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Help me help my Ophthalmologist


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I am a soon-to-be elder statesman who wears tri-focals. I am trying to explain/help my ophthalmologist come up with some prescription shooting glasses. In our discussion we are trying to figure out whether to just dupicate my everyday glasses' prescription (I say no) or flip the prescription, putting the distance lens on bottom and the reading lens on the top. Middle distance would stay the same. Any insight from anyone would be a great help.

 

Preacher B. Quick

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I arranged with my doc to bring a pistol in with me and had a pair of glasses made so that my front sight was clear.  That worked out perfectly.  I didn't worry about anything else in that pair of glasses other than making sure they had safety lenses.

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I wear bifocals for everyday use.

 

I had my eye doctor (also a  shooter) set me up with a prescription for "computer" glasses in safety frames/lenses.  I wear these glasses from the time we start shooting until I shoot my final round.  The front sights of both revolvers and rifles are in focus, while everything at distance is a little blurry.  Actually trying to read with them is a little more difficult as well. 

 

Works well for me.

 

Trying to shoot out of my safety glasses with regular bifocals doesn't work for me.  It requires me to lift my chin way too high.  Looking through the distance prescription, all I see is a blur of front/rear sights.

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38 minutes ago, Doc Shapiro said:

I arranged with my doc to bring a pistol in with me and had a pair of glasses made so that my front sight was clear.  That worked out perfectly.  I didn't worry about anything else in that pair of glasses other than making sure they had safety lenses.

I did exactly the same several times, fortunately the guy was a shooter as well as a good guy.  I had glasses made just for shooting to wear over contact lenses.  Worked very well.

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I measured the distance from my eye to the rear sight of my rifle and then to the front sight, when I went to have my shooting glasses made I told the doc I needed to get as clear sight as possible between those to points, he worked on it a bit and I ended up with a pretty clear ( not perfect ) sight picture for both my rifle and pistol, targets are a bit fuzzy but there big and I’m not shooting bullseye so it’s ok, these glasses are only for shooting because they were made for that perfect range my sights are at, worked out really great for me and I just carry my regular glasses in the cart for after shooting

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I bought prescription trifocals for reading and shooting. My regular vision out past 4 feet is 20/20 it's the on-set of presbyopia (old eyes/close up) that's afflicting me. I did not like the trifocals at all. They hurt my eyes and were really effecting my normal vision from my eyes swapping back and forth through the 3 lenses. So for the time being I started using the Vuity eye drops for shooting only. The drops are short term and they work VERY well for about the time it takes to shoot a match. The drops don't work for some and work 10+ hours for others YMMV. For daily work and reading I just use cheaters. 

 

I really like Doc's idea though, a pair set up just for shooting. I may take these trifocals back and see if they will change out the lenses to what he has had done as I dislike these so much they just sit in my pocket. 

 

JEL

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1 hour ago, Doc Shapiro said:

I arranged with my doc to bring a pistol in with me and had a pair of glasses made so that my front sight was clear.  That worked out perfectly.  I didn't worry about anything else in that pair of glasses other than making sure they had safety lenses.

 

Same for me. I wear trifocals all day every day.

But I sure don't for shooting.

 

Set up for front sight is VERY clear. If the targets are a little fuzzy, so be it. 

I do have to hold something out a way's to be able to read in them. 

But shooting is the main purpose when I am on a stage. 

 

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I put some pins in the edge of an old yardstick at the distances of my sights, one edge for the pistols and one edge for the rifle, and took it with me to the eye Doc.  (Costco frowns on bringing firearms into the store...especially here in the People's Republic of Maryland).  Had the Doc tweak the prescription until all of the sights were completely in focus, and I just aim for the center of the big fuzzy spot known as a target.  Worked really great, but it helped that the Doc was a shooter.

 

Funny thing, after I retired and stopped staring into a computer or through a microscope all day, my eyes settled out a bit and now I can shoot with regular safety glasses without a prescription.  Got some other age related eyesight issues, but I can see the sights and the targets pretty well.

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I'm still using dedicated pairs of glasses. Driving and Sports. My Sport prescription works for long stretches of desk work. No bifocals yet...  but my arms are barely long enough sometimes. I am also severely near-sighted so if I really need to look at something, I put it in front of my nose with no glasses. on at all.

 

I tried shooting with progressives and those were a big fail! In any attempt to get clear focus on on the sites, I was bobbing my head up and down. I now shoot with single prescription and let the targets be blurry. I also shoot at the top of the bottom third of my class in most competitions, so also consider that. :lol:

 

I bring a plastic gun to the office in a plain brown paper bag. Baretta 92FS. I hold it up, they put the chart at exactly front sight distance.

 

It is in my charts as a "Sports" prescription.

 

I shot clays for the first time a few weeks ago... One eye long and one eye short??? 

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My eye doc already knew what to do, shooting eye for front sight 32'' The other eye my regular script with bifocal. I can shoot and read stages without swapping out glasses. Used the same style wire frames as my regular glasses, added a pair of B-52  side shields. Popular method, Good Luck:)

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I tried the upside down trifocal thing.  It worked "just OK"-- but not as well as a single focal length lense set halfway between my pistol and rifle front sight distance.  The sight is clear, but the target is a bit fuzzy --not a big problem. 

