Vision issues

[afletcher1965]

I'm sure there are a lot of people that deal with vision issues and how to address them. If you can't see then obviously you're not going to be a very good shooter.

I personally have good close vision (near sighted) and wear contacts to over come my issue with seeing at a distance. Because of this I give up some of my close vision. Since shooting involves being able to focus on your front sight and line up with the target at a distance there is a definite conflict there.

I've read and watched a lot of videos on proper sight picture and alignment, shooting with both eyes open, focusing on your front sight with blurred target, etc.

I'm not having much of an issue with shotguns or rifles (no issue with shooting through a scope) but it is giving me all kinds of problems with my pistol shooting.

Any advice on how to manage things properly to get the most out of your handgun shooting?

Edited October 13, 2014 by afletcher1965

[bountyhunter]

Might have to chuck the contact lenses. I am also very nearsighted and the best solution for me was to get glasses with distance scrip in the left eye and a close scrip in the right eye I sight through. That scrip would focus at the sight length. Take a business card to the optometrist and get the scrip that makes the letters sharp at arm's length for the sighting eye.

You might be able to keep the contact lenses and get one for the right eye that brings the focus point up to sight distance.

I did not like contacts because they would "fog up" from me not blinking my eyes enough when sighting.

[afletcher1965]

Might have to chuck the contact lenses. I am also very nearsighted and the best solution for me was to get glasses with distance scrip in the left eye and a close scrip in the right eye I sight through. That scrip would focus at the sight length. Take a business card to the optometrist and get the scrip that makes the letters sharp at arm's length for the sighting eye.

You might be able to keep the contact lenses and get one for the right eye that brings the focus point up to sight distance.

I did not like contacts because they would "fog up" from me not blinking my eyes enough when sighting.

Thanks bountyhunter!

I have from time to time worn just one contact but I've been wearing it in the wrong eye. I typically would wear the contact in my right eye to help with with seeing at a distance. My left eye would be more for close up vision. That is just the opposite of what I should be doing. Since I am a right handed shooter and right eye dominant I should have close vision in my right eye and far vision in my left eye.

Duh! I guess I really should have thought of that. No wonder I'm having problem focusing on the front sight. I'm getting my vision cross wired. LOL

[afletcher1965]

Last night I put a contact lens in my left eye for longer distance vision and no contact lens in my right eye to see the sights better. It did make a big difference. I was able to clearly focus on the front sight and it helped a lot with sight alignment. Only issue I had was double vision and a fuzzy target out to 20-25 yards. I noticed that as I held aim the two targets would start to come together. On 15 yard shots it wasn't as bad and was really pretty good at 7 yards. I think I'm just going to have to work on it and see if my brain gets to the point where it is ignoring the second target. It really won't be a big problem when trying to shoot in the A or B area of a target but if I'm trying to shoot for accuracy it still is going to be an issue. I guess on long shots I'm just going to have to close my left eye.

[wbyrd01]

I have a coworker that wears one prescription contact in one eye for nearsightedness and a different prescription for farsightedness in the other eye. She says her brain has overcome the difference and she sees perfectly. I would bet with time your brain will overcome as well.

[Brooke]

I have the opposite problem from you. My near vision needs correction and far does not (at least very minimal). I struggled for a year to get something that actually works and it should work for you also with the adjustments necessary for our different problems.

My reading glasses were focused for a shorter distance than my front sight required. With those glasses on I could not see the sight or the target clearly. I finally found an optician who shoots. He had me bring my gun in his office and starting from my reading prescription he fitted my right (dominate) eye with a lens to see the sight and put my minimal distance lens into my left eye. I can now see the target distinctly with the left eye until I close it and the right eye sees the sight sharp as a tack.

I personally put these "shooting" lens in a Rudy insert and combined it with Rudy Rydex glasses that came with 5 different colored lens. Indoors I can see the sight clearly and the target fuzzy with my right eye only. Outdoors with a lot of light I see both the sight and the target pretty darn well although the target is slightly unfocused.

I think the two lens solution will work for you also even though our vision problem is not the same.

Edited October 15, 2014 by Brooke

[motosapiens]

I personally have good close vision (near sighted) and wear contacts to over come my issue with seeing at a distance. Because of this I give up some of my close vision. Since shooting involves being able to focus on your front sight and line up with the target at a distance there is a definite conflict there.

Everyone is different so you'll have to experiment a bit. I have found that it is more important to see the sights clearly than the target. If the target is fuzzy on the edges, I can still hit it square in the middle, but if the sights are fuzzy it is hard to tell how well they are aligned and harder still for me to focus on them. So I wear glasses that allow me see the sights clearly (about half the power of what i use to read). For me that means .5 power readers (available online, but not generally available in stores). If you can see the sights clearly without glasses or contacts, I would consider trying to shoot that way, and just deal with the fuzzy targets.

Regarding both eyes open.... everyone is different here too. I know one M (approaching GM quickly) who just closes his left eye when the buzzer goes off. I shot at nationals with a couple GMs that use a square of scotch tape over their left eye. I personally can shoot with both eyes open, but I don't have a strongly dominant eye, so it leads to some visual clutter with double-images, and sometimes I find I pick the wrong image. I hypothesize that may be due to my lifelong focus on active sports that rely heavily on peripheral vision (ball sports, cycling, dirtbiking, hockey, etc...). So I started using a square of scotch tape on my glasses last fall, and my scores started a significant upward trend.