Practicing without your prescription glasses?

[Kamicosmos]

I've been thinking about this lately, and I think I'll try it at my next range session.

(I'll be using my saftey glasses of course to protect my eyes.)

Anyone else do this? I figure it's just as essential as weak hand shooting, shooting in low light, longer distances, shooting on the move, etc. The odds of my glasses getting knocked off my face in a scuffle is pretty high....and I've never even looked at my gunsites without them!

I'm kinda looking forward to it...it'll probably be like learning to shoot all over again.

 

[B36]

Run at least one qualification a year wo corrective lens. Very important to document.

 

[Marnoot]

Without my contacts or glasses, the sights would do me no good. At that point, it's point the sort-of-blurry black thing at what looks like COM of the evil-blurry-human-shaped-blob. Contacts while carrying, and glasses next to the bed are as good as I can do. Maybe Lasik one of these days, just a little worried about night-vision effects; well, that and I have no money.

 

[Model520Fan]

Yes.

 

[OldLawman]

Practice w/o correction ?

Good idea, but make sure there is someone else there for assistance while uncorrected.

Also, don't be afraid of lasik. I was worse than 20/400 throughout my 15+ years in law enforcement, and wore contacts most of the time. When they could finally correct my vision through lasik, I was already out and on to a new career. Never had a problem with night vision, and can see and shoot better after lasik than I could even with correction.
Costs have come down dramatically. It will make such a change in your life, youshould consider it strongly. Perhaps use a medical savings account if available through your employer to save money in pre-tax dollars.

 

[Firethorn]

I second Marnot.

The docs just write my uncorrected vision down as 400/400. I was the air force minimum (literally "This number or lower is allowed", I was that number). I would need special contacts to even approximate my vision with glasses.

Without my glasses, I'm reduced to point shooting (can't see the sights), at COM. I'll have to use other senses to identify people if there aren't broad color differentiations.

I was turned down for LASIK/PRK. They did point out a thing where they insert a lens into the eye. It's like a custom contact lense, but it's inside the eye. It can handle much stronger prescriptions that the laser treatments, without the corneal requirements that disqualified me. It was developed for people who have lost/damaged natural lense, however, you can still have the natural lense there.

The downside: It'd cost me about 100x more, and is still considered "experimental".

But you guys with the eyeballs closer to specifications, go on ahead.

 

[Kamicosmos]

I have been wanting Lasik for a long time now. I just have bad luck with money! Perhaps that can be a goal for me in the next year or two. I've got a bit of astigmatism, and I get conflicting reports from different eye docs about whether or not I should go through with it.

My natural vision is 20/400. I did some dryfire practice last night, and I think it's do-able.

Shooting with bad vision kind of follows shooting in the dark....if you can't identify your target you shouldn't shoot. I'm more concerned about loosing my glasses in a fight or something. I obviously don't plan on doing house room sweeps without them! I'm just interested in this more as a familiarity drill, much like low light shooting. Always better to have experienced it in training before you might need it in real life.

Not to Highjack my own thread, but how's that lasik surgery feel? I freak out pretty bad when people try to stick stuff in my eye. (That air pop machine just makes me a nervous wreck!!) I understand that you have to be awake for it, cause otherwise you'll go into REM and then your eye will move uncontrollably. So...how do they make you not move your eye out of fear?!

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Shooting without my specs would make "front sight, press" a lot easier: the front sight is about all I'd be able to see!

(Naw... actually, my eyes aren't that bad. But this is a great point -- I'll try it next time I shoot!)

 

[Marnoot]

Not to Highjack my own thread, but how's that lasik surgery feel? I freak out pretty bad when people try to stick stuff in my eye. (That air pop machine just makes me a nervous wreck!!)

I've been wondering about this too. I hate that air pop machine; if I anticipate anything happening to my eye I involuntarily flinch. I can put my contacts in OK, but eye drops and that machine I have a terrible time with. My involuntary flinching and squinting end up making them have to do it 2 or 3 times. I think part of it is the randomness, I never know exactly when the drop will fall or the air will blow, so I anticipate it too much. I'm curious what happens with Lasik, as to whether I could do it or if I'd need to be on something to make me not care.

 

[OldLawman]

Lasik ?

I have to tell you, guys: It was as almost painless as it could possibly be. At my doctors, I watched the patient ahead of me, and found it kinda interesting. Of course, I wore contacts, hard, soft and gas-permiable, for years, so my eyes were not very sensitive. When I sat up, I could already see better. When I woke up the next morning, It was almost perfect, clear, and very little irritation. I've worn glasses since I was 10 years old, so this was and is a medical miracle, as far as I am concerned.

 

[Mulliga]

This is a good idea. Never actually shot a gun without my glasses. I'll try it next time I go to the range.

