Training with the glasses\contacts off\out

[cubicle]

I have fairly bad vision. In my right eye, I have to wear a specially ordered contact because of an injury (long ago). My vision is bad enough in my right eye that I cannot wear glasses, so my contact is my only choice. In my left eye, I am nearsighted enough that if I were holding a gun in my normal stance it would be blurry.

When I sleep at night I take both contacts out. This morning I was wondering how well I could shoot without my contacts.

So the question is, "Has anyone done any training without their contacts?"

In my case, I think I could get some glasses with the left lens in and the right lens filled out with no magnification. I could quickly put on the glasses after I had secured the gun, so as to be a better shot I the dark at night.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

[therooster]

as long as you can focus on your front site and keep your target blurry you should be fine.

[So Flo]

Funny that you bring this up...last night, about 1:30 a.m., my dog wakes me up to take her out. (unusual, but another story.)
Usually I am a pretty light sleeper but lately I have been sleeping deeper and I noticed that when I got up, got dressed and went outside, my eyes were all blurry and (eww) crusty.
I thought at that moment, with my Kel Tec P32 in my pocket, whether I would be able to see well enough in dark house, using a flashlight, to see and hit my target.
I wear glasses and contacts, so the next time I go to the range, I may try the glasses on/off thing to see what difference it makes...I will only stop short of throwing a handful of sand in my eyes to replicate the 1:30 a.m. crust!

[Snake-eater 1]

I'm roughly 20/70 in my right eye. 20/200 in my left. Without my glasses on, I can hit human sized targets in center of mass pretty easily out to 15 or more yards. A lot depends on lighting, of course. As long as you can see your front sight (and with lots of practice, even if you can't), you should be able to shoot and hit your target at any reasonable defence distance (7 yards or so).

[Shnozzer-xd-9]

I don't think the question is whether or not you can hit person without glasses/contacts, but can you positively ID your target before you shoot?

I've thought of this many times myself since I too have glasses. I mean if you have as bad of vision as the author does, can you really feel confident at what you are shooting at? You might think that you will know a family member from a perp without question but I'd like to see anyone that is woken up in the middle of the night, not have their glasses on, be in a possible life or death situation, adrenaline flowing and no light make a 100% positive identification of someone with in 1 or 2 10ths of a second.
I know I probably wouldn't be able to do it and I'm sure I'm not the only one here that couldn't either.

I think your suggestion of getting some kind of glasses is about the best you can do. You might not have the best vision in the world with them but anything would be better than your vision without them.

[manygunner]

I think you are pretty much screwed if you can not wear corrective lenses. I would never wear contacts to a gun range as all the miniscule debris/residue that is out there would certainly find a way to get under the contacts. That is a sure way to damage the cornea and get corneal scarring. The only thing I can think of is wearing your contacts and sealable face mask like SCUBA divers have. Not sure that would be practical. Hope you find a good answer to your dilema. IN any case wear soem eye protection.

[twist_of_fate]

I'm in the same situation as you are in. Which is the main reason I'm looking into getting LASIK. My eyesight is so bad, that I can only see the outline or color differnce, but it's all one big blob. That's bad for me, if something were to happen in the middle of the night, because I may not get enough time to put on my glasses.

[cubicle]

thanks for the advice.

therooster: "as long as you can focus on your front site and keep your target blurry you should be fine."

I will have to check this, but i think the front sight probably would be a little blurry without my contacts in. So i am thinking i would not be fine.

So Flo:"I thought at that moment, with my Kel Tec P32 in my pocket, whether I would be able to see well enough in dark house, using a flashlight, to see and hit my target. "

Yea, I am probably going to try it out also. Though in low light situations, i think that my vision would be even worse.


Shnozzer-xd-9:"I don't think the question is whether or not you can hit person without glasses/contacts, but can you positively ID your target before you shoot? "

I really did not bring this up because I live alone right now, but I agree with you point. Honestly i am not sure i could identify a person with out my contacts in, unless they are close.

manygunner:"I would never wear contacts to a gun range as all the miniscule debris/residue that is out there would certainly find a way to get under the contacts."

Hmmm....I have worn contacts for years (like 12 or 13), since i was a teenager. I have never had anything like that happen to me. And i have worn them in lots of dirty conditions. While doing yard work and consturction work, and this has never been a fear of mine. Have you heard of any stories of this.


thanks for the advice. I think that i will be getting some glasses to sit beside the bed, to put on in the middle of the night.