One eye or two for red dot sighting? What do YOU do?

[rpenmanparker]

Exactly the same for me. In fact, I'm surprised there's so many "both eyes open" people. I know this is THR and members here probably know that's the ideal practice but there's tons of people who simply can't do it.

That’s what I thought about myself until I started using red dots.

 

[Mn Fats]

^ I can pick up my trs-25 red dot OK with both eyes, much better than I can irons/aperture. But I can pick it up crystal clear and can reduce the dot power down to about 2 with one eye closed. Since it's on a Ruger Mk3, I don't see an advantage of leaving both eyes open.

 

[glc24]

Irons sights on my Glock G 23 are a whole different deal. Scopes on my rifles are a given with my right eye. I'm left eye dominant, so for me its difficult to sight my Glock.

That's why both eyes is so cool about a red dot.

 

[Drail]

Believe it or not closing one eye places a strain on the open eye. It also greatly reduces your peripheral vision. There is no good reason to close one eye when aiming with any kind of sights except maybe with a scoped rifle. But most people do it anyway. When I used to instruct I taught a lot of shooters to use both eyes. Some people fought it very hard. One trick that worked for a lot of people who had been closing one eye for years was to place a piece of frosted Scotch tape over the lens of the eye they wanted to close. The tape would allow light into the off eye but would not allow it to resolve an image. After a while I could remove the tape and the student would shoot with both eyes. When you insert a key into a lock do you close one eye? Why not?

 

[rpenmanparker]

When you insert a key into a lock do you close one eye? Why not?

It is not a valid analogy. There is no sight to look through. The hand with the key is right at the target. Of course if you were going to shoot a target point blank, you wouldn’t use a sight, and you wouldn’t close one eye. You only close an eye to see a target through a sight without interference from the other eye. Without a sight like in the lock and key analogy there is no point to closing an eye.

 

[shoobe01]

Lots of people have phoria (non-coincidental vision) where using both eyes is not natural with optics. I am one.

But... over time you can train yourself to reduce the impact of the phoria. I for one can now just barely use binoculars, can use monocular night vision devices, and can use RDS and other sight systems with both eyes open.

So, it's valid to start with one eye closed until you know better, but the goal is certainly both eyes open. Everything works better if you can make that happen.

 

[walnut1704]

I started with one eye but somewhere along the line went to both eyes open. It's not really something I was trying to "learn", it just happened naturally. After a long session my eyes get tired and sometimes (not always) I get a double vision of sorts. I see two targets, but only one set of sights. I'm thinking my left eye is actually seeing an adjacent target, the one to my right. It's weird as all get-out.

 

[herrwalther]

I learned how to shoot in the Army. Started with M16A2 and iron sights. One eye open with those. And I could shoot pretty well. Then the new red dots came out. Weapon was M16A4 with a CompM2 red dot and backup iron sights. Out of force of habit, I shot with one eye closed, just like I did with iron sights. Turns out I could shoot much better with a red dot optic. A DS beating me around my kevlar helmet with a range flag saying "both eyes open private!" forced my eyes open for a little while. My shooting got worse and worse. At some point I decided to ignore what I was "supposed" to do. I went back to what worked for me. Shot well enough to go to a couple advanced shooting schools like gun fighter and SDM school. I developed a rhythm where I could look around with both eyes open and close my left eye just long enough to shoot.

 

[cheygriz]

Many folks who have trouble keeping both eyes open have cross dominance. i.e., you're right hand dominant, but left eye dominant.

This isn't hard to compensate for. Use the isosceles stance and slightly lay your head over on your right shoulder. Your brain will automatically cause you to look through the left eye.

 

[wally]

Both eyes open even with iron sights, unless you have some vision abnormality.

Fer instance. About a year ago I had Lasik mono vision, near right (dominant) eye, far left eye. I can focus on the front site again! yeah. Problem is now I see the front sight clearly and the target clearly but its got bad parallax -- after almost a year I'm finally getting my brain "retrained" to get a consistent sight picture, but i have to close by left eye for precise shots like a 3" triangle steel plate at 15 yards, the 5" square and 8" circle I miss only if I'm trying to improve my speed, but the 3" triangle its close one eye or be really slow.

 

[9mmepiphany]

About a year ago I had Lasik mono vision, near right (dominant) eye, far left eye. I can focus on the front site again! yeah. Problem is now I see the front sight clearly and the target clearly but its got bad parallax -- after almost a year I'm finally getting my brain "retrained" to get a consistent sight picture

I did something similar, just by having my shooting glasses made with different corrections for each eye.

It was almost shocking at first to see both the front sight and target clearly in focus...the rear sight is still blurred, but I'm only looking through the notch anyway.

Took me a couple of matches to get used to it. You can't be fixed on the idea that one has to be blurry, just let the brain see what it wants to see anyway. The only distracting thing is I can clearly see when I pull a shot.

 

[FL-NC]

For years, I thought I was shooting with both eyes fully open (handgun and carbine w/ RDS). Turns out, I "squint" my left eye. Didn't realize I did it until I saw slowed video of myself shooting with clear glasses on.