Vision Issues

[MGW]

I probably should have posted this in one of the shooting forums instead of general. Feel free to move it Mods.

I know parts of this have been discussed before but didn’t want to dig up an old thread.

I have always had very good vision. Better than 20/20 my entire life. I’m extremely right hand and right eye dominate. Shooting with both eyes open never worked for me. I would get terrible double images of the sight and the target. The second the sight lifted I would lose all concept of which sight and which target was correct.

I started wearing corrective glasses last summer. Focusing on the front sight and reading we’re becoming difficult. Basically I wear readers. My distance vision is fine but anything from front sight distance and in is blurry and difficult to focus on. The vision in my dominate eye is slightly worse than my non dominate eye. So the right lens of my glasses has slightly more correction than my left.

So there is the background. Here’s my issue. I’ve noticed that Ive gradually started shooting with both eyes open and that my left eye is taking over as my “dominate” eye. As a result I am not aligned to my target. What looks like a perfectly aimed shot is actually to the right of the target. It happens with and with out corrective lenses on.

I have no idea what to do about it and I’m looking for suggestions. I’ve read about mono-vision glasses and I’m thinking this might help. Left lens set for distance vision and dominate eye lens for near vision. I don’t wear glasses all the time though so it makes me wonder about what might happen in a self defense situation. Contacts are not an option for me. I have allergy issues and frequent issues with dry eyes.

If anyone has any experience with this or suggestions I would appreciate it.

[JAD]

I would start closing an eye. Incidentally, it’s “dominant,” not “dominate.” Pet peeve of mine since Bill Rogers made the mistake 200 times in his book and it apparently escaped his editors.

[OlongJohnson]

I started out closing my non-dominant eye. Eventually trained myself to be able to shoot accurately both eyes open. However, my brain is still slow in sorting out the multiple images and settling on the correct one with both eyes open. I find that very briefly closing my non-dominant eye as the sights come into alignment provides a flash of the single, correct image and allows my brain to "latch" onto the correct sight picture much more quickly. I am able to keep that as the functionally processed image after my non-dominant eye opens and through firing the gun.

[LSP552]

Gregg, don’t be afraid to try closing or even just squinting your left eye.

Here are some of my and many others’ observations about vision heading South.

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?28223-Target-focus-a-paradigm-shift

[MGW]

I would start closing an eye. Incidentally, it’s “dominant,” not “dominate.” Pet peeve of mine since Bill Rogers made the mistake 200 times in his book and it apparently escaped his editors.

Thanks for the correction on the spelling. I obviously didn’t even notice that I was typing the wrong word.

That’s the thing though, I’m not consciously opening my other eye.

[LJP]

My situation is similar to yours with my dominant eye being the eye with worse vision. The significant difference is that I’ve worn glasses for distance correction for more than 30 years. I would consciously close your left eye if I were you. Works with pistol and rifle, and based on conversations with real deal BTDT guys, closing the non-dominant eye isn’t that big of a deal in the big picture. You’ve been right eye dominant all your life. Why change now?

Regarding special glasses, I’ve always eschewed that option since I would probably never wear them outside of the range.

One other thought to consider might be adopting a RDS on your pistol and switching to a target focus. I haven’t completely dismissed that one for myself, as presbyopia is slowly setting in, but I still carry my iron sighted pistol despite the fact that I have an RMR equipped slide in my safe. YMMV.

Short version, consciously close your left eye.


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[Duelist]

If closing your left eye doesn't work (that's what I do) than you can try putting a piece of cellophane tape on the left lens of your glasses. That will blur the left eye's view so it can't focus on anything directly in front, forcing your brain to use the right eye. Other means of accomplishing the same thing include smearing Vaseline or lip balm on the lens, taping a piece of paper over it, wearing an eye patch, or whatever else you can think of to keep the left eye from being allowed to focus.

[DallasBronco]

As others have suggested, I close or squint my non-dominant eye when I have this problem. You may have to consciously work to build the habit. I've also been working at target-focused shooting with some promising results, but it's still a work in progress for me.