A revelation in target shooting!

photoracer · Jan 5, 2016

80% of LH people are right eye dominant while only 20% of RH people are left eye dominant. I don't think research has actually pinned down why this is. I am one of the former. I did almost everything left handed as a child but as time went on I switched to being right handed in many things. My dad was the same way so I was like him shooting pistols and most everything else except long guns left handed and long guns right handed. Over time I switched to golfing and archery right handed and finally in 2011 to shooting pistols right handed only. Took about 6 months of intense training to get better right handed than I was left handed (except bullseye where my stronger left hand still makes me more accurate doing that left handed).

Sharp · Jan 5, 2016

This is all interesting info. I don't own a handgun and consider myself a novice at shooting them. One eye open I can focus on the front sight no problem and make good hits on a bullseye target. Both eyes open I can't focus on the front sight at all and usually end up focusing on the target. This reduced my accuracy on bullseye targets, but I always wondered if it would be a significant handicap in a more practical situation like an action match. Haven't had an opportunity to find out.

For long gun shooting, I can shoot off either side almost equally well (left has a jerky trigger pull though). I can even shoot trap left handed/eyed, though I don't practice it much.

As far as eye dominance goes, the first time I picked up a handgun (about a decade ago?) I tried shooting it with my right and and left eye. Since then I've felt like my eye dominance has shifted to favor my right, but bpm's test indicates my left is still favored, just by a narrow margin (in fact my results sound exactly like his).

Conclusion: red dots > iron sights

jkeiler · Jan 5, 2016

I went to the range this afternoon, having read this post, but not with a lot of time. Took my AR which I was mainly interested in shooting that but just for the hell of it grabbed my XD 45 and 50 rounds and decided to see what happened shooting with both eyes open.

I shot at a 50 ft NRA target at 50 feet (which I can usually hit pretty well with one eye) with both eyes open and the first 40 rounds were all over the place, some not even on paper. But with the last ten I was hitting right in the black. Unfortunately ran out of ammo. Don't know if this proves anything or was just chance, but it did seem to click a bit at the end.

Mark75H · Jan 5, 2016

An occluder doesn't have to be much. White or clear crayon can make a smudge that works well. Masking tape or the smudge left by tape adhesive.

I have no dominant eye; can shoot equally well from either eye and either hand with handguns, but flinch a little less with my left hand. Can't shoot long guns lefty.

My left eye doesn't focus as well on the front sight regardless of dominance, so I usually shoot right eye because it has perfect vision/focus at front sight distance.

Blacksmith101 · Jan 5, 2016

davsco said:
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.

The experts say it improves your visual acuity and your balance.

AMU Pistol Guide
http://www.bullseyepistol.com/annex2.htm

outrider58 · Jan 6, 2016

DanGuy48 said:
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.

Blacksmith101 said:
The experts say it improves your visual acuity and your balance.

AMU Pistol Guide
http://www.bullseyepistol.com/annex2.htm

That and I think it promotes a more natural, instinctual aiming/shooting ability allowing the shooter greater depth perception which is crucial in instinct shooting(not that this thread is about instinct shooting).

bpm32 · Jan 6, 2016

Blacksmith101 said:
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

Absolutely agree with this. For rifle competition it's critical you use your dominant eye, even if it means shooting lefty when you're right handed. For pistol, well, it's less certain. In my opinion you should switch handedness to eye dominance (that's what I did: I'm righthanded, but shoot pistol lefthanded). You could just turn your head slightly to use your dominant eye and they do make orthopedic grips at a 7% angle for Bullseye style shooting, but I'm not sure how good of an idea that is, since reproducibility is important, and shooting with way necessitates slightly more neck contortion.

With or without occluding the nondominant eye, shooting with your dominant eye is important for extreme precision not because of double images or anything like that--it's because of eye strength. There's a sweet spot when you stop breathing, when your hold settles, and when your eye achieves maximum focus on the front sight, and the longer those periods are and can overlap, the better the score will be on average.

bpm32 · Jan 6, 2016

For the both eyes open thing, obviously for combat shooting you would want both eyes open. For competition, closing one eye can confuse the open eye into adjusting the pupil to allow less light in ("accommodation"). That's supposedly bad. So to limit accommodation competitors typically use an occluder that allows light in. International, Olympic-style competition has all sorts of weird rules about how big the occluder can be, etc., but you can just use a piece of Scotch tape on the shooting glasses and that works really well.

