Aim With Both Eyes Opened?

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Roamin_Wade

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I hear this, or read this, from time to time. Why is it proposed that while aiming, one should keep both eyes opened? Can someone tell me why that is? Thanks!
 
If you close one eye you're losing 50% of your vision. This is very important in defensive shooting as you need to see what's around you.

When shooting with both eyes open your dominant eye will "take over" and see the cross hairs or sights clearly. Just about everyone has a dominant eye. The major problem with eye dominance is if your dominant eye is opposite your dominant hand.

If you're right handed and have a dominant left eye you need to close your right eye and use your left eye to align the sights. This is not that hard to do with a handgun. If this is the case it may be easier to shoot long guns from the left.
 
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When shooting with both eyes open your dominant eye will "take over" and see the cross hairs or sights clearly. [...].

Unfortunately this is not the case for everyone. I know my eye-dominance.
I tried for nearly three quarters of a year (of at leat dry-fire practising three times a week!) to get my eyes to sort out which of the targets is REALLY in line with my pistol...to no avail.
I have to somehow shut out my nondominant eye or run the risk of sending bullets faroff the target. Closing one eye ist justa matter of fractions of seconds, so keeping an eye (pun intended) on a tactical situation is still possible.

With rifle scopes it is just as you described...just a little getting used to and your dominant eyes takes over the "printing" into the visual part of ones brain.


Take care
Carsten
 
There are many videos with instruction that will help, like this one:

 
I have been working recently to do this. It is tough, but can be done, and is slowly becoming second nature, except at long distance. It is actually fairly easy to do w/ a red-dot sight, but is a bit harder w/ iron sights.
 
While it is clarified in your OP, the tittle you chose for the thread is part of the reason folks find it difficult.

When shooting with iron sights, you don't aim with both eyes even when keeping both open. You only focus on the sights with your dominate eye while percieving the image of the non-dominate eye. This allows for greater awareness of your surroundings.

If you shoot with prescription glasses...and your eyes are bad enough...you can have the lens in front of the dominate eye set to focus on the front sight and the lens in front of the non-dominate eye set to focus at distance. Of course, then you'll have to learn how to process clear images of both your front sight and the target.

It is easier to shoot with both eyes open when using a red dot, because you shouldn't be looking at the dot at all
 
Both eyes open has been a tough one for me to overcome . I simply can not make my best group that way. But I try. I think there are more important fundamentals to master but if possible both eyes open is probably ideal, if it works for you.
 
I shoot combat qualifications with handguns under 20 yards with both eyes open. It took me a while to learn how to do this, but now it's all I do.

Out beyond that, or if I'm shooting very slow and deliberate shots, it's a right eye dominant, left eye closed world for me. ;)

Stay safe.
 
I collect from various post on here that distance seems to matter...to clarify I have to state I can only shoot (live fire) an 25 meters and in non-daylight settings...both of which is sure detrimental to any visual processes.

In dryfiring of course there are no limitations regarding distances an light....and still I cant sort the sight picture I really need out. Dang.

@drband: Thanks for the video, I will watch it later, hopefully there is some take away in it for me.

Take care
Carsten
 
I'm struggling with this now. Before I had glasses, I had no problem with two eye shooting. Even when I wore bi-focals, I had no problem with both eyes. But then I had cataract surgery and my need for glasses went to reading only. So I don't wear them constantly...and my sights are at just the perfect distance that now it's hard to pick the dominant (right eye for me) picture quickly. (Give me a second or two and I can find it...but that's not a good tactial plan!) And I'm sure was heck not stopping to put on my glasses if I need to shoot! So the alternative is to close one eye and pick up the front sight quickly and consistently. I don't like giving up the wider peripheral view, but I think it's more important to get fire on target quickly. I just have to practice more "conscious" checks of my surroundings once the target is engaged.

YMMV.
 
Like carsten1911 I’ve simple not been able to shoot with both eyes open. I think needing prescription lenses of different strength left and right exacerbates the issue. It may be a more prevalent problem as Ive seen numerous competitors with a blocker/ blinder that covers one lens of the shooting glasses. I’m assuming it allows them to keep both eyes open but focus on the sights with the dominant eye and leads to less eye fatigue.

Of course I’ve never been a tactile shooter, which probably makes it a moot point.
 
I’ve never been a tactile shooter, which probably makes it a moot point.
When shooting Action or Defensive pistol it is an awareness issue. When shooting bullseye competitions, shooting with both eyes open is usually more accurate during the match...eye fatigue
 
It sounds like there is a difference between shooting rifles with both eyes open and pistol shooting with both eyes open. I thought it was an across the board rule. I don’t think I’d close an eye for an intruder or criminal encounter. I believe I’d shoot instinctively, even if I was defending myself with a shouldered shotgun.
 
I have shot a plethora of different competitive styles with a one eye closed technique. My eye is only closed while actually aiming and firing.

It should be noted that I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot handguns righty and aim with my left eye and shoot long guns lefty.

