Eye Strain and My Mediocre Eyesight

[Rocketmandb]

Over the past year or so, I have been having increasing eye strain issues when looking through any and all of my scopes. I have always experienced it after extended time behind the scope. My eyes would go buggy and I couldn't focus - usually after maybe 30 minutes. Recently, however, it's been happening after maybe 15-20 shots. I have glasses, but don't "need" them, and rarely wear them (usually only for driving at night).

My first thought was that my eyes are changing as I age (as everyone's do) and I needed to readjust my ocular lenses on my scopes. I tried and it had no effect. I started researching all sorts of things from the effects of shooting corrected, messing more with the ocular, even if something like Lasik would be an option.

A couple weeks ago, on a trip to my local range, for some reason I decided to wear my driving glasses on the way down. Low and behold, when I got to the range, I did not get eye strain at all during my two-hour stint at the range. My thought was that wearing the glasses lowered the strain on my eyes while driving, where you frequently have to look farther away (and I would strain my eyes to do so). By lowering the strain ahead of looking through the scope, it made the muscles in my eyes less susceptible to strain while doing so.

To test this theory, I tried it again. Last weekend, a friend and I drove two and half hours down to BLM land up in the hills and I wore my glasses the whole way. We spent about 6 hours shooting. At the end, we were "dueling" against a reactive target at 950 yards where were both continuously looking through our scopes for extended times. The whole day I didn't experience eye strain at all.

The question for people who have experienced the same (or any eye docs in the house), does my theory about wearing glasses (and reducing eyes strain) before shooting having a bearing while shooting hold water?

 

[stanley_white]

I don’t know if your theory holds water but the execution seems to.

If it works, work it.

-Stan

 

[308pirate]

Over the past year or so, I have been having increasing eye strain issues when looking through any and all of my scopes. I have always experienced it after extended time behind the scope. My eyes would go buggy and I couldn't focus - usually after maybe 30 minutes. Recently, however, it's been happening after maybe 15-20 shots. I have glasses, but don't "need" them, and rarely wear them (usually only for driving at night).

My first thought was that my eyes are changing as I age (as everyone's do) and I needed to readjust my ocular lenses on my scopes. I tried and it had no effect. I started researching all sorts of things from the effects of shooting corrected, messing more with the ocular, even if something like Lasik would be an option.

A couple weeks ago, on a trip to my local range, for some reason I decided to wear my driving glasses on the way down. Low and behold, when I got to the range, I did not get eye strain at all during my two-hour stint at the range. My thought was that wearing the glasses lowered the strain on my eyes while driving, where you frequently have to look farther away (and I would strain my eyes to do so). By lowering the strain ahead of looking through the scope, it made the muscles in my eyes less susceptible to strain while doing so.

To test this theory, I tried it again. Last weekend, a friend and I drove two and half hours down to BLM land up in the hills and I wore my glasses the whole way. We spent about 6 hours shooting. At the end, we were "dueling" against a reactive target at 950 yards where were both continuously looking through our scopes for extended times. The whole day I didn't experience eye strain at all.

The question for people who have experienced the same (or any eye docs in the house), does my theory about wearing glasses (and reducing eyes strain) before shooting having a bearing while shooting hold water?

You need to go see an ophthalmologist.

And possibly wear prescription lenses while shooting.

 

[Rocketmandb]

And possibly wear prescription lenses while shooting.

I assume the lenses are correcting for distance?

 

[308pirate]

I assume the lenses are correcting for distance?

Yes your normal everyday prescription

 

[Krazy_jim]

Am I assuming correctly that you went from never wearing your glasses, to now wearing them for both the drive and while shooting?

 

[Rocketmandb]

Am I assuming correctly that you went from never wearing your glasses, to now wearing them for both the drive and while shooting?

Yes, I never wore glasses until a couple years ago. I used to have 20/10. Currently the only times I wear glasses:

- Driving (sometimes during the day, mostly at night)
- Playing XBox (TV is across the room)
- Rarely if I'm tired and watching TV

 

[lastshot12]

That's Age there doing it thing

 

[diggler1833]

Well, guess I'll start wearing my glasses.

