Did laser eye surgery improve your shooting?

[GunslingerDK]

I know how eye surgery makes your life better etc. So all I'm really looking for is replies regarding improvements on your shooting. I have read the threads on the subject here, but would like some more imputs.

I have minus 3.00, which means I can't see s*** without glasses or contacts. I've always hated glasses, and I've come to hate the contacts as well. When I focus really hard they start floating around in my eyes. This means I'm hardly able to test groupings at 25 yards.... everything is pretty blurry. I get 4" groups with my Freedom Arms from a sand bag, which speaks for itself. I have no doubt in my mind that I want this surgery. Unfortunately I have a sty in my one eye, so I assume this has to be gone before they will operate on me.

I'm especially interested in hearing more about the "master eye set for front sight and the other set for infinity" thing?? That sounds very cool. But how does it affect every day life when not shooting?

I'm very excited about this, and can't wait to see how my sights look afterwards!

[XRe]

Do a search on LASIK on the forum, and you'll find a lot of stuff. -3.00 is not that strong, actually. There are guys on the forum who had, like, -8.00 or something crazy like that.

Mine was -2.00 - except for stuff very up close, I couldn't see jack, either. My ability to shoot groups didn't really change post-surgery, except that it was easier to maintain a clear focus on the target (I was wearing contacts, too). I was able to shoot inch groups or better at 50 yards before... To some extent, using an appropriate target for group shooting makes a difference, as it's easier to get the gun on exactly the same point for each shot (FWIW).

My ability to see to play this game took a jump up, though. I seem to be able to call shots a bit better, target acquisition is faster, and it's easier to locate the A-zone in the target. I had both eyes corrected to "normal". I have no experience with a mono-vision correction. If you're already having presbyopia, it might be an option, but otherwise you're already able to focus sharply on the front sight - that's not likely to change post-surgery. No reason for mono-vision, then.

Go to the eye doc to get some stuff for the stye, and ask if you're eligible for the surgery while you're there. By the time you set up appointments, and go in for your talk with the surgeon, the stye should be gone anyway...

Edited November 30, 2009 by XRe

[Bigpops]

One other comment...I had PRK and LASIK. It was fantastic and all was great in the world. Then I turned 42 and my arms couldn't grow long enough. My doctor told me it would happen and when it did, it came on fast. My far vision is great but I now need reading glasses which has effected my front site focus. (I am now making the leap to Open)

Just can't stop father time!

[Glock shooter]

I had laser done about 6 years ago now. Best thing I could have done. I went from -3.75/-4.25 to better than 20/15 both eyes. I can now see hits on targets at further distances. Target indexing is faster as you no longer look out the side of a contact or outside of the glasses. So far, I can still focus on the front sight just fine. Though I still have a few years before I hit forty. You will have to be out of your contacts for a few weeks so they can get a true look at the natural shape of the lens before they correct it. At least thats what they had me do. As for correcting the eyes differently one for close and one for far, this was not discussed with my correction. I just shooting for 20/20 both eyes.

I do know a shooter that is trying something like what your taking about with different corrections in different eyes. He has reached the 40 mark and now needs correction to read or focus on the front sight. As a result, he is wearing just one contact in his dominant eye. Allowing him to focus on the front sight. At first he liked it, but now has decided that dealing with the contact is not worth it and is looking at a shooting glasses with his script in one side. Point being, you may talk to your doctor about giving you contacts in different strengths to try out before you have our laser surgery and make the correction perminent....just a thought.

On a side note, ask around about the eye doctors. The one that I worked with is very much into the shooting sports. He was a top notch skeet shooter and about the time I start shooting he was just joing into the IPSC game as well. He knows what shooters' need and want in their vision. It helped alot when talking to him prior to the operation. Also makes follow up and eye questions easy as I see him all of the time on the range!

[Petrov]

It was worth it for me! I could barley see my toes when I looked down without glasses. For my front sight I had to have that giant golf ball from XS sights to be able to see the front sight. I dont have perfect 20/20 vison, but my astigmatism is gone I can drive and function without glasses unlike before and I can focus on pistol sights fast and easy.

