Why keep both eyes open?

[sniperjwt]

I agree with what everybody else is saying it just seems to be more natural to keep both eyes open and less eye strain

 

[RBetts]

Better way stretch your arms out make a circle with the thumb and fore finger of both hands look through the hole at something. Without closing your eyes bring your hands with the open circle back towards your face. To check your kids just stand in front of them have them make a circle and you will see which eye they are using. It is much easier to teach a child to shoot from his/her dominant eye side than to make a cross over stock.

 

[Buffalobob]

I have always shot with one eye closed and I have trained myself to shoot with either eye. The thing that I miss out on with one eye closed is wind changes. The failure to pick up wind changes probably accounts for about half or more of my bad shots. I have tried to untrain myself but it seems like I have just been doing it with one eye closed for too long.

 

[RBetts]

I have always shot with one eye closed and I have trained myself to shoot with either eye. The thing that I miss out on with one eye closed is wind changes. The failure to pick up wind changes probably accounts for about half or more of my bad shots. I have tried to untrain myself but it seems like I have just been doing it with one eye closed for too long.

Your also handicapping yourself for any kind of moving target. Take your shooting glasses and make a fingerprint smudge right in the field of view when your in the ready position. Scoped rifles are much less of an issue for this but if you wanted to ever shoot at running targets of shotgun sports you'd get humbled rather quickly.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Better way stretch your arms out make a circle with the thumb and fore finger of both hands look through the hole at something. Without closing your eyes bring your hands with the open circle back towards your face. To check your kids just stand in front of them have them make a circle and you will see which eye they are using. It is much easier to teach a child to shoot from his/her dominant eye side than to make a cross over stock.

I tried this method and I couldn't make a distinction. But..... I tried holding the 2 handed, thumb-finger circle at arms length and focusing on an object about 20' away, then closed each eye one at a time. that worked very well. When I closed my dominant eye, there was a clear shift in the position of the image.

Easiest way... focus on an object about 20' away, give or take, and put up a single finger at arms length directly in the line of sight and remain focused on the objet. Then close and open each eye one at a time.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I think a large part of the reason for leaving both eyes open is so that there is no tension in the shooters face, or mind. It takes a conscious effort to close one eye. I watched the biathlon the other day, and most of the athletes used blinders. This is so that they can leave both eyes open but only see the sight picture. Thus keeping the face completely tension free.

My eyes are about equal as far as dominance, so they will switch back and forth. I can usually blink my left eye to get the picture back to my right eye. The smudge may do the same thing. I'll have to try it.

Steve

PS. Those biathletes are amazing. I have to take a break packing my rifle from the truck to the bench before shooting.

 

[RBetts]

I think a large part of the reason for leaving both eyes open is so that there is no tension in the shooters face, or mind. It takes a conscious effort to close one eye. I watched the biathlon the other day, and most of the athletes used blinders. This is so that they can leave both eyes open but only see the sight picture. Thus keeping the face completely tension free.

My eyes are about equal as far as dominance, so they will switch back and forth. I can usually blink my left eye to get the picture back to my right eye. The smudge may do the same thing. I'll have to try it.

Steve

PS. Those biathletes are amazing. I have to take a break packing my rifle from the truck to the bench before shooting.

Blinders are to create tunnel vision. Your eyes can process over 600 objects in a single second. This can and does create concentration lapses. This will also take you out of full beta phase (1 of 4 distinct brainwave activities) You can learn about this neruo science in many places. Amazingly with just a little education you can apply it to whatever subject and see immediate improvement in your capabilities.
With some understanding you can then seek out programs in most subjects for an even greater advancement.
Most top athletes have been exposed to these and other methods to help with training.

 

[Marine24]

I started out closing my non-dominant eye but am trying to be more consistent and keep both eyes open whether I'm shooting a pistol or rifle.

It is a tough transition. Part of it is just breaking the habit, but noticed it forces me to relax prior to the shot by making me concentrate on the sight picture.

 

[FEENIX]

I'm left eye dominant and right handed and have always shot with one eye closed. Need to give it a try ...

YouTube - Shooting: Both Eyes Open

 

[long range erik]

opening both eye's when shooting is only good when the shooter scope eye is his(or her) dominant eye. to find out which is your dominant eye first use your finger and point at something then close one eye. If your finger moves away from the object the closed eye is your dominant eye

hope that helps

 

[nwcp]

Your peripheral vision is very sensitive to movement. In a combat situation you are effectively blinding yourself to anything approaching you from your weak side with one eye closed. Same goes for hunting. I've trained myself to leave both eyes open with my rifles scoped, or not as well as my handguns. Concentrating on the crosshairs isn't problematic with both eyes open. It just takes practice like anything else. Competition shooting, or bench shooting are different situations.

 

[sambo3006]

One thing that has not been mentioned is the fact that when you close one eye there will be some squint to the other eye which can distort the shape of the eye lens and blur vision a little, especially over long periods of time. If you have a dominant eye opposite of the way you shoot, the blinder or eye patch is the way to go. You can also train yourself to switch dominant eyes back and forth. When I shot on the varsity small bore rifle team in college we used to look through the spotter with our weak eye so as to give the dominant eye a rest. After a while I was able to look through the spotter with both eyes open. That was 20 years ago and I can still switch eyes with a little concentration when I want to shoot a rifle right handed.

 

[cfvickers]

If you are right handed and left eye dominant, as I am, It is almost impossible to shoot accurately with both eyes opened. I even have to shoot a shotgun with either a tape over my left lens or with the left eye closed. It is a bit of a disadvantage but after shooting my whole life it has become natural and I no longer see any disadvantage. When I was learning to shoot skeet the instructor tried to get me to keep both eyes open until he noticed I was shooting a mile ahead of targets moving left to right and behind targets moving right to left. He told me to do it my way and how to hold and I started hitting them. With a rifle I can't even align right eye with the scope unless my eye is closed. It's true that it can cause a headache but if, like a previous poster said, you don't squint and just keep your eye in a natural closed position you will be able to sit at your rifle longer without a problem. if you are shooting with your dominant eye, then you should easily be able to shoot with both eyes open.

 

[tlk]

After trying this for a little while I have to agree that this is better way. Sight picture much more focused/sharper. Not at all the result I expected, but it seems like a better method.