I had cataract surgery about 12 years ago with an infinity lens.  i don't think that focusing lenses were even available then.  Shooting with a scope is no problem and shooting with peep sights is doable if the aperture is small.  I cannot shoot with open sights at all, they are nothing but a blur.   

The only "fix" I found for open sights was a set of soft plastic stick on lenses made to turn regulat glasses into bifocals.  I would stick them on the upper inside corner of my shooting glasses and they worked reasonably well.

My advise is to opt for focusing lenses.  You only get one chance to get it right for the rest of your life.  Once you go with infinity lenses, you will no longer be a candidate focusing lenses.

i had the infinity lenses installed 2 years ago. The doctor told me that I would eventually need to get glasses for reading and I can see that need coming. My distance vision still seems perfect. I am still amazed at the results of the surgery.  I hope you are not experiencing any anxiety about the surgery.  I was extremely disturbed by the concept of someone cutting on my eyes. All that concern was pointless.
The prep takes longer than the operation.  I was in the operating room for just short of 10 minutes. There was no pain, the worst part was having my head restrained and being told to "stop talking now I really need to concentrate" by the doctor.

The results were instant and amazing. My wife would drive me around just so I could look at things. Had the second eye done one month later. 

I wish you the best of luck with your surgery, I think you will be pleased. 

Kevin B.

svartkruttgris#369 wrote on Dec 12^th, 2015 at 12:57pm:


Some times I wonder if I am a magnet for quacks and malpractice    Cataract surgery is nearly fool proof.  They just make a small slit, pull the old lens out, pop in the new one and you will be 95% healed in 24 hours.

I presently shoot both eyes open with a scope for BPCR; my off eye is becoming very blurred. new lens for glasses made no improvement for the off eye. told I would need cataracts removed in the future. Not sure which type of lens will work for both eyes open scope. I do shoot both eyes open for Skeet and upland birds. thanks, john

I think I understand, just close your off eye for irons. john

After a couple years waiting with the Canadian health care system ( mostly free but no-frills) I had both done fairly recently and was told my condition had rapidly progressed due to medical condition and drugs I'm on and no choice of lens options.
    I started deteriorating slowly after first seeing the hairball in sights about 20 years ago. now  I was going blind fast. Both operations were below average sucessful . I could only focus at one length , coincidently at about arms length , so good for front sight , but couldnt see target well .Small aperture hole for rear sight helped bring the target a bit clearer.    any distance was blurry ,couldnt change focus, but could read ok for short time .
Now with new tri-focals ( I had to wait a couple months till eyes settled in to get proper eye tests for glasses )  I can see to shoot pretty well, Still havent tried long distance and eyes get fatigued easy.
    I also have a new +1 with astigmatism correction Knoblock lens which makes the target clearer
  So far finding shooting with the Glasses and finding the sweet spot in my tri-focals to be more convenient than the Knoblock method
Long winded and not much help , but I guess some of us turn out a bit different. I am lucky things turned out as well as they did
Edit I am talking primarily about using target aperture sights, but after operation , without glasses ,I could see thru spotting scope much better without the hairball ,and  I could shoot a scope OK without any glasses. tri focals will probably inprove scope shooting too

Interesting reading all of the posts since I had my cataracts operated on almost six years ago. Like others here I was really shook about the procedure. I am so "touchy" I can't even put in eye drops. I did want to see though and my eyes were degrading so quickly. I was nearsighted and had worn glasses since I was 12, about 52 years.

Well to make a long story shorter, I did force myself to do the surgery. It was completely painless and 100% improvement in both my eyes' I checked out as 20/15 in my left eye and 20/20 in the right but I have to wear reading glasses of +1.75.

There have been some small changes in my eyes after the six years. I'm down to 25/20 in both eyes now and still have to use the same strength readers for reading. But for such a slight perscription to correct my vision to 20/20 I think it's unnecessary unless it gets worse.

One trick I'm finding now that helps me a lot with aperature sights. I've found reader glasses at the dollar stored in strengths of +1.00 really clear up the front and rear aperatures on a target rifle while allowing me to see a fairly good 25 and 50 yard target. When the weather gets nicer up here I'll see what it does at 100 yards.

Good luck to you. I'm sure you'll do fine and find it was for the better.

Jack Lee