[Gary1911A1]

I think it did for me. I still have trouble seeing the front sight as sharp as I would like, but I can see it a lot better now. Before I needed special shooting glasses with a bifocal in the top to see the front sight, but then the target was extremely blurry to me. I might be shooting Open instead of Single Stack.

[BradGannaway]

I'm a little on the opposite end of most people here.

I had LASIK on both eyes almost 10 years ago, with an enhancement 6 months later. I immediately noticed "starburst" around lights at night. They told me this would happen, but that it would go away eventually........it didn't.

8 years past and it actually got a little worse, and I wasn't sure why. So I went to the eye doctor to see if they could tell me what was going on. I found out that my eyes had regressed to 20/25, and the refraction error was causing the starbursts to get bigger.

No biggie though; I just dealt with it. Well, 2 years later (present day) my eyes have backed up to 20/50 and I have to wear glasses or contacts to drive, watch TV, shoot, work on the computer.......pretty much every thing except for take a leak.

I'm a little dissapointed, and sometimes it really urks me that I spent 4 grand on this and I'm back to glasses and contacts.

I'm not saying it will happen to everyone, but it's a possibility, and something to think about.

[TwoShot]

I had to chuckle a bit when you guys were referring to what is "bad" vision. I'm -19 in my dominant left eye and -16 in my right. The best I can get in my left eye is 20/40 with a special contact lens that is basically a soft lens with a hard lens embedded in it. I wear a conventional hard gas permeable lens in the right eye and can still see 20/20. Lasik is not an option as I would have little cornea left. I wish things were different but it beats not seeing at all. I'm currently B class in open division. My gun has a Cmore 6 minute dot. What I see is a grape cluster of dots that is about 12+ minute in size. I sight in on the center of the cluster and have fun shooting! Best of luck to all of you in solving your vision issues.

[All-Gator]

Twenty-five years ago (or there abouts) I underwent Lasix to correct 20/400 vision. My instructions to the surgeon was: "I want to see a .38 caliber hole at twenty-five yards." (Primarily, I was an open shooter.) She accomplished the demand...but I immediately needed reading glasses. Also, in order to see iron sights, I had inserts made for my shooting glasses that had the +1.50 correction for my dominant eye. No problem seeing the iron sights and no problem with normal vision as I just walked around. I'm 72 now and still have no problems with the results of the operation.

However, I have a shooting buddy that cannot tolerate the "mixed" inserts. But his sight picture is cross dominant and that may or may not affect his use of the single insert.

Bottom line: I think it works but you never know till you try it.

A-G

[niedlaw]

I had LASIK about 3-4 years ago, I can't tell you if it improved my shooting or not but it did improve my quality of life. It's a wonderful thing to wake up in the morning and not have to put on your glasses to see across the room or have contacts irritate your eye during the pollen season.

[Caspian_45]

I've just had PRK done 9 days ago. I can tell you that I am just now able to set at the computer and focus on the screen. They said it will take a while for the vision to settle in. At reading chart range they were very impressed that I could read the 20/25 line. Said I will get better vision. At distance the vision is still blurry. Looking through a rifle scope it takes a few seconds for the eyes to focus on the reticle, but clear. Pistol front sight is clean and clear, very sharp....unless the eyes get dry.

I don't know if it will help me be a better shooter.....but I can tell you I am lovin' not havin' to find where I put my glasses after I take my contacts out. I have noticed that I like to wear my persimion color Oakly's when looking at the comp screen and TV. The V28's rock outside.

I told the Doc what I did for work (carpenter) and what I did for a hobby. I asked if I should have the vision corrected any different than normal to acheive a clear front sight, he said nope. I might need reading glasses eventually but at front sight distance he ashurd me the vision will be fine.

