Visual Non Dominance

[TBF]

My vision is only slightly right eye dominant, when using two eyes I see two guns.

Tape over glasses gives me two visual inputs, one is useless, but I cannot make it go away.

I have been closing one eye for 25+ years, but would like to shoot two eyes open.

Anybody have an idea of how to work towards this goal, short of gouging out an eye?

I am thinking some sort of visual excersise might work, after alot of practice. I can occasionally

shift focus away from left eye in dry fire, but it's not at all consistent, and requires immense

effort.

Any input would be helpful.

Travis F.

[Loves2Shoot]

TBF,

I have the same problem and I found that using a black paster (tape) to block out the second sight creates a "blind spot" that you don't notice when shooting. I find it isn't as distracting like clear tape is for me. Simple, cheap, and effective.

[benos]

Travis,

Man this one's been heavily discussed, and even so, I don't feel there is an "answer" because whether it can be corrected totally depends on the strength of the individual's dominance, and, I'd guess, on the individual's age. (Meaning your eyes tend to resist learning new tricks with age.)

I struggled with eye dominance for 20+ years of competitive shooting, and don't feel I really improved it much, if at all. If anything, I think I just got a little better at ignoring it.

I'll make a few statements that I'm sure many will disagree with...

From my experience, I feel the belief that shooting a pistol with iron sights with two eyes open is better than one is highly overrated. Actually, for me, I typically prefer the "harder" focus I get on the sights with my non-aiming eye blocked with transparent tape. On certain target setups (overlapping targets), however, I'd prefer the more "see-through" focus on the sights I'd see when leaving both eyes open.

Shooting a pistol quickly and accurately on multiple targets demands that you learn to "keep your eyes moving," meaning your vision is constantly shifting focal planes. (Target focus (or "toward the target focus") to sights, to targets, etc.)

I don't feel locating the upcoming target with your non-aiming eys is any advantage whatsoever, unless the upcoming target is out of your aiming eye's peripheral vision. But I can't reacall that ever occurring.

be

[bountyhunter]

The only time you genuinely MUST be able to sight a gun with both eyes open is in self defense when threat targets must be focused on as the gun sights are aligned. One eye closed blocks too much information.

As for comp shooting: I tried to cross train from right eye to left eye dominance and gave up. I don't think it's possible. I can easily sight with both eyes on the target and ignore the second peripheral gun image. I think most people can learn this.

Is it an advantage?

In bullseye shooting it is not. The black bull is easy to see and the second image doesn't add information.

In speed shooting (multiple shots on a single small target), it helps me. I can tell exactly where the muzzle is with respct to the target so I don't have to "undershoot" and then come back up to align.

In PPC two eye (target focus) helps me because the target is dark and the ten ring is only visible with direct eye focus on the target. I trade a slightly fuzzy sight picture for seeing the ten ring accurately and score higher.

[Duane Thomas]

From my experience, I feel the belief that shooting a pistol with iron sights with two eyes open is better than one is highly overrated. Actually, for me, I typically prefer the "harder" focus I get on the sights with my non-aiming eye blocked with transparent tape.

In such situations, would there be any advantage to using the tape, over simply closing the non-dominant eye?

[Loves2Shoot]

In such situations, would there be any advantage to using the tape, over simply closing the non-dominant eye?

Yes, when you close one eye it strains the other eye and you lose visual input. When you use tape on your glass that just blocks out the area that picks up the front sight, you still have periferal vision and you can still see other things that you need to see, like mag changes.

[benos]

Yes, when you close one eye it strains the other eye and you lose visual input.

To expand slightly on that.

Both eyes, working in unison, adjust the pupil's size in accordance with the surrounding light conditions. When you close one eye the pupil of the open eye expands in an attempt to gather light for the closed eye; now, unfortunately, the aiming eye's pupil is now the incorrect size to obtain the optimum focus for the current lighting conditions. Does this really matter for the typically short period of time the eye would be closed while shooting an IPSC course of fire? Probably not. On a COF requiring a more sustained focus, like PPC for example, it makes a very big difference. The ability to retain a sharp front sight focus deteriorates rapidly in that circumstance.

Additionally, I'd guess wearing a non-transparent covering over an eye all afternoon while at a match would be detrimental as well.

The above info is how I came up with the transparent tape idea. If you can deal with it, the idea is to place it on your glasses so that the bottom line of the tape cuts off the vision from the wrists forward of the taped eye. This still allows you to see underneath it to accurately perform other tasks.

In the beginning, when experimenting with the tape, it was very annoying. But after some training with it, like wearing it while reloading or doing general gun work in the shop, I seldom noticed it even being there.

be

[Loves2Shoot]

Brian,

About the non-transparent tape and for me it has to be black. You DON'T want to wear it all day. I switch glasses one shooter before I shoot. I also use as small of a piece as I can get away with, located on the lense so it blocks only my front sight with my left eye. It basically creates a blind spot. I find that if I use black I don't even notice the tape at all when shooting. The transparent tape to me was very distracting because I could see it, the black you don't really see after a few minutes.

[benos]

I'm with you.

Do you ever have problems when you can't shoot out of your normal, standing index? Like around a barricade or prone, for example?

be

[Loves2Shoot]

Yes, but if I know I have to leave my index to shoot in a wierd spot I know during the walkthrough, and I just close my left eye for those shots. I use the thumb tip of the finger trick to make sure what my shots will look like before hand to see what my sights should look like for each shot. For most shots, the head gun relationship, is pretty close to the same. For me the trade off is worth it. I used to cover my whole left eye, but I found that using the smaller piece makes me focus on form a bit more, and I shoot better if I can keep my index intact and I get better overall visual input from the smaller piece.

[Duane Thomas]

The above info is how I came up with the transparent tape idea.

So you came up with this idea yourself? I always thought you'd adopted an already existent idea.

[Mistral404]

TBF,

Do you wear contacts? My eyes are so bad, I use mono vision with my contacts. My left eye sees far (which is the dom. eye) my right eye is for reading.

I told my eye doc I wanted my left eye contact lens with a focus 4 inches past my first knuckle with my arm out. So he reduced the the strength in my left eye contact. Now, when the contacts are brand new, the left eye focus is nearly perfect on the front sight.

The left eye takes over in almost all shooting conditions. Once every 12 or 15 stages both sights will focus on the front sight but I just close one eye and hose it.

This works great when I am shooting outdoors. When I shoot indoors, with a poorly lit range, the method does not work so well.

Bottom line, try contacts for shooting. The disposalable ones are cheap.

[benos]

Loves2,

Looks like you've broken it down nicely. Thanks for the info.

be

Duiane,

As far as I can remember, and my memory ain't what she used to be, the only thing I'd previously seen in that realm was the "dot" shotgunner's used. ?

be

[Duane Thomas]

Cool.

[TBF]

Mistral,

No contacts, no correction. My eye doc says my eyes are perfect, for my age.

Thanks all for the advice, I tried tape ( transparent ) and found it difficult to get to work well.

Might give it another shot, maybe more time will make some difference.

I was hoping to not have to use tape at all, the problem seems to be that my vision is too

symmetrical. Maybe I'll have to experiment with corrective lenses.

Thanks again.

Travis F.