Shooting with both eyes open. TIPS ?

[dewey]

I'm looseing sight in my right eye rapidly do to surgery and figured I better start now useing both. I'm a fair shot now do mostly to going to the range 2 or 3 times a week.

Can anyone supply me with a few tips so I can get started on the right foot ? THANKS....dewey
PS- I'm right eye dominant.

 

[Mike in VA]

You're doing the right thing - practice & retraining to the left. FWIW, I'd start working on getting comfortable with a good sight picture with just the left eye, then open the right, concentrating on holding focus with the left. It takes time & practice.

My wife has had a lot of nerve damage to her right side controls due to a couple of brain surgeries. She was originally right handed, but thru PT and practice, she had become ambidextrous, with her left side taking up things she used to do with her right. The body will adjust onit's own, but it'll go faster if you work at it. Good luck.

 

[Coronach]

Thats exactly what I did. I got good sight alignment with weak-eye closed, then opened the weak eye and forced the proper sight focus through concentration (try it, its natural). Eventually you'll automatically focus 'properly' when you open your weak eye. From there, progress to both-eyes-open from the start.

Mike

 

[C.R.Sam]

You can practice without the gun. Make pistol with either hand, thumb is rear sight and tip of forefinger is front sight. Point at an object.....door knob?....while focusing on your target object.

You will see two sets of thumb/finger sight planes......move the right set over so it is aligned with target......now close your right eye......note that you have a good sight picture with your left eye.

Soon you will be able to do it without having to close an eye. When focused on target the two sets of sights will be fairly clear and easy to direct the right hand set to the left eye.

When doin it in church, don't use preacher/priest as target, makes em nervous.

I am sorry you are loosin an eye. Take heart, a two time national champ was one eyed and it was the wrong eye. Shooting stance a little funny till the scores were counted.

Sam

 

[bountyh]

DEWY: I've been shooting both eyes open for about three years now (also had an eye problem) and I shoot better now that I shoot target focus most of the time (both eyes open). While learning the new skill, put a strip of scotch tape over the right eye lense of your glasses so you are forced to use the left eye. Eventually, you won't need it.

It must be understood you can only shoot both-eyes-open (unobstructed by tape) when focusing on the target and seeing the gun images (two of them) in your peripheral vision. If you try to look at the sights with both eyes open, you can't do it because parallax will screw everything up. A lot of shooters use the tape on the lense thing all the time so they can shoot both eyes open and don't have to squint one eye closed to focus on the sights. I guarantee you can learn to shoot this way. With practice, you will probably shoot just as well.

 

[Onslaught]

I've been practicing shooting with both eyes open for about 2 years now. I use the same sight picture as bountyh... 1 target, 2 pistols. I now instinctively use the "inside" pistol, which for me (leftie) it's the right pistol. The best and quickest sighting system I have found so far is the bar-dot sights. I was completely amazed at the Von Stavenhagen (Sig style) sights that came on my Kahr. Accuracy and speed, as well as ease of adapting with both eyes open was AMAZING! In trying to find this setup for all my pistols, all I"ve found is the Ashley Outdoors "24/7" sights, but I will be going with the Standard dot if I go that route.

Consider this... When you have both eyes open and see two pistols, your three-dot combat sights kinda look like
... ... But when you use the bar-dot style, you see this: i i For me, it's MUCH easier to process the latter.
Good luck, and I am sorry to hear of your ailing vision.

 

[Gunaholic]

bountyh and onslaught, I am right handed but left eye dominant. Which eye do I need to cover up with tape when training myself to shoot with both eyes open? Thank you for your help!

 

[bountyh]

Gunaholic: If you want to use your dominant eye, put the tape on the right lense. Use your normal grip but just sight down the gun with your left eye. It's probably easier to keep shoulders square and rotate the head slightly to the right to line up the left eye. Use whatever feels comfortable to you. I believe eventually you won't need the tape. Your left eye will start sighting automatically. A lot of shooters leave tape on the non-dominat side so they don't have to squint that eye to get front sight focus. One trick to use is to put the tape horizontally near the top of the lense so you can get the blocking effect by tipping your head forward slightly but still have clear vision below. This helps combat shooting where you need to see where you're going. Play around with it and find the way you like best.

 

[fix]

Gunaholic: I have the same problem. My problem turned out to be a blessing. I got tired of wrapping my face around the top of the stoc to get a good sight picture, so I learned to shoot left handed. I can shoot leftie all day with both eyes open, and then easily transition to my right hand and squint a little to shift my focus to the right eye. Being able to shoot equally well with both hands comes in very handy. Under 200 yds, I shoot with whichever is more comfortable at the time. Over 200 with irons and I have to shoot leftie because of vision troubles. Trigger control is not a problem. The toughest thing is learning to get a proper cheek weld on both sides. This was never a big problem with irons...but I found that a scope zeroed with my left eye was off when I fired right handed. Eventually I learned to adjust so that a zero for one side was good for the other too.

 

[bountyh]

Onslaught: I shoot the same way as you and I found a few tricks to do to the sights to make them eaiser to pick up quickly and align accurately when using "indirect" sighting.... which is the fancy term for focusing on the target and seeing blurry sights.

