protective prescription eyewear during hunts

[*zap*]

The sports glasses I posted pictures of are absolutely the most comfortable glasses I have ever owned and that's been 45 years of glasses. If you need to take off glasses to see up close they are ideal, just lift onto forehead. Not the most stylish but I sometimes wear them out and about. I also wear contacts.

They were around $100 @ walmart, I have a few pair of them. One pair stays in my day bag and if I get sick of the contacts I toss em and put on my geek glasses.....

 

[Backyard]

I wear progressive lens glasses for everything, have been for years. Never had a problem with shooting (bow or gun), riding my motorcycle, or hiking/walking or otherwise. I carry a spare set of the same when I'm packpack hunting, and have a pair in the truck when I base. I don't understand why the advise not to use em hunting.

 

[TheGDog]

This is interesting. I'm really liking those glasses with the headband as well. To my knowledge I never had eye problems, till recently. Recently looked through one of my red dot sights the other week, and was seeing a snowflake. Looked through my other two red dots, and same thing, a snowflake. So it turns out I have an eye astigmatism. So now for about a week I've been looking for some glasses to comfortably wear while shooting. Some prescription glasses setup like that would be ideal I think. Its shooting glasses or switching out optics. I'm hoping the glasses will be a cheaper route.

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You will need the corrective measures for your eye. You *could* buy a low power scope instead... however... two things. 1) Over time you may find it doesn't provide enough focus adjustment range anyway. 2) If you're using the optic to take the place of glasses which you actually need... What you then cannot do is quickly lend or borrow your firearm to another person there with you. Such as if you have your kid out on the hunt with you, and for this instance you feel this is a shot he should take... you can't just hurry up and hand him over the rifle... because now it's tweaked like crazy to make up for YOUR specific vision issues. Same thing applies when glassing too. If you're wearing Glasses that are suppose to make YOUR vision be as per normal... then.. what that does is give you the ability to swap back-and-forth no problemo, such as you just spotted a deer far off and now you want your kid to see it. You can just move over and let them look thru the spotting scope because it's adjusted to your eyes with the glasses on them... which should be much much closer to normal functioning eyes, so they wouldn't have to fuss with focusing hardly at all.

And truthfully... though I'd rather not have to be wearing corrective lenses... it's worked out kinda good that I do now. For starters, they help me A LOT in terms of not having bugs on my eyes on my ambush sit. And two... for those situations in the garage or just in general using tools, especially power tools... where you're *supposed* to be putting on protective lenses anyway. I know I can say for myself that there has been a time or two where I'd forgotten to put back on my protective lenses and had close calls. Such as having a small strand from the wire wheel on a grinder fling off and hit me just underneath one of my eyes. Since having to wear glasses all the time... there have been numerous time while having to fix something... I've had various forms of unexpected shrapnel or splatter thwarted by the glasses.

 

[Jauwater]

You will need the corrective measures for your eye. You *could* buy a low power scope instead... however... two things. 1) Over time you may find it doesn't provide enough focus adjustment range anyway. 2) If you're using the optic to take the place of glasses which you actually need... What you then cannot do is quickly lend or borrow your firearm to another person there with you. Such as if you have your kid out on the hunt with you, and for this instance you feel this is a shot he should take... you can't just hurry up and hand him over the rifle... because now it's tweaked like crazy to make up for YOUR specific vision issues. Same thing applies when glassing too. If you're wearing Glasses that are suppose to make YOUR vision be as per normal... then.. what that does is give you the ability to swap back-and-forth no problemo, such as you just spotted a deer far off and now you want your kid to see it. You can just move over and let them look thru the spotting scope because it's adjusted to your eyes with the glasses on them... which should be much much closer to normal functioning eyes, so they wouldn't have to fuss with focusing hardly at all.

