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Shooting with both eyes open


kcafferk

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Here is a problem I've had since I started shooting Steel Challenge and USPSA about a year ago: I can shoot with one eye open just fine and I do pretty well with just one eye. In the last year I've won a few collegiate titles in SPP and SSC. My scores at local USPSA matches are getting better every month which leads me to believe that I'm doing something right in my overall shooting regimen.

The issue at hand is fairly simple - I know that to really take off in this game I have to start shooting with both eyes open. When I open my left eye (both eyes open), things get a little weird. If I stare at the front sight, I see two rear sights and two targets. This makes transitions rather nauseating. My coach seems to think there is something funky with my eyes. It seems like the left and right eyes are constantly struggling for dominance.

On Saturday I shot some steel at was able to go pretty fast by looking at the target and allowing my sight pictures to be fuzzy. This will only work so well for me going forward. Dryfire and eye exercises may be helping but I want to know if anyone else has these "fighting eyes" or is it something I have to live with? Help?

Here's some other misc. but helpful info about my shooting:

I'm right handed/right eye dominant

I use a green fiber front sight and blacked out rear

I wear contact lenses, but they correct my eyesight to 20/20

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I squint my weak eye when I'm making tough shots with a hard front-sight focus but leave both open when shooting with target focus. I have the same issue as you in that both eyes open with a font-sight focus leaves me wondering which of the two targets I need to shoot :)

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I had similar problems being left eye dominate and right handed.

Back in the day when I shot a bunch of skeet and sporting clays I would put a small sticker on my glasses directly in front of my left eye. Looked silly, but it fixed the left eye dominance issue while still allowing me to have peripheral vision.

I am just getting into some local steel matches and it seems to work with those also.

Chase

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I had similar problems being left eye dominate and right handed.

Back in the day when I shot a bunch of skeet and sporting clays I would put a small sticker on my glasses directly in front of my left eye. Looked silly, but it fixed the left eye dominance issue while still allowing me to have peripheral vision.

I am just getting into some local steel matches and it seems to work with those also.

Chase

This is just about the best way to do it. This may eventually lead to your eye being used to it even without the tape. Either way,there is little to no training involved this way, and it just works. Do it for my daughter and other friends that I have brought to the range to shoot.

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If I stare at the front sight, I see two rear sights and two targets. This makes transitions rather nauseating.

My best guess is that you are both converging and focusing your eyes on the front sight. That will lead to doubled targets. Instead try to converge on the target but focus on the front sight. There should only be one target.

I shoot with both eyes open but I am not convinced there is anything really wrong with closing one eye.

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If I stare at the front sight, I see two rear sights and two targets. This makes transitions rather nauseating.

My best guess is that you are both converging and focusing your eyes on the front sight. That will lead to doubled targets. Instead try to converge on the target but focus on the front sight. There should only be one target.

+1 Let your eye focus go to the target but your brain focus (awareness) is on the sight picture. Sounds hard to do, actually is easy after a while.

If you want to try the tape thing, use some medical tape which is translucent so light gets through. I used to put a narrow strip across my glasses so I could "block" the left eye in the sighting position but go back to normal vision by tilting my head slightly up or down. You want light conductive tape so both eyes get the same amount of light or you can get headaches.

Edited by bountyhunter
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There are a zillion threads on this and similar topics. I won't claim to be an expert, but I've read alot of them. First off, there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with closing one eye. A local young shooter who just made master told me he closes 1 eye when the buzzer goes off. Brian Enos mentions it in his book that he doesn't consider it a major problem. I personally use the scotch tape on my non-dominant glasses lens. I can shoot fine without tape and both eyes open, it's just slower because it takes me a little longer to sort out the clutter of doubled images.

