Cataract Surgery & iron sights

[Maggies drawers]

Unfortunately, at a young age of 50 my eyesight started failing and it been a struggle shooting irons.
Now at 55 it has gotten to the point that I am getting it fixed. Unfortunately cataracts in both eyes and a bit of astigmatism.
I am primarily a shoot palma shooter so being able to shoot irons is a must.

Looking to see if anybody has any feedback on what corrections they had done, variable vs just distance vision and how it was shooting rifle iron sights.

 

[Walt Krafft]

I had it done 10 years ago. Get the distance only lens. You will need readers for close up. They get close with the prescription, but not perfect. So a pair of bifocals will give you perfect vision without having to fool with readers. Then for shooting get a pair of Decot hywides with prescription bifocal lens. I get the lined bifocal not the progressive. Good luck, follow all the instructions.

 

[gkgeiger]

I’m 82 and having one eye done on the 29th and the other about a week later. Don’t shoot irons, just hoping for a clearer target. Also going with the distance lenses.

 

[Bill Norris]

I do not use iron sights but had the surgery done last Oct and Nov at 69 years of age and am very happy with the decision to go with the Toric (longer distance) lens in the right eye (dominant) and the regular lens in the left eye which was recommended by my eye Dr. due to shooting. There was only a small amount of prescription left over for really fine print in low light situations as the Dr. said I had 20/20 after the surgery. I did get prescription readers but only use them when needed or if I'm reading for extended periods. The amount of brightness and absolute color clarity after surgery is breath-taking no doubt.

 

[Alan Warner]

I had it done 10 years ago. Get the distance only lens. You will need readers for close up. They get close with the prescription, but not perfect. So a pair of bifocals will give you perfect vision without having to fool with readers. Then for shooting get a pair of Decot hywides with prescription bifocal lens. I get the lined bifocal not the progressive. Good luck, follow all the instructions.

What Walt said. You want to talk to your doc about optimizing a bit from infinity focus so you bring your focus somewhat closer to enable best front sight image.
I don't know if your upcoming procedure can correct astigmatism or not, so ask.
Astigmatism is caused by the shape of the cornea. Lasex corrected mine 25 years,ago. No more oval, misshapen bulls.
YMMV. GOOD LUCK TO YOU!
Alan

 

[Stumpy1]

I had mine done a couple of years ago. The difference was surprising -with only one eye done at a time, white was REALLY white in the 'fixed' eye -and so forth. I got the Toric lenses to correct a huuuge amount of astigmatism -they work pretty well!
That said, the new eyes are not the same as my original equipment, and it took me over a year to figure out a prescription that would work -especially for long range. In my case, color filters in my Decot lenses really help with seeing a good bull.
Would I do it again? YES. Do they work well for iron sights? Yes -with work on lenses that work with your new eyes -two 600 point matches this year.

My caution would be to research HEAVILY, the Dr. who will do the surgery. I interviewed 4 offices/surgeons before making my choice.
1. HORRIBLE OFFICE, but good/great Dr. (PASS)
2. HORRIBLE OFFICE AND Dr. (Hard Pass)
3. Mediocre on both counts (Pass)
4. TOP NOTCH Office and Dr. (he got the job) and I have recommended him to others who also had great results.
Ask lots of questions, and do some online (google work) before you go see any of the surgeons -it will help to understand the process.

A second caution is to not think it is a miracle to repair your shooting -it is in its own way, but you still need to put in the work.

These days, with way too much on my plate, I don't get to shoot as often as I would like, but when I do, I shoot PALMA .

Best of luck!

Frank

 

[clowdis]

The iron sights will be a lot better but you may still need a bit of correction to really clear things up. Let your eyes settle for about 6 months and then have them checked and if you need a small correction you can have a pair of correction lenses ground. I had my correction lens installed in one of the Gehmann color filter snap on's that go on the back of the 510 rear iris. Perfect combination!

 

[rdb8847]

I had it done 10 years ago. Get the distance only lens. You will need readers for close up. They get close with the prescription, but not perfect. So a pair of bifocals will give you perfect vision without having to fool with readers. Then for shooting get a pair of Decot hywides with prescription bifocal lens. I get the lined bifocal not the progressive. Good luck, follow all the instructions.

Do you have a lens color preference for scoped rifle shooting? I have progressive prescription glasses and cannot shoot with them so I’m faced with eye strain for F Class strings. I need to get a pair of these for sure.

 

[jk80]

I've had cataract surgery and vitrectomy done on both eyes. When everything settled down I went to my eye doctor about not being able to focus on the front sight on pistols. He made me his last appointment and I bought in a high standard victor and he juggled lenses around until we found the right combination while sighting the gun then had the lenses made by ranger. Maybe you could talk to your eye doctor and he'd work with you to do the same.

 

[Walt Schmidlin]

Suggest you ask the doctor to do your non sighting eye 1st. My sighting eye was done 1st and after surgery uncorrected vision is 20-20 which is outstanding.
However the doctor make a slight correction for the other eye and vision is 10-15/20.

