

Vision is one of the reasons I shoot open in 3-gun. I tried the multi focal contacts and I just couldn't get used to them. Never did seem to have clear vision for very long. But they must be working for some folks or they wouldn't be selling them, right?

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