Target Acquisition with optic on long swings?

[Religious Shooter]

I was fiddling with my rifle after I installed my new scope and find it a little low.

As I was doing this I noticed why... when scanning for targets, I break cheek weld a little by raising my head and looked over the scope to find my next target.

I think its a carry over from shooting open pistol and the advice that I got to not scan through the scope.

But, is this the right technique for rifle? (i.e. break cheek weld slightly and scan for the next target)

What do you guys do on long swings? What do you do on short ones?

[ErikW]

I noticed the same thing shooting iron-sighted rifle at only 40 yards, with not much of a swing. I was prairie-dogging up over the gun, looking for the next target. I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was really weird, like all my vision and attention was focused through this narrow, dark tunnel then all of a sudden the world opened up and brightened and my vision and attention expanded exponentially for a moment before shrinking once again.

I think the hot ticket with a scope is to keep the weak eye open if you can and let it find the next target without prairie dogging. This might be part of why I prefer shooting rifles right to left (I'm right-handed, right-eyed.)

[Patrick Sweeney]

My first optic-equipped IPSC rifle (not the scoped M1A I used on pins for a while) was a "scout" AR. I put a Burris scout scope out on the aluminum handguard of a shorty AR. Scanning for the next target was no problem, as I shot both eyes open and never lost cheek weld. (That gun blew up with a bad reload, and the replacement never felt the same.)

As a result, I favor low powered optics, and never change cheek weld, just shift my line of sight. "Prairie dogging," great descriptor.

[George]

I think the hot ticket with a scope is to keep the weak eye open if you can and let it find the next target without prairie dogging

Yep! Both eyes open definitely keeps the head-bobbing under control. I try to start on my right and move left across the targets to allow the un-occluded eye to find things easier when I am using my scope. I go opposite when I am using my red dot on the handguard because the canted rifle occludes stuff to my left a little.

I used to squint my weak eye and PDog whenever the field of view through the scope didn't show the next target. After adding a red dot a couple years back, I found myself keeping both eyes open after transitioning back to the scope and just went with it across the board after a while. Big improvement in acquisition if you can get used to it (it's not easy at first). I will still squint the weak eye when I want to get a real good look at the target through the scope, but mostly it's both eyes wide open all of the time for me now.

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Regards,

[ErikW]

Mentally, it's very difficult to keep both eyes open, with one focusing on at a magnified view through a lens and the other seeing--but not looking at!--the surrounding targets at the same location. You really need to listen to Obi-Wan: Use the Force... Let go...