I use a +3.0 contact lens in the non shooting eye for reading, sight settings, reading. I was using contact lenses in both eyes prior to surgery, one for distance the other for reading. CAUTION this does not work for everyone, ask you doctor.

I don’t shoot irons as well as I do with a scope but it NOT a vision issue.

Stumpy1 advice is spot on, you want the guy who wrote the book on cataract surgery not the guy reading the book.

My surgeon is a Wills Eye alum.

 

[left360]

I had both eyes done this last August. 67 years old. All good advice above. Do your due diligence on the Dr. & office. I spoke with my optometrist and his partner and they said they could tell the difference in one doctor's work over others. I went to him. They all advised distance lens for shooting and I am a helicopter pilot. I had a bit of astigmatism in both eyes. The left eye was corrected by just the standard lens and he used a FEMTO laser to correct the astigmatism in the right eye. He said a toric lens would over correct it. Clinics around here due the non-dominate eye first.

I had two complications to both eyes. First, as soon as I stopped putting drops in my eyes per the treatment schedule, I developed inflammation in both eyes. I have just about finished a second round of the eye drop regime and it seems to have dealt with it. Second, I had Capsular Opacity in both eyes. It is also called a Secondary Cataract. The first eye was treated with a YAG laser and I'm waiting for the second in a week or so. Procedure takes about 5 minutes. Cleared up vision probably another 10% after the initial replacement lens.

I have settled on +1.00 for iron sights on match pistols. I haven't figured out the correction yet for Match Sights on rifles. I'm pretty sure it will be +0.25 but I'm waiting a bit longer for things to settle before making a final determination. I definitely need readers for small print and reading the sight's vernier so I'll get bifocal lens as I did for pistol. I test 20/20 in both eyes, the numbers & letters on the chart just pop now, no struggle to make anything out.

Good luck.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Do you have a lens color preference for scoped rifle shooting? I have progressive prescription glasses and cannot shoot with them so I’m faced with eye strain for F Class strings. I need to get a pair of these for sure.

Clear or a very light rose.

 

[Maggies drawers]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Sounds like what my surgeon suggested with correcting my distance is the way to go.

Some of the issue if have is the with the cataracts is it was forming l line right in the center of the lens at my focal point. Hopefully this gets rid of it.

 

[Bill Norris]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Sounds like what my surgeon suggested with correcting my distance is the way to go.

Some of the issue if have is the with the cataracts is it was forming l line right in the center of the lens at my focal point. Hopefully this gets rid of it.

The surgery should remove the issues form your vision. Keep us posted as you progress with it.

 

[xr650rRider]

Unfortunately, at a young age of 50 my eyesight started failing and it been a struggle shooting irons.
Now at 55 it has gotten to the point that I am getting it fixed. Unfortunately cataracts in both eyes and a bit of astigmatism.
I am primarily a shoot palma shooter so being able to shoot irons is a must.

Looking to see if anybody has any feedback on what corrections they had done, variable vs just distance vision and how it was shooting rifle iron sights.

I just had both of mine done 9/3 & 9/19. Left eye was first and I had a wrinkle on macula and was not eligible for a multi-focal lens in that eye. Surgeon said he might not be able to get it better than 20/40. Right eye I could select option 1, insurance or medicare will normally pay for a fixed focus lens. Option 2 is a lens that can correct for astigmatism and might be an extended focus lens, Option 3 is multi-focal and can eliminate the need for glasses or contact lens. The option 1 or 2 (from my doctor) said you will need glasses for reading and possibly more pairs for different focal lengths. Some people have a pair for reading, a pair for really close and a pair for computer distance. So choose carefully when your younger, because you'll have this the rest of your life. I see a lot of videos on Youtube and I'm sure everyone else does as well and then with 2 weeks video training, they go in and tell the surgical team what lens they have selected. The surgeon I went to has done thousands of surgeries. I told him I wanted best vision I could get but he was the one that was a pro and I'd trust his selection. When I went back for 10 day checkup on left eye, I asked the girl if they had decided what my right eye lens would be. She looked and said there are 15 pages with 8 lenses on each page that they have to choose from, so no the team hadn't selected one yet. They put a Rayner Rayone EMV in left eye and Clareon Panoptix Pro in right eye. 9 days after right eye was done, I was 20/20 with both eyes and could read the smallest print on the sheet with right eye and next to smallest with left eye. I got to throw glasses and contacts in the trash after 45 years. The left eye they are going to make a correction to in a few weeks and I had a floater in right eye right in sight path that will be addressed later. Probably with a Vitrectomy. The cataracts have to be removed first before any other procedure is performed. It cost $10,000 out of pocket for the optional lenses and using laser for surgery. Don't be suprised if they won't actually give you an estimate of the actual cost, which I found hard to believe. But they only had a figure for the options out of pocket.
The laser allows for faster healing and less stress on the eye. It also cuts the old lens into easily vacuumed out segments vs them having to do it with a probe. Literally takes 15 seconds for the laser. The actual surgery with lens insertion was 10 minutes or less. Left eye was 5 mins from rolling in to rolling out. Right eye was 10 minutes as he had a medical student and was explaining what he was doing.