Can Shooting Be Bad for the Eyes?

[Nosy]

Scenario:

Teenager with perfect eyesight takes up shooting seriously. Practices multiple times per week.

After several years teenager has measurably reduced vision in the right eye -- shooter is right eye dominant and always shoots right handed.

Left eye retains perfect vision.

Question:

Is it conceivable that loss of vision in right eye is in any way related to shooting?

[Soupy44]

I have been hearing arguments the other way, that shooting tends to maintain eyesight. It would be difficult to blame any diminishing eye sight on shooting. My Mom has been shooting since she was 8 and still has perfect vision over 40 years later. My Dad and I both started needing corrective lenses in middle school, and still both need them today. My vision steadily declined until 10 months ago (around my 23rd bday), then it actually got better by .5 in my right eye. Growing bodies in kids do such strange things, and with the amount of computers and TVs we look at now, at the very least, shooting is the least of our worries.

[bruce]

Scenario:

Teenager with perfect eyesight takes up shooting seriously. Practices multiple times per week.

After several years teenager has measurably reduced vision in the right eye -- shooter is right eye dominant and always shoots right handed.

Left eye retains perfect vision.

Question:

Is it conceivable that loss of vision in right eye is in any way related to shooting?

You say "loss of vision", what form does this take?
Apart from the chance of accidental physical damage, I can't think of a process where "looking" could cause damage.

[corning]

I would worry more about watching television and staring at computer screens more than I would worry about starting through sights at a target.

[tomas]

I've got the same problem...kind of...

I'm a teenager as well and have been shooting for about 2 years now. I practice 2-3 times per week and only have vision problems after i shoot. it only lasts a few hours but it is extremely noticeable.

I'm left eyed so I spot myself with my right eye and after only a few sighters my vision in my right eye is significantly reduced.

I shoot with my right eye closed. could this be the source of the problem??

[Guest]

tomas,

Yes, when you close your right eye when you shoot, your dominant eye is looking at the target, but your non-dominant eye is straining to get light in and see the target also. That is why you see people wearing blinders over their non-dominant eye. Also, you are using muscle to keep your eyelids closed. Try sticking a thin piece of paper, say 1inx3in. underneath your visor covering your non-dominant eye so it can keep letting light in, therefore, not straining your eye.

[bruce]

Yes. You should be using a blinder over your non-aiming eye, rather than holding it closed. I use a translucent plastic, so that the amount of light reaching both eyes is the same.

[Cadet]

Perhaps it can be good for the eyes. I shoot right handed. Some years back I noticed that if I tried to read when I was tired, I would close my right eye and read with my left. Not long after, I was shooting several times a week, and finding my right eye getting strained after about 20 shots. After getting the correction right on the shooting glasses, the right eye started slow, steady improvement for reading as well. Use it or lose it. An added complication was cataract. Being chicken about surgery, I worked round it. With the rear sight off center, I could still get a reasonable sight picture round the edge of the obstruction. After modifying my diet, the cataract has regressed about 50% over a couple of years, and the sight picture is getting better. I have to increase the correcting lens every few years, but I think that is normal. But I think that if I didn't have the correction right, and was straining all the time to get a good sight picture, it would damage my eye as well as my scores. BTW I am over 70.

[Muffo]

My mother had a stigmatism in her right eye and had to wear glasses as a kid but when she started shooting seriously within 4 years it had almost completely receaded and she no longer needed glasses. Normal people apparantly can only see the difference between 1/4 diopter corrections. I can quiet easily tell between 1/8th diopters, probably because of shooting. My father while doing constant training could see the difference in 1/16 rises