I go back for a check up at 1 month and 6 months and again in 1 year. If I can remember I will post more then. I had a very bad astigmatisum, don't ask me the prescription cause I don't know that stuff. So PRK was the only treatment I could do according to the doc. I'll tell you right now that you will want to take several days off work. Day 2 I stayed in bed with my eyes closed.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Caspian_45

[Hank Ellis]

I've just had PRK done 9 days ago. I can tell you that I am just now able to set at the computer and focus on the screen. They said it will take a while for the vision to settle in. At reading chart range they were very impressed that I could read the 20/25 line. Said I will get better vision. At distance the vision is still blurry. Looking through a rifle scope it takes a few seconds for the eyes to focus on the reticle, but clear. Pistol front sight is clean and clear, very sharp....unless the eyes get dry.

Nine days. You're still in the healing process. You'll see a difference in about a month then again in three months. The PRK procedure is not for the impatient. Oh, and hydrate the eyes with wetting drops frequently even if you think you don't need it.

As for the OP question. My PRK got me to 20/40 and I'm leaving tonight to go back to Austin for round two to get me to 20/20 or better. Has it improved my shooting? Maybe. I'm really liking not having to wear glasses for distance. Where I'm at now is where I was with glasses. I've noticed a definite improvement with scoped rifles. Handgun somewhat less but being able to see both the sights and target is a big plus. Before both were blobs. Now both are in a soft focus. We'll see after going under the zapper a second time. Shotgun clay games I just suck at and I don't think vision has anything to do with it.

But ignore all that. Even if I didn't shoot I'd do it all over again. My quality of life has improved and that alone is worth the admission price. For the soap opera of my experience check this thread: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=79290&st=0

[Caspian_45]

17 days now. The eyes are doing great, less blurry at distance anyway. They get better everyday. Today started out with them being a little sore and not letting me keep them open for long periods. Blinking wasn't enough, they needed some more shut eye I guess.

Pistol sights are great now, no fuzz at all. The targets and sights look really good. Rifle scopes are the BIGEST improvement of all. I had to re-adjust all the focus rings. Before the reticales were always a little fuzzy, same with binos. I never could get them to focus right. Now they are clear as can be.

Hank they told me to water the eyes regularly wether I thought they'd need it or not. I do it every 4 hours or sooner. Hope your enhancment goes well.

[eric4069]

For the first year after PRK I still had to use a slight correction in my shooting glasses to get a crisp front sight. Now at almost two years I don't need any correction at all. For overall quality of life this is about one of the best things I ever did. The biggest advantage however is not having to deal with glasses fogging up while bow-hunting anymore.

Eric

[AzYooper]

I was at -7.5 11 years ago and had Lasik. My vision took over a month to come in to 20/20, 20/15 and it has stayed there since. I was 31 at the time and I am now 43 and have not noticed any problems with my close-in vision. For the last 5-6 years my eye Dr has said the same thing, "If it was not written in the notes that you had Lasik, I would not even notice."

Like the others that had good results I think that it was the best thing I did. I was not shooting back then so I do know how it affected my shooting. I have a good shooting buddy who is losing his close-in focus and it is really affected his game so I am curious how others work through this.

[BoldasLions]

With out a doubt PRK helped me! PRK will let your eye be structurally stronger than lasik.

[jaymitch]

Had Lasik about 4 years ago...honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made. My vision was bad -3.75..-3.50, now I am 20/20 in both eyes.

Brad_G, I am sorry to hear about your troubles with the surgery. I had some of that when I first had the surgery but I was lucky enough to have it eventually go away. I have heard of some people that have been able to have that fixed through another surgery. I know not all Lasik centers will do it but there are a select group of doctors that are very good at it.

[ARAlan]

My eyes were too bad and corneas too thin to do traditional LASIK, so I had a surgery done where they actually implanted lenses into my eyes. It's like the surgery that they use to correct cataracts, though my natural lenses were not removed. I had it done about 4 years ago and it cost $4K per eye. They had to do one eye at a time, a week apart, but within a few days after each operation, my vision was 20/15 (from a -8.00, -7.500), and over the years its probably about 20/20 now. For the first couple years I had pretty significant halos in very low light conditions, but that has subsided considerably to the point where I don't notice anymore.