And truthfully... though I'd rather not have to be wearing corrective lenses... it's worked out kinda good that I do now. For starters, they help me A LOT in terms of not having bugs on my eyes on my ambush sit. And two... for those situations in the garage or just in general using tools, especially power tools... where you're *supposed* to be putting on protective lenses anyway. I know I can say for myself that there has been a time or two where I'd forgotten to put back on my protective lenses and had close calls. Such as having a small strand from the wire wheel on a grinder fling off and hit me just underneath one of my eyes. Since having to wear glasses all the time... there have been numerous time while having to fix something... I've had various forms of unexpected shrapnel or splatter thwarted by the glasses.

I agree completely, that I should just spearhead the issue now. Nothing up to this point has ever made me think I had vision problems prior to looking through my red dot recently. My first thought was, "well I can't tell its affecting me anywhere else, so I'll switch to a different sight". I had the Vortex Spitfire 3x in mind, because it was my understanding that it's just an illuminated reticle rather then a laser pointing at my eye. But now since knowing of the issue, I'm noticing problems driving at night. So eyeglasses of some sort at some level are gonna have to be common for me, and imma just have to get over it. I'm 36 years old, and the only type of eye protection I ever wear is at work. Which I dont wear nearly enough. Hardly ever to be honest. Which turns out to be a mistake usually So I'm definitely gonna do what I need to do to correct my eye sight best I can, and maybe still replace my sights.

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[TheGDog]

I wear progressive lens glasses for everything, have been for years. Never had a problem with shooting (bow or gun), riding my motorcycle, or hiking/walking or otherwise. I carry a spare set of the same when I'm packpack hunting, and have a pair in the truck when I base. I don't understand why the advise not to use em hunting.

When you say "ride motorcycle" if you're referring to street riding, yeah, you can do that relatively fine with progressives. Now granted... you may... actually you probably do have... a vision Rx that's likely not as strong as mine now needs to be. But just trust me here... slap on your progressives then go out and try to do something like some downhill MTB. Also... precision shots on small game, especially at decent distances? Naw... those misses? For me... they're not because of something I did. There's a small bit of parallax and slight warping of the FOV the progressives are introducing to the whole thing which I discovered was throwing things off when I was popping Ground Squirrels with the .17 HMR at decent distances like 100yds and in. There were these shots where I was frustrating the piss outta myself that day. You know... like crosshairs are well within their body... no real wind to speak of... and yet somehow the shot still managed to miss? And then... then I happen to mention some of these things to my opthamologist. And she's like, oh yeah, for hunting you're going to not want the progressives. Another plus in going bi-focal is that you are FAR more able to see things still in a reasonable amount of focus when turning just your eyes, not your head. With progressives you're kinda more screwed in that regard because they force you to have to turn your head much sooner. In order to view further in that direction, because of how rapidly your focus falls off when you're not looking straight ahead thru the lenses. Everything is a tradeoff. The key is to pick the trade offs which favor the activity you're doing!

 

[TheGDog]

I agree completely, that I should just spearhead the issue now. Nothing up to this point has ever made me think I had vision problems prior to looking through my red dot recently. My first thought was, "well I can't tell its affecting me anywhere else, so I'll switch to a different sight". I had the Vortex Spitfire 3x in mind, because it was my understanding that it's just an illuminated reticle rather then a laser pointing at my eye. But now since knowing of the issue, I'm noticing problems driving at night. So eyeglasses of some sort at some level are gonna have to be common for me, and imma just have to get over it. I'm 36 years old, and the only type of eye protection I ever wear is at work. Which I dont wear nearly enough. Hardly ever to be honest. Which turns out to be a mistake usually So I'm definitely gonna do what I need to do to correct my eye sight best I can, and maybe still replace my sights.

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What's your age? Ask any opthamologist and they'll tell you... now that errbody and their Mama is walkin' around all day lookin down into a damn phone... from like very young age on up... people are smacking into their normal age-related vision degradation earlier now. Like more toward the beginning of their 40's rather than later. For me.... it was 45yo (51 today) so I just recently went thru all this. And went thru it degrading quite strongly and in a fairly rapid time frame. I would be soo EFF'd... without all the sciences we have for vision correction.

