Sights, red dots, and eye problems

T

toppermost

New member
Hello all. Just throwing this out there to see if these is a consensus. I can see my red dots and iron sights pretty well with my glasses. But when I put my contact lenses in, every thing gets weird. Blurs. Stars. Trouble focusing & refocusing from far/short.

Would it be worth going into the optometrist for a new prescription OR is this a common problem with SHOOTING and contact lenses in particular?

NOTE: My contact seem to work just fine for everything else in life (driving, reading, working, tv, etc).
 
Maybe a dumb question, BUT

Do you by chance wear bifocal glasses? I'm asking because my understanding of bifocal contact lenses is that one eye gets a lens to correct for distance while the other eye gets a lens that corrects for close work. In most cases this works fine for the average work day things like driving, close work, etc. But, I can see where it would create problems for a shooter.

A friend of mine who wears bifocals once tried the contact lens solution and they created problems when he was driving.
 
I've never been able to see a "Red Dot as a dot always a
misshaped star. I do have astigmatism, maybe that is the
reason.
 
My vision is 20/20. Most dot sights look like a cluster of grapes to me. Some are worse than others.

Most people that I know who have had Laser eye surgery are very happy with the results. My wife had it done about 10 years ago and the cost has come close to being offset by not having to pay for glasses, contacts, and eye solution over the last 10 years. She is very happy and it is a lot cheaper today.

FWIW, I find a low powered conventional scope to be faster, better and cheaper than a dot sight of the same quality.
 
I don't have contacts nor do I use corrective lenses for shooting(only reading and computer work). I think you'll see a significant difference if you try an AimPoint. I own 4 AimPoints for critical use rifles. Many of the cheaper red-dots blur or fuzz even w/o lenses. I use the el-cheapo dot sights simply because I can't afford 10 AimPoints but accept the limitations and compromises.
 
I wear contacts when shooting. I do not own a rifle with a red dot and of the 20 or so rifles I have one, my Model 94 Win 30-30, has a ghost ring(XS rear and factory sight in the front) and I LOVE it! I can hit a paper plate or a gong at 100 yards which impresses the hell out of myself :D

Edit;All of my scopes have etched glass reticles.

IMG_20150514_142206_296.jpg
 
I'm left eye dominant but shoot out of my right eye (yes, I know, it's bad). I have an Aimpoint PRO on a stag. In my left eye I'm near legally blind and in my right I'm about 130/20. Without any eye support, I get a really big fuzzy dot. I'd have to use iron sights if I planned on shooting without help. However, for me, my contacts almost look sharper than my glasses. Could you possibly have different prescriptions for each eye? Or are your glasses bifocals? Contacts theoretically function nearly the same to glasses so it sounds to me that your contacts might have a different prescription strength. Could always ask your optometrist and see what they recommend, too. I know how you feel, I had same problem in past through any optic due to drying out of the contact and had to switch to dailies. Haven't had a problem since! Hope you get the problem solved... Best of luck
 
For those with astigmas, the perfect RDS is Leupold's Prismatic. It has an ocular focus which you can adjust to suit your shooting eye by turning that fuzzy *dot* into a sharp, crisp red point for non-magnified precision shooting...

A great alternative to putting up with the red *blob* on the typical (e.g., Aimpoint) RDS.
 
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