I had mine done by Vance Thompson in Sioux Falls SD, and he used the top of the line procedures and technology at the time. Depending on what type of LASIK you get, the way the procedure is done can have a different affect on things like your night vision, so do your research and don't look for the bargain deal. Vance is a real pro, and if you're in the midwest or plains states, I would highly recommend him.

With contacts while shooting, after a while my eyes would get teary, or my contacts would move and I couldn't see my front sight worth a darn. Not a problem anymore. Of course, like any surgery, there are risks - but having this surgery was probably one of the smartest things I ever did - not just for shooting, but for all around quality of life. I was essentially blind without my glasses, and now I can see as good as anyone.

[dcarter]

"honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made"

+1.

[Mo Hepworth]

"honestly one of the best decisions I have ever made"

+1.

+2! one touch up a year later....no worries,..no problems.

[tgford58]

I did nhe lasiks about 4 years ago with fantastic results but like I read above, after about two years I had the 'need longer arms' syndrome. I may someday get a touch up to correct but for now I went to the eye doctor and had a contact lens made for my dominant eye that focuses at the front sight. (yup, took my pistol to the doc - sort of an incentive maybe). there was very little time getting used to wearing it and except for reading I don't notice when it is in. Soo for now I have the problem conquered. I'd do the surgery. One of the coolest things was being able to buy sunglasses without having prescription lenses.

[iainmcphersn]

I had to chuckle a bit when you guys were referring to what is "bad" vision. I'm -19 in my dominant left eye and -16 in my right. The best I can get in my left eye is 20/40 with a special contact lens that is basically a soft lens with a hard lens embedded in it. I wear a conventional hard gas permeable lens in the right eye and can still see 20/20. Lasik is not an option as I would have little cornea left. I wish things were different but it beats not seeing at all. I'm currently B class in open division. My gun has a Cmore 6 minute dot. What I see is a grape cluster of dots that is about 12+ minute in size. I sight in on the center of the cluster and have fun shooting! Best of luck to all of you in solving your vision issues.

You have me beat! I'm currently wearing -10.50 soft contact in both eyes and have to work at keeping my right eye dominant. I'm very lucky as my vision corrects a bit better than 20/20 and there is no astigmatism or other complications to worry over.

I've pined for corrective surgery ever since the old days of scarifying the eye with real knives but it was always out of reach. Last I heard they could not fully correct my vision and I've get to go back to glasses (albeit thinner ones). No thanks!!!

[CHA-LEE]

I got LASIK done a little over 6 months ago and my vision is a solid 20/15 in both eyes. I am glad that I did it and would do it again if I had to make the choice again. The one strange thing that was hard to get use to was the change in my eyes resting focus point. When I wore correction glasses my natural resting focus point was at about arms length so I didn't have to "Focus On" the front sight as my eyes were already focused there by default. Then I would have to shift my focus to see further away. After LASIK my resting focus point changed to be further away, about 15 - 20 yards. So I had to then consciously refocus back to my front sight while shooting. This was very strange to experience and a little frustrating for about a month after the surgery. But now I have retrained myself to refocus back on the front sight while shooting by default.

Other than that it has been really cool to live life without the need of correction glasses or contacts. Now I just need to break myself of the habit of trying to push up my glasses when I am tired..... even though I am not wearing any glasses

Some habits are harder to break than others

[MikeCoza]

Laser eye surgery does not improve your shooting it only enhance your eyesight to see clearly. We know that Shooting is a skill if you have to improve it you have to work on it, practice to improve your shooting skill. But to have a laser eye surgery cost very expensive that's why I highly suggest you to have a natural vision correction. In this way you can enhance your eyesight naturally. You can try this at bit.ly/HowGetRidOfYourGlasses Hope it helps.

[Taeaghe]

My friend also underwent laser eye surgery due to cataracts, now he is fully sighted and shoots well.