 

PM me your prescription numbers?  If by some chance our refraction +-  matches up, I'll send you my upside-downs to try (and keep if they work).

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Dedicated trifocals for shooting were not going to work for me, so I ended up with full lens magnifying safety glasses 1/2 diopter less than my reading prescription (2.0 for my 2.5 prescription). That puts the front sight in focus with distance a bit blurry, but I can still see well enough. 

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I'll never wonder how I can get called for 10 misses with my .36 Navies & only average getting returned 6 of my C45S cases out of 10 fired on a stage!  :lol:

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44 minutes ago, Griff said:

I'll never wonder how I can get called for 10 misses with my .36 Navies & only average getting returned 6 of my C45S cases out of 10 fired on a stage!  :lol:

It means the brass pickers see even worse than the three blind mice.

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14 hours ago, Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L said:

I put some pins in the edge of an old yardstick at the distances of my sights, one edge for the pistols and one edge for the rifle, and took it with me to the eye Doc.  (Costco frowns on bringing firearms into the store...especially here in the People's Republic of Maryland).  Had the Doc tweak the prescription until all of the sights were completely in focus, and I just aim for the center of the big fuzzy spot known as a target.  Worked really great, but it helped that the Doc was a shooter.

 

Funny thing, after I retired and stopped staring into a computer or through a microscope all day, my eyes settled out a bit and now I can shoot with regular safety glasses without a prescription.  Got some other age related eyesight issues, but I can see the sights and the targets pretty well.

 

Sounds like you might be ready to enter the world of cataract surgery, just to throw all the balls in the air.

 

Getting mine done after Comin' at Cha.

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2 hours ago, Waimea said:

 

Sounds like you might be ready to enter the world of cataract surgery, just to throw all the balls in the air.

 

Getting mine done after Comin' at Cha.

Yes, I've got two problems that need to be looked at.  I was massively right eye dominant my whole life, and it turns out that is because my left eye doesn't track well with the right eye.  Never noticed it until I started shooting gunfighter, then the world went crazy.  Left eye on the right gun, right eye on the left gun, bullets everywhere except on the target!  I got around that by doing my best to keep my left eye closed when I draw my pistols.  Lil scolds me when I come off the line with a bunch of misses about shooting with both eyes open.  Doc's say they can "correct" that issue by "adjusting" the muscles that control the left eye.  I have thus far convinced myself to avoid knives into and around the eyes!

 

The second problem is that I think there is a cataract forming in the right eye that is affecting the vision enough that the left eye is trying desperately to become boss.  I think that is part of the reason I am having issues when shooting, well that and the fact that I never practice.....

 

I need to get to the Doc's to get it checked out but life has been far too hectic these last few years (well, to be honest, the last decade) but I'm officially old now having crossed into the Silver Senior range if I ever decided to shoot an age based category (which is unlikely) so there are a lot of things on the list the to be looked at.  My Doc likes me though, she said I was in surprisingly good shape considering how I have abused myself all of these years!

 

I am tentatively starting down the Doctor Trail after Land Run.  Don't want anything to get in the way of that!  One of these days we will make it to CAC, it was on our schedule for 2020, but we all know how that year turned out.

 

fire-toilet-375x300.jpg

 

 

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I messed around for "years" with specific shooting glasses.  For a while it was pretty ok although I found Bifocals and TriFocals were/are of no practical value.  I always went with single correction, to give me a "depth of Field" (stolen camera term) from my elbow to the ground.  Worked a treat.  Well, it worked till I got some older.  Was having trouble with the sights and one match I simply shot without the corrective lenses in my safety glasses.  PRESTO!! I could see the sights.  I am no help with the dominant/lazy eye problem, nor a cataract.

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I generally wear progressive corrective lenses with bifocals.  Went a week and a half ago to my ophthalmologist with both rifle and pistol.  Focal length is almost the same.  Getting safety glasses for that focal length.  Looking forward to trying them out.  Progressive lenses are not good shooting glasses....SB

 

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I finally bought a pair of Wylie X Romers. Doc told me to bring in my pistol and rifle and gave a right eye prescription for a clear front site. He told me to take the guns with me to the opticians so they could mark where pupil is looking down the gun.

The optician said it didn't matter for single correction. I had a Plano lens on the left. That didn't work as I couldn't even read the stage scenarios. So I sent them back and got my normal progressive script in the left.

The glasses work pretty well for CAS, but worthless at greater distances as the target is just so out of focus I can't see it.

Kinda wishing I went with a style that doesn't have the frame all the way around lens as well. Just cosmetics though.

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On 7/20/2022 at 8:14 AM, Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L said:

 Doc's say they can "correct" that issue by "adjusting" the muscles that control the left eye.  I have thus far convinced myself to avoid knives into and around the eyes!

