Shooting on the Range:One Eye Closed or Both Eyes Open

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I'm curious what does US military train folks to do? Both eyes open or one eye closed? I think US is both eyes open but some countries one eye closed.
When I was in BCT, many decades ago, I asked my Drill Sergeant whether or not I should close one eye when shooting. His response was; "Do whatever works. Just hit the target!" Good advise that I have followed all of my life. I shoot both eyes open with a pistol, left eye closed with a rifle.
 
I'm sure this has been covered before but remember I am new. I am right handed but left eye dominant. Some people say it's better to shoot with both eyes open when you have this cross eyed dominance. others say no. I have been using the turn my head slightly method on the range but I know that won't work in a self defense situation.
What say you guys?
What kind of shooting? In bullseye we wore an eye cover on the off side. Never in combat style shooting. I most combat you want both sides open so you can see a larger field. Close in the front sight becomes a perception rather that something you see. Basically meaning the brain doesn't bother to make a conscious memory of it simply due to repetition. .
 
Thanks guys for all the helpful advice I think I'm going to learn to shoot left-handed I always hold a handgun with both hands anyway so it's just a matter of triggering with the left hand bracing with the right with my right eye closed instead of vice versa. ...
Interesting (to me) choice considering that most firearms are designed to operated by a right-hander.

... but it should certainly be both interesting & fun. And if you are married it might be a good excuse for SWMBO (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) as to why you are spending so much time & money on shooting. ;)

Enjoy!
 
Interesting (to me) choice considering that most firearms are designed to operated by a right-hander.

... but it should certainly be both interesting & fun. And if you are married it might be a good excuse for SWMBO (SheWhoMustBeObeyed) as to why you are spending so much time & money on shooting. ;)

Enjoy!
You may not have caught my earlier post but I am right-handed but left eye dominant learning to shoot with my left hand is an alternative to shooting right-handed and having to turn my head to aim with my left eye. This is what I have been doing I am trying to get away from Awkward posture shooting
 
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I have been shooting with one eye closed for so long it's automatic for me. I suppose it's like binoculars vs. a telescope, you find what you are most comfortable with.
 
I am one of "those people" I am not a fool. But no offense taken. Hell, I even gave you a "like!" Have a nice day.:D

What I meant was when someone takes a "one size fits all" approach to cross-dominance, they will be wrong sometimes. There are many different causes, and varying levels of severity. I agree with your Drill Sgt: Do what works for you.

I was cross eye dominant. Neuroplasticity allows for a dominance shifting with forced practice. Takes awhile.

Both eyes open.

Neuroplasticity will only take one so far. And it works better the younger you start working with it. When the eyes are anisometropic enough, neuroplasticity becomes hard to impossible to accomplish, without entirely closing the dominant eye. If there is emmetropia or balanced light refractive errors, either eye can become dominant, and it is then easy to change eye dominance. When the difference between the two eyes' refractive power goes beyond 2 diopters, the brain will choose the stronger eye as the dominant one. This is usually not corrected, as it only shows up in certain instances where stereoscopic vision is an advantage, like tracking a moving object. It only becomes a problem when the parallax induced by cross-sighting (having the gun on the right shoulder, but using the left eye to aim) causes the shooter to see two targets, or two front sight/beads. (or both) It can sometimes be corrected with prescribed prism, and in the case of amblyopia (lazy eye) which results in the brain rejecting the signal from the non-dominant eye, usually is done so early in life when the muscles controlling the eye are still developing, and the eye's physiology is more correctable.

It is possible to shoot moving targets without stereoscopic vision, but it is harder to do. I've done it for about 50 years, but as mentioned earlier, there are times I do open both eyes to track game birds as the gun comes up.

This is a good introduction to anisometropia:
https://youreyesite.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-anisometropia/#:~:text=Anisometropia is a condition that,asymmetric farsightedness, or asymmetric nearsightedness.

I was introduced to it as a child.
 
What I meant was when someone takes a "one size fits all" approach to cross-dominance, they will be wrong sometimes. There are many different causes, and varying levels of severity. I agree with your Drill Sgt: Do what works for you.



