A revelation in target shooting!

[protegeV]

Not a long time shooter. Only been doing it a couple years. Not a terrible shot, but never been a great one. I've always heard that you should try to shoot - especially a pistol with regular sights - with both eyes open. I always struggled keeping anything in focus when trying to do that. Well, today my eyes were opened(pun intended). Somehow or another I figured out how to keep the front sight in focus and cover the target with both eyes open and tore the hell out of the middle of a target @ 25yds with both my vp9 and a little m&p shield. I gotta be honest, I impressed the hell out of myself

 

[brownspotz]

one eye on the target and the other eye on the sites...

congrats on the "awaking"

I have never been able to do the whole one eyed squinty eyed thing, maybe I'm a natural?
yea I'm pretty drunk but its a hyena normal state of mind

 

[bpm32]

Whether you can shoot with both eyes open depends on the relative strength of your dominant eye. When most people talk about dominant eye they think of it as an absolute thing, but it isn't. Some people are 90%/10% right eye dominant. Some people are 60/40, which typically means they have to occlude the non dominant eye for target shooting (or squint it). Some people are cross dominant.

You can test this somewhat: if you stick your arm out and look at your thumb with both eyes slightly defocused you should see two thumbs. The right thumb corresponds to the left eye and vice versa. The image associated with the non-dominant eye will be slightly weaker and may waver and disappear/reappear (like Marty McFly's siblings). How long this takes gives relative eye dominance. For me both thumbs persist for a long time, with the right one being stronger, which corresponds to weak left eye dominance.

 

[jasonk1229]

practice practice practice your only going to get better nice job!

 

[WeaponsCollector]

I love it when that happens.

 

[CrazySanMan]

I haven't been able to do this yet.

 

[Kman]

I haven't been able to do this yet.

My ability gets wonky sometimes.

Once in a while I have to aim with both, close left and slowly open left...then it will reboot.

 

[Blacksmith101]

Look up eye dominance to understand what it is and how to test for it.

To be the best shooter you can be you should shoot from your dominant eye. As you go higher in competition levels in shooting the fewer the cross dominant shooters there are. When you get to the Olympic level there are no cross dominant shooters. Lanny Bassham started shooting cross dominant but when he reached a plateau in performance he actually learned all over again how to shoot from his dominant eye, which caused a drop in scores until he relearned and developed skills shooting other handed, but he went on to the Olympics and a gold medal.

You should shoot with both eyes open for the best visual acuity and the best balance.

If you have a strong dominance in both eyes, like I do, you may see a double image and need to use an occluder on your non dominate eye. Google vision occluder for shooting.

You can not focus on three different distances at the came time (the rear sight, the front sight, and the target). Focus on the front sight and although blurred you will still be able to see the target. With aging eyes prescription glasses, measure the distance from your eye to the front sight and tell your eye doctor you need a script for that distance, or a Merit Optical Device or one of it's clones can help.
https://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

 

[CrazySanMan]

Look up eye dominance to understand what it is and how to test for it.

When I hold my hand out with thumb up at arm's length and focus on my thumb, I see two of everything beyond my thumb. Is it a matter of figuring out which image I need to place the front site on? I feel like Doc Holliday - "I have two guns, one for each of you".

 

[Sticky]

You can 'cheat' a little too... when you bring up the sight and focus on the target, if you see two sights, just squint your non-dominant (or left eye for most righties) a little for a sec and figure out which sight image (the left for me) is the one you wanna use...

 

[Drmsparks]

Whether you can shoot with both eyes open depends on the relative strength of your dominant eye. When most people talk about dominant eye they think of it as an absolute thing, but it isn't. Some people are 90%/10% right eye dominant. Some people are 60/40, which typically means they have to occlude the non dominant eye for target shooting (or squint it). Some people are cross dominant.

I have the worst of both worlds here, 60/40 left eye and right handed

My ability gets wonky sometimes.

Once in a while I have to aim with both, close left and slowly open left...then it will reboot.

I've seen the same but I can bring up the right eye doing it, but only with rifle...

What has worked for me is shooting weaver at a slight angle. That lets my left eye (the usually stronger) rule the roost. I've trained to do it and it's become my natural pistol position. I don't have to think about it at all when I do it.

 

[outrider58]

Look up eye dominance to understand what it is and how to test for it.

To be the best shooter you can be you should shoot from your dominant eye. As you go higher in competition levels in shooting the fewer the cross dominant shooters there are. When you get to the Olympic level there are no cross dominant shooters. Lanny Bassham started shooting cross dominant but when he reached a plateau in performance he actually learned all over again how to shoot from his dominant eye, which caused a drop in scores until he relearned and developed skills shooting other handed, but he went on to the Olympics and a gold medal.

You should shoot with both eyes open for the best visual acuity and the best balance.

If you have a strong dominance in both eyes, like I do, you may see a double image and need to use an occluder on your non dominate eye. Google vision occluder for shooting.

