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What to do about my eyes

lawrence

lawrence

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2018
Messages
444
I’m near sighted, just started wearing glasses over the last three years. What would you do or have you done for archery when faced with this. Lasik, glasses, contacts?other solutions? Without the glasses I can’t see the pins and have had to go with a larger peep. Little help?
 
I've worn glasses all my life and shoot fine with them on. Not quite certain what issue you're facing. What specifically are you finding difficult?
 
Let me tell you a story.... Last year I spotted a doe and crawled over 100 yards to get into range . I got to 35 yards and stood up from the grass at full draw. The doe was looking right at me........ My glasses were completely fogged from all the hot air from the hard crawling and the morning humidity. I had to come back down into the grass and wipe my glasses. When i came back up again the doe spooked.

I will never miss a deer because of this again...... I got Lasik eye surgery because of this. ( I had contacts its just hard to want to put them on at 4 in the morning.) Also with lasik i came out seeing better than 20/20 so thats pretty cool. If you have the money it's a great investment in my opinion. Its not cheap though mine was 4k for both eyes.

Another added benifit over glasses is clear vision when turning your eyes to the side. Sometimes if a deer sneaks up on you it is nice to not have to turn your head and simply turn your eyes instead - with glasses when you turn your eyes that far you are no longer looking through the lenses which forces you to turn your head when someone with good vision wouldn't have to .
 
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I've worn glasses since the 5th grade. When I turned 18 I got contacts, because I kept breaking glasses playing basketball. Apart from nights after work, or weekends when I'm just hanging around the house, I always have contacts in. The few times I have hunted with glasses on I have hated it... they usually fog up, or reflect sun, or slide down from sweat. If I can ever afford it, I'll get Lasik done, but that won't be any time soon.

On a side note, America's Best has a great contact lens deal. Joining the contact club for $99 will get you annual exams for 3 years, and decent prices on disposable lenses.
 
Dont know your age, but I wore glasses from the 5th grade on. Dealt with glasses but hated them whenever I did any sports or especially hunting/fishing. Either they were fogging up or getting rain on them or.....PITA. last year did lasik because kids are out of the houae and now I can afford it. Great decision. Wished I had done it when I was younger. I just need readers now but still very happy with decision, so if you can afford it I would recommend it.
 
LASIK for me. Also came out better than 20/20. Not as expensive as @Jrp333 but still needed financing. 2nd best money I ever spent, other than the hundo I dropped to the hospital after the baby. Thought that would be way more but BC/BS did us right there. Of course they didn’t touch the LASIK though but luckily I still got it tax free with the flex account. I keep hearing you can go to Auburn University and get it done for less than 1K, but that scares me and I’m an AU fan. I recommend spending the big bucks and get it done right, you only get 2 eyes and when they work right it’s marvelous.
 
So part of my issue is the fogging up, part of the issue is I learned to shoot without glasses, find it interferes with my set point.
 
You guys are a bunch of lucky ducks. I can't get lasik due to a corneal erosion post trauma. Wearing glasses while hunting drives me nuts
 
lawrence said:
I’m near sighted, just started wearing glasses over the last three years. What would you do or have you done for archery when faced with this. Lasik, glasses, contacts?other solutions? Without the glasses I can’t see the pins and have had to go with a larger peep. Little help?
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They make special peep sights that you can screw in clarifiers and some higher end sights you can screw magnification lenses into. You should be able to ask your pro shop around you about them. Many tournament archers use these lenses
 
I got glasses for farsightedness about the same time I started bow hunting because I couldn't see my tip-ups on the ice. I can't put the facemask over my nose, because it fogs my glasses every time. I can't even watch my wife take her contacts out without my eyes watering, so contacts are out of the question. Eventually I might try to do Lasik, bit I'm really sensitive to light in my eyes, not sure if I can handle it. Do they put you under so you don't move around during the procedure?
 
Being in my late 50's I'm definitely "Bi-focally challenged". I hate wearing the progressive bifocals hunting. First because of the obvious issues associated with glasses fogging, collecting water drops, etc. but secondarily because the only part of the eyeglasses in focus is directly in front of your eyes. That forces me to turn my whole head to look around, up and down.

