shooting both eyes open question

[3djedi]

When I shoot both eyes open I find I don't focus on the front sight "clear front sight" like everybody tells me I should. I focus more on the target and look "through" the sights. I'm relatively new at shooting and uspsa. Am I doing it wrong? Take el presidente as an example. I totally focus on the target. If I try to focus on the front sight it is waaaaay slower for me. However, if the target is far away, say 20+ yards, I do focus clearly on the front sight. Sometimes even closing one eye to get a better sight picture.

What's the way you guys do this? From what I've heard, I'm not doing it right....help!

[CHLChris]

I think you're asking a couple of different questions, so I'll give my opinion on both.

1) Close weak eye -OR- keep both eyes open? I believe that keeping both eyes open is extremely important. I know that USPSA is not exactly defensive pistol training, but how you use your eyes is not really a switch you can turn on or off depending on the situation. I keep both eyes open all the time when I'm shooting, no matter rifle/pistol, close/far, fast/slow. You just need to get used to having visual information from your weak eye filling your brain at some level.

2) Where to focus? This is more personal. I actually do the opposite of what you were describing. If the target is far away I actually focus on the target, through my sights. If the target is close, I focus on my front sight. If I am performing a fast double-tap, I always focus on the front sight, no matter how far away is the target. Are you making good hits? That's really all that matters.

[3djedi]

Thanks. I am keeping both eyes open. I'm more asking the question of where you focus....target or front sight. More specifically in uspsa high speed shooting

Edited July 31, 2013 by 3djedi

[Dirtychemist]

Which one gets you more ALphas in the shorter time on the same day one the same drill?

[450AK]

A very good old timer once told me FRONT SIGHT, FRONT SIGHT, FRONT SIGHT. AND YMMV but I know that it has helped me be a better shooter. You will get a lot better hits and it shouldn't effect your speed.

[GuildSF4]

Focus depends on distance to the target, Brian's book explains it very well. Essentially - close targets = slide index, mid targets moderate sight focus, far or difficult targets hard sight focus.

Both eyes open is recommended, however some people have trouble with this.

[CHLChris]

I've heard the FRONT SIGHT mantra and believe it works for many people. Maybe my eyes are worse than other people, but if I want to hit a Shoot-n-See dot 25 yards from me, I can't even see the dot if I am focusing on the front sight. I suppose with clearly defined bullseye targets (blacks rings, several inches across, on a white background), I can see the target while focusing on the front sight. I can definitely imagine times that the intended target is so defined, the POI so precise that front sight focus isn't possible.

But yes, most of the time FRONT SIGHT.

[JWeber]

I use to shoot with a small piece of tape on my weak eye lense just where the sight would be when shooting. I could see everything else well and I really did not notice the tape. I was able to take the tape off and I must have trained my mind not to need it. I have not shot so much this year and focusing with both eyes open has not gone well. I sometimes have to close my weak eye. I am going to put the tape back on my glasses.

[okieSteve]

My bad eyes give me trouble all the time, if I hard focus on the target I see 2 fuzzy front sights. If I hard focus on the front sight I see 2 fuzzy targets. Right eye dominant, but have a double vision thing going on. I read about the tape on the non-dominant eye lens and found these stick on diffusers that are easy to put on the lens and have helped me.

From Texasshootersoptical

[Chuckie45]

As your question is more about visual focus and speed I'll add this.

To do the transitions fast you must know you are done with the current target and exactly where you are driving the sight to now. to do this. you need to call you shot/ see the sights lift, flash your eyes (focus) to the next target (this help you get your sights to it faster with more consistant presision) with the sights arriving to your new line of sight and shifting you focus back to the sights as needed based on distance.

My prediction as to why you shoot el pres slower with the front site focuse is that you watch your site during the transition between targets, insted of flashing your eyes to the next target. Watching the sights during the transition results in slow movment, going to far, and having to come back to center.

[t0066jh]

One of the shooters at our range, Rio Salado, Mesa AZ, is a GM and also an optometrist. My aging eyes were giving me a problem. He gave me the perfect solution. New shooting glasses with the dominate eye corrected to be focused on the front sight. The non dominate eye corrected to focus on infinity.

With both eyes open, you focus on the target and then bring the gun up between you and the target and the front sight is in focus with the target in the background..also focused. It works for me even though I'm left eye dominant and right handed. After a little bit of dry fire practice, I automatically bring the gun up in front of me with my head turned slightly right.......no tape, no problem.

Ps . There are several of us very pleased with this solution.

[bountyhunter]

One of the shooters at our range, Rio Salado, Mesa AZ, is a GM and also an optometrist. My aging eyes were giving me a problem. He gave me the perfect solution. New shooting glasses with the dominate eye corrected to be focused on the front sight. The non dominate eye corrected to focus on infinity.

With both eyes open, you focus on the target and then bring the gun up between you and the target and the front sight is in focus with the target in the background..also focused. It works for me even though I'm left eye dominant and right handed. After a little bit of dry fire practice, I automatically bring the gun up in front of me with my head turned slightly right.......no tape, no problem.

Ps . There are several of us very pleased with this solution.

yep, it's almost like cheating. You see the sight image and the target both at the same time. You don't have to lose either one.

When I got my shooting glasses, I take a business card to the optometrist and hold it at arms length to represent the gun's sight distance. The right eye gets corrected to there. The left eye (for target) gets corrected to infinity like normal distance glasses are. So, stare into the distance and the left eye sees target distance and the right eye is focused at front sight distance.

Edited September 12, 2013 by bountyhunter

[JaeOne3345]

One of the shooters at our range, Rio Salado, Mesa AZ, is a GM and also an optometrist. My aging eyes were giving me a problem. He gave me the perfect solution. New shooting glasses with the dominate eye corrected to be focused on the front sight. The non dominate eye corrected to focus on infinity.