In PPC shooting, those guys weren't allowed to use occluders, so they had to close or squint one eye.

Bolts Rock · Jan 6, 2016

davsco said:
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.

DanGuy48 said:
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.

In addition to what other have posted. Your brain is wired for binocular vision, it just works better that way. Then the fact that forcing one eye closed while concentrating through the other leads to eyestrain, fatigue is the enemy of accuracy.

Mark75H · Jan 6, 2016

bpm32 said:
For the both eyes open thing, obviously for combat shooting you would want both eyes open. For competition, closing one eye can confuse the open eye into adjusting the pupil to allow less light in ("accommodation"). That's supposedly bad. So to limit accommodation competitors typically use an occluder that allows light in. International, Olympic-style competition has all sorts of weird rules about how big the occluder can be, etc., but you can just use a piece of Scotch tape on the shooting glasses and that works really well.

In PPC shooting, those guys weren't allowed to use occluders, so they had to close or squint one eye.

The size of the occluder in Olympic competition is a dispensation to shooting fans. ln the Europe television networks found that viewers did not like seeing so much of the shooters faces hidden.

Target shooting is a major televised sport in Europe.

DanGuy48 · Jan 6, 2016

Bolts Rock said:
In addition to what other have posted. Your brain is wired for binocular vision, it just works better that way. Then the fact that forcing one eye closed while concentrating through the other leads to eyestrain, fatigue is the enemy of accuracy.

The only way I could see doing near/far with different eyes is if I have some additional compensating optics to allow simultaneous far (left eye) and near (front sight/right eye) focus. Is that's what's being recommended here?...getting a bit confused now. I'm not convinced that humans can accommodate to different distances with different eyes without the use of auxiliary optics.

Also, I believe convergence is a reflex response when focusing close, so the eyes would not have a common point of convergence, it seems to me, relative to the target. I'm not being argumentative here...just trying to make sense of this. I sold advanced optical instruments that dealt with some tricks of human stereoscopic perception and things just aren't fitting here for me so to me it's an interesting topic.

Mark75H · Jan 6, 2016

DanGuy48 said:
The only way I could see doing near/far with different eyes is if I have some additional compensating optics to allow simultaneous far (left eye) and near (front sight/right eye) focus. Is that's what's being recommended here?...getting a bit confused now. I'm not convinced that humans can accommodate to different distances with different eyes without the use of auxiliary optics.

Also, I believe convergence is a reflex response when focusing close, so the eyes would not have a common point of convergence, it seems to me, relative to the target. I'm not being argumentative here...just trying to make sense of this. I sold advanced optical instruments that dealt with some tricks of human stereoscopic perception and things just aren't fitting here for me so to me it's an interesting topic.

The brain works best when the whole thing is turned on, but only one eye can be in line with the sights and target, so except for the people with remarkable self control that can completely ignore the eye not being used for sighting, keeping both eyes open and simply blocking one is the deal that works.

DanGuy48 · Jan 7, 2016

Mark75H said:
The brain works best when the whole thing is turned on, but only one eye can be in line with the sights and target, so except for the people with remarkable self control that can completely ignore the eye not being used for sighting, keeping both eyes open and simply blocking one is the deal that works.

No disagreement with that. Most of my shooting experience was 4 position smallbore. I used to see these things everywhere.

http://www.championshooters.com/ind...t_id=701&virtuemart_category_id=17&Itemid=111

XCheckR · Jan 7, 2016

CrazySanMan said:
I haven't been able to do this yet.

me either...ugh! But i love practicing!

A revelation in target shooting!

The #1 community for Gun Owners of the Northeast

Member Benefits:

photoracer

Competition Shooter

Sharp

Active Member

jkeiler

Active Member

Mark75H

MD Wear&Carry Instructor

Blacksmith101

Grumpy Old Man

outrider58

Eats Bacon Raw

bpm32

Active Member

bpm32

Active Member

Bolts Rock

Living in Free America!

Mark75H

MD Wear&Carry Instructor

DanGuy48

Ultimate Member

Mark75H

MD Wear&Carry Instructor

DanGuy48

Ultimate Member

XCheckR

Ultimate Member

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Latest threads

Forum statistics

Share this page