Broke a bad habit, or two

[NewColonial]

The past few weeks I've been in a slump. Didn't feel like I could hit a thing, and even started developing a flinch. Of course, the exasperation was compounding the matter. I (thought) I was seeing the sights, but the bullet sure wasn't going where I wanted it! I started re-reading Enos' Practical Shooting, concentrating on what he says about watching the sights. A thread on these forums about blinking also caught my eye. Today I went to the range and set up a couple of steel plates. I really focused on what I was doing. Two things became apparent while REALLY concentrating on what the gun was doing. One, I was closing my left eye, something I didn't used to do. So I focused very hard on keeping both eyes open. The results were immediate. In retrospect I think the eye closing thing came because I only recently started shooting at some steel matches, and I started doing that when aiming in on longer distance targets.

I also noticed today that I was bending my elbows more than usual, almost pulling the gun in towards my eyes. Fixing that really helped my first shot from the draw.

I'm relatively new to shooting in general, and maybe this isn't so earth-shattering to the veterans. But it thrilled me to diagnose these changes to my technique and fix them.

[jaymitch]

Glad to hear you were able to make a fix. I had a similar problem with hand position, I did the same thing..just took the time to concentrate on the problem. It seems that most of the time a simple correction in technique will fix the problem.

[benos]

Nice work NewColinal - stick with it!

Learning never ends if you don't let it.

be

[Dan Hefta]

So what's wrong with closing one eye? I am right handed and left eye doninant, I have a absolutely aweful time trying to keep both eyes open when shooting. Am I at some kind of huge disadvantage? I have noticed that Jessie Abbate closes one eye when shooting are there any other dominant shooters that close one eye too? Sorry for thread hyjacking, I was just hoping to get some insight from BE or anyone for all that matters.

[NewColonial]

danscrapbags, for me, I shoot worse when I close one eye. Don't know why. Every person is different. Could be my astigmatism, could be because I'm nearsighted.... If you shoot better with one eye closed, then you should definitely do that. (I'm not cross-dominant.)

[dagger10k]

I sometimes scrunch my left eye partially closed when shooting (right eye dominant, right handed).

I find that it makes it easier to see the sights clearly, maybe because my vision in my left eye is not great.

It also doesn't totally block out my peripheral vision, and doesn't seem to put as much strain on my other eye either.

I find completely closing one eye makes me more likely to blink.

IIRC Jerry Miculek does something similar, closing his non dominant eye partially.

Isn't it nice to find something that improves your shooting? A little self analysis may be the most important thing there is.

[amaziah]

I have heard that when you close one eye you lose about 15% of you visual acuety. Or you see more clearly with both eyes open.