 

 

 

I found out that I have an aggressive form of glaucoma and the Opthamologist wanted to correct it right away.  The next week I was in “the chair” after numbing the first eye he started drilling a hole in the eye with a laser.  The young doctor must not have been to confident in his abilities because after 30 minutes he still wasn’t done, each time making the laser a little stronger.  It was very strange to see smoke and know it was coming from my eye.  The next week I went back for the other eye, and loaded that laser up, shot it, and just about knocked me off the seat.  He said “I started it a little higher this time”. Gotta love VA doctors. 

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1 hour ago, Tequila Shooter said:

 

I found out that I have an aggressive form of glaucoma and the Opthamologist wanted to correct it right away.  The next week I was in “the chair” after numbing the first eye he started drilling a hole in the eye with a laser.  The young doctor must not have been to confident in his abilities because after 30 minutes he still wasn’t done, each time making the laser a little stronger.  It was very strange to see smoke and know it was coming from my eye.  The next week I went back for the other eye, and loaded that laser up, shot it, and just about knocked me off the seat.  He said “I started it a little higher this time”. Gotta love VA doctors. 

 

Damn, and all this time I was told not to look into the light.....

 

tumblr_lum39etbYF1qf4qpho1_500.gif

 

 

My younger brother was born (1960) with a cataract in his left eye.  The Doc's delayed surgery until he was 3 or 4 to remove it and his retina did not develop in the center of that eye, he has peripheral vision, but nothing in the center of that eye.  Needless to say, I grew up with my parents constantly pounding into me how important it was to be protective of our eyes.  I have some deep-seated fear about having surgery done to my eyes.  I know I'm past due, so I guess it's time, but it's going to take a super dose of Valium (or Bourbon) to get me in that chair!  I know it's coming, but when my eye starts smoking, someone is going to have a bad day!  You are a tougher man then me, that's for sure!

 

Hope the Doc's can keep it in check.  I remember my grandfather putting drops in his eyes for glaucoma for the last 20 years of his life, but it didn't seem to affect his vision any.  Hopefully, that will be the case for you and they will be able to keep it in check with drops, and the occasional burning of cornea.

 

Next time you are in, see if they can engrave one of these...

 

 

1133275717_crosshaireye.jpg.07145225a3bbd7029655569f105f9ad8.jpg

 

 

 

 

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14 hours ago, Dogmeat Dad, SASS #48563L said:

 

Damn, and all this time I was told not to look into the light.....

 

tumblr_lum39etbYF1qf4qpho1_500.gif

 

 

My younger brother was born (1960) with a cataract in his left eye.  The Doc's delayed surgery until he was 3 or 4 to remove it and his retina did not develop in the center of that eye, he has peripheral vision, but nothing in the center of that eye.  Needless to say, I grew up with my parents constantly pounding into me how important it was to be protective of our eyes.  I have some deep-seated fear about having surgery done to my eyes.  I know I'm past due, so I guess it's time, but it's going to take a super dose of Valium (or Bourbon) to get me in that chair!  I know it's coming, but when my eye starts smoking, someone is going to have a bad day!  You are a tougher man then me, that's for sure!

 

Hope the Doc's can keep it in check.  I remember my grandfather putting drops in his eyes for glaucoma for the last 20 years of his life, but it didn't seem to affect his vision any.  Hopefully, that will be the case for you and they will be able to keep it in check with drops, and the occasional burning of cornea.

 

Next time you are in, see if they can engrave one of these...

 

 

1133275717_crosshaireye.jpg.07145225a3bbd7029655569f105f9ad8.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

I’d go with bourbon and Valium :D

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On 7/19/2022 at 1:37 PM, Doc Shapiro said:

I arranged with my doc to bring a pistol in with me and had a pair of glasses made so that my front sight was clear.  That worked out perfectly.  I didn't worry about anything else in that pair of glasses other than making sure they had safety lenses.

I did the same. The Doc got a kick out of it.  Brought out some old timey setup to get a clear sight picture for me.  But it’s hell when they ask me to read the stages and I’m in cover with low light.  For those situations I wish I had reading glasses.  But overall I prefer the single prescription method.  

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I am a HUGE fan and wearer of Hunters HD Gold shooting glasses. Made in Alabama by a shooter!! Brian Conley is the owner and helped my husband SOOO much with his eye sight issues and I love the glasses I got from him at the SW regional. I have just gotten prescription glasses - progressive bifocal - no trifocals YET! :-) Brian is going to make me prescription lenses that will replace the lenses in the glasses I already have so I don’t have to have inserts. Contact Brian. It’s not gonna cost you ANYTHING. And, he is a SASS Affiliated Merchant. I told him about the program and he joined THAT NIGHT!!

 

Brian will be onsite at the Southeast Regional in September at Cavern Cove!

 

Brian@HuntersHDGold.com

 

Hugs!

Scarlett

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I had an eye doctor who let me bring a gun to my appointment, but that was long ago. I found that the distance from eyebrow to front sight on my rifle and pistol were about the same as was the distance to stretched pointed finger. I normally wear bifocals, but have both lenses on my shooting glasses as single vision with front sight distance the optimum. 

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Like Scarlet I use the Hunter HD Gold but mine are trifocals.

brian measured my shooting distance and wrote up the requirements.

I emailed him my current prescription and about ten days later the finished glasses were delivered.

very happy with the service and being able to work with a fellow shooter.

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