Neuroplasticity will only take one so far. And it works better the younger you start working with it. When the eyes are anisometropic enough, neuroplasticity becomes hard to impossible to accomplish, without entirely closing the dominant eye. If there is emmetropia or balanced light refractive errors, either eye can become dominant, and it is then easy to change eye dominance. When the difference between the two eyes' refractive power goes beyond 2 diopters, the brain will choose the stronger eye as the dominant one. This is usually not corrected, as it only shows up in certain instances where stereoscopic vision is an advantage, like tracking a moving object. It only becomes a problem when the parallax induced by cross-sighting (having the gun on the right shoulder, but using the left eye to aim) causes the shooter to see two targets, or two front sight/beads. (or both) It can sometimes be corrected with prescribed prism, and in the case of amblyopia (lazy eye) which results in the brain rejecting the signal from the non-dominant eye, usually is done so early in life when the muscles controlling the eye are still developing, and the eye's physiology is more correctable.

It is possible to shoot moving targets without stereoscopic vision, but it is harder to do. I've done it for about 50 years, but as mentioned earlier, there are times I do open both eyes to track game birds as the gun comes up.

This is a good introduction to anisometropia:
https://youreyesite.com/things-you-need-to-know-about-anisometropia/#:~:text=Anisometropia is a condition that,asymmetric farsightedness, or asymmetric nearsightedness.

I was introduced to it as a child.
Great info, and now I have an idea of your profession. I started shooting right eyed at age 32ish, and have had good luck.
 
heheh, curious story.
I *always* shot with 1 eye (right dominant) open, left closed. Fast or slow. Iron or scope sight. Years and years, forever. About 7 months ago I got a NMBH .45 and took it to the range, to shoot off of sandbags. For fun I set up the phone to record the recoil. After a few shots I reviewed the video. Lo and behold, I never realized it ... but I had BOTH eyes open. Go figure. I no longer worry or even think about it, just "front sight front sight ..." Let natural/nature take over.

-jb, he don' look so good :rofl:
 
I, too, am right handed but left eye dominant. Trust me, with both eyes open you won’t hit anything. Need to close your left eye. FWIW, I’m a forced rightie from a very young age. Otherwise, I would have been left handed. I’m not sure if that matters or not.

Magic Dot is the answer
 
As a kid, I learned to close weak eye, but shooting XTC HP rifle competition, I found that squinting/closing one eye produces eye strain on dominant eye (especially on longer slow fire strings).

Learning to shoot BEO took a while, but assisted by a piece of opaque scotch tape on (left) eyeglass lens made it much easier. This shifts focus to dominant eye and after a while, focusing on dominant eye became natural and the tape was no longer necessary.

I found that cross dominance benefits from keeping both eyes open, but tilting the handgun at a slight angle to bring the sights in front of the dominant eye.

^^^ Works great w/handgun. I'm slowly losing vision in right eye to macular degeneration (right handed) & am convinced it will be possible w/high mounted optic on a rifle.

I'm confident that this M1, which I mounted an optic on after I could no longer see the iron sights, will work fine when that time comes, as I've dry fired it (without the cheek piece) and it is easy to acquire sight picture w/weak eye.
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Gotta figure out what works best for you and work with what ya got! :D

Regards,
hps
 
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I shoot both ways, all my life half blind in my left eye, I just aim ( when I can remember) then shoot. Sometimes it's more comfortale with both eyes open, helps when bird shooting, off the bench doesn't seem to matter to my shooting results. Whatever works best is what you should do - but do keep at least one eye open.
 
I shoot both ways, all my life half blind in my left eye, I just aim ( when I can remember) then shoot. Sometimes it's more comfortale with both eyes open, helps when bird shooting, off the bench doesn't seem to matter to my shooting results. Whatever works best is what you should do - but do keep at least one eye open.
Damn, I was hoping to develop a new technique shooting with both eyes closed you know kind of a Zen thing , like young Caine at the monastery in Kung Fu:cool:
 
Try it. If it works for you what the rest of us say is irrelevant.

with that… I’d say learn to shoot with both hands so that you can shoot lefty or righty. It’s a valuable skill to know.
 
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