I too have a lot of eye strain after 20 minutes behind a scope. I have ~20/40 vision in my shooting eye. For years I've just adjusted my diopter and shot without glasses, mostly because I wanted to make sure that I was centered behind the scope and my glasses frame wasn't hiding any shading.

However I think I'll put this idea to the test soon with a known load. I'll shoot at least a 3x5 at 100 yards, and then punch a few groups out at 3-650. If my eyes don't start going wonky and I can keep accuracy up, I'll make the switch with everything.

 

[Rocketmandb]

That's Age there doing it thing

Yeah, it's really frikkin' annoying.

 

[spife7980]

I’ve shot with glasses since middle school. It’s my scope, I’ll adjust it how I like it.
If people with good vision want it to look good for them then they can buy their own scope.
I stopped getting eye fatigue when I stopped using bad scopes

 

[Modoc]

I’m in the same boat as @spife7980, having worn glasses since freshman year of college. My binoculars, spotting scope and other optics are adjusted to work with MY prescription. on the plus side NOBODY asks to borrow my shooting/sunglasses more than once . Let’s just say non typical astigmatism and cataract surgery have given me some WOW lenses.

The big take away here is that if YOUR driving glasses help you shoot well (comfortable) USE them!

As we age, things change, this is life.

 

[AirgunnerPCP]

I've shot with glasses for awhile but have gotten contacts in the last couple years. There were no issues shooting with glasses or contacts. Either way wearing my prescription absolutely prevented eye strain.

You really could save a lot of time/effort if you go to the eye doctor and ask a professional's advice.

 

[Rocketmandb]

You really could save a lot of time/effort if you go to the eye doctor and ask a professional's advice.

That's what my wife keeps telling me.

 

[Gustav7]

I've had glasses since I was 6yrs old, contacts and glasses from 9yrs-25yrs old, and LASIK for the last 10yrs. I have found that if there is something I can do to relieve stress on my eyes, everything is better.

I would for sure go see a doc just to make sure, but I have always been told by my eye docs and surgeons that our eyes adjust to things like glasses and contacts, and prefer to maintain that level of adjustment. Switching tends to put stress on our eyes, and as we age that stress becomes more of a slap to the head instead of a gentle whisper.

When you keep your glasses on, your eyes are looking FIRST through your glasses and then through the scope that is adjusted to your glasses. I view this as "no change" in stress to the eyes.

When you set your diopter to your naked eyes, your eyes are now looking through a different pair of glasses, plus all the time you spent driving without glasses(if you did), just adding to the overall stress of your eyes for the day. If that makes sense?

I would probably just swallow the pride and wear the glasses, or get contacts if you prefer. I try to take care of my eyes as best I can.

 

[45-90]

Yep, go to the professional, with any eye questions. I did and found I had Age Related Macular Degeneration.
Which is the leading cause of blindness, for old geezers.
Been getting eye injections for several years now to slow the progression, of blindness.
Got 2 injections of medicine 5 times stronger than the old stuff, started showing slowing again.
Cost is $4000 per injection, insurance pays for most of it, but that could change. Start out one injection per month, if improvement shows the injection can be 6 weeks apart.
You enter a crooked wavy world, nothing appears straight, a dark hole in the center. Black and blue objects disappear as light falls. Look down the side of a new car is dented and wavy appearance, everything is distorted including the crosshair, and the target dots and bullet holes can not be seen, guessing at where the center of the target is, in bright sunlight.
Overcast is like open sight shooting, center a paper plate and hope for the best. Sometimes I do pretty good but don't know how, I can't read ot type with that eye.

Down to one eye...so see your doctor, with any vision questions or when you experience vision changes.