You can not focus on three different distances at the came time (the rear sight, the front sight, and the target). Focus on the front sight and although blurred you will still be able to see the target. With aging eyes prescription glasses, measure the distance from your eye to the front sight and tell your eye doctor you need a script for that distance, or a Merit Optical Device or one of it's clones can help.
https://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

I once mistakenly said I had cross a dominant eyesight. I do not. My predicament is more similar to yours. There are some days when I can shoot easily with both eyes open, including through scopes and reddots. There are other days when my left eye wants to take over. Going one eye squinting seems to help.

 

[protegeV]

Look up eye dominance to understand what it is and how to test for it.

To be the best shooter you can be you should shoot from your dominant eye. As you go higher in competition levels in shooting the fewer the cross dominant shooters there are. When you get to the Olympic level there are no cross dominant shooters. Lanny Bassham started shooting cross dominant but when he reached a plateau in performance he actually learned all over again how to shoot from his dominant eye, which caused a drop in scores until he relearned and developed skills shooting other handed, but he went on to the Olympics and a gold medal.

You should shoot with both eyes open for the best visual acuity and the best balance.

If you have a strong dominance in both eyes, like I do, you may see a double image and need to use an occluder on your non dominate eye. Google vision occluder for shooting.

You can not focus on three different distances at the came time (the rear sight, the front sight, and the target). Focus on the front sight and although blurred you will still be able to see the target. With aging eyes prescription glasses, measure the distance from your eye to the front sight and tell your eye doctor you need a script for that distance, or a Merit Optical Device or one of it's clones can help.
https://www.meritcorporation.com/products.html

I did that test and realized I'm right eye dominant (and I'm right handed)

I used to have a hard time focusing on the front aught with both eyes open but yesterday it was a piece of cake for some reason. I noticed that when shooting with both eyes open I can hold hm the pistol much steadier. I seem to shake more when keeping my left eye closed

 

[Blacksmith101]

When I hold my hand out with thumb up at arm's length and focus on my thumb, I see two of everything beyond my thumb. Is it a matter of figuring out which image I need to place the front site on? I feel like Doc Holliday - "I have two guns, one for each of you".

Try this test:
http://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/eye-dominance.htm

A variation on this I use with young shooters is to hold your hands out and make the triangle then slowly bring your hands back to your face and see which eye you are using. Do the tests several times because if the eyes are close in dominance you may get conflicting results.

Then learn to shoot from your dominate eye or you are handicapping yourself.

 

[Blacksmith101]

I once mistakenly said I had cross a dominant eyesight. I do not. My predicament is more similar to yours. There are some days when I can shoot easily with both eyes open, including through scopes and reddots. There are other days when my left eye wants to take over. Going one eye squinting seems to help.

Use an occluder it doesn't have to be much. I put about a 1/4" dot of masking tape on my shooting glasses so that it is directly in front of the iris of my off eye when my sights are lined up. That way I can see everything else around me but not in that spot.

 

[DanGuy48]

Whether you can shoot with both eyes open depends on the relative strength of your dominant eye. When most people talk about dominant eye they think of it as an absolute thing, but it isn't. Some people are 90%/10% right eye dominant. Some people are 60/40, which typically means they have to occlude the non dominant eye for target shooting (or squint it). Some people are cross dominant.

You can test this somewhat: if you stick your arm out and look at your thumb with both eyes slightly defocused you should see two thumbs. The right thumb corresponds to the left eye and vice versa. The image associated with the non-dominant eye will be slightly weaker and may waver and disappear/reappear (like Marty McFly's siblings). How long this takes gives relative eye dominance. For me both thumbs persist for a long time, with the right one being stronger, which corresponds to weak left eye dominance.

I think this is my problem, not a strong dominant trait. I started out shooting in smallbore competition and we only used one eye. When I casually started shooting handguns, I continued the same way. I recently tried shooting with both eyes open and found that once or twice in maybe 10 times bringing it to my eyes, I'd pick up the sight image with my left eye instead of my right, even though every time I test myself, I come up with right eye dominant. probably if I worked harder at it, it might come to me but I just don't feel a strong need to do so.

Edit: I just tried your test. I can see both thumbs as long as I look, neither one fades. Interesting.

 

[outrider58]

Use an occluder it doesn't have to be much. I put about a 1/4" dot of masking tape on my shooting glasses so that it is directly in front of the iris of my off eye when my sights are lined up. That way I can see everything else around me but not in that spot.

If I was a serious target shooter I would try that, but being's that I shoot to hunt, I'm determined to go sans aids. Though I seldom miss(animals), it's just a minor irritancy on the range.

 

[davsco]

i'm not seeing (pun unintended) how shooting with both eyes open helps one's "accuracy." I can see how it helps tactically, with a wider field of view and better peripheral vision and better depth of field.

 

[md_rick_o]

A wonderful feeling isn't it. Just you and the target. Some of the best stress relief.

 

[DanGuy48]

i'm not seeing (pun unintended) how shooting with both eyes open helps one's "accuracy." I can see how it helps tactically, with a wider field of view and better peripheral vision and better depth of field.

IT's hard to imagine how it might help with accuracy (even with both eyes open, the sighting is still using one visual path only) unless you're talking moving targets perhaps but, yeah, peripheral vision is certainly better using both eyes.