eye fatigue?

[chickenfried]

At the beginning of a range trip, front sight is easy to focus on, appears sharp. After about 150 rounds it's harder to pick up the front sight appears a little fuzzy/blurry almost like a double image. So the more I shoot the worse my targets look.

Thoughts, tips? I shoot with both eyes open. Right handed and right eye dominant.

[Juicymeat]

Ever had an eye exam for astigmatism? I have astigmatism and I get blurry images sometimes and usually end up taking a break and I'll be fine after about 15 minutes.

[chickenfried]

I just got an eye exam. She said my eyes were in perfect health. Is this a check I need to ask for specifically?

[Juicymeat]

Sorry I wouldn't know, I found out when I got my prescription for contact lenses. If your doctor said you were fine then I would guess they checked for astigmatism so you might be able to rule that out. I'd give her a call to ask if that was part of your check up just to be sure.

[eflatminor]

I would guess you need to relax. It should not cause strain to aim. 150 rounds is so few, I'm thinking you must be using unnecessary eye and facial muscles when you aim. Try to bring the pistol up to the proper aiming position every time and you should be on target without much looking for the front site. Try not to move anything on your body except only that which is necessary to take the shot. The best shooters MINIMIZE their movement. Smooth is fast.

[JTROKS]

When I was around 30 years old that used to happen to me. The more I focus on the front sight for a long period of time it became blurry after 5 minutes. It didn't happen when I shoot IPSC since a stage hardly last half a minute. Does your vision become blurry after reading for 5 to 15 minutes? Although you can get away with it now, before you're 40 you'll realize you won't be able to focus up close.

[TitanCi]

Well - you're in luck! I'm an optometry intern and I just may be able to answer a few things for you.

1) the fact the front sight is getting a little blurry is because your eye's focusing system (aka accommodation) is tiring out. BTW, how old are you? As we age, our accommodative system gets worse and worse (hence the need for multifocals later).

2) are you shooting with correction or no correction? are you very low near-sightedness or are you far-sighted? being far-sighted you tend to wear out your accommodative system very fast, as you have to accommodate for your hyperopia (far-sightedness) and your front sight's accommodative demand.

3)if you're shooting with corrected vision, then make sure you are looking thru the optical centers of the lenses, as looking off into the periphery of the lenses causes induced oblique astigmatism. is your Rx updated?

4)some people can train their eyes better thru VISION THERAPY. alot of athletes do this as it helps with eye teaming and tracking and also improves alot of symptoms related to eye-fatigue or diplopia (double vision). Talk to your OD and tell him what you're experiencing if it bugs you that much; he may be able to help you.

If you're nearing 40 years of age (or 40+ already), and you're a low myope (near sighted, i.e. -1.00 up to -1.75 DS) you can take off your glasses and shoot without em. So if this is true for you, don't shoot while you're corrected. If you're up to -2.00DS in your prescription, you can effectively see without your Rx up to 50cm clearly.

hope this info gives you some insight to your problem at hand!

john

[chickenfried]

Cool thanks for the help.

Well - you're in luck! I'm an optometry intern and I just may be able to answer a few things for you.

1) the fact the front sight is getting a little blurry is because your eye's focusing system (aka accommodation) is tiring out. BTW, how old are you? As we age, our accommodative system gets worse and worse (hence the need for multifocals later).
35

2) are you shooting with correction or no correction? are you very low near-sightedness or are you far-sighted? being far-sighted you tend to wear out your accommodative system very fast, as you have to accommodate for your hyperopia (far-sightedness) and your front sight's accommodative demand.
I need glasses to see far, that's near sighted right?
3)if you're shooting with corrected vision, then make sure you are looking thru the optical centers of the lenses, as looking off into the periphery of the lenses causes induced oblique astigmatism. is your Rx updated?
today I was wearing contacts abot 3 years old rX. Have a new rX just haven't filled it yet.

4)some people can train their eyes better thru VISION THERAPY. ....
Hmmm I'll check it out.

If you're nearing 40 years of age (or 40+ already), and you're a low myope (near sighted, i.e. -1.00 up to -1.75 DS) you can take off your glasses and shoot without em. So if this is true for you, don't shoot while you're corrected. If you're up to -2.00DS in your prescription, you can effectively see without your Rx up to 50cm clearly.

My old rX is 2.75 new is 3.00

hope this info gives you some insight to your problem at hand!
It does thanks for the info

[tiko]

I am 46 y o and since I have my progressive bifocal glasses I don't have strain eye like before.

[TitanCi]

ChickenFried - Yeah b/c you're 35, your focusing system is beginning to give way. but you have the benefit of taking off your glasses when you need to see clearly up to about 33 cm. however, this is out further than your front sight, so you'll need the contacts in. in re: to your old Rx, especially if the CLs in your eyes are over two wks-1 mo old: ditch em! get the new -3.00 DS in so you can have that crisp vision, trust me, for you myopes -0.25 DS does make a difference! it may help you and should get rid of some of that blur you're experiencing

[Astig Boy]

I had this same problem as well. I asked my brother, who was in the Marines, he told me what was happening to me and he said a lot of people suffered from this when they first got in to shooting. He suggested practice resighting when dry firing at home. I did this everyday for week(10-15mins). Went to the range for next few months and never had the problem again. But, after taking a long hiatus off from shooting(5months), my eye started getting fatigued again. You just need to do training exercises to get your eye to focus in and out for long intervals. Just like lifting weights...stop lifting and you will get weaker as time goes on.