What Do You Do When Your Eyesight Goes Bad?

[DR Owl Creek]

Throughout most of my life, I've had excellent vision. When I hit 50 or so, my close focus point started getting farther and farther away. Eventually, I had to get reading glasses... Then stronger ones...

I'm older than that now, and I also have an astigmatism. I have scopes on most of my rifles, and even on a few of my handguns. Not every type of optics works for me. Reflex type sights, like the EOTechs are useless. All I see through those is a big red fuzz-ball with bright red spider webs running throughout.

I've tried the Meritt diopter type attachments for your glasses. Those work OK for target shooting, but not for hunting.

For target shooting with handguns, what has worked best is + diopter type type reading glasses, as long as I have a bold, distinct target down range. As long as I can see, I can still shoot respectably. For hunting, however, this doesn't work well.

I've been hesitant to try a corrective surgical fix. I really don't like the idea of having something that can't be undone, like slicing and dicing my eyes, or burning parts of them off with a laser.

What has worked for you? What hasn't? Would you do it again, knowing what you know now? Any other suggestions?

Thanks

Dave

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-17

[Smoke4320]

was a competitive hunter pistol shooter for years. loved shooting rifles with iron sights and showing off now in same boat ..
all my guns now wear scopes, pistols rifles you name it .. other than my carry gun

[twotoescharlie]

hope you don't have to do like me, just grin and bear it. I have inoperable cataracs. only have vision in one eye. Docs will not do surgery until I cannot function.

TTC

[DR Owl Creek]

was a competitive hunter pistol shooter for years. loved shooting rifles with iron sights and showing off now in same boat ..
all my guns now wear scopes, pistols rifles you name it .. other than my carry gun

Smoke,

I know what you mean! Really sucks getting Old!!!

Dave

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-8

[DR Owl Creek]

hope you don't have to do like me, just grin and bear it. I have inoperable cataracs. only have vision in one eye. Docs will not do surgery until I cannot function.

TTC

Wow !?!

Good Luck there Pardner!

Dave

John 6: 39-54

[dilly]

There is vision correction surgery. I've always had bad vision and dreamt if it. If you get the right kind it can help with astigmatism, reduce the starburst effects of light and everything. It's expensive though, but I don't know you and some of the people on this board are what I would consider wealthy so I thought I would throw that option out there.

[hornady308]

I am 48 years old and am going down this road myself. I still have iron sights on most of my firearms, especially my black powder rifles. I just can't bring myself to put a scope on a flintlock. What has worked for me is using very low powered reading glasses. When I use +1.00 or +1.25 reading glasses I find that the sights are a lot less blurry and that the target is a little blurry. This is certainly a compromise, but one that works very well for me. I have also found that aperture sights (peeps sights) help quite a bit as long as the hole is rather narrow.

[Outpost75]

I am now 65. I had surgery to repair a detached retina when I was 60, cataract surgery in the same eye several years later, with an inter-occular lens implant, and laser surgery to correct glaucoma in the other eye, in which eye drops were unable to get the pressure down. I have some nerve damage in the left eye which occurred before surgery, but I see the sights mike a 20-year-old again and can read the Wall Street Journal in good light without glasses.

[owejia]

Had cataracts removed from both eyes, lens implants in both eyes, detached retina repaired in right eye and had laser surgery to shave the left eye to correct vision after lens implant, only use reading glasses to read up close. Can still see good at 67yrs old. Eyes are getting a little blury now and probably need to have laser surgery to burn out the film that makes them blury. Would definetly do it over again. I use scopes on my rifles, but only open sights on my handguns. The only problem with my eyes, one sees near sighted and the other sees farsighted, which makes it hard to judge distance, like mowing beside fences with a 15 ft rotrary mower, hang a fence post every once in a while , and backing a stock trailer up to loading ramp or gate, always seem to be at an angle. Monovision is what the Doctor called it.

[Garyshome]

It's a PITA! Soon everything will have to be coach gun or pump 12 gauge.

[Bohica793]

I went from perfect vision at 40 to trifocals at 50. Every year, the prescription gets stronger and my shooting gets weaker. I am to the point that I am considering corrective surgery but my understanding is it doesn;t really work too well for farsightedness (which is my problem).