I don't know what causes the problem for some of us. I theorize that it's partly the result of not really having a dominant eye (i can easily close my right eye and shoot with my left, or focus on objects near and far with my left eye), and partly the result of my left eye being focused better at close range (like the sights) and my right eye being better focused at distance. At any rate, experiment and find what works for you.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have the same problem as the young man who started this post. Are there exercises too help develop using both eyes instead of the tape or chapstick? Is it important or more important to shoot with both eyes open when shooting a gun equipped with a red dot sight?

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I think a lot of rifle shooting with red dot has helped me keep my eyes open when shooting with red dots. I do squint with iron sights from time to time, but it is very natural for me to keep both eyes open with rifle shooting with just Aimpoints. I think I start closing my non-dominant eye past 30 yards and this takes me a second, so I need to practice that with pistols.

Edited by Solidgun
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Ferro, when using a dot you look at the target and the dot just covers it. Much more important and easier to have both eyes open. When using irons it is pretty much accepted that both eyes open is "better" but there are many great shooters who close one eye from time to time to readjust.

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It seems to me that if you have to put a sticker over one eye, what's the point of leaving it open?

Might as well close it if that side is blinded by the sticker.

Not blinded - blurred. If the tape is small enough you can see around it when needed but will help you focus properly when looking at the front sight.

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It seems to me that if you have to put a sticker over one eye, what's the point of leaving it open?

Might as well close it if that side is blinded by the sticker.

Closing one eye does have an effect on the other eye, or so I have read. It strains your open eye and can cause some distortion.

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I wonder why we naturally do it then. Most people have to work hard not to close one eye.

I've always felt that it has to do with our interpretation of ocular dominance. That is, we feel like our dominant eye should act alone in perceiving such fine detail and so we instinctively close the non-dominant eye. When I first started shooting, transitioning to two eyes took about a week. It really became a matter of going straight to the front sight and not wasting time or effort cross-checking anything else. That if I went straight to the front and aligned within the rear posts, all else happened naturally. Of course, I do not shoot for clovers or stacked bullseyes but I can tear targets ragged like this. Going to the target, to the rear, to the front and to the target again just takes too much time as far as I am concerned; tend to lean towards the practical use side of things.

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It seems to me that if you have to put a sticker over one eye, what's the point of leaving it open?

Might as well close it if that side is blinded by the sticker.

Closing one eye does have an effect on the other eye, or so I have read. It strains your open eye and can cause some distortion.

and headaches.

The trick is to use a narrow strip of opaque scotch tape to block the image line but still let the same amount of light in.

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I use one eye a lot when I shoot... can't seem to get things to work with both open consistently. Never get headaches. I get headaches for other things but not for this. I know people say you loose a lot of peripheral vision..... I don't agree it's such a big deal.

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I don't think "both eyes open" is a game changer when shooting mostly static targets like we do in IDPA,IPSC type games.

I do think it is more important when the targets are moving like skeet, trap and sporting clay type games. I think the peripheral vision with both eyes open is needed to pick up the moving targets.

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So we put a piece of opaque tape on our lens and that allows us to pick up what in our periperal vision? The next target? Don't you need to snap your eyes (especially your shooting eye) to the next target and until then you are on the sights?

Hey, I'm a lowly mid B so there is a bunch of nuances I'm sure I don't have.

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I don't think "both eyes open" is a game changer when shooting mostly static targets like we do in IDPA,IPSC type games.

I do think it is more important when the targets are moving like skeet, trap and sporting clay type games. I think the peripheral vision with both eyes open is needed to pick up the moving targets.

Agreed...

This is why I don't shoot clays.

There are many top tier action pistol shooters who are cross dominant.

I believe there are very few successful cross dominant clays gunners.

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I don't think "both eyes open" is a game changer when shooting mostly static targets like we do in IDPA,IPSC type games.

I do think it is more important when the targets are moving like skeet, trap and sporting clay type games. I think the peripheral vision with both eyes open is needed to pick up the moving targets.

Agreed...

This is why I don't shoot clays.

There are many top tier action pistol shooters who are cross dominant.

I believe there are very few successful cross dominant clays gunners.

I agree
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