Anyone with "monovision"?

[Jim PHL]

I'd like to know how those with near- or far-sightedness deal with shooting. I'd guess those near-sighted see their sites very well but may have trouble with their target at distance. If you need reading glasses, you might not have trouble seeing a distant target but how are you at focusing on your sites?

I had the Lasik procedure done about 8 ago. Although my eyes were sharp at all distances afterward, over the last year or so I have become a little near sighted again. Since I purchased a lifetime accuity guarantee, I can have my eyes enhanced for better vision without glasses for free. Here's the kicker: I can have my eyes corrected for sharp distance vision, but I will need readers not unlike many people over 40. (Even those who've never needed glasses in their life sometimes need readers after reaching age 40 or so.) As it is, I am fine and functional at pretty much any task. I did get a pair of glasses recently that I use for driving at night or watching TV at distance. (I can do either without the glasses but benefit from using them.)

A third option the doc discussed with me is having just one eye corrected for distance and leaving the other as is. They would do my left (dominate) eye. I shoot right-handed. I won't be perfect for reading or for distance but won't need glasses for either. She gave me a contact lens for the one eye to check out what this would be like. It's a little strange! It's much easier to adjust for the distance stuff than the up close stuff. I'll use the contact lens for a while to see how I react to different tasks. (I haven't been to the range this way, yet.) So far I'm leaning toward this "monovision" option. If I have difficulty getting used to it, I'll have the other eye corrected for distance and then just be resigned to wearing glasses for reading menus and cleaning guns.

Please share your thoughts and experience.

 

[Mike OTDP]

From an optical perspective, you want the sights in perfect focus. You don't need to have the target in sharp focus to shoot well.

My advice is to get a dedicated pair of shooting glasses. Try www.customsightpicture.com - Dr. Toler is a serious shooter in his own right, and had a really good system for determining what your shooting prescription should be.

 

[Jim Watson]

I wear monovision shooting glasses while at the pistol range and it is a great help.
I would not care to have it permanently installed in my personal eyeballs, but I know some people are happy with it. Check the system out thoroughly with that contact before you go that way.

 

[AK103K]

In some respects, it almost sounds like the best of both worlds for a shooter. Your left eye sees the target clear, and your right eye sees the sights clear, and like the old "OEG" type sights, the brain does the rest, and superimposes one on the other.

 

[rbernie]

I have been set up with monovision.

It's funny, because I am naturally left-eye dominant and right handed. However, I am now set up with my left eye corrected for close-up work (inside of 18") and my right eye set up for distance work. This has forced my brain to switch dominance to the right side for all of my shooting.

It's a great setup.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

I completed my surgery last week. The lens was replaced with a artificial one in the right eye. The result was blindness back to 20/20 sitting at a computer screen or reading a book.

The Doctor told me that he was able to do it without altering the nearsight picture that my eye has always presented to me all my life.

Prior to that surgery I learned to be on target with the left dominant eye with all my weapons. I will retain this learning. However because I was once blind and now can see again pending a new lens for anything beyond 5 yards I will have to go back to the range and relearn everything or keep what I learned.

Which ever keeps the best groups of holes on paper.

From the looks of things, I will relearn my new eyes and maybe take up rifle shooting in the future to enjoy once again.

 

[wbwanzer]

I did the monovision lasik about ten years ago. It has worked well for me.

 

[JWJacobVT]

I did Monovision in Nov 2007. My dominate eye is my left and it is now 20/20 from 20/400+. My right is non dominate and is 20/70. I am right handed. I have been cocking my head over for years. For combat shooting I either cock over or leave both eyes open. For distance I shoot left handed much better. I am very happy with the monovision. I have found that with rifles with open sights I need to shoot left handed. Scopes with either eye. good luck you will be happy.

 

[gimlet1/21]

My son has mono vision naturally, it can be useful for certain situations. He normally wears contacts for every day activities, yet removes them when playing baseball this seems to allow him to visually track the ball quite well. Maybe he would do well at skeet , we were told that Babe Ruth had this type of vision also?

 

[KevininPa]

Accuity did both my wifes.....

.........and my eyes. We did not order the monovision but ended up with it anyway. To be fair, my wife was told from the get go that she might have to come back for a touch up. Her eyes were very bad. I'll be going back this month for a touch up on my right eye as it's still somewhat blurry. Left eye is fantastic. Basically, we had unplanned monovision. Neither of us cared for it. My wife has the Lifetime and I have the 5 yr guarantee. My wifes touch-up was finished shortly after the initial operation. I was waiting for a lay-off ( Construction ) to get my touch-up. I still have to wear reading glasses, so I might as well have the clearest far vision I can get.

 

[NAK]

I had mono vision surgery about a year ago and it works great for me. I'm right handed, right eye dominant, and had my right eye corrected for distant vision and my left eye corrected for reading/computer work.

 

[krs]

You guys have made me think this might be worthwhile to ask....an old friend of mine, a retired fire captain, had radial kerotonomy (sp?) done to both eyes so that he'd be better able to transfer from emergency med to a straight firefighter (he believed he was boxed in career wise in his department and turned out to be right) in the mid 1980's. He was an early patient in this country.

Now he's having a time because the incisions have caused a premature disruption of his vision in a couple of ways. He really struggles to find a combination of lens and eye that'll allow him to shoot pistols.

This thread sounds like lasik can perform miracles in vision manipulation the way you folks are talking about it and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to press this guy to go see a lasik specialist.

He apparently was told that his future vision could be unpredictable and he took that risk. He was 20/20 as a result of it until just the last two years or so and his health plan doesn't seem to help him beyond making glasses that he can barely adjust to. Each of his eyes has it's own thing going on and he doesn't have anything like normal vision in either.

So, with the experiences you all have had...what can they do these days for folks in their sixties and a little beyond?

 

[Japle]

I had my eyes done (astigmatic kerotonomy) about 8 years ago. Got tired of keeping track of 3 pairs of glasses all day.

Right eye is good for 10" out to pistol front sight distance.
Left eye is good for 25" to infinity.

My brain just uses the best signal automatically, without consulting me.

Bad news: Open rifle sights and dot sights are FUBAR. Peep sights and scopes are OK.

Good news: When shooting a pistol, I can see the sights and the target in focus at the same time.

I keep a couple of pairs of cheap readers around for when I'm working with small parts or small print.