My vision gets blurry when I focus too much.

[ScareyH22A]

Hi my name's Steve and I'm a new shooter. I'm right eye dominant. I wear prescriptions glasses to shoot. My right eye is worse. I can pretty much do my day to day business with my left eye but my right eye is pretty blurry. It's worse at dusk and twilight as well as in buildings such as Costco or Home Depot. I shoot with both eyes open and currently have been to the range 4 times since I received my gun last week. I went through about 500rds.

I shoot an HK USP9 at an indoor range at 7yds.

Just last night, when I was at the range and finishing my last couple mags, when I focused on my front sight while concentrating on my trigger pull, everything got blurry and it took effort to get my front sight focused again. It was pretty much the same deal for the rest of my shots.

Anyone every go through this? Was I straining my eye too much in the relatively dim range? Have I just been going too often in such a short period of time? I'm sure some of you shoot in excess of 500rds a week.

I hate that my vision is terrible out of my right eye in low light.:banghead:

Thanx in advance for any info you may have for me.

 

[jbkebert]

I have the same problem when shooting with iron sights on a rifle. It drives me nuts. I am not quite sure what causes it but if I take my eyes off and refocus on something else it goes away. Generally only happens when i am trying to really bare down on the sights to the target. The longer it takes to get the shot off the worse it becomes for me.

 

[cavman]

Here is a link to Ed Hall's website, and specifically to Dr. Norman Wong (eye doctor and shooter).

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongarts.html#focused

I think your strain is due to you needing glasses that are focused for you to ~30 inches (or whatever the distance from your eye to your front sight actually is).

 

[ScareyH22A]

Wow that looks like invaluable information! I need to take an hour off work to read that. Thank you very much.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Go visit a Eye Doctor that is a high level. There is a very big word for these kinds of doctors. DONT go to a eye doctor in a walmart. Those are not true doctors. They are simply there to issue you a new pair of lenses and frames after computing a few numbers.

A true eye doctor at the M.D. level and capable of doing eye surgery if necessary is a asset.

The reason Im sort of strong about this is Im left eye dominant and turned to find out that I got Dipola and must tilt head to compenstate. Then the right eye goes bad with a Catacrat in the lense and what is behind that problem is a nerve based problem called MG. So not only I cannot see worth &^%$ to shoot on, I cannot hold gun steady long.

What is really dangerous is MG attacks voluntary muscles including accessory muscles used for breathing. If General Gas for sleeping is used on me in the OR I can die on the table right there because the nerves dont have enough "Ignition" to fire to move the air.

Medications and possible surgery will give me a good long life of happy shooting. My case has been missed by doctors for years until I met this one.

My decline was pretty rapid in the last two years. No worries at all. None. The medication that I will be given will halt the decline and probably will take care of the lens in the bad eye and move on.

I will be learning left hand shooting. That is one reason that I get a handgun, I can always shoot it sort of lefty.

I shoot on good days and I can deal with anything within 20 feet any time day or night.

You think what with the medical problems I have, I should not own guns. Im not bed ridden so, no issue there. However with the HR 45 they would like to make it that way.

My suggest to you is to find a driver, go to get a complete exam including drops, dialation, glcoma and all the things that can affect your eyes. Maybe even pull some blood off of you too.

By the time they get through with you you will know what is what.

One thing. No matter how crazy the questions that they ask you , it is important to count accurate and give accurate feed back.

"How many dots to you?" .... 7?

Ok. What color are the dots?

Where are the red dots?

etc.

Tedium. But that is all part of the exam. I went throught this full exam three times total. That way the doctor can establish consistent results and aveage out the bad days where I am not consistent.

Good luck.

 

[Milkmaster]

I have some of the same troubles as I get older. I like iron sights as a challenge. I can focus on the rifle barrel sight as I should, but then the rear sight is too blurry for me to line it up. My natural tendancy is to raise my head and look through my bifocals to make it better. Raising my head ruins my correct head position for the gun. I usually just squirm a bit until I get things lined up as I have to. It ain't fast, but I make it work as best I can.

Shooting a pistol is not as bad. I can move the pistol up to see things as I need it at arm's length.

Now I know why old guys migrate toward shotguns as they age. I do great with my shotgun, because my sight plane is down the barrel and I am focusing on the target farther away.

Damn getting old takes it's toll...I am only 50!

 

[Hungry Seagull]

yes age takes toll, but if you can get onto that firing line and put it center mass or whatever and be effective, functional and good enough to scare the young-uns.... very nice to be able to do that.

I dont think they have nursing homes with ranges attached.

 

[YammyMonkey]

Are you mostly concerned with shooting for sport or defense? For sport I'd say go ahead and get prescription shooting glasses. For defense you have to realize that you're not going to be wearing your front sight glasses if you need the gun to save your life. If you can't visually focus on the front sight that's not a deal killer. Keep your mental focus on that sight. Put it where you want your bullet to hit & smoothly press the trigger to the rear. Repeat as needed. Train & practice with the gear you'll use day to day.

 

[Deanimator]

Not "too much", "too LONG".

This is a natural phenomenon, which you cannot overcome. You can accomodate it. If you can't make the shot in three seconds or so (depends upon the individual), regroup and set up for the shot again. Wait too long to shoot and your arm(s) will begin to shake as well. Unless you're a robot, it's unavoidable.

If you buy or download the Army Marksmanship Unit book on pistol marksmanship, you'll see a lot of information on these things.