I use orange paint and put a small dot on the front blade. I use yellow and put two small dots on the rear sight so they should all line up when level. The trick is that a SMALL dot will swell up to a larger dot when blurry, but you can still get a good idea of where it should be. If the dot's too big, you can't see the three distinct dots. The orange front/yellow back makes it easier to know which dot is front when the gun is coming back down from recoil or coming up from draw. In my opinion, "indirect" sighting won't work on a gun with all-black sights because you won't be able to align them in fuzzy mode. That is why so many people incorrectly label this shooting technique as "point-and-shoot", which it absolutely is not. It is very definitely aim-and-fire, you just use a different point of focus and a different way to make the sights visible.

BTW- a lot of people go ballistic when you try to tell them they might want to try opening both eyes and look at the target.... like it was sacreligous heresy. Nobody I know of teaches this to new shooters... it's always "front sight only". I use FS focus sometimes, but most times I shoot better the other way at ranges out to 25 yards. I do side-by-side comparisons in my bullseye and PPC leagues and I always shoot better looking at the target (as long as the sights are tricked out correctly). I don't beg anybody to try this, but I do beat a lot of people who are better than me because we are shooting in a dimly lit indoor range and they can't see the 10-ring when they pull but I can. I like winning.

 

[yankytrash]

dewey -

Make sure to keep us updated. I had an accident when I was a kid, and the doctor said I'd be losing sight in my dominant eye (my left) in my 30's. Now I'm 30, and dang if the doc wasn't right - I see my sight starting to blur in my left eye while my right keeps a good 20/15.

I've been combatting it much the same way as most instructors would tell you to shoot - concentrate HARD on the front sight and those 2 or 3 pistols' rear sights will fall right into place.

For quick acquisition without using the sights as much, keep a daily/weekly check on your eye dominance and go with it. When you see the 2 or 3 pistols, use the one closest to your dominant eye, even if it's the bad eye. You'll be looking at the gun at an angle, but you'll get used to where to point it at 25 yards and less.

On the good side, rifle shootin will be a breeze in comparison. Start practicin to be a southpaw with a rifle, it's easier to pick up than you think it is.

Also, on the plus side, using your 'weak' side will be your strongest point in rifle shooting. You'll find you concentrate better on the proper shooting techniques when using your weak side. If you're anything at all like me, you'll be more accurate.

Make sure, though, to study up on the proper rifle shooting techniques as taught by military snipers and long range high power rifle shooters. You have an opportunity now to completely re-teach yourself the absolute textbook-perfect shooting techniques on a clean slate, with no old habits to unlearn (except for the obvious - shooting weakside! ).

Good luck with it. It'll be much easier than you might think, as long you use the proper techniques. You might lose a little depth perception, so don't bump into any doors (like I will be doing in soon years to come...) !

 

[Crimper-D]

How About.......

If you mount a Red Dot scope on your handgun?
I shoot with both my eyes open, don't know how effective it would be aiming with a single eye, but might be worth a try

 

[C.R.Sam]

Red dot is a good workaround but will the red dot be on the gun needed in a time of crisis.

I'm for practicing with no crutches.

Sam

 

[Lavan]

shooting with eyes ...OPEN????

My God, Watson, I think I'm on to something!

 

[bountyh]

Lavan: I know it sounds funny, but you wouldn't believe how many people blew a gasket an flamed me when I suggested that shooting with both eyes open had advantages in some situations.

Now I just wait until somebody asks about it and then answer.

 

[yankytrash]

shooting with both eyes open had advantages in some situations.

I've always thought that shooting pistol with both eyes open was just the way to do it. I picture myself in a SHTF scenario where there's no time to really get a good sight picture, and I have to shoot at a target that's shooting back.

In that situation, I just don't see taking the time to properly align the sights with one eye closed and slowly squeeze the trigger. I see pulling up as if the gun is an extention of my forearm, shoot, and get the flock out of there! I may or may not have the proper grip, the proper squeeze, or the proper sight picture, but at least I can mull over my technique while I'm watching TV at home while they bury the BG 6 feet under.

 

[Onslaught]

bountyh - Thanks for the input... I prefer night sites, and I've considered the three-dot, two color deals from MMC... but I still think I'm quicker lining up two things rather than three. I would most like a set of sights with a REGULAR tritium front sight, and a tritium version of the aforementioned VonStavenHagen rear sight. Not crazy 'bout the big dot.

Gunaholic - My opthometrist tells me that I'm Right eye dominant, and there's no doubt that I'm hard core left handed. I do vaguely remember trying to use my right eye to shoot when I was little, but my father taught me otherwise, and I've done it ever since.

Now, some 25 years later, I have NO idea what a dominant eye is over a non-dominant eye when shooting, because I use my left eye.

If you're wanting to use your "proper" eye when shooting, I'd put tape over the dominant eye lens. This would help your non-dominant eye to gain strength, and you'd adapt.

Good luck!

 

[Azrael256]

Since we're talking about eyes and guns, this is probably a good time (like there's a bad time) to rehash one important rule...

WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!
WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!
WEAR EYE PROTECTION!!!

 

[bountyh]

yankytrash: I'm with you: When it comes to shooting in a pinch, I want both eyes open and locked dead on the guy who is threatening my life. That's why when I shoot, I don't use any "crutches" such as tape on the lense, squint one eye closed, etc. because the other guy probably won't let me go get my shooting glasses with the scotch tape on them when he's drawing down on me. And, for the people who can only shoot accurately with their eyes locked onto the front sight I ask: when was the last time a front sight pulled a gun and shot at you? That's not where my eyes are going to be looking.

 

[IRock]

I have shot with both eyes open since I first picked up a gun. Thats the way I was taught and never had a problem. I think closing one eye would really limit your vision. Can't say I know anyone personally who shoots with one eye. Try it.