Keeping Both Eyes Open

Pierre330

Pierre330

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Let me start by saying I hope everyone in the U.S. had a great holiday weekend! Mine was very good - especially today - time at the range, ordered some more ammo, and signed up for CCW class at the end of the month!

Anyway, the reason for my post is the range visit. I decided to start shooting with both eyes open on a consistent basis. Mainly because (from what I've read and seen in vids) I think it's better to get use to this now than to re-learn later.

It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. There were some solid shots, and other shots not so much. However, since I'm still new to shooting in general (how many rounds to I have to shoot before I can stop qualifying myself like that? lol) I was fairly please.

I was wondering if any of the veterans have any tips/advice on this subject? As always, all input is appreciated.

Thanks
 
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I have to remind myself, otherwise I tend to close my left eye. When I keep it open, I shoot better. I'm not a new shooter. I find two-eyed pistol shooting really makes a difference. Long guns not so much. Practice finding that front sight with both eyes open. Sitting around at night dry firing helps immensely. I use a Laserlyte .45 dummy laser round in my 1911. Shows you where your hits would end up.
 
chaparrito said:
I have to remind myself, otherwise I tend to close my left eye. When I keep it open, I shoot better. I'm not a new shooter. I find two-eyed pistol shooting really makes a difference. Long guns not so much. Practice finding that front sight with both eyes open. Sitting around at night dry firing helps immensely. I use a Laserlyte .45 dummy laser round in my 1911. Shows you where your hits would end up.
Click to expand...

Cool. One of the things I toyed with was where to set my eyes' focus. I saw one vid that said to focus on front sight and an other which said to focus on target.
 
With open sights, focus on the front sight and don't worry that the target is blurred. That's what you want. With a red dot-type sight, both target and dot will be pretty much on the same focal plane. Some swear by focusing attention on the dot, others the target. Whatever works for you.
 
It is better to shoot with both eyes open if you can. It is helpful if the eye on the same side as your "strong hand" is dominant.

To determine which eye is dominant, make a circle with your fingers like you are making an "ok" sign. Hold that circle out from your face and, with both eyes open, pick out a spot on the wall, such as a light switch. Now, without moving the circle, close one eye. If you have a dominant eye, when the dominant eye is closed, the target light switch, or whatever, will no longer be visible through the circle.

Jeff Cooper was left eye dominant, but shot with his right hand as his strong hand. He normally "dimmed" his left eye enough to allow his right to take over, but he used to demonstrate how little of an adjustment it would take to simply move the pistol so that sighting was with his left eye.

Shooting with both eyes open is better, and it works best if a right hand shooter is also right eye dominant. Likewise for a southpaw - it works best for a left hand shooter if he is left eye dominant.

Use of both eyes allows full peripheral vision, which is helpful in all sorts of ways when shooting.
 
I saw one vid that said to focus on front sight and an other which said to focus on target.
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Focusing on the target is called point shooting. Because a panicked person usually cannot keep his focus off the threat, it is important to learn point shooting, especially for defensive shooting inside 5 yards.


Accurate aimed fire requires focusing on the front sight, and becomes more important with increasing distance.
 
The sense of dominance in one eye or the other is stronger in some people than others. If you shoot right-handed but your left eye is dominant, keeping both eyes open can be a problem which affects your grip and posture. The same is true if the vision in your dominant eye poorer.

If you can work through these problems with practice, it's better to keep both eyes open. If your shooting deteriorates, then closing one eye may be the solution, or switching hands. Lefties, keep your collar buttoned and wear long sleeves when shooting an M1a ;)
 
I have some experience with that because of my involvement in target archery. I am left-eye dominant but shoot a right hand bow. This can send your arrow off into the great beyond if you are lining up the peep and the scope on with the wrong eye.

I started by squinting my left eye, forcing the right eye to take over. At first as soon as I opened my left eye it would take over again. But after a couple weeks of squinting my left eye first, my right eye has now taken over in dominance. When I started shooting my pistol again, after sitting for ages in my drawer, I found my right eye was dominant without even thinking about it. Once you have your dominance issue sorted out, it's no problem to keep both eyes open.
 
I read about point shooting and it made a lot of sense to me. I was at the range today and practiced my point shooting. My process is to focus on the target (threat), raise up my weapon (40 compact) and switch focus to the front sight, keep the front sight centered in the big black blob (threat) in front of me and fire. The shots aren't perfect but they all hit the target.

I simply do not know how much fear and panic will affect my ability to kill the threat. My opinion is that practicing point shooting (both eyes open) will help me respond quicker and more accurately even in high threat situations. So, for now, that's how I practice.

Marcus
 
Interestingly enough, when I use one eye only I've been using the right eye since I started shooting a month or so ago. This morning though I came across some "tests" to determine what eye is dominant. Going by these I think I might be left eye dominant (anyone have a sure fire way of making sure?).

Not really a big deal I guess since I'm planning on trying to use both eyes going forward, but I'm curious. If I'm left eye dom. and been shooting with right eye, how would that affect my shooting?
 
Pierre
With both eyes open, extend your right arm and point at something small across the room (like a doorknob). Maintaining the position, close your left eye, if your finger is still pointing at the target, you're right eye dominant. If not, you are left eye dominant.
 
When you find yourself in a 'fight or flight' situation and your heart rate jumps to 200bpm in under a second, you'll be glad you trained with both eyes open because you're going to have one huge case of tunnel vision.
 
A trick to help w/cross dominance, (it will also help with learning how to shoot both eyes open); have a buddy put a piece of Scotch tape on the non-firing lens of your shooting glasses, right over your pupil. It doesn't have to be huge & make sure to use the translucent, (not clear). It will blur out that eye's vision, forcing you to use the other as dominant.
 
Kinda creepy, but looks effective.:eek:
 

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The fatal flaw (no pun intended) with point shooting is that you have to be able to see your hits. The human body doesn't always form immediate red dots like in the movies.

Get rid of the dots on the rear sight, and focus hard on the front sight (the opposite of shooting a shotgun). What appears to be the center of a blurry mass is probably the center.
 
i am right eye dominant; used to try keeping both eyes open when i bowhunted some years back but never was able to keep the accuracy consistent. But i've also dealt with eye muscle issues for years, requiring prisms in my glasses (no glasses mean i can have some double vision). So because of that, i just keep the left eye closed when shooting whatever. I wish i didnt have to, but i prefer to see just one target.
;)
 
Pierre330 said:
Going by these I think I might be left eye dominant (anyone have a sure fire way of making sure?).
Click to expand...

Extend your arms and make a circle with your hands. With both eyes open, pick a "target" and look at it through the circle. Focus on the target and slowly bring your hands back toward your face. Your hands will come to your dominant eye.
 
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