Seeing problems,now what?

T

tberridge

Guest
I read with interest the thread on hearing. Being a little long in the tooth I related to all the problems that were stated. My question is this; when I stare through the scope getting my sight picture right , my eyes cloud up and I have to blink or look away and then come back to the scope again and start over.My wife and I get yearly eye checkups and do not have any problems that we know of. I was wandering if anyone has any quick fixes to help with this problem. thanks,Tom
 
Blurry spot

:confused: Tom,
You are not alone. My eye doctor says some people have this type of problem. "Floaters" can cause a similiar problem, but floaters usually float all around the field of view. When I have this problem and look away and then go back to the target, the blurry spot comes in from the side and goes right to the center of view. Poor lighting conditions and looking through the scope with the off-eye closed make matters worse. It seems to get worse the "harder" you try to see. I have almost 20/20 vision with my correction, but sometimes I just can see worth a darn.

Good luck,
Kurt
 
Welcome to the Club

The problem is actually not with your eyes. It is the way your brain anylizes the data sent to it.

I have the same problem. If I stare at anything for more than about 3 to 5 seconds, it is just like my eyes go out of focus. I have to glance away, and start over. Sometimes reading can be a real headache, I read with a staggered pattern which is quite noticeable if I read out loud.

It also manifest its self more when I am tired.

I first noticed this a number of years ago at work, where, as a machinist, I have to look at various things pretty close. When I went to an Optomologist, he finally diagnosted the problem as being in the brain, not in the actual eyes.

They probably have medication for this thing now, maybe you could check. I just adapt and learn to live with it...........jackie
 
Same problem

tberridge said:
I read with interest the thread on hearing. Being a little long in the tooth I related to all the problems that were stated. My question is this; when I stare through the scope getting my sight picture right , my eyes cloud up and I have to blink or look away and then come back to the scope again and start over.My wife and I get yearly eye checkups and do not have any problems that we know of. I was wandering if anyone has any quick fixes to help with this problem. thanks,Tom
Click to expand...

Tom,
I have the same problem (57 year old eyes). I have to sometimes take my eye from the scope, focus on a faraway object and go back to the scope. Welcome to the world of old eyes, tired body, and fiercely held opinions.

Lou Baccino
 
Eyestrain?

Comforting (?) to know that others are also having the same problems. At 70 yrs., also get blurred vision when looking thru the scope for longer than 5 or 6 seconds: same results with a .046" dia. rear aperature sight: the front sight post will be clear for only about 5 or 6 seconds. Probably all for the better (?) since holding on to the shot for much longer usually results in a "bad one". Have also noticed that problem becomes more pronounced as scope magnification is increased: very difficult over 24x, so limit my scopes to that X. Keeping the non-shooting eye open seems to help, and provides an easy watch on the wind flag. Floaters too, but does not seem to effect anything. Oh well.:cool:
 
drying out

Perhaps this is something different then you're experiencing, but I used to have a problem with my eyes drying out and causing problems. Especially at the end of the day in brisk winds. After a lot of experimenting, I found a particular brand of contacts, the use of wrap around shooting glasses (not the conventional frames), and a lot of water through the day helps immensely.

Also, all that intense concentration seems to suppress the blinking mechanism, especially when you're in a picking mode and just sitting there watching for your condition to come back. In this situation, and if your bench technique is solid, you can switch to a slight heads up mode and at least get both eyes open and working. That seems to be easier on them and still gives you an excellent view.
 
Being nearly 3 score and 13, I too have problems seeing. My right dominate eye seems to be the worst. I find that when the target becomes blurry after looking at it for more than about 30 seconds, If I look away, shake my head a bit and blink a lot, then look back, everything is clear for a few seconds. I have many floaters and they do not get better only worse. You just have to find a way to compensate. Blinking and shaking my head seems to help.
Donald
 
It will only get worse, I'm afraid. The looking away helps the problem you mention, but other things will come along. I've been struggling with cataracts for a few years -- small ones, but right in the center of the dominant eye. If I look at a street lamp at night, I see a bunch of almost discreet, blurry lamps.

For shooting, I took the attitude that the center of a blur is still the center. Worked OK for a while, but for the last couple of years, I've been getting vertical shots I can't "tune out of a load." All rifles. All ranges. Changing the load doesn't help. Slowly reached the conclusion, it's my eyes.

You have to make a decision -- In my case, it was risk the surgery for the sake of shooting, or keep the vision I have, which was good enough for my job.

I know, cataract surgery is suppose to be foolproof. But things do go wrong, all surgery is a serious decision to make. For me, things are getting bad enough that I will have to try lens replacement pretty darn soon, but that doesn't make it any easier.

So try the things suggested above, but do think long & hard before going under the knife, or especially the laser.

Good luck,

Charles
 
and i noticed it was not mentioned. it is probably obvious to most target shooters...breathe.....eyes are the first spot to respond( fail to respond) to a lack of oxygen.....
if holding your breath for the shot, breath a couple of times and try again.

mike in co
 
Blended Tri-Focal

When this happened to me a few years back I explained it to my Doctor and he switched me from a bi-focal to a blended no line tri focal with the upper portion set for my shooting sports, rifle and pistol, and it really helped. With slight head adjustment I can use my scope with comfort and also find my pistol sites without blur. It really helped me.

Mike
Harrison, Michigan
 
I was having the same problem

and discovered that my glasses were not adjusted properly to my face. Apparently there is a center on each lense and one must make sure they are looking through it or the blurry condition arises. Transition lenses are particularly sensative to the center thing. I had shooting glasses made that take the middle distance correction out so that the distance correction is larger and is now a bifocal. Works very well for me.
 
Thanks

I want to thank everyone who responded to my thread( my first one). I got many things to try and was glad to see that other shooters have had or still have the same problem.
Being a hobby Benchrest shooter it is good to know a place to go to when you need an answer about something.

Many thanks again,
Tom
 
Seeing Problems

Tom,

I forgot one other thing that adds to that (blurry/fuzzy) thing for me. If I completely over do it drinking strong coffee, it compounds my blurriness. If I stay under 10 cups I am okay!!
Kurt:)
 
Mike...

mike in co said:
and i noticed it was not mentioned. it is probably obvious to most target shooters...breathe.....eyes are the first spot to respond( fail to respond) to a lack of oxygen.....
if holding your breath for the shot, breath a couple of times and try again.

mike in co
Click to expand...

interestingly, a group of us went to Mauna Kea on the big island in 2002 and did an amateur astronomy experiment. We tried to compare the sensitivity of the human eye to a CCD camera at long and short duration exposures using a timed mechanical shutter. One of the variables, at 13,700 feet above sea level is that there is only 60% the atmospheric density vs sea level. We brough along oxygen and a pulse oximeter to measure blood oxygen content. At that altitude most of us were in the low to mid 80% range when mid 90% is normal at sea level. Interestingly we found that the reduced blood O2 level did not reduce the ability of the eye to discerne objects at any shutter speed vs when using O2 and doing the same test. Apparently the body has a way of oxygenating the eye at the expense of other organs at least to the extent that visual sensitivity wasn't compromised....at that altitude anyway. --Greg
 
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