Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Question about "old eyes"

I'm not trying to rattle anyone's cage with this question, nor do I doubt others' experiences. I'm just trying to understand the issue, and perhaps anticipate it.

In several different threads recently I have read posters saying that as their eyes have gotten older they find they need more magnification in their scopes, especially at distance. My eyes are 73 years old, and I haven't noticed any problems. Now, I do wear corrective lenses which gives me pretty much normal vision.

Most of us experience vision changes as we age. But if we get corrective lenses, why would we need more magnification?

For some the problem of "old eyes" is due to cataracts causing a fading of vision even with corrective lenses.

I have worn eyeglasses most of my life because of being very near-sighted. But a few years ago noted my visual acuity declining even with up-to-date prescriptions and lenses. Cataracts were the problem. My vision was still correctable to 20/20 but I could tell my distance vision was declining. My night vision really went to crap with the cataracts and it was tough to convince my eye doctor how big a problem it was.

After cataract surgery I saw better at 66 than at 30. Now I have slowly developing "Posterior Capsule Opacity" AKA: secondary cataracts. At almost 71 years old my vision is less sharp than it was just after surgery.

All of us age differently and have different challenges. My oldest son will soon turn 45 and has never needed glasses, even reading glasses and has remarkable visual acuity. His siblings all wear glasses or have had lazer surgery.

Thus the "need of more magnification" may be the loss of visual acuity from changes in the inner lenses of an individual's eyes that may not be correctable with glasses or contacts.

Astigmatism may also increase with age and it is much less amendable to corrective lenses.

Need?! It's an emotional thing. I need my 5-25X52 and I need my 4-24X52 and I need my 4 1/2-30X50. While I'm at it I need three magnums for them to sit on. By the way I'm only 70, so I have not matured as much as you.

Your so-called secondary cataract is not a true cataract. It has to do with your replacement lens and can be fixed rather quickly with a painless lazer treatment. It is called a "Yag" lazer. In and out and vision should be better than ever.

battue, I am aware of that and my surgeon wants to hold off; in part because the first operation went so well.

The shape of my eyes that caused the chronic near-sightness all my life is: "well outside the range of the formulas" used to calculate the correction for the cataract replacement lens. He hit the correction and placement of the new lenses very well in my case in spite of this.

My surgeon does not want to risk affecting the location of the replacement lens with the YAG until necessary. I can only take him at his word though I do not understand how a Yellow Argon Gas laser treatment would affect my replacement lens.

So far I have been doing well in night driving which was my bane before surgery.

I get checked annually just before hunting season and I'll see what he thinks again this year.

I've talked to several other people who had cataract surgery about the time that I did. My results are better than anyone I have met so I am loath to change ophthalmologists.

I have found it is sometimes helpful to refocus a rifle scope after several years. Don't know if it wasn't right in the first place or my eyes changed over time but I was amazed at how much sharper my scopes looked after I checked and readjusted focus.

I find the need to refocus notable each time I get a new prescription for my glasses.

I am stuck in a time warp. My cataracts are not yet far enough along to need surgery but my night vision is poor and my corrected vision is not what it was two years ago. In normal daylight if I remove my glasses I see between 4 and 6 images of a target at 200 yards. With my lenses on I only see one. I like 6x scopes for most of the things I do but did try a 4-12 variable and kind of liked the upper end magnification in that.

I am going to wait until I have surgery to see what power scope I will go to but if they can get me back to my 30's (I am 70) then it will just stay a 6x.

Tell the Doc you no longer feel safe while driving and you will probably discover they are now far enough along.

I had one that wasn't far enough along for insurance purposes, but the Doc knew the right question to ask and I gave the right answer. They did it the next week.

Addition: You're not getting any younger and time isn't about to slow down. Work it.

I was told last years that in a couple of year I would need mine taken care of but to wait for now.

I didn't think anymore about it because l can see distance and my reading glasses have not changed BUT I have noticed issues night driving to the point that last Decembers drive from CA to Texas I drove daytime hours only.

How old are you gentlemen?

Not taking a dig - trying to gauge the sand in my hour glass....

David

Had one done at 66. Now 71. Have another, but as of now it has not affected vision, which has stayed at 20/20 corrected. The one that was done is now better than 20/20.

Amazing to see in what I call real time. There are always risks involved, so choose your surgeon wisely and adhere to your followup medications. Also know the procedure increases the chance of a detached retina later on. Moreso if one is extremely near sighted to begin with. According to the opthalmologist.

The eye also ages. Rods and cones don't function as well, due to wear and tear, and you become less able at gathering light and hence more trouble in low light conditions.

the need for magnification that gets talked about is for near vision. There is a gel in your eye that is flexible, so it can refocus you eye when you switch from long to short vision. As you get older, this becomes less flexible, so you are lose some of that and the lenses refocus, which makes for magnification (and why you don't want to go up and down stairs with readers on) helps with that.

And you eye shape tends to elongate, which changes the long distance perscription.

Cataracts, inclusions and floaters, blood vessel deterioration,etc

Just getting older and not working as good as it did.

Hard to overcome the diminishment in light gathering ability.

a lot of folks get cataracts late in life (60's/70's), wife's family seems to get hit early on and she had hers before age 50.

Has anyone had problems after surgery?

Wife's first eye was perfect day one, a few weeks later when she had the second one done she ended up with floaters. Needed an additional procedure where they come in from the back of the eye to clear out the fluid and after that she was fine.

A second surgery is common after the original cataract surgery, or so says my spouse who recently retired from 22 years as a surgical nurse,

Just an off topic note. I'm 61 and haven't had problems with cataracts YET but I noticed problems with my night vision while driving a couple of years ago especially when I was tired. Started taking B&L Occuvite and it made a noticeable difference in my night vision. I don't need to avoid driving at night now.

Good Tip thanks. According to my Dr my cataracts have not changed in 5 years when he first diagnosed them. Driving at night with glare can be a problem on a long trip. Night Vision for hunting so far has not been effected greatly but I have upped the ante on Binos and scopes . So far it has paid off tremendously.

Had both of mine done at 66 a week apart.

I wanted as sharp as possible distance vision and to be able to drive at night. So selected the type of replacement lenses with that in mind. There are a number of different type of replacement lenses that have their different strengths, probably even a wider choice now than when I had mine done.

Following the surgery I was legal to drive without corrective lenses for the first time in my life! I was tested to better than 20/15 on the eye chart and the technician was stunned given my obvious age! There was slight far-sightedness in my left eye and slight near-sightedness in my right following surgery. As the eye heals from the surgery it is possible for the lenses to shift position a little with time because the rest of the eye is living tissue.

My left eye over the last decade or so had developed some astigmatism. I preferred not to have it corrected for with eyeglasses as the correction bothered me when I would move my head. My surgeon thought it best to correct that with the replacement lens, so that also entered into the lens choice - and cost!

For several months after surgery I only used reading glasses. But got tired of putting them on and off in the house to look at things. So had variable lenses with reading and distance correction made.

A year or more later my prescription changed slightly to where I no longer was far-sighted in the left eye. My current glasses are corrected for reading because of presbyopia and slight near-sightedness in the right eye. The left eye has no correction except to read. I still see at 20/20 or better but can tell my visual acuity is less now with the so called "secondary cataract".

Another issue common to many - and to me - is chronic dry eyes. How well you stay on top of that makes a difference on day to day visual acuity.

+1 on the dry eye problem. I've used about every over the counter drop and cream with limited success. I also clean the oil glands on the eyelid with baby shampoo.