Shooting after eye injury --

[10-Ring]

I've had 2 recent eye surgeries, one about 10 weeks ago, one about a week. The last one was for a detached retina. I'm wondering now if I'll ever get back to my guns & to shooting.
Has anyone here had this injury & if so, how well were you able to recover?

 

[distra]

I've not had any myself, but several guys I shoot with have had cataracts removed and do just fine. The retinal repair is more concerning. My mother-in-law had one repaired last week and is doing fine, but the vision has not come totally back (20/50 is where she's at now). Depending on which eye is most affected, you may have to switch sighting eyes. More of an issue for bullseye and clay games, then practical pistol shooting. Were the surgeries on both eyes or 2 surgeries on the same eye?

 

[twinsdad]

My dad had a detachted retinaa few years ago at age 72. He missed getting to shoot for 9-12 months.

 

[Oro]

Unless you had bilateral surgery, just consider putting a patch on your affected eye. If it was your dominant eye this will feel odd at first, but you can still shoot well that way. With handguns, you can use the same dominant side grip/weak eye hold to shoot. With long guns you usually need to switch holds to get it to work well (since you can't pivot your head around the stock of a rifle easily!).

 

[TxState101]

Well, I'm no doctor, but as far as shooting with one eye, I've managed it quite well for the last 15 years.

Shoot lefty, write with my right.

 

[10-Ring]

Yeah. both surgeries to the same eye -- still no real vision from repaired eye -- only lights and colors w/ some movement but no images and certainly no detail

 

[cyclopsshooter]

I got in a fight with a bungee cord five years ago and lost... My right eye was removed and it immediately ended my long gun shooting. After living a life of shooting rifles right handed it was too awkward to shoot effectively left handed. At first I adapted by buying spare stocks for a few rifles and shotguns and cutting them out for oversight. in the end it was just too uncomfortable to shoot that way and soon departed to handguns-

Lately though I have resurrected a rifle interest, starting from scratch on lever actions, semiautos, then breaking out my father's left handed savage 110 that makes sub inch groups at 100 yards from a rest and last week purchased a beautiful left handed Remington 700 BDL 30-06
I am getting better, time and the proper equipment make it all happen.

Judging distance is tricky without good depth perception. Learn to use lateral motion at distance and shadows up close.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

10 ring, I had cataract removed and replaced with a implant combined with a gas bubble inserted into the same eyeball to put a retina back into place during the surgery. The gas bubble did collect and remove most of the floaters as a benefit.

I endured a no recoil order for several weeks. It was important to be sure the gas bubble was reabsorbed and retina/ccataract implant healed before I was allowed to fly or shoot.

I think with the whole experience, the no shoot order was the worst of all, the waiting.

I finished a shoot last week about 2 months after and I have not detected any problems. However, certain activities are now banned due to potential for shaking as with heavy equiptment etc. The chance of damage is too great.

We had a client who had a similar surgery on one eye and disobeyed a no labor order and tried to lift a 40 pound box. The pressure on the eyballs split her vision pernamently and badly. All that money invested wasted and a life time of choosing which eye to decide and no driving. What a waste.

We have another person who had cataracts replaced on BOTH eyes and is enjoying a new life but cannot do the things he did prior to surgery and is limited in his work.

Even that is better than not being able to see at all.

What was crazy was I used a Weaver on my handgun to shift over to the dominant Left eye to qualifiy for the CCW with 19 of 20 on paper (16 minimum at 7 yards) Even then the availible field of vision was really bad. I went to surgery the following week and got it fixed.

All I can say is if you lose the use of something, you can relearn with what is left of your abilities. I would hate to lose that eye because I would have to exchange my shotgun for a left hand model and learn to shoot left handed. Or just go with the handgun alone.

 

[10-Ring]

thanks guys for the feed back. as of today i'm just lying low -- really really low. I'm gonna let this heal before i start doing anything with it...