Shoot With One Eyed Closed

Try squinting your other eye.

Hi Sam. Welcome.

I am in my 40's and I can't keep both open either. Others can. But I'm also cross-eye dominant, so I have a host of other problems.

It takes practice to aim accurately with both eyes open. You are young and you will adapt if you are determined to do so.

I had the flu one time when I was 12. My mother begrudgingly put a 12-inch B&W television across from me in an effort to keep me from bothering her with the fever, the pukes, the shivers, etc. I spent enough time looking at the TV sideways because my head was on the pillow that when I was able to sit up, the TV picture actually appeared sideways to me!

I'm way older now and both eyes open during sighting is natural.

I still shoot with one eye closed. Both eyes open slows me down, with the same "two sets of sights" issue.

You can do a search here on eye dominance (or eye dominant, or cross dominant) and see what pops up.

Eye dominance: some folks have a strongly dominant eye, and that eye "takes over" with both eyes open so they have no problem shooting that way. Others have a weakly dominant eye, or even co-dominance. For those people, there's often no dependable way around the "two rear sights and two targets" problem when focused on the front sight, or the "two front sights" problem if focused at the target, other than to close one eye.

Tactically, open your eye immediately after the shot, as you scan and search for other threats. For those who can and do keep both eyes open, great.

Some people are successful in training themselves to shoot well with both eyes open even if it started out difficult. You can try that. But it didn't work for me, and it might not work for you. Everyone is different, and training will not work for everyone.

Welcome to THR Sam!

With a holographic sight it only took me a few hours to get used to shooting with both eyes open. I've been able to do it with scopes for some time now - sometimes it helps me see clearer, sometimes not. There are some iron sights that I still can't do this with no matter how hard I try.

I think the method that worked best for me was to shut the non-dominant eye and then open it a few times until I could see the sights properly. At first it wouldn't stay that way for long, but over time I got better at it. You eventually learn to ignore the image from the other eye. When shooting trap, I like to sight in over the trap machine with one eye shut, relax, open both eyes and yell for the pull. Depth perception helps a lot when shooting at a moving target.

Well I lost my left eye at 12 years old but was taught to shoot with both eyes open. Now I have no choice but it doesn't seem to effect much more than my depth perception. But living with one eye for 54 years this month I've learned to even compensate for no depth perception. So basically if you can shoot with one or two eyes really doesn't matter if you can hit what you aim at and are aware of your surroundings.

I've been shooting for 50 something years,one eye only. I have no problem shooting strong side /dominate eye or week side/weak eye.
As I get older my eyesight isn't what it was ,I have ventured into red dot sights and shooting with both eyes open. After using a rds for about a year I find I can now shoot both eyes open with normal sights and it feels almost normal.

Who says you can't teach a old dog new tricks

I tend to hit what I'm aiming at when I close one eye, I don't when I leave both open, so I close one eye when I aim.

I figure that any situation that requires the additional "situational awareness" that the peripheral vision of my non-dominant eye would provide isn't going to require a lot of aimed shooting.

I shoot with one eye too. I always have the "double sights" issue too... You're not alone.

Practice at it to understand the perspective. Sight alignment first with both eyes open, then add in the sight picture of the front sight on your target. The rear sight will fade/blur out, keep your focus on the sight picture up front.

Your eye's open will keep the front sight in focus on the target, when it all "clicks" for you, then you'll see its not difficult. Practice will make sight alignment a natural reflex, then just focus on your sight picture.

A lot less strenuous on your eyes and greatly reduces eye fatigue, taught that to myself years ago for pistol and rifle. Works very well with aperture type sight such as found on the M16/M4 series rifle.

After you've verified which eye is dominant, put a piece of scotch tape (not the crystal clear kind, use the foggy translucent kind) over the lens of the non-dominant eye and shoot with both eyes open.

Do this until you train your brain to ignore the target/sight picture you get from the weak eye.

You will do yourself a great service by learning to focus on the front sight now, as a young shooter.

Also, practice, a lot. Even dry fire practice will help you learn front sight vs target focus and help train out the secondary picture.

I just turned 66 at the end of last month and am just now trying to start shooting with both eyes open. Young or old, it's tough.

One thing that helps me is the use of red dot sights. With both eyes open, focused on the target, the red dot appears superimposed on the target as if it were a laser. It's not so simple trying to focus the one eye on the front sight and keep the sight on target when the other eye wants to assume a similar focus, wanders toward the front sight, and now you have TWO rear sights in your vision to sort out!

It'll be interesting to see if I can master the new trick as an old dog.

Woody

The advantage of shooting with both eyes open is it causes much less strain to the eyes than closing one. The problem most people have is that it will cause you to see two front sights, one for the left eye and one for the right eye. Most people are uncomfortable with that because the human brain wants to merge the two images together and you are telling it not to. You have to teach your brain to relax and accept two images - you just ignore the one in front of your weak eye and concentrate on the one if front of your master eye. When done properly it will give you a huge advantage. One way to get comfortable with this is to place some frosted Scotch tape over the lens of your weak eye. This allows light to enter the weak eye but does not allow it to resolve a focus or be strained by squinting it shut. Then concentrate on the focused image from the other eye. You can practice this with just your index finger in your living room or garage or anywhere. You need to stay relaxed and not force it. Your brain will learn how to do this even though it doesn't