Lenses for shooting and close vision

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AW13

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 29, 2013
Messages
915
Location
East Sussex
I am due to have my eyes checked again and I might need some new glasses.  I currently use varifocals for everything but I keep hearing that they are not so good for shooting. So what do you use?

I have worn glasses all my life and contact lenses for a long time prior to needing reading glasses, I cannot read anything without my glasses so I really need ‘dual-lenses’ when shooting.

Can I ask what you use, varifocal, the lenses with the D shape reading section or ½ & ½ lenses.

I have thought about pure distance lenses and carrying some cheap reading glasses but that does not work for me.

Your thoughts and recommendations would be gratefully appreciated.

 
Do you need to be able to read at short while shooting?

I also have varyfocals for everyday use. Whilst shooting I only use "long distance" prescription. I have no need for reading small script. The Compaq menues are big enough for me to read without the prescription, although normally I shoot trap.

I'd recommend one prescription and then carry cheap reading glasses if you need to read. 

Lars

 
 Varifocals for me as well, for shooting I tried only the long distance prescription at first but couldn't get away with not being able to read things so I got my full prescription in my rx inserts and managed fairly well but as theres no prescription down the sides of varifocal lenses plus the transition area can cause problems it was difficult at times, I could read well tho!!! After talking to my optician ive now gone back to just the distance prescription and if need be theres always some kind soul who will read things for me if I ask nicely

 
 Varifocals for me as well, for shooting I tried only the long distance prescription at first but couldn't get away with not being able to read things so I got my full prescription in my rx inserts and managed fairly well but as theres no prescription down the sides of varifocal lenses plus the transition area can cause problems it was difficult at times, I could read well tho!!! After talking to my optician ive now gone back to just the distance prescription and if need be theres always some kind soul who will read things for me if I ask nicely
Can you not just get someone to hold up the reading material some 25 yards away  ?

 
I have to wear prescription lenses all the time, blind as a bat without them.  In my everyday use I have bifocals and now have the Ranger shooting glasses with the prescription inserts.  I went with the bifocals on them too as at our club shoot we used to attend we would score ourselves so I needed to be able to see what I was writing!!  Don’t have any problems shooting with bifocals at all. Did try contacts once but found they moved around in my eye when I pulled the trigger!

 
Similar to Donna, keeping scores mainly and I just hate fuzzy vision, gives me a headache

Donna -  are yours the type with top half distance and bottom half close vision or do you have the D shape insert?

 
Westley, thought about something similar to that for scoring but I couldn't get a pen long enough, story of my life.

 
Similar to Donna, keeping scores mainly and I just hate fuzzy vision, gives me a headache

Donna -  are yours the type with top half distance and bottom half close vision or do you have the D shape insert?
I have the D shape, don’t notice them at all, just if I glance down at the score cards I can read them and see how bad I’m doing 😂 also handy as I put them on as soon as I get to the shooting ground to give my eyes time to get used to the coloured lenses and if I go into the club house I can read the menu and see what cake I want to eat without having to change glasses! 

Seriously though, I don’t notice the bifocal at all, not in my vision when I’m shooting but handy if for example I’m at Southdown in the club house and then I come down the stairs, without the bifocals I think I would fall down them and handy if I’m at a shoot and you have to go up onto a platform, I have to look the the bottom of the lense to see where I’m going. Also get a headache and just feel weird if I keep changing glasses and it takes me a while for my eyes to adjust.

 
Donna, thanks for the update. Our view on glasses is similar, I would probably go for a bacon roll rather than the cake! and Yes, those steps at Southdown can be a right sod if you look through the wrong part of your glasses.

 
Try contacts. With glasses, you get intrusion into the zone of vision.  I had my trial on Friday, and popped in the lens and shot on Sunday.  Much better!

 
I've worn glasses for 60 years. Had Lasik surgery on both eyes in 2000 which improved my distance vision but left me needing glasses for reading.  Previously I could clearly see the eye in a needle to put the proverbial thread through.  I now need a minor prescription to cure a small amount of short sightedness which has crept back into both eyes, consequently I have varifocals for everyday use.  I'm a trap shooter and wear proper single prescription Zeiss or Pilla glasses which sit high on my face, I can get away with scoring provided I hold the card away from me. When shooting game or the odd sporting shoot I use my everyday specs and I don't notice the varifocal part of the lense.  Contact lenses are useless for me as I have a tight eyelid that drags the lense off my pupil, typically it is my master eye of course. 

 
Varifocals absolutely horrible for me and the likes of Ed Lyons advise against them for shooting; just use distance prescription. 

I use bifocals in everyday use and have just received three new pairs for my recent latest prescription. Today I used a brown tinted pair for shooting. Very good of course. Clays are clear and you can read the score card. I’ve now ordered another pair in yellow. 

 
Westley, thought about something similar to that for scoring but I couldn't get a pen long enough, story of my life.
Hey, wait until you are deaf AND blind, I go down a storm when I am Reffing    !    😂

It took one poor girl 6 attempts at calling for a target on one exceptionally windy day  !

 
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I've worn glasses for 60 years. Had Lasik surgery on both eyes in 2000 which improved my distance vision but left me needing glasses for reading.  Previously I could clearly see the eye in a needle to put the proverbial thread through.  I now need a minor prescription to cure a small amount of short sightedness which has crept back into both eyes, consequently I have varifocals for everyday use.  I'm a trap shooter and wear proper single prescription Zeiss or Pilla glasses which sit high on my face, I can get away with scoring provided I hold the card away from me. When shooting game or the odd sporting shoot I use my everyday specs and I don't notice the varifocal part of the lense.  Contact lenses are useless for me as I have a tight eyelid that drags the lense off my pupil, typically it is my master eye of course. 
so your prescription has changed in the last 18 years      mmmm    so your back to square one   needing glasses again  !!     that's what puts me off   lasik   etc  

 
so your prescription has changed in the last 18 years      mmmm    so your back to square one   needing glasses again  !!     that's what puts me off   lasik   etc  
Don't jump to conclusions.  My original prescription in my left eye was -6.5 and my right eye -5.5 with an astigmatism in both eyes, my lenses were extremely thick and large framed shooting glasses exacerbated that. 

My current prescription is -1.25 in both eyes quite a significant difference to what I started out with. I can legally drive with uncorrected vision as I pass the driving test requirement. The prescription I now have fine tunes my sight.

The laser surgery has transformed my life and my shooting and I consider it money well spent.

In the not too distant future I will require surgery for cataracts and I will have no hesitation in having plastic lenses implanted.

The types of laser surgery and the quality and precision of the equipment used has come on leaps and bounds since I had my eye treated.

 
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I would concur completely with Phil on this. Laser surgery transformed my life too and still does. I needed a cataract operation as a follow on for the detached retina job on just my left eye. I am fortunate that my right eye is my master eye. I have always had problems with the left side of my face after a minor stroke, my left eye is 'drooped' in appearance, hence the Grandkids calling me 'Isiah'  (as in 1 eye's higher than t'other !). When I had my first eye 'lasered', the left one, I was told they would NOT get it perfect. But, when I went back some 12 months later, to have the other eye done, they had new equipment which they said would have got the left eye perfect. They did offer to re-do the left eye, which I declined, it is near enough for me. When I see the eyesight of some of the guys that I shoot with, especially the ones that NEED to wear glasses, I realize how fortunate I am.

 

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