 

[PinnedAndRecessed]

OldLaw: My eye doc said that the fine vision isn't very good after Lasik. Like, making connections inside a computer or putting a Colt Python back together, as two examples. What say ye?

 

[R.H. Lee]

Yes. Everything is a blur. Then there is a bright flash and almost simultaneously a loud bang.

 

[walking arsenal]

I practice without my glasses on for a couple of reasons.

1. When spar with friends the first thing to get knocked off my head is my specs.

2. if i got in a real fight the glasses would go pretty quick, so i learn to shoot/fight/run screaming without them.

 

[TonyB]

2 words......spray.....pray.....I can't see crapola w/o my glasses......point shooting would have to do.....assuming I can see something to point at
I will practice this next time I shoot...like tomarrow.....

 

[Preacherman]

Of course, if your vision is beyond help, there's always this weapon for the visually disadvantaged...

 

[P95Carry]

Peter - that is cheating!!

I do periodically do just this and remove ordinary glasses ... replacing with safety versions. Things are pretty blury but - surprise surprise - my accuracy is still well useful - that is both a relief and surprise!!

(Within average combat range I hasten to add!!!)

 

[Typhoon]

Improving vision with eye exercises

Has anyone done it? I had to pop in my contacts right before a class with Louis Awerbuck and he mentioned that he improved his eyesight with exercises. Leigh gave me a couple of titles of books to read, “Improve Your Vision Without Glasses or Contact Lenses†and “Yoga for the Eyes.†Alas, I have been remiss in getting to the Barnes and Noble to do my homework, but also I am a tad skeptical. I’ve been pretty near-sighted since I was 16, so I wonder how much improvement is realistic. Anyone ever had success with eye exercises?

 

[standingbear]

corrected,my eye sight is better than 20/20.without my glasses,im pretty much blind past 30 feet,kinda goes with blood sugar problems.

would be an interesting adventure..as long as they cleared everyone out beforehand.

 

[foghornl]

I've got the 3-dot Tritium night sights on my Springy Champion. In my very dark closet, without my steel-framed "coke bottles", all I could see was one shapeless greenish blob.

Several years back, I visited the optometrist (sp???) for new lenses, he started dialing in the wheels. When he finally got them set, he said "Wow! You're only about 3 shades less blind than a mole."

 

[Black Snowman]

This is one of the reasons I like a long gun for home defense. I have a better feel of where it's pointed. Particularly now that I've switched to a shotgun. Comes up quick and the long blurry rod gets pointed at the thing that doesn't properly identify itself or is making threatening gestures. With a pistol, if I get the grip even slightly wrong I can be way off and not know it.

The rifle I was using before pointed OK but not great but the M3 I had mounted on it made it easy to find COM. Just center the circle of light on the desired target I think a weapon mounted light is a very good idea with those with poor eyesight. A laser is an option as well, but I'm not very fond of them.

 

[Caliburn]

Excellent idea

I've never thought of practicing "blind" before (things get progressively blurrier after 6 feet away) because I always assumed any shooting that happened before I had time to put glasses on in the middle of the night would be danger close anyway. But next time at the range I'll try wearing prescrip glasses instead of contacts & safety lenses at the range, and replace the prescrips with safety ones for a couple shots to see how well I do (assuming of course I can see clearly enough to maintain safety as priority one).

Although I like Preacherman's idea too! That would be a funny sticker in the middle of the front door: FRONT TOWARD ENEMY. Of course, no one would ever deliver a pizza to you again.

Of course, the next level to practicing without corrective lenses would be to wear a visor with the blast shield down: "Your eyes can be deceived. Don't believe them." Jedi gunfighting!

 

[m60a3]

I really like three dot sights, the bigger and brighter the better. I always spar without any correction figuring that if its physical the glasses are first to go, so practice the way your gonna fight. I usually shoot with correction figuring that if i lose my specs in a gunfight its gonna be contact distance anyway and who needs to use the sights there. If you can't hit a man in the torso at less than 3 feet by the feel of the gun sights aren't gonna help you.

 

[jojo]

I try to practice 50/50 with and without glasses. Most all of my close in work is done without, while longer range practice is primarily with.

jojo

 

[Kamicosmos]

Just an update:

I got to the range today, and tried a few rounds with out my pres. glasses. I even loaded the gun without them. That was a bit tricky!

But, the shooting wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I kept 6 shots of .357 mag all in the black of a B-24 at around 12 yards.

My eyesight is bad enough that when holding the revolver out in front of me, I couldn't distinguish the front sight from the rear. Just one big black blob in my hand. So, I trusted my grip to have the gun pointed straight. I then brought the small black blob up until it merged into the larger black blob downrange.

I wouldn't want to try any longer range, obviously. But I think it was a good idea to at least give it a try at the range.