Contact lenses!

Antonyweeks

Well-Known Member
Hope this is worthy of the 'general stalking' thread, but I'm getting fed up of losing glasses, dropping them into mud, dropping them into the newly gralloched carcass, reversing over them in the truck etc etc. I don't generally need glasses for looking about and scanning with binos etc but do for up close stuff, and looking at my phone.
I've been considering trying the multi focal contact lenses that have either 2 or 3 'bands' on the lens enabling close vision and distance vision. I wondered if anyone else uses these and how they find them with a scope? Some of the online reviews of such lenses talk about having different lenses for each eye and so I'm not sure if this would simply serve to bugger up my vision either throught the scope or up close and personal when inspecting the carcass. At least they wouldn't fall off my face..
Any thoughts would be welcome.
 
I have not used multifocal lenses but I used daily disposable contact lenses for years. I started with different prescriptions.

I later was told that as things changed they could use the same in each eye and one would help distance and the other for reading but in effect I see the same it’s blending my vision to one image but it worked for me.

I know have had a surgery where the soft lens is replaced in the eye for an acrylic lens the same as cataract surgery. The same principle applies one distance and one close and they call that Mono Vision.
 
I've got multifocal contacts on the go currently - I like them for work (soft-handed office monkey looking up n down at screen.... readers on off on off drive me mad....), no prob with bird shooting, stalking they are OK - but they aren't as clear as my previous dedicated lenses when trying to look at (for?) well hidden deer at distance. So if I'm going stalking I wear a pair of 'previous' contacts. I can stalk in the multifocals, and have, it's just that obviously as theyte trying to do 2 things at once there is a point of compromise.
 
Lens wearer for 40years (short sighted). As Merlin said everything is a compromise once your arms are not long enough. I now have a set of varifocal lenses that I can stalk on comfortably and just about read a map. I need readers for newsprint. You may find disposable single vision nearly as good.
 
Not tried the multi focal lenses, but been wearing contacts all day every day for more than 30 years.
Unless your prescription is exactly the same in each eye you'd need a different lens in each eye anyway, whether multi focal or not. That is quite normal. For most of the years I've worn lenses I've had separate right and left.
I would definitely recommend contact lenses if you're short sighted, but I'm not sure whether there's much to be gained in your situation, as it sounds like your distance vision is OK.
 
I use glasses for distance and keep them on a cord round my neck when not in use. Tend to look over them through a scope. Flipping nuisance with fox calls, thermal etc. round my neck as well. However, it recently dawned on me that I don’t need to wear them at night, can’t see without thermal or nv anyway! Can see we’ll enough not to fall over and just adjust the technology to suit my poor long range eyesight. Put them on when I get back to the car. Works for me.
 
My prescription has changed with my hitting 50 so have tried a couple of vari-focals but to date have not had much joy.

One brand i tried I could look at a car reg infront of me and see it crystal clear, next morning it was blurred and barely viewable!

Have some more brands to try in the next week or so but even if switching to glasses for reading etc its worth the long distance vision.

Inside of a month or two you'll be whipping them bad boys in and out in no time
 
After getting older and needing reading glasses, I have been testing using a lower prescription lens in my right eye, and a 20:20 corrective lens in my left.
I want the lower strength one in my right for shooting with scopes and open sights and reading, and the ‘correct’ one in my left for distance vision. After testing it for a while I have found that together they work 95% as they should, but when I need to see something close, the right eye now becomes dominant, and the opposite.

Seems to work well for me, and I can get away with cheap old daily disposables instead of the expensive varifocals (which, my optician describes as an expensive way to have average vision)
 
I used to wear a pair of contact lenses, with a different prescription in each eye. I started to need reading glasses for close up work and during lockdown I experimented with just wearing the one lens: lens for distance work and mk1 eyeball for the close up stuff. It works a treat and has been validated by the ophthalmologist. I wear glasses (without the contact lens, obviously) if I’m driving a long distance at night as this offers better depth perception, and less ‘ringing’ in the dark, but otherwise I’d say it’s been life changing.
 
For everyday use I wear frameless varifocal specs with quite a small lens. I went for the most expensive grade as that gives me a larger close vision area as I use a laptop a lot at work. For viewing through a scope or mounting a shotgun they are useless, with the shotgun the sight picture along the rib is directly in line with the top of the lenses and when using a scope, the slightest head movement makes the image distort.
I tried disposable contact lenses with one eye for reading and the other for distance, absolutely brilliant, I could do everything as normal and everything was in focus, the only problem was I just couldn’t get on with putting them in and taking them out.

For shooting, both rifle and shotgun, I now wear a pair of bifocals where the reading portion is as small as they could make it, they just about allow me to read and write. The lenses are large and sit quite high to my eyeline (not quite in the same league as Dennis Taylor) and this keeps the shotgun sight picture well within my area of vision and are distortion free through a scope.

I don’t bother with a neck cord as they stay on rather well, but I do use one for my varifocal safety glasses at work as I sometimes need to remove them to look through the instrument when the ambient light is poor.
 
I use varifocal glasses and I love them, but shooting/ bird watching is different so I use contact lenses, which are brilliant but a bastard to get out so I limit them to a few times a month. Works out expensive but I have only a few years before I'm dead so,,,,,,,,,,,
 
I wear daily contacts, I changed after the faff of swapping glasses at work for reading a screen close up and gauges and dial's a couple of meters away.
All I can say is they take a little perseverance with getting used to the fitting and removal but you get there, remembering to remove them after a rum or two can lead to coordination fun in front of the mirror.
 
I wish I could try them, tied contracts several times over the years but just can't get them in my eye, despite professional tutoring.

I wear varifocals which a great most of the time but need careful positioning when using a scope to prevent reticle split.
 
Hi i wear multifocal 1.5 low in the right eye 5.0 high in the left ( right eye dominant ) I wore only the right eye for a number of years with no problems using a scope, the only problem is in high winds when game shooting eyes tend to water a lot, I wear them for a month at a time only taking them out if I have a problem ie dirty. I would advise going to an independent optician where you will receive one to one service, explaining you use them for shooting, I pay a monthly sum each month and receive 2 eye tests a year
Regards
Ken
 
Forgot to mention last time I had an eye test new lenses are now available where you where them when you go to bed and remove them in the morning, they are only suitable for certain eye conditions & sadly not for me
Regards
Ken
 
on my 4th trial set from Specsavers and still not happy with them. I'm beginning to think there isn't an effective multi focal contact lens solution. I may have to undertake lens replacement. The good thing about Specsavers is you don't pay for the trial sets. The bad thing is their service!
 
I have lenses specifically for shooting; my dominant eye lens is for distance and the other one for close up. So it's a bit odd at first and my brain needs to adjust to it but it works really well (for me). I do a fair bit of range shooting as well and being able to switch from distance to close (to read those pesky little markers on the scope) is a win. Not quite so suited for shotgun imoh, but for rifle it's a winner. I was lucky and got somebody at my local optician who it turned out was familiar with the problem and was able to give me very good advice. One thing I do is to wear the lenses at least the evening before the shoot to adjust (in particular if I go on a stalk the morning after)
 
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