EDIT: Occupation has a lot to do with it too. I've been a programmer since '92 (but into computers since the C-64 back in like, what? '83?) and was in tech support before that... so yeah... these eyes have spent an inordinately huge amount of time looking at monitors.... from TV's turned to Ch3...Monochrome to CGA to VGA to XVGA and finally into all the super nice resolutions and display technologies we have today that don't kill your eyes and are beautifully sharp and crisp.

RE: The symptom you refer to as the "snowflake" effect. (FYI - more commonly referred to as Halo effect) Yeah... that'll just get worse and worse, especially while driving at night. And OMG!!! Seriously... I think we should seriously consider passing a resolution freakin' banning the use of HID headlights with that certain bluish/whitish wavelength of light. OMG!! Those things are freaking BLINDING!!! Have this more rural road I have to drive thru for this one hunting place... and OMG... I was over here cursing all these people thinking they're being disrespectful and leaving their high-beams on (which does happen out there, easy to forget you've got them on)... but... over time I noticed that usually what it was, was somebody coming the other way.... them coming uphill and me downhill... and them having a vehicle such that headlight location is a bit on the high up side... like trucks and SUV's, though I've also experienced this same issue when it's regular stuff like Sport Luxury Sedans, etc. There's just something about the HID's that's just freaking harsh. I've learned to pull my visor down to its lowest position and tilt my head up to get my eyes out of the path of anhilation from the "light cannons" they've got mounted on the front of their vehicles!

 

[orson]

Thank you for all the responses and insights! I am working on a project that will hopefully solve many of my issues and hopefully most of yours. I cannot wait to test it and let you folks know about it and invite your feedback. Stay tuned for more but please keep sharing your challenges and how you have addressed them in the field so we can all learn best practices. Happy hunting!

 

[TheGDog]

The sports glasses I posted pictures of are absolutely the most comfortable glasses I have ever owned and that's been 45 years of glasses. If you need to take off glasses to see up close they are ideal, just lift onto forehead. Not the most stylish but I sometimes wear them out and about. I also wear contacts.

They were around $100 @ walmart, I have a few pair of them. One pair stays in my day bag and if I get sick of the contacts I toss em and put on my geek glasses.....

So ok... you buy them at Walmart.

But to get your Rx lenses in it... what's been your approach, or... the approach that's least hassle?

 

[*zap*]

Walmart here has an eyeglass center, they get in what I order. So all my glasses come from them ready to go. I use the eyedr located adjacent to walmart also, he has been very good.

 

[TheGDog]

Oh ok, so in the order you've already submitted it with the Rx, Gotcha, Ok.

 

[orson]

I wear progressive lenses around the house and shop but hate them for hunting, glassing, skiing, driving, hiking, shooting the bow, etc. I don’t like regular bifocals either for those activities.

I use an old pair of frames and get mono-vision distance only corrected lenses. My most recent pair are yellow tinted with scratch resistant coating that I got for shooting sporting clays on cloudy or foggy days and in the trees. They cost $105 C at the local Walmart Vision Center and work great. Also, my bow sight pins and target haven’t been this sharp lately! For hunting, driving, skiing etc I get the mono’s with gray transition (photo-gray) as I find they are universal.

I do not like polycarbonate lenses as they are not as clear in my prescription as regular plastic lenses. A bit of research on the net showed that to be the case. I realize for safety glasses they are superior. I wore them on the job and had Decot shooting glasses with polycarbonate, but really dislike the loss of the sharpest vision possible with them. Good luck!

I agree! Polycarbonate lenses are the absolute worst for vision acuity. In my research, I have discovered a dirty secret why these lenses are ubiquitous and on virtually every sport frame from big brands. It is because of the large profit margin they can secure by selling these horrible lenses. Polycarbonate is cheap, light, durable, impact resistant but in terms of vision clarity is is by far the worse! Trivex lenses are the premium lense that is lighter stronger and offer a profound difference in distortion free optics. The same could be said looking through an inexpensive pair of bino vs one with a german or japanese glass. The difference is remarkable.