 

[Budrichard]

As addition to the most important Post above, you need to see an Opthamologist and then an Optometrist that has experience working directly with shooters of the discipline causing you problems. Depending on your age, Cataracts come into play. I finally had Cataract surgery on my right, shooting eye and the surgery caused me to change from right handed, left eye dominant to right handed, right eye dominant. My Trap shooting improved. I can now see iron sights and won a recent local club match with irons. I can see the 1/8MOA Target Dot on my scopes again!
It will take some time and cost to work out problems and solutions but it is worth the effort.
-Richard

 

[Bmghunter]

Several folks I know had LASIK in their 30s and 40s. Many of them are getting into their 50s and are saying their eyesight is getting worse again, normal aging. They started as nearsighted, LASIK to 20/20 or better and are now getting farsighted.
It's possible your eyesight is getting worse and get more eyestrain as a result. Use corrective lenses if it helps. I tried getting prescription safety glasses but it's hard to find one. Getting the right type of prescription shooting glasses will be much better than standard prescription glasses. You want to have an unobstructed sight with the glasses.

 

[Rocketmandb]

You guys convinced me... just made an eye doc appointment.

 

[Convex]

You just made a bet you can't lose, cuz after all your tests he'll either give you a clean bill of health, or they'll spot something that's going wrong and treat it before it can do irreversible damage.

Doing the math, there's enough people on here that somebody has glaucoma and/or macular degeneration and they don't know it.

 

[Convex]

Glaucoma Facts And Stats - Glaucoma Research Foundation

glaucoma.org

"A survey done for Glaucoma Research Foundation found that:

• 74% of over 1,000 people interviewed said they have their eyes examined at least every two years.
• 61% of those (less than half of all adult Americans) are receiving a dilated eye exam (the best and most effective way to detect glaucoma)."

 

[HeavyAssault]

My eyes aren’t getting younger that’s for sure. I can tell you the pollen is starting in my area, it feels like sand is in my eyes it’s horrible. Given the situation I almost always wear sunglasses with no correction, just off the shelf glasses. By far the amount of light or glare is my number one problem. I swear wearing sunglasses during some rainy conditions helps me see better. It always seems to help cut down on eye strain. In the end I’m in the boat to go to a DR for an evaluation, just to be sure.

 

[Budrichard]

For ‘sand’ in your eyes, it may be salt and other products from tear evaporation.
After using a high dollar product, I came down to washing my eyes every morning with DOVE soap without any additives. First wash you hands/fingers very well and then apply a thin layer of DOVE from the bar to your fingers and gently wash the area around your eyes with the eyes closed. Rinse well and pat dry with clean wash cloth.
-Richard
BTW if your are light or glare sensitive, DRIVEWEAR is the way to go!

 

[RagnarAW50]

Glad you made an appointment.

Shooting helped me discover I had cataracts, I happened to look through the scope with my left eye and it was clear and bright compared to the right eye. I ended up getting replacement lenses called Cystalens, you can focus them "almost" like your young originals...I am back to 20/10 20/15 vision...and it is amazing how much better you can shoot when you can see....

I can also work on my computer without cheaters now but that does get tiring sometimes, before the surgery I needed 2.5 cheaters...

 

[Rocketmandb]

UPDATE:

Ended up going to the eye doctor and she confirmed a few things and added some others:

- The good news is that everything generally looks good
- The revelation was that, even though my computer screen (that I spend 10+ hours a day at) appears to be plenty in focus, it is not, and that is likely the root cause of my eye strain.
- I'll be getting glasses specifically for when I'm at my computer.
- She also confirmed my suspicion that wearing my driving glasses ahead of going to the range likely had the effect of reducing eye strain somewhat, yielding better results once I was there.

 

[Gustav7]

UPDATE:

Ended up going to the eye doctor and she confirmed a few things and added some others:

- The good news is that everything generally looks good
- The revelation was that, even though my computer screen (that I spend 10+ hours a day at) appears to be plenty in focus, it is not, and that is likely the root cause of my eye strain.
- I'll be getting glasses specifically for when I'm at my computer.
- She also confirmed my suspicion that wearing my driving glasses ahead of going to the range likely had the effect of reducing eye strain somewhat, yielding better results once I was there.

Awesome to hear it’s nothing serious. Once you get those glasses, I would highly recommend an app on your computer to reduce the blue light if you don’t already have that.

Takes a little getting used to but it has been huge in reducing my eye strain daily.