Eye Glasses or Contacts?

silver star

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I find myself enjoying competition shooting.
The first thing I see that I need to do is find out if I can improve my ability to see targets.
More specific, eliminate the looking over or under the top of my lens.
Has anyone gone from wearing eye glasses to contacts with good or bad results?
If it matters I wear progressive lens.
Any suggestions or advice?
 
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I have moderate correction needed and always shoot with contacts. Rifle, pistol, shotgun, etc. I've tried to go from contacts to glasses when shooting Skeet once, and it ended up worse than normal :blink:. I'd stick with what works, but there is a different sight picture and "feel" to things when switching between the two.
 
I wear bifocals, and sometimes catch myself looking over the top on occasion too. I'll stick with the glasses though. My wife wears contacts, and I don't want any part of that.
 
I have myopia (nearsightedness). I have been wearing contacts >20 years. They are much better for shooting sports than glasses (and just life in general).

I am also 50 now, and have to wear reading glasses to see anything up close. This is farsightedness or Hyperopia. This is an unavoidable condition with aging. As a result, I cannot see the front sight on my pistol or rifles. To overcome this problem, I wear a 1.0X lens (reading glasses strength) in my dominant eye (my normal reading lens power is 2.0). This lens is built in my shooting glasses from Decot. This allows me to have the front sight in focus while at the same time being able to sort of see the target. Both the peope at Decot and my eye Dr. confirmed this as a solution to this problem of hyperopia. This distorts vision abit but I can deal with it for a day shoot (3-4 hours no problem).

Tally ho

Kevin

[On top of that, I am developing a cataract in my right (dominant) eye, so things are becoming fuzzier all the time. Hey, I am not looking for sympathy or making excuses for my lousy shooting. I don't need any maladies to shoot poorly, I can do that all on my own, thank you.:blink: ]


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Bifocal progressives i.e. glasses. Best thing to do is talk to your eye doc about needing to see clear at X number of inches to pick up the front sight for shooting. The lenses can be adjusted for this for your dominate eye vwithout screwing with the rest of your vision. I also have a cataract forming in my dominate eye, as well as early signs of Glaucoma. So I'll soon have to start going into have the pressure relieved in each eye.
 
Ok. I have run the full cycle on this one. I have tried inserts for my Rudy's set up in my regular bifocal perscription and set up for the front sight in my dominate eye and distance in the other. None of them worked as well as having bifocal contacts. Some people have issues with this type of lens but it workes great for me!
 
Ok. I have run the full cycle on this one. I have tried inserts for my Rudy's set up in my regular bifocal perscription and set up for the front sight in my dominate eye and distance in the other. None of them worked as well as having bifocal contacts. Some people have issues with this type of lens but it workes great for me!

Bi-Focal Contacts?
I didn't know there was such a thing.
Lots of interesting experiments here. Can't wait to run some of this by the eye doc.
Found out my eye doc had major water line breakage during cold weather and will not be open until June. Crazy!
The lady that answered the phone said I could buy one day contacts, no washing, just throw away and wear my regular glasses when not shooting.
I have become some what convenience oriented now days which sometimes is wastefulness, I was taught different, but that sounds interesting.
 
On the BiFocal Contacts, I think he is referring to what my eye doctor did for me, and correct me if I'm wrong Sparks, which was to have one eye set for the top half of your glasses and the other eye set for the bottom half. While this sounds really strange, most people can adjust to it after getting used to them in a few days to a couple of weeks. The Doc would definitely have to know which eye to put which lens on as far as dominance goes. Personally, I could never get used to the set-up, but I was one of the very few. I opted to go with nearsighted lenses for both eyes, requiring me to have to wear "reading glasses" that are bought over-the-counter if I want to read small letters up-close. With me, this mid-life is hell, lol, I'm going blind in one eye, and can't see out of the other, lol. I hope this reply makes sense, I just got off of night shift, but I think I have it straight. When you have the correct set-up, one eye will be clear when you look ahead, and when you close the other it will be fuzzy, but the brain is smart enough to let you see both ways without noticing, if you are the type that can get used to it.
 
My vision and sight tracking has always been more crisp with contacts. Just gotta remember to bring spares or your glasses to a match, dust...wind all kill contacts and your vision will blur.
 
On the BiFocal Contacts, I think he is referring to what my eye doctor did for me, and correct me if I'm wrong Sparks, which was to have one eye set for the top half of your glasses and the other eye set for the bottom half. While this sounds really strange, most people can adjust to it after getting used to them in a few days to a couple of weeks. The Doc would definitely have to know which eye to put which lens on as far as dominance goes. Personally, I could never get used to the set-up, but I was one of the very few. I opted to go with nearsighted lenses for both eyes, requiring me to have to wear "reading glasses" that are bought over-the-counter if I want to read small letters up-close. With me, this mid-life is hell, lol, I'm going blind in one eye, and can't see out of the other, lol. I hope this reply makes sense, I just got off of night shift, but I think I have it straight. When you have the correct set-up, one eye will be clear when you look ahead, and when you close the other it will be fuzzy, but the brain is smart enough to let you see both ways without noticing, if you are the type that can get used to it.


Nope. The contacts themselves are bifocal. I did have a set of contacts that were adjusted one eye for distance and one for near but that did not work well for me. The contacts I have now are bifocal and I can see the front sight but still see distance. They way my Dr explained it was that your brain retrains to use the correct part of the contact as needed. Sounds weird but it works for me.
 
"Multi-Focal" contact lenses allow you to see clearly at all distances - near, far, and everywhere in-between. I am currently trying these out, for a week or so. My doc told me that the outer portion of the lense helps to see close up, with a gradual shift in power to the center for distance. Pretty happy with them so far. Still working on getting a clear front sight; I think it takes awhile for the eyes to adjust to them.

http://www.allaboutvision.com/contacts/bifocals.htm
 
Nope. The contacts themselves are bifocal. I did have a set of contacts that were adjusted one eye for distance and one for near but that did not work well for me. The contacts I have now are bifocal and I can see the front sight but still see distance. They way my Dr explained it was that your brain retrains to use the correct part of the contact as needed. Sounds weird but it works for me.
Wow! Thanks for straightening me out; I'm going to look into those!
 
I think he is referring to what my eye doctor did for me, and correct me if I'm wrong Sparks, which was to have one eye set for the top half of your glasses and the other eye set for the bottom half. While this sounds really strange, most people can adjust to it after getting used to them in a few days to a couple of weeks. The Doc would definitely have to know which eye to put which lens on as far as dominance goes. P

I can't believe I never saw this old thread. This is EXACTLY the set up I have. I am right handed and left eye dominant. My Dr. put a "reading" prescription in my right contact and a "distance" prescription in my left.

My question has always been, can I develop the ability to shoot with both eyes open or am I doomed to a life of "one-eyed shooting"

Currently I close my left eye and the front sight is crisp and the target is slightly blurred.
 
I went with Progressive Transistion shooting glasses.
The logic was with contacts you still have to wear protective glasses.
I cannot drive very long with them on but pistol, shotgun and scoped rifle do real well.
I am still curious about several of the hi tech contacts combined with clear shooting glasses.
Someday.
 
I recently got glasses for longer distance. I can see fine close up, and it's not that bad at distance.. but it's amazing how much better I can shoot the rifles now that I can see the target clearly. But I think I'm going to try contacts because with the glasses I have to keep adjusting them so I'm looking through the middle of the lens.
 
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