Monovision lense questions

[luckyman]

I've read some of the information about monovision prescriptions and am wondering if I should peruse that route, but I have some questions regarding alternatives and also regarding daily wear. Searched before posting, hopefully didn't miss a thread specific enough I should have replied to it instead of starting a new one . . .

My experience level: been shooting about 6 months. Weekly range trips, dry firing at least twice a week. 99% of shooting has been on indoor ranges.

My eyes: not great. Dominant eye -2.25 correction, weak eye at -1.50. Dominant eye good acuity with correction. Weak eye not so good, due to some retinal damage. I use progressive lens with a 2.00 reading addition to help make up for my age of 51.

I have a good set of Rudy progressive lens glasses. Doing pretty good in terms of keeping both eyes open, not seeing double images when I switch focus from target to front sight, etc. Not feeling like I have any particular problem to solve, just wondering if I don't know what I'm missing, and a monovision prescription would be better. I stare at a computer screen for probably 6 hours a day as part of my job as a software development manager.

I'm assuming people who get monovision prescriptions wear them all the time? Is that correct? Are there any noticeable tradeoffs in terms of daily use compared to a progressive prescription? Any other options I should be considering? Rudy lenses are expensive enough I don't want to just being buying multiple pairs to experiment. I'm asking now because my first pair of lenses were transition lenses, and I want to get a clear set for night shooting. Thanks in advance for anyone's thoughts.

[GJM]

I am not an eye doctor.

Generally, folks using mono vision under correct their non dominant eye, from a little to a lot, to improve near vision. However, shooters (assuming you aren't cross eye dominant) want to under correct their dominant eye to see the front sight better. While that is good for shooting, it isn't good for driving, flying and every day stuff.

What I understand Bill Rogers and Manny Bragg, for example, do is to have special shooting glasses with their dominant eye slightly under corrected.

[Mr_White]

Doing pretty good in terms of keeping both eyes open, not seeing double images when I switch focus from target to front sight, etc. Not feeling like I have any particular problem to solve, just wondering if I don't know what I'm missing, and a monovision prescription would be better.

I really don't know what you would be better off with, but from what you are saying there it sounds like you are already getting along well vision-wise. See what JHC says about monovision; he has that.

[JHC]

I've been using monovision prescription contacts for some years. Nearsighted, my full correction is -4.00 and my non-dom eye gets that one. My dominant eye gets -3.25. Contrary to GJM's point that less than full correction in the dominant eye is less good for activities other than shooting - I find zero downside. Everything else I do like reading or driving is done with binocular vision which is 20/20.

Another advantage of mono vision for a near sighted person (I'm 56) is I rarely need to use reading glasses.

In binocular view of the world I have no perception of a clarity discrepancy. If the differential between full and partial correction is too great then I can detect it.

When my eye doc is setting my non-full correction prescript I hold a pencil out from my hand to approximate front sight distance and she dials in the prescript for my dominant eye at that distance.

[JHC]

Before I converted to monovision contacts I just used full correction contacts and the front sight was an awful blurry mess. I worked with XS Big Dots for a couple years before the monovision approach. This took many years off the age of my front sight focus and made if very sharp; like I hadn't seen it in years and I was very happy to return to post/notch pistol sights.

The target OTOH is even more blurry however because it's far away and I'm near sighted and my dominant eye has the front sight oriented prescription. But I am ok with the trade off.

The more out of focus target can be managed. I can still make out a 3x5 card - this shot last week at a horizontal 3x5 at 25 yds
http://www.flickr.com/photos/78036189@N07/10826360816/


and this one at the pie plate at 15 yards.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7803618...n/photostream/

For under 10 yards an in on various speed oriented drills, I still like the sharp front sight but I'm not sure it's as critical vs a good trigger press.

The dominant eye having the partial prescription might be a bigger handicap for hunting with iron sighted rifles actually.

I used to like iron sighted lever guns for deer hunting. Well. as described above, my sights look fine. But a deer, if out at 75-100 yards is very hard to make out. So I've accepted optics only for decent rifle shooting past 50 yards.

[LSP552]

Mono lens don’t work for me. I’m 58 with a slight astigmatism and my prescription changes slightly every year. I started wearing glasses at 45. My distance vision is pretty good (improved the last couple of years) but my up close is now +2. I can’t read anything without bi-focals or reading glasses. With both my normal prescription glasses, and without, my sights are a blobs of blur.

I tried the mono glasses thing a few years ago but couldn’t get past the headaches.

I had a chance to talk about older vision with Bruce Gray a couple of years ago and he pointed me in a different direction. His advice was to try a set of glasses with the focal point (both eyes) set past the front sight, but where you can see both front sight and target. A good eye doc will let you bring your pistol and experiment.

A pair of your older (less power) reading glasses will let you “see” how this might work for you. For me, this works much better than the mono-vision thing.

Ken

[JHC]

Mono lens don’t work for me. I’m 58 with a slight astigmatism and my prescription changes slightly every year. I started wearing glasses at 45. My distance vision is pretty good (improved the last couple of years) but my up close is now +2. I can’t read anything without bi-focals or reading glasses. With both my normal prescription glasses, and without, my sights are a blobs of blur.

I tried the mono glasses thing a few years ago but couldn’t get past the headaches.

I had a chance to talk about older vision with Bruce Gray a couple of years ago and he pointed me in a different direction. His advice was to try a set of glasses with the focal point (both eyes) set past the front sight, but where you can see both front sight and target. A good eye doc will let you bring your pistol and experiment.

A pair of your older (less power) reading glasses will let you “see” how this might work for you. For me, this works much better than the mono-vision thing.

Ken

Interesting observations. I've heard a sizeable number of folks do not tolerate the monovision. I had zero adaptation period. I wonder if the results are generally different for someone who has good vision originally or far sighted vs my serious near sighted condition since I was a kid. ???

[LSP552]

Interesting observations. I've heard a sizeable number of folks do not tolerate the monovision. I had zero adaptation period. I wonder if the results are generally different for someone who has good vision originally or far sighted vs my serious near sighted condition since I was a kid. ???

Good question JHC. I had 20/20 vision forever, until age snuck up on me.

Ken

[PumpGunGuy]

For 'pistol games' I shoot with my dominant (right) eye prescription optimized for front sight focus, and my non dominant (left) eye optimized for distance. Things look a little weird for the first few minutes when I put them on, and then again when I go back to my progressive lenses. Randolph Rangers with individually changeable lenses make it easier and less expensive to experiment with different options.

On occasion (like when I forget to bring my shooting glasses) I practice with my progressive lenses, just in case I need to shoot in them some dark day. There is a noticeable difference. I also practice with plain protective lenses to simulate having to shoot without any corrective lenses (lost in a scuffle, not worn in the shower, you get the idea).

For games and when you want to focus (bad pun) on things other than working around a vision deficit, separate optimized prescriptions for shooting are great, but you should remember reality.

Good luck.

[luckyman]

All these replies have been a huge help. Thanks.