Do not get old...

For several years now, I have had to wear bifocals (I splurge for the no line type). When I shoot (pistol, iron sight rifle, or scoped rifle), there is a problem.

Either the rear sight is fuzzy and the target is clear or, if I lift my head a little (thus throwing off the sight picture), the rear sight is clear and the target is fuzzy.

What is a poor boy to do?

RMR?

Have a pair that is just for shooting - no reading glasses. Just go to one of the online glasses stores and send them you script. EZPZ and cheap.

Hoosegow,
So just the distance Rx?

Hearing Clint Smith yell "Front sight, press" for two and a half days will get that ingrained into your brain forever.

Convert to a red dot/holographic sight. Game changer!

Aggie Infantry said:

---

Hoosegow,
So just the distance Rx?

---

Yep. Just your distance rx.

yes.

I can't play pool (not that I was ever very good) or golf (again, not very good) with bifocals. Well, mine are progressive, but still, sucks. Heck, I don't even trust myself playing catch anymore.

I had doc lower my contact prescription in dominant eye (he did ~ 1 diopter ) to allow me see arrow pin much clearer and it didn't affect my distant sight significantly. It was a good compromise

And when you get cataracts , they now have lens that correct both. I was disappointed when my doc said I was not ready for surgery yet

Same problem here. I have the progressive lenses. I take my glasses off when I shoot with a scoped rifle seems to work better; but I'm sure no two people have the same eye sight issues.

Aggie Infantry said:

---

Do not get old...

For several years now, I have had to wear bifocals (I splurge for the no line type). When I shoot (pistol, iron sight rifle, or scoped rifle), there is a problem.

Either the rear sight is fuzzy and the target is clear or, if I lift my head a little (thus throwing off the sight picture), the rear sight is clear and the target is fuzzy.

What is a poor boy to do?

---

when shooting with both eyes (bow, pistol, shotgun), setup one eye for close up and one eye for far away. for me, this just means i put in my normal contact on my left eye. works great.

Hoosegow said:

---

Have a pair that is just for shooting - no reading glasses. Just go to one of the online glasses stores and send them you script. EZPZ and cheap.

---

Is that EZPZ.com?

Couldn't resist.

Man, I'm glad it works for you. My cousin does that with his contact lenses. swears by it, so thought I'd try it. Couldn't make it work, headaches, seemed to make both blurry.

jagsdad said:

---

Man, I'm glad it works for you. My cousin does that with his contact lenses. swears by it, so thought I'd try it. Couldn't make it work, headaches, seemed to make both blurry.

---

My only issue is my eyes are so dry I struggle to get my contact out. So I only do it for shooting sports.

Welp... now im curious as to what ezpz.com is and too scared to look since you put it that way.

Having the same issue. Thinking about PRK for distance vision (LASIK alternative) with readers…

Does anyone have a good optometrist or opthalmologist that is into shooting sports in the Dallas area? I have heard of this before, where the right doctor geared towards our hobby actually has you bring your weapon to the office to work through the best solution for your individual needs. I have pretty good eye doctors in Dallas that are into weird cases, but none of them are shooters so I don't think they always understand what I'm trying to accomplish.

I have asked them about putting the distance contact in my non-dominant eye to eliminate a cross dominant eye problem for skeet but they just say that it won't work.

I have been shooting skeet with the OG Leopold Delta Point Pro for 15+ years and it works pretty well for me. Obviously it completely eliminates the cross dominance problem, but neither dot size is optimal for shotgun sports in my opinion. The 3moa dot is too small and is hard to pick up in fast crossing situations and anything but perfect lighting conditions, and the 6moa is so big it pretty much equals the size of a standard clay and is brighter so it draws your focus off the target and to the dot so it is like you are aiming and bead checking. Not ideal. I probably average about 21 or 22 in most of my 12 week leagues, so I'm middle of the road, but always looking for a way to improve my vision.

And I have been doing dedicated single (distance) vision glasses for shooting for about 10 years. I'm afraid of what would happen if my mount or glasses fit had me looking through the wrong part of a bifocal or progressive as I have now. Unfortunately, my old man eyes have gotten to the point where my single vision shooting glasses do not work for pistol shooting because my arm length and their focal distance are not a good match so I cannot get a crisp focus on the front sight so I have to use the progressives there.

As the OP said - if you're not old already, stay young, old eyes suck for all the fun stuff.

There are no "effective" tricks to change your dominant eye. If you are serious about shotgun shooting sports, bite the bullet and learn to shoot with the correct hand. It'll also give you a chance to relearn with the correct technique.

Yeah, I'd struggle to drink a beer left handed. Oh I'd try, but I'd spill. I know you are correct, but every time I mount a gun left handed it seems all I can see is the side of the gun, not straight down the rib (just like when I mount it normally RH). And even shooting straight out going targets is demoralizing. I've only tried it a few times, and never really just said I'm switching and poured myself into practice that way. But honestly I don't think I have the time or money it would take to relearn shooting LH. And a 21 with the red dot is OK enough that my incentive to force the change isn't big enough to endure the struggle.

But did I misunderstood your post about your contacts, I thought you were switching your contacts to correct an eye dominance issue?

I'm old and can't see close when I have my far glasses on. So I set up my non dominant eye to see far and my dominant eye to see close. This works for open sites, bows, and even shotguns even though you aren't suppose to focus on the shotgun barrel.

Keep in mind, unless you are bee-lining a standing turkey, or a floating duck, you never focus on the barrel in shotgun sports.

Also there's a very good test you do to asses eye dominance. Hold both hands out and make a circle. Have a buddy stand 10 yards away and take three pics. All three pics, you are lining up (aiming) your hand circle with the camera lens. Take one with each eye closed and one with both eyes open. When you look at the pics you'll be able to tell if you are strong left, strong right or even centered eye by assessing which eye appears in the pic of the hole made by your hand. If you are centered eye, good luck. You can still be good with practice but likely won't be hitting 100/100 no matter what hand you shoot with.

(Note, closing each eye takes away any influence from a dominant hand and helps you identify a center eye dominance tendency that the traditional test won't pick up)

Also, if I'm understanding what you are describing this may be a classic mounting issue. Try focusing down range on your target with good posture then bring the gun to your head/shoulder without moving your head. Pretend you are Superman with laser eyes and with a good mount and fitted gun you're bbs will track your eye-laser .

Interesting, I have never checked eye dominance with a camera like you suggest. It sounds like the best test for central or cross dominance which is the worst of all afflictions.

And yes, if you are looking at the gun you are going to miss with a shotgun. I have always expected that my 6moa red dot has me aiming rather than pointing because it is near impossible to focus on the target with that huge dot glowing there in your line of sight. My hope was that the smaller 3moa would act as just an alignment reference as a bead does, that disappears when you focus hard on the target but I have never been able to make it work quite like this. But the red dots do mask the eye dominance problem and allow true 2-eyed shooting so there is that.

As most do when you age, I started needing correction for near. I first tried contacts for mono-vision where my dominate right eye was corrected for distance and left non-dominant for near. Some people have difficulty with this but was no problem for me. I had LASIK in 2000 that way. Even though I am right eye dominate, I trained myself to do my front sight focus with my left near eye. Worked great and shot competition for years like that until I went to red dots on my pistols. I had to retrain from front sight focus on irons to focusing on the target.

I ended up having cataract surgery on the left in 2021 and opted for a trifocal lens. It is fantastic, and I can read the smallest print, see the computer screen and am 20/20 distance. Wasn't cheap but figure I use my eyes almost every day so paid off.