[beezapilot]

I had Laser surgery two years ago. I was in the woods and a branch whipped my glasses off as I slid down a bank, couldn't see well enough to find them, about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Crawled around on my hands and knees feeling for them until the sun hit the horizon- figured I'd better get to the truck before it was dark and I was really in trouble. Had a very old prescription in the glove box as back ups and they got me home. (You would have thought I'd been smart enough to CARRY a spare pair). That day made it worth while to me. I opted for both eyes to have distance vision, on the assumption that I would always be wearing safety glasses in the shop and they make those with built in cheaters. Even though I opted for distance, I can use all but the finest iron sights. With the cost of glasses, the procedure will amortize itself in the next decade.... major investment, but.....

My glasses were getting very heavy and expensive, while a luxury- the surgery has been wonderful.

Dilly- I was a lucky guy- never a problem with "starburst", my night vision is like being Superman.

[gray wolf]

I RE-read your post two time and I am not sure what your saying. Did your post imply that you have run the gamut with prescription glasses ? or have you been using the diopter + - glasses from Wally World ?
Diopter enhancement will not help astigmatism.

[NSB]

I went from perfect vision at 40 to trifocals at 50. Every year, the prescription gets stronger and my shooting gets weaker. I am to the point that I am considering corrective surgery but my understanding is it doesn;t really work too well for farsightedness (which is my problem).

Lasik surgery can correct farsightedness just as easily as nearsightedness. My vision went from 20/15 in my thirties to less than 20/20 by the time I was fifty. I got Lasik done and it returned to 20/15 again. However, it only resets the clock, it doesn't stop it. At 65 I've developed mild cataracts so I'm getting interoccular lenses put in next month. They now have lenses that adjust just as your natural lens does. They will give you excellent distance and intermediate vision and reasonable very close vision. You may need a pair of reading glasses for the smallest print.

[pdawg_shooter]

I went blind in my left eye (my dominate one) last year. Something to do with a blood protein causing the blood vessels that supply the optic nerve to fail. Not fixable. They tell me my right eye will go sooner or later. Till then I have just had to adapt as much as possible. I will keep shooting and loading as long as I can. Guess it will be an assisted care place then. Just one more thing to live with.

[CastingFool]

I didn't have to start wearing glasses until I was 48. I wear bifocals now, and every year the prescription gets a little stronger. I use scopes in all my rifles (except my ML) I have a difficult time tracking deer with my bifocals, but I found a pair of + diopter that allows me to focus clearly at 6-8 ft away, and I can track deer then. It also allows me to see the front sight clearly on my ML, but I won't shoot it past 50 yds. Getting old sucks!

[MtGun44]

A week ago I had eye surgery for glaucoma, cataracts coming on, left eye is still fuzzy,
3 kinds of drops at three different time intervals in left, two in right. Scheduled right
eye end of May to keep from losing more vision as the glaucoma pressure chokes off the nerves
to the retina. Not a lot of fun, doing what I can, but it sure sucks. A year and a half
ago, my vision was perfect with glasses, now it is pretty poor in the left, fair to middling in
the right (dominant).
Praying that the left will stabilize and be properly correctable with new glasses and that they
don't mess up the right with the surgery.

Bill

[dbosman]

One of the things that puts me off lasik type surgery is that all the practitioners I know, and I do know several - wear glasses.

[kopperl]

I'm 78.Never wore glasses until I was 50 and then just for reading until I was 65. Had cataract removal and lens implant in both eyes(different times) Wonderful!! I was shooting turtles this morning with an iron sights Hornet.
Probably doesn't work for everyone but it was a miracle for me.

[wv109323]

You can have a set of glasses made to correct your vision for iron sights. The point of focus needs to be the front sight. The astigmatism can be corrected with the glasses also. Frames from Knobloch, Ghemann or Varga can be used. Regular reading glasses from Walmart will not correct the astigmatism thus blurry vision at any distance.
There was a company called Clearsight that made a diopter that clipped on your regular eyeglasses. It corrected the point of focus and your glasses corrected astigmatism. You might watch Evil Bay for one of those.
Search Norman Wong. He is an eye doctor that was written instructions so that your eye doctor can correctly make you a set of eyeglasses for pistol shooting.

[RogerDat]

Smoke,

I know what you mean! Really sucks getting Old!!!

Dave

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-8

Unless you consider what is the alternative to getting old!

Many insurance policies will cover cataract surgery BUT the replacement lenses the policies will generally pay for are either, near, far, or one of each (your brain picks the eye in focus - weird but kind of neat too) Policy is because the more flexible lenses that can provide both near and far are not medically necessary, you can wear glasses and use the "fixed" focus lens replacements.

I encouraged my wife to go ahead and pay the difference for the flexible focus lenses, glad I did. It was about $2000 but hopefully that investment will provide her with good vision for the next 20 years and glasses are not free either so long term it probably works out. I was just glad she had a little bit of money her father left her so we had the choice.

