Shooting Problem, I am shamed to admit...

[meaty-btz]

Actually, seriously. As I have said in other threads I was trained to shoot starting at a young age. I spent some quality time on the range and got very good and even rose up the ranks of the NRA Marksman Certs. I used to enjoy putting rounds through quarters and cards and all that fun stuff. Then late in my teens I developed delayed myopia (near sightedness). At first I found I could not shoot with my glasses on. My vision was still good enough to do so, so I shot w/o them and was able to maintain most of my accuracy I had previously. Fast forward two decades and I have about 20/1500 vision as I continue to grow (yes I had a growth spirt of about 1/2" at 32! That topped me off at 6'3"), that means about 18" of focal length. My glasses are thick, even though they are as thin as possible to make them.

Something I have never mastered was being able to shoot straight with my glasses. I mean as in, terrible shooting.. terrible at least compaired to before. I've tried but even now being unable to really make out the target at 20ft I still actually shoot better w/o my glasses than with. When I sight up a pistol or rifle its like looking through a scope and then aiming with iron sights through one. At least thats how I describe it. My sightpicture and keeping it is rather interesting because I am not actually seeing what I think I am due to refraction.

Have any of you experienced such a marked difference before and after your vision is changed? Have any of you succesfully adapted to the oddities introduced? I still cannot figgure out why litterally shooting blind I can intuitivly gain better accuracy than when I am trying to keep and hold my sight picture with glasses.

For reference I am: Right Hand-Right Eye dominant. I shoot Pistol with both eyes open or with just my right open and rifle with one eye (right).

One day I would like to get lasik and was planning it for a some time before that money as redirected. Till then, I would like to be able to shoot confidently. I've been like this for more than a decade, and no ammount of practice seems to help.

[Interloper]

My boss at my last job had the same problem. He found two solutions. One was ghost ring/aperture sights on all his guns. His other solution was a little lens that clipped on over his glasses on his dominant eye. It's completely black and opaque except for a tiny hole in the center. It's kind of a custom deal he made himself but he says they actually market such a product.

[chim-chim7]

I think you are running on your adaptive abilities. You were trained a certain way and shot for years the same way. You vision is worse, but your sight is not. You are just repeating what you know best. Basically even if you were blindfolded your results would be the same without glasses. Get lasik when you can. Your much to young to have that type of vision.

[Turo]

I agree with chim-chim. Heck with 20/1500 vision you're lucky to even see if there is a target there! My vision isn't near as bad, but at 20/150-ish I'm lucky to know where the center of a target is at 7 yards. My advice is to either get the eye surgery if you can, or learn to shoot with your glasses (or better yet, contacts) on.

If the thick lenses on glasses bother you, check to see if they make contacts in your prescription. I definitely see more consistently with contacts on than with glasses.

[jarhead995]

I wear contacts and I can't hit anything. I've read books, watched videos, etc, I still can't hit anything.

[jshoebot]

I had lasik done about a year and a half ago. My left eye was 20/500 and my right eye was around 20/800, so nowhere near as bad as yours. After the lasik and healing of the eyes, my left eye is at 20/15 and right eye is 20/20. I'd go for the lasik ASAP if I was you. A lot of places have financing available

[meaty-btz]

I think you are running on your adaptive abilities. You were trained a certain way and shot for years the same way. You vision is worse, but your sight is not. You are just repeating what you know best. Basically even if you were blindfolded your results would be the same without glasses. Get lasik when you can. Your much to young to have that type of vision.

Yo uare probably right. Expanded example.

I love the SIGs, cant shoot them worth crap. I shoot well with an XD and even better with an 1911 with my glasses off. Its muscle memory aka grip angle throws off my preconcieved notions of positions and angles.

Given any target centered on your stance and a given grip angle at a certain position between your arms,hands, gun, and target you are on target. If you can have consistancy in your muscle memory you get what I do, no glasses 20ft 1911, 5 rounds in 1 3/4" in a row using the rising shot technique. Where you raise the pistol and fire the instant it comes into position. I am not aiming, I am feeling the shot. At full extenstion the sights on a pistol w/o my glasses are both blurs (nearly three feet of arm extension). The Bullseye is a large black blur but it is in the right position so I know where it is.

Without my vision I am forced to rely on muscle memory and technique. Its the old mind/vision/hearing trick where what you see can change what you hear.. or in this case what I see changes my perceptions of my muscle positions. Usually when two are in conflict the vision overrides. In my life I've spent probably nearly a thousand hours on the ranges, maybe more. Its just an estimate.

God, I want lasik. Then we can all go down to the Pits have some fun shooting our worthless american coinage. Or, I could keep training till I am as bad *** as Eli

[GlockBlocker]

Could it have to do with your prescription? I have no idea honestly except I have eye problems myself, but maybe you can talk to the eye doctor about a prescription tailored to long distance. Maybe the one you have now compromises the distant vision too much for good close vision.

[BanjoGunner]

I have a related problem and have been trying to figure out what to do about it. I wear progressive lenses, with the result that when I focus on my front sight, I can just make out a man-size target at ~25 yards, and when I focus on the target at ~25 yards, both sights are so blurry as to be essentially invisible. So far the only way I have been able to deal with this is by shifting my focus (which involves tilting my head) back and forth between the front sight and target, but this is a slow process.

Fortunately I have found that I can actually hit COM (out to ~15 yards) as reliably when raising the pistol from low ready and firing with minimal hesitation, as I can when I hold in order to try to acquire a good sight picture.

Very frustrating...

[10rounds]

I used to wear bi-focal glasses (with a lot of astigmatism). Like others in my position, either the target or the front sight was in focus. It was frustrating to go out shooting with bad eyes.

My optometrist for years kept telling me that I was an ideal candidate for LASIK. Like others, the cost kept me from doing it. I finally bit the bullet & had the LASIK done over a year ago. I went shooting for the first time after having the LASIK done about a month ago. (I know, it's a long time in between.) Shooting was now enjoyable again. Now I can see the target & front sight. I still need reading glasses to read close up.

[Timberwolf]

I suffer similar problems as you severe myopia, stignatism, prisms to correct eye turn in, and now tri-focals as my old screwed up eyes loose their ability to focus etc. It takes alot of practice to get evrything to sync and yes a change will throw everything off. Your key is to practice shooting through the optical center of your glasses or have a pair made just for shooting with the optical center a little higher. Hit me a PM if you want to go into more detail.

[Hopalong]

I have trifocal vision, three different prescriptions for close, mid, and far distance.

I have some shooting glasses that have the front sight in focus on my dominant eye.

I do pretty well, but I don't do as well as I did when I was a kid or young man.

That last statement is true for a lot of things, but...

I'm still on the right side of the grass!

[meaty-btz]

Thats two now that have specialized shooting glasses. I never thought of that, nor knew it was possible. It is an option. Thanks guys! Though I cant go for new glasses atm either so I am kinda SOL either way for a while. BUt there is hope