I have stereopsis problems as well which is a depth perception thing. Basically I see with monocular vision when looking directly at something like targets and sights but I still have peripheral vision. It makes both eyes open shooting tricky at best and impossible at worst. @entropy may know what I’m talking about.
 
Eye issues can really affect shooting over time, I went from 20-15 both eye vision to needing glasses in a span of about three years. I had lasik 13 years ago which was good for 20-20 for a while, but it’s now back to glasses for distance and nighttime reading. :(

I’m also using the prescription glasses for shooting, and this has precipitated the need for the orange painted front sights to help me pick up the blades, etc.

My son is a righty who is really left eye dominant, I may have to teach him to shoot long guns left handed. Luckily I was given an unfired left hand Rem 700 in 7-mag by my Dad and I have three BPS shotguns so he’ll be ok if that does happen later on :thumbup:.

Stay safe.
 
Shoot how you shoot best. Sometimes I shoot both eyes open, sometimes I don’t. I am right handed, right eye dominant and shoot “MA” level that way, if I swap holsters, mag carrier position, draw, shoot and reload left handed, right eye, I am shooting with the “EX” shooters, likely because I haven’t practiced enough to be equal both ways.

Cross dominance seems more common with women and the ones I know use a little smudge on the center of their shooting glasses or a sliver of opaque tape so they retain peripheral vision but not have the dominant eye try and do the aiming.
 
I have shot a plethora of different competitive styles with a one eye closed technique. My eye is only closed while actually aiming and firing.

It should be noted that I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot handguns righty and aim with my left eye and shoot long guns lefty.

I have stereopsis problems as well which is a depth perception thing. Basically I see with monocular vision when looking directly at something like targets and sights but I still have peripheral vision. It makes both eyes open shooting tricky at best and impossible at worst. @entropy may know what I’m talking about.

Indeed I do. Stereopsis problems can make it tough to discern which of the two images you see with both eyes open is the 'real' one, not ideal conditions for defensive (or most types of) shooting.

Like carsten1911 I’ve simple not been able to shoot with both eyes open. I think needing prescription lenses of different strength left and right exacerbates the issue.

Rx lenses with a difference of more than 2 diopters can make 2 eye shooting much harder to do. There are, for instance some people who can shoot with a 4x scope with both eyes open, but most can't, and this is what those of us (myself included) who suffer from anisometropia see when trying to shoot with both eyes open. (Even without a scope.) The only shooting I do with 2 eyes (Right handed mostly, but can shoot left, left eye dominant) is non-aimed (instinctive) shooting, live birds, and lefthanded clays and live bird. Rifle or pistol is almost always one eye.

My son is a righty who is really left eye dominant, I may have to teach him to shoot long guns left handed. Luckily I was given an unfired left hand Rem 700 in 7-mag by my Dad and I have three BPS shotguns so he’ll be ok if that does happen later on

Riomouse: He will be better off making the switch now than later. I was forced to shoot right handed, because, "You vill shoot right handed, und you vill enjoy it!" was the rule of the day back then. I learned to shoot pistol left handed at 19, after five years of only right handed, and rifle and shotgun about a year before, because I noticed it would be much easier to switch the gun to the other shoulder than try to shuffle around in a tree stand to get a shot on the right hand side.
 
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I am right handed and "right eyed" and had an easy time learning to shift my focus between my eyes. Even though age has affected my vision the way it does for almost everyone, I still do almost all of my shooting with both eyes open.

There are exceptions. For one, high-magnification scopes cause me no end of troubles, and anything beyond about 4x works better for me with my off eye closed. I suppose one of the reasons I am attracted to the scout scope concept is that I can leave both eyes open.

I also find that to squeeze the last little bit of accuracy out of a handgun, I need to take my off eye out of the equation. For bullseye and free pistol competition, rather than closing my eye I used specialized glasses with a frosted plastic cover on one side. Hardly practical, but perhaps illustrative.
 
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I find my brain getting confused at times and I have to "wink" my left eye to remind it that the right eye is the boss. I just blink the left eye and everything is OK. At other times I have no trouble at all with both eyes open.
 
I find I'm less prone to flinching when keeping both eyes open … for whatever reason ..
 
I believe I’m very fortunate in that, when I shoot a pistol right handed; I use my right eye for sighting. When I shoot left handed; my left eye takes over. I don’t have to think about it; it just happens. I always shoot with both eyes open. A shooting instructor told me what my lack of eye dominance is called; but I can’t recall the term now.

Until I turned 50, I had 20-10 vision. Since then, I’ve worn bifocals, but that hasn’t had any impact on either shooting with both eyes open, or eye dominance. I’m 69 now, and still shoot as I always have.
 
Right on Rick, I'm not far behind you and shoot 15K+ rounds per year.

One of my favorites is my H&K 94 with a wide red dot sight where I keep both eyes open for depth perception and peripheral vision.
The red dot just integrates into the image.
 
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