Know people that have had the laser surgery done with good results. They typically do one eye, wait until that heals and they know that one is OK then do the other. In case something goes badly there is less chance of losing vision in both eyes.

[DR Owl Creek]

I am 48 years old and am going down this road myself. I still have iron sights on most of my firearms, especially my black powder rifles. I just can't bring myself to put a scope on a flintlock. What has worked for me is using very low powered reading glasses. When I use +1.00 or +1.25 reading glasses I find that the sights are a lot less blurry and that the target is a little blurry. This is certainly a compromise, but one that works very well for me. I have also found that aperture sights (peeps sights) help quite a bit as long as the hole is rather narrow.

For shooting iron-sighted handguns, I use an old pair of prescription glasses that's a little stronger than what you're using. I make up my own targets from white 8 1/2" x 11" continuous feed computer paper, and black 3/4" electrical tape to make about a 3" cross or + on it. The low powered reading glasses allow me to see the sights reasonably well, while the target is only somewhat blurry and indistinct at 25 yards for handguns, or 100 yards for rifles. I just aim for the center of the blurry spot. That allows me to do my load work-ups. I punch those targets, and keep them in 3-ring binders for future reference.

Dave

John 11: 17-26

[DR Owl Creek]

I went from perfect vision at 40 to trifocals at 50. Every year, the prescription gets stronger and my shooting gets weaker. I am to the point that I am considering corrective surgery but my understanding is it doesn;t really work too well for farsightedness (which is my problem).

I've always heard that corrective surgery may not work well for far-sightedness too. That's why I was asking for input.

Thanks,

Dave

1 Corinthians 1: 4-8

[DR Owl Creek]

I RE-read your post two time and I am not sure what your saying. Did your post imply that you have run the gamut with prescription glasses ? or have you been using the diopter + - glasses from Wally World ?
Diopter enhancement will not help astigmatism.

No, I haven't run out of corrective possibilities. I can see pretty well at a distance for driving, etc. My problem is mainly shooting iron-sighted handguns. Shooting scoped rifles isn't a problem. Without reading type glasses, I can't see clearly across a room though. That's what makes shooting handguns difficult. With reading type glasses, I can see the sights, but everything down range is really blurry. That's why target shooting sorta works, but hunting doesn't.

Dave

1 Timothy 6: 13-15

[Outpost75]

A good read on the subject here:

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/articles/OldFartEyes.htm

[DR Owl Creek]

Lasik surgery can correct farsightedness just as easily as nearsightedness. My vision went from 20/15 in my thirties to less than 20/20 by the time I was fifty. I got Lasik done and it returned to 20/15 again. However, it only resets the clock, it doesn't stop it. At 65 I've developed mild cataracts so I'm getting interoccular lenses put in next month. They now have lenses that adjust just as your natural lens does. They will give you excellent distance and intermediate vision and reasonable very close vision. You may need a pair of reading glasses for the smallest print.

That's good to know that the procedure worked pretty well for you. That's the kind of info I was looking for. I'm retired (got retired) so I don't have a lot of extra money, but I'll have to check into it to see how much it might cost.

Dave

2 Timothy 3: 1

[DR Owl Creek]

I went blind in my left eye (my dominate one) last year. Something to do with a blood protein causing the blood vessels that supply the optic nerve to fail. Not fixable. They tell me my right eye will go sooner or later. Till then I have just had to adapt as much as possible. I will keep shooting and loading as long as I can. Guess it will be an assisted care place then. Just one more thing to live with.

Pdawg,

Man, I'm really sorry to hear that! That would probably be my worst nightmare. Good luck to you!

Dave

Hebrews 3: 4-14

[ShooterAZ]

I install fiber optic front sights (HiViz) on my handguns, scopes on my rifles. I then proceed to get closer to the target!

[DR Owl Creek]

A week ago I had eye surgery for glaucoma, cataracts coming on, left eye is still fuzzy,
3 kinds of drops at three different time intervals in left, two in right. Scheduled right
eye end of May to keep from losing more vision as the glaucoma pressure chokes off the nerves
to the retina. Not a lot of fun, doing what I can, but it sure sucks. A year and a half
ago, my vision was perfect with glasses, now it is pretty poor in the left, fair to middling in
the right (dominant).
Praying that the left will stabilize and be properly correctable with new glasses and that they
don't mess up the right with the surgery.

Bill

I'll be praying for you too, Brother.