 

[TheGDog]

I agree! Polycarbonate lenses are the absolute worst for vision acuity. In my research, I have discovered a dirty secret why these lenses are ubiquitous and on virtually every sport frame from big brands. It is because of the large profit margin they can secure by selling these horrible lenses. Polycarbonate is cheap, light, durable, impact resistant but in terms of vision clarity is is by far the worse! Trivex lenses are the premium lense that is lighter stronger and offer a profound difference in distortion free optics. The same could be said looking through an inexpensive pair of bino vs one with a german or japanese glass. The difference is remarkable.

Hrmm... perhaps I'm misqouting myself when I say PolyCarbonate. My glasses are very clear (when clean). There's this little brand name insert re: the glass material they use. It's not Trivex though. It's some name they came up with that sorta looks like "Crystal" or something near to that.

EDIT: Hrmm... did some Google-Fu just now. Could very well be my glasses are that Trivex stuff. Perhaps it was one of the coatings they do which had that name brand insert in the packing materials.

 

[RAM190Hog]

I agree, it's a total PITA. I was hoping to do LASIK or PRK, but did not make the cut due to corneal thickness or something.

I normally wear monthly contacts at home. I had my optometrist write an Rx for daily lenses for backcountry / backpack hunts. I still bring a really small bottle of saline, but prevents me from bringing additional disinfection solution / cup. I also pack a lightweight set of glasses as backup. Of course, make sure you are washing & sanitizing your hands. Also, I found this year if it's getting below freezing you need to get creative to ensure your lenses and solution doesn't freeze...i.e. the new pair went in small pocket in my sleeping bag every night.

 

[TheGDog]

I don't even wanna THINK about trying to put in a damn contact out in the middle of BFE! It's traumatic enough trying to do that with all the time in the world indoors in your own bathroom! Damn things... freaking wanna stay stuck on my finger tip. Doesn't matter if I purposefully wet-up my finger profusely with the solution first either. It is very rare that I'll bother to do the contacts route. Bout the only time I'll do that sh*t is like when I know I'm going to something where I'll be able to get down on the dance floor, or, like it's Halloween since lotta costume choices won't work with glasses. Now in my 50's having to do this BS of glasses all the time... I feel bad for the people that have had to do this isht from the get go in their lives.

Hey question there brother. I'm sure it varies by provider, but approx how much is Lasik?

 

[Trevorshus]

I never wear contacts. Only glasses. I spend about half of the year hiking around the mountains. I have Cocoons over glasses sunglasses like an old lady. They are great.

 

[orson]

I also want to add that nearly 95% of all the major sport frames are owned by a single company..luxottica..they own everyone including the labs that outfit the lenses.. the illusion of different brands is smoke and mirrors

 

[BadDogPSD]

Lasik is a good option, but it's not a permanent solution for many. In my area, it runs about $4000 for both eyes.
I had Lasik a little over 20 years ago in my late 30's. Vision was great for about 5-6 years, then needed reading glasses. About 5 years after that, I needed distance correction again.
My eyes don't tolerate contacts very well, partly due to our dry, dusty climate, partly due to the lasik, so I wear glasses (progessives) most of the time.

 

[TheGDog]

Lasik is a good option, but it's not a permanent solution for many. In my area, it runs about $4000 for both eyes.
I had Lasik a little over 20 years ago in my late 30's. Vision was great for about 5-6 years, then needed reading glasses. About 5 years after that, I needed distance correction again.
My eyes don't tolerate contacts very well, partly due to our dry, dusty climate, partly due to the lasik, so I wear glasses (progessives) most of the time.

Hrmm... thanks for sharing that. I'd also heard from a friend that for him it lasted about 20yrs of being decent.

Meh... guess I'll just learn to live with this BS.

 

[orson]

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do you have a "fishbowl" effect while wearing these? And when you look to the periphery does your vision blur?

 

[*zap*]

They are like looking thru any eyeglasses.