I've noticed a little trouble with distance over the last couple of years, so went to eye doctor to see about getting glasses and/or contacts

I don't have a problem seeing up close at all with no correction. I sit at 4 computer monitors all day with resolution cranked up with pretty small font in my myriad of terminals.

I also surf arfcom regularly on my phone without issue.

As for distance, I don't have any issues driving or anything like that.
My problems are mostly seeing targets clearly.  Like 6-8" targets at 100yards are too blurry to shoot well with irons and sometimes have a hard time keeping a hard focus on certain front sight posts.
Also have a pretty good sized (about 70") TV and have hard time reading text on menus for movie descriptions and such.

They set me up at the beginning with distance only glasses and contacts but this trashed my near vision.  So the correction is quite noticeable at distance but can barely read text on my phone and some rear sights seemed quite blurry or almost double-visioned with distance only correction.

So they changed my glasses to progressive bi-focal type lenses and they seem usable but I'm still not quite used to them yet and don't really care to wear them.

I shot with the glasses the other day and the distance correction was double-plus-good at 100, as I could clearly see the 6 and 8" targets at 100 and was able to hold good focus on the very thin front sight on my trapdoor rifle.  The problem was with glasses moving and looking through slightly different portion of the lens  throughout the shooting session.  Hard to get consistent.

In reading through various forums on glasses vs contacts for shooting irons, it seems that most prefer contacts for the reasons I mentioned.

Which brings me to the contact selection issue.  The first set of distance only contacts I tried seems really good at distance but couldn't see well at all up close.  I have since tried nearly a dozen different multifocal contacts of different strengths and brands and haven't found any that let me see up close as well as my bare eyeballs.  I also don't think the distance vision with the mutlifocal options have been as good as the initial distance only set I tried.


I don't know if my issue is particularly rare, or if this lady is just bad at picking contacts...  She does seem to be a little stingy with the samples, she usually seems to want to try one set at a time and come back in a week or two; but my work schedule and travel makes the trips to the eye doc a pain.  I wish she'd send me with several sets to compare.

Has anyone experienced this and have any recommendations for something to suggest to my contact lens tech?  

With multifocal contacts, they either work or don't work. Plus, there's always a compromise you have to accept with them- not as sharp at long distance and near vision, but allows you to see well enough to perform daily activities at all ranges... A Jack-of-all-trades, not great at anything, but good at everything kind of thing.
Distance only contact lens correction will offer the best acuity at distance, but of course, you will have to use over-the-counter readers over them for any type of near tasks.
There is also Monovision CL fitting, and this only works for certain people if their brain can adjust to using just one eye for distance and the other eye for near.

Yes. Don’t get the multi focal. I got ones I can see a long ways then wear readers. Extended wear is the cat’s meow. I take them out every 1-3 weeks. Toss and put in a new one.

+1 on the above comments.

As for one set at a time, it’s because your eyes need to adjust to that specific RX. Contacts are different (and honestly less precise in terms of axis) than glasses. Each brand and type can have different adjustment periods.

I have multi focals and love them. A couple of things:
1) the comment above is correct in that it's not going to be perfectly sharp far away, nor will you be able to read as well as with bare eyeballs. But don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Can I read my phone when it's almost to my nose like when I don't have them in? No - but why would I need to? The multifocals let me go from "my arms aren't long enough" to between 1' and 2' - perfectly acceptable.

My distance vision isn't quite as sharp as with regular contacts, but that means that I'm at about 20/30 instead of 20/15. I have more of an issue with corneal puckering, which contacts don't fix.

2) The contacts work by presenting a mosaic of images to your retina, some in focus, some not. Your brain learns to reject the blurry images and just process the clear ones. This process takes time. In my case it took about a year, which is far longer than it normally takes. So when people say "they either work or they don't" it may be because their brain hasn't adjusted yet.

Regarding shooting, I'd suggest asking your optometrist to prescribe glasses at a very small correction - less than -1 diopter - and then get shooting glasses made with that prescription. That should sharpen up the target. It's what my optometrist recommended to me years ago.

Multifocals were great but image quality wasn’t the best. I especially had trouble with reflective surfaces. My Rx ran out and needs tweaking. I have fixed focal for computer work and progressives for just wearing around now. I often drive without correction.

I need to get back to the eye doc.

I went the monovision route on contacts. A different script for each eye, one for far vision and one for near. Takes a couple days to get used to, but sure beats making sure I have reading glasses with me all the time.

I cant do multi plane/focus contacts. Headaches.

I either wear glasses and take them off to read a screen or up close, or I wear my contacts and use my readers.

My eye doctor had me try this last year, and I hated it.  He has kept my prescription the same for the past couple of years even though I need to go up one, but I haven't wanted to sacrifice my near vision (which keeps getting worse with age).  I am pretty much at the point where I will probably just have to bite the bullet and carry readers with me for near vision.

This is what I have.

Right lens for far

Left lens at reading distance.

I see better at 0 - arms length with no correction.

OP might check into wearing a corrective lens on his right eye only.  Let his left eye take over for reading.

Thanks for the suggestions.

They did mention monovision or whatever where I did distance in right and nothing in left but i didn't feel like that would work out as my left eye doesn't seem very good.  I did try closing or covering my right eye and reading with my left and thay doesn't seem very good but maybe I should try it for a bit longer or with a contact in  my right to see if I can get used to it.

I was also not under the impression it took that long to get used to these things. The contact tech seemed to indicate 5 minutes would get you most of the way there.   I tried several options for a couple of days and every time I took them out I could see muuuuch better up close.

I did go back yesterday and got a different multifocal and it was still hard to see text on my phone.  Maybe I should give them several more days.

I also got her to giving me another distance only set to try for shooting and/or with readers to see how that works.