Dave

Hebrews 6: 11-12

[DR Owl Creek]

You can have a set of glasses made to correct your vision for iron sights. The point of focus needs to be the front sight. The astigmatism can be corrected with the glasses also. Frames from Knobloch, Ghemann or Varga can be used. Regular reading glasses from Walmart will not correct the astigmatism thus blurry vision at any distance.
There was a company called Clearsight that made a diopter that clipped on your regular eyeglasses. It corrected the point of focus and your glasses corrected astigmatism. You might watch Evil Bay for one of those.
Search Norman Wong. He is an eye doctor that was written instructions so that your eye doctor can correctly make you a set of eyeglasses for pistol shooting.

Thanks for pointing that out! I read about Dr Wong some time back. I forgot his name and where I saw the article. He's one of the few Eye Docs who is a shooter, and understands what we need. I was hoping somebody would bring him up. I'd like to print off some of his info, and take it along the next time I go for glasses. The last pair I had done just didn't work out well.

Thanks again!

Dave

Hebrews 9: 27-28

[DR Owl Creek]

A good read on the subject here:

http://www.hensleygibbs.com/edharris/articles/OldFartEyes.htm

Thanks for posting that link! Good info!

Dave

2 Peter 3: 3-7

[Just Duke]

I'm 55. I have scopes on everything now.
Roosevelt Elk are huge (1200 pounds sometimes) and I have two 505 Gibbs on my wish list. A 600 grain cast at 1250 fps is what stirring in the part of my mind that use to house my vision computer. I also don't want to be tracking game for miles at my age.
Bigger game and bigger bullets.

Here's my answer.
WA has a Moose lottery. Were putting in once were back home.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6172/6255597723_6f83aaa6ae_z.jpg

[NSB]

I just got back home from a trip to the range. A friend of mine invited me to go shooting with him today and I wanted to shoot my new Low Wall in 357max. Due to cataracts in both eyes I had a scope put on it when I got it a couple of weeks ago. I'm getting cataract surgery in one eye June 9th and the other eye June 23rd. I can't wait to see again. Last Saturday the new Leupold scope on the Low Wall took a dump on me. It's the first Leupold I've ever had fail. No problem, Optics Planet will replace it with another one and paid to return this one. Anyway, I wanted to shoot so I put the tang sight back on the gun and took it to the range to try out some different loads for the gun. When I look through the peep on the tang sight I see a big wad of lint in the center of the sight and two front sights....a dark one and a light one. The only way I can shoot is to put the dark one in the upper right quadrant of the peep away from the "lint" (which is not there,it's actually the cataract image on my retina). It's amazing how well you can still shoot even with lousy eyesight. I can't wait to see how I do after the surgery when I'll only have one front sight and no "lint" in the center. These were shot at 100yds.

[Just Duke]

The head honcho at the Leupold factory took me aside and told me that the new gal that now owns the company is more concerned with the water filtration end of the business than the scope end. Also that light you see on the scopes is only there because of me.
I did use to sit behind old lady Leupold in church and she was a jewel.
I will continue to use their cheap 300 to 500 dollar scopes. $1600.00 and up for a Swarovski. Yea I don't think so.

[Just Duke]

A fella we know has a couple Belgium 10 GA. side by sides he's holding for us when we sell something.
I should be able to hit the broad side of a barn whilst inside with the doors shut with these.

[Grendl]

As a younger man (a while back) having worn corrective lenses most of my life, I found that when i was forced to go the bifocal route iron sights became difficult to manage effectively. Along with this it became increasingly difficult to use a computer, could not focus properly on the monitor. The eye doctor suggested trifocals and I promptly said no thanks, didn't want to be looking for the sweet spot all the time. We settled on two pair of bifocals one for normal life, and one for the computer with the focal point at arms length. I found that the computer bifocal let me focus on the front sight on both handgun and rifle, much to my un ending happiness.

[Just Duke]

As a younger man (a while back) having worn corrective lenses most of my life, I found that when i was forced to go the bifocal route iron sights became difficult to manage effectively. Along with this it became increasingly difficult to use a computer, could not focus properly on the monitor. The eye doctor suggested trifocals and I promptly said no thanks, didn't want to be looking for the sweet spot all the time. We settled on two pair of bifocals one for normal life, and one for the computer with the focal point at arms length. I found that the computer bifocal let me focus on the front sight on both handgun and rifle, much to my un ending happiness.

I need 4 pairs of glasses just to make it through the day.