My solution is to wear contacts to correct for my distance vision. The biggest issue with that is that makes my close up vision even worse. I had to carry pair of readers to even read my phone. It really hurt my ability to self film as I couldn't make out the image on the camera as I was trying to film it. I was always pressed to decide if I wanted to film and wear readers or shoot and not put them on.

My secondary solution to that was to buy a few cheap pair of those safety glasses with the 1.5x magnifier bi-focals in them. If the weathers ok to self film then I can wear them. The unaltered vision through the upper portion will allow me to shoot and view around me just using my eyes through the contacts while the bottom readers allow me to see the camera if I need to. If its wet I'm not filming and I just don't need the extra safety glasses.
 
I am farsighted and I have been using a verifier in my peep for the last few years. I couldn’t shoot while wearing glasses. I was seeing double pins w/o the glasses. I think it was on an old episode of Bowhunter Magazine where I heard about the verifier. Now my sight picture is clear .... no more double pins!
 
I've hunted with glasses, contacts, and now Lasik corrected vision. I couldn't stand the glasses and fogging issues. I managed fine with contacts. I did Lasik just over 10 years ago. I was at a job that contributed money to an FSA... which helped cover the cost. One of the best decisions I've made. If my vision were to deteriorate to the point of needing correction again... I would be looking into a second round of Lasik...that's how happy I've been with it.

If considering Lasik...look into using an FSA account to help cover the cost. Because it is pulled pre-tax from your paycheck it helps knock the out of pocket cost down some. Also, call around and ask about discount programs. I saved $1000 by joining Farm Bureau for a year for $35.
 
Another vote for Lasik (20/15 results). Had mine almost 17 years ago and it was the best investment in my life. The quality of the machines has made it pretty foolproof these days.
 
Did any of you who had Lasik have issues afterwards regarding our dominate eye? Example... If you were right eye dominate before the surgery were you still right eye dominant afterwards? I am also considering Lasik but nervous that I may have to retrain my shooting. I do everything right handed but am left eye dominant so I shoot gun and bow left handed...
 
KyleND said:
Did any of you who had Lasik have issues afterwards regarding our dominate eye? Example... If you were right eye dominate before the surgery were you still right eye dominant afterwards? I am also considering Lasik but nervous that I may have to retrain my shooting. I do everything right handed but am left eye dominant so I shoot gun and bow left handed...
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The brain controls the dominance, not the vision clarity, so I have not heard of any issue like that (my wife works for an eye surgeon, so this is daily chat). My left eye turned out better than my right, dominant eye, but nothing changed. The key with this surgery is to follow directions explicitly and do the drops religiously and you should be fine. The laser tracking systems are far more accurate than just 5 years ago and it makes it very unusual to have bad results without a physical anomaly or infection affecting the outcome.
 
I've been wearing glasses for the past few years and the only thing I hate more than glasses is contacts. So I tried the clarifier peep last season and that would fog up as well. Switched to contacts this year and as much as I don't enjoy purring them in at 4am, they were a heck of a lot better than glasses. I would have signed up for lasik yesterday if that was an option available to me.

Sent from up in a tree
 
I've been wearing bifocals now for the past five years. No issues. The key to keep them from fogging for me is not to have my face mask over my nose. Do I like wearing them? Nope. But I have found that they work just fine. I also suffer with a lazy eye (since childhood), so I am basically blind in one eye. Wearing glasses is almost a necessity because it protects the one good one I have. My glasses are shatterproof, scratch proof, etc. Pete
 
I used to wear my glasses while hunting. A couple years ago, early season, I got all set up before first light, sweat was dripping, glasses slide right off my face and fall 18'. Hit the ground and I'm like you have to be kidding! I was laughing because you just can't make that crap up! So I climbed down and started looking for them with my flashlight. Felt all over, couldn't feel them. I can't see 6 inches without em.

An hour passed and it's light now. Still no luck. So I make my way back to the truck and have to drive back. Luckily I could take all back roads, drove real slow. Got back, but in my contacts, and from that day on I'll never wear glasses while hunting again.
 
Jon Zachow said:
Do they put you under so you don't move around during the procedure?
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Not me, they gave me so much Xanax I didn’t care what they were doing (don’t remember any pain so much as the smell) and fell asleep getting into the car afterward. When I woke up I could see!
 
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