With both eyes open, you focus on the target and then bring the gun up between you and the target and the front sight is in focus with the target in the background..also focused. It works for me even though I'm left eye dominant and right handed. After a little bit of dry fire practice, I automatically bring the gun up in front of me with my head turned slightly right.......no tape, no problem.

Ps . There are several of us very pleased with this solution.

yep, it's almost like cheating. You see the sight image and the target both at the same time. You don't have to lose either one.

When I got my shooting glasses, I take a business card to the optometrist and hold it at arms length to represent the gun's sight distance. The right eye gets corrected to there. The left eye (for target) gets corrected to infinity like normal distance glasses are. So, stare into the distance and the left eye sees target distance and the right eye is focused at front sight distance.

Do you think this would be an option if someone is left eye dominant but still aligns the gun to the their right eye? I don't like turning my head either way and I am able to keep a consistent index.

Would I then have my right eye still the one focused at arm's length, even though I am naturally left eye dominant?

[bountyhunter]

I am not sure about crossing dominance. At one point I tried to cross train from my right eye (which is heavily dominant) to the left and it never worked. I don't think it's possible for me to sight with the non dom eye.

You would just have to practice it and see if you can make it work.

Edited September 13, 2013 by bountyhunter

[Yachtmaster]

I struggle with left eye dominant (right handed) and aged eyes (needing cheaters to read). Tried lots of stuff, tape over left, bifocal in upper right lens, etc., etc. My latest attempt was with Decot shooting glasses, magic dot over left eye, and partial near in entire right lens. This was a HUGE improvement but still it still didn't feel optimal for me. I had to go had to keep the magic dot over left eye because although there was no issue in dry firing, in live firing I could lose the front sight during recoil of the first shot as my dominant left would take over during recoil.

I've heard one of our current top shooters is cross dominant and rather than fight it, he embraced it. This got me thinking and so a trip today to the optometrist.

My optometrist is big into vision impact in sports. He stated that most literature and studies out there indicate that the brain can process visual info faster through the dominant eye and recommended for my situation to embrace the left dominant eye to get the most out of a fast paced pistol sport. What we ended up doing is setting the entire left lens geared toward the front sight and the entire right lens geared toward long distance (completely reversing my current setup). He set me up in a frame they have in all offices where they can insert and replicate all the prescriptions into, and then essentially let me sort of dry fire with the end of a pencil until I was happy.

What we found for me was that I shouldn't have the left lens perfectly focused at the front sight distance. Why? Because now my non dominant right eye had perfect distance vision and the brain wanted me to move the front sight to that point initially (you know, the old i see two sights one target or two targets one sight thing). It also didn't help that I have trained for a year under the non dominant right eye and wanted to index under it. By weakening the left eye's front sight focus a little (e.g., perfect front sight focus was a +1, we settled on only a +0.75) kept my brain from wanting to point to a perfect view as it had two decent target images now to choose from allowing me to index via the left eye. The little weaker front sight lens still allows me pretty clear vision of that front sight just not absolutely perfect.

So we ordered the lenses from Decot and I'll know the true results in a couple of weeks (keeping the old lenses to drop in for pheasant hunting though!). He indicated that I may need to use the magic dot or tape over the right eye for a few sessions to sort of retrain myself from indexing under the right eye but the dominant left eye should take over pretty soon. I am very excited to give this a try.

Not sure the above makes sense, and note that everything is relative and what works for me (hopefully) may not work for the next person.

[BEC]

Shoot Open mainly because of vision problems. Wear bi-focals and cannot see

iron sights as clearly as I used to. But, I do shoot with both eyes open.

But, thankfully I am right handed and right eye dominant. Keep working on

it and it will come.

[coordinator]

I am using daily wear contact lenses to accopmlish this task. It has to be more economical than trying multiple lenses in my glases. Nondominant eye for distance and dominant eye distance plus 1.25.

As perfectly stated above, if feels like I'm cheating. I can clearly see the target and my front sight. Prior to this I had never seen this clearly before. It feels like I'm cheating. Now let's see if it equates into more A hits.

[stickboy44]

The little piece of tape over the weak eye works great

You are still able to see everything else around it

[mag17]

Right handed shooter and left eye dominant... I can only do the both eyes open for close targets (within 10 feet) then I have to close weak eye....

Biggest pain is rifles - I shoot rifles left handed.....

[JMike]

Right handed shooter and left eye dominant... I can only do the both eyes open for close targets (within 10 feet) then I have to close weak eye....

Biggest pain is rifles - I shoot rifles left handed.....

I am in the same boat as you. Left eye dominant and right handed shooter.

[Mlussoro]

i kind of had the same questions or issues, i tend to gun with both eyes open unless im hitting 20 feet away at a plate rack, then its one eye, and sometimes leaning to the left behind barrels i use my weak eye and strong eye closed, now during the stage i dont realize this till i go over in my head how i ran that stage and how i could have been faster. accuracy is really good but i feel i could be alot faster just with both eyes open.. i guess everyone is different. (im probably shooting wrong but it works for me )

[2muchvdos]

It's a struggle as Im new to it all.....handgun fundamentals, competition shooting. My last match I tried to shoot with both eyes open and began to flinch, which I found odd. This was my last match, the previous match I used one eye, and was decent at my skill level. Anyone think because I had both eyes open caused me to flinch?

[Idoktr]

let me know how the glasses work with dom eye front sight and non dom eye distance

[GuildSF4]

When the focus lenght is correct on the dominate eye the glasses work very well.