[MrWolf]

When I had to go to bifocals about 12 years ago I opted for the laser surgery. They warned me I would have starbursts and dry eyes due to my eyes. Had the surgery and have the starbursts and have to put drops in my eyes every morning to see. I still would have the surgery again as it made life so much easier. What they didn't tell me was that it can accelerate your need for reading glasses. I have plenty of cornea left that I could probably have the surgery again but kinda figure why take the risk for readers - my arms are still long enough so far :shock: I can still see the birds trap shooting and just aim for the blur on the targets.

[Hickok]

My eyes are perfect, they just don't make the sights clear and sharp as they did when I was 18 years old! These new sights have a fuzzy, blurry outline. Anytime you get something good, they have to go and change it!:kidding:

[DR Owl Creek]

... I wanted to shoot so I put the tang sight back on the gun and took it to the range to try out some different loads for the gun. When I look through the peep on the tang sight I see a big wad of lint in the center of the sight and two front sights....a dark one and a light one. The only way I can shoot is to put the dark one in the upper right quadrant of the peep away from the "lint" (which is not there,it's actually the cataract image on my retina)...

I know. To me, when using aperture sights it often looks like it has hairs growing inside of it. When using my old reading glasses with handguns, depending on the lighting, I sometimes see TWO blurry targets down range. It's hard to tell which one is the real one.

BTW. Great shooting!

Dave

1 Corinthians 15: 2-52

[DR Owl Creek]

...
I should be able to hit the broad side of a barn whilst inside with the doors shut with these.

HA !

I can hit a barn door from inside the barn, at least most of the time...

Dave

Zechariah 12: 8

[dakotashooter2]

I've worn glasses most of my life. The last 25 years my vision has remained pretty stable with the exception that it takes a little longer to focus on things and my low light vision isn't nearly what it used to be. I've considered lasic but can't seem to pull the trigger on it. Partially because I am very hard on lenses. I rarely make it 6 months without some pretty good scratching on them. Given that I'm thinking of the protection factor they are providing.That and the doc said I will still need glasses for reading. I still struggle with the bifocals and keep a pair of single lense for activities like driving and hunting. I'm hearing that the near and far lense solution is becoming more popular with the eye docs and they are doing it a lot with contacts too.

The unfortunate part is that I like and shoot far better with fine sights.... the problem is I can't focus them any more........... Maybe that's why they put wide sights on everything now days.............

[Col4570]

For rifles Aperture sights are the way to go if your vision is not too good.The pinhole acts as a lens.If in doubt pierce a small hole in a card and read through it.

[archmaker]

I am there, and have been having problems seeing the front sight, worked with my Eye dr this time (i wear contacts) and the solution that we came up with is doable, it has some downside. The left eye is fixed to be far sighted and the astigmatism has been fixed, finally got bad enough for me to get it corrected. The right eye is a multi-focal lens. Found it works great on the front sight, somewhat ok downrange, and near. The left eye is not any good for anything within a few feet. Had to go with different brands as the correction of using just one brand resulted in spot of about 3 feet where things were blurry.

I have issues at night, with the right eye (dominant eye) trying to be the eye I use when driving, the lights at a distant are blurry. (Don't have that problem during the daytime) and I sometimes need reading glasses for computer or close up work, weak ones, not like before.

[km101]

I have had cataract surgery on both eyes, twice. Years ago I had LK, RK, and Lasik over a span of 15 years. I still have to wear glasses to use the computer or read a book or newspaper! And my night vision is virtually gone. I found out after the surgery that this is a common problem after RK or Lasik. If you are considering Lasik, ask your doctor if HE has had it done, or if any of his immediate family has. Chances are he will say no. But you have to make your own decision.

I have prescription shooting glasses that help me focus on the rear sight when shooting pistols, and another pair for shooting scoped rifles as the distance is so different. Not a perfect solution but it keeps me shooting.

Now the Doctors tell me that I have "retinitis pigmentosa" which is disease of the retina, for which there is no known treatment or cure. It is degenerative and progressive so one of these days I will be blind. All the doctors that I have seen cannot tell me if this is something that occurs naturally or if it might have been brought on by all the well intentioned surgeries/corrections to my eyes.

That means that I have to hurry and accomplish all of the projects that I have stored up over the years! I also have to teach my children and grandchildren who are interested in guns and reloading to handle all of the casting and reloading for the family. So much to do and I have no idea how much time. So I need to make the most of it! :)

[MaryB]

I went to scopes and shoot without my glasses for rifles. Pistols I am okay with my bifocals but on scopes they get in the way, often with the change area(no lines) being dead center of the scope.