One of the things I didn’t mention after stopping into the optometrist a couple weeks back was a conversation he and I had about my favorite activity.
This is a new Eye Doc. My previous guy is too far away in the wrong direction for traffic to make appointments there reasonable and this guy came highly recommended. After he looked over my former lens prescriptions for the last decade or so and then at me, he rather bluntly asked me if I was an Astronomer or a Rifleman.
After getting over the mild shock, I answered that I did a fair amount of shooting. He started asking me about the frequency of my trips to the range and the magnification of the optics I use. After answering those questions I asked him why he was pursuing this line of questioning.
He answered that in the last ten years, my left eye had changed very little, but that my right eye was changing rapidly and not for the better, and that if I didn’t either slow down or get something done surgery-wise soon, I may not be shooting very much or very well in 10 years.
Apparently, getting your eyeball sucked through a metal tube filled with corrective glass is “Bad” for your eyes.
Now, while I’m not immediately up for surgery, I am looking into it and saving up because I’m not going to stop practicing shooting, and not just because I enjoy it, though that is as good a reason as any. No, I have to keep practicing because, and this hurts me more than it hurts you to find out, I’m a truly shitty shot. I need to practice every single weekend to keep my skills up, otherwise I just look foolish pulling the trigger (actually, I always look foolish pulling the trigger until the targets are brought back, and if I don’t get my practice in, even then).
And getting my eyeball sucked through a tube for two to four hours a week is not good for my eyes, but not doing so is bad for my skill level.
I should have known this about five years ago (when I was 30) when I “consciously” made the decision to get glass on as many of my long guns as possible. “Consciously” meaning that I couldn’t look through the rear sight to front and still get the target in-line and in-focus without working very hard. Or maybe my second clue should have been when I bought specialty corrective eyewear just for shooting to try and fix the problem.
So fellas (and ladies) get thee to an eye doctor forthwith. Do not pass go, but make sure you grab the $200 because lenses are expensive. In the next five years I’m going to have to go under the knife just too keep shooting, do not let yourself fall into that trap.
I’m 59, and have the same problem. I keep wondering how much longer I can continue, as my eyesight is fading rapidly.
I wish I had known about this much earlier!
Thanks for posting this warning.
Merle
OK, I gots to know the whys and wherefors of this. Eyestrain? Brain panics because the image is ‘too big’ and shuts down the input? Out-gassing from the scopes damages the eye? Evil spirits?
So if you use iron sights, or better yet peep sights then you will not develop this problem? What if you have low power (1.5-3x) are you safer?
Ah….. maybe this idea is full of shtuff, but how about shooting lefty off the bench, half the time?
TKD, he said it is mostly eyestrain, but the number of hours I put in contributes greatly to it.
Christopher, I started noticing it with my irons (non-peep type) so I moved to peep type sights, and then I had to work more at those. I don’t think they caused it, but I know they were effected by my eyes getting worse.
I don’t know about lower powered optics, though I’d suspect that just like anything, the more you use them, the more you strain your eye.
I really just want to get folks to the eye doc, especially those who think they’re sight is “good enough”. These last three years have been the worst of the steady downgrade and I’m glad I went to a guy who was willing to ask questions. I’ll be starting up one of those healthcare savings accounts just for the procedure. It’s not the most expensive type of Lasik, but it still isn’t cheap.
I’ve been wearing contact lenses for 40 years now. First hard lenses, then rigid gas permeable (not the soft lenses; my prescription’s too strong). Over the summer, I noticed my right lens seemed a bit cloudy ay night, giving me a slight halo around lights. I figured the lens’s surface was breaking down and the lens just wasn’t cleaning up properly any more. Hey, that happens; those little plastic bits don’t last forever.
Nay, nay, said the optometrist. What I am experiencing is the result of “normal wear and tear” for someone my age (56), and UV exposure. It’s called the initial stages of a cataract. It’s very slight, and at this point is only mildly annoying. But it’s something that now warrants an annual check.
I mentioned all this to my wife, and she admitted that she too is experiencing a slight halo effect at night. She was just shrugging it off.
Be not afraid of the laser, sir. The problem for you is that if you get your eyeball reshaped while it is still changing rapidly, you will lose the benefit quickly. Getting it reshaped makes nothing but sense. How about an eye that can use iron sights as well as a scope until you get to over 4X? Very doable.
Bear in mind that a lot of conditions rule whether the docs will reshape the eye for you. The first is the change problem. The second is how much they have to carve. You actually can’t get much of a change done, maybe two or three diopter-equivalents. Then there is glaucoma. You have to have a history of zero glaucoma symptoms. If you have cataracts, they have to get done first.
Lots of issues, but the idea of getting an eye that lets you routinely pot at 1-1.5 MOA targets with iron sights (good iron sights, with changeable inserts) is worth all the hassle. I’d have had it done several years ago if I wasn’t diabetic, they won’t do a diabetic’s eyes because they assume that all diabetics either have or are going to get glaucoma (I have none).
Off-topic, but I just chanced upon an entire lower for my Camp 45 Carbine, and put it in. Range tomorrow with it, but it looks reliable on fired brass. Also put a new trigger-guard and/or trigger group lock on my Mini-30, will take it as well and see if it fixed the issue of the gun field-stripping itself when fired.
I have to wonder if making for sure for sure that you’ve got the scope properly focused would help. It seems to me that if you do that it wouldn’t put nearly as much strain on the old eyeball. Or is it just that you are basically focusing on something that is optically just a few inches in front of you? Is that something that can be adjusted for?
Also, I’ve heard that there are different types of eye reshaping procedures and that some of them are not good at all for shooters. Something about the shock of the recoil possibility undoing the surgery or some such. I’m assuming that your doc is very much aware of that and has recommended the proper kind for you.
I’m going to give the new Nintendo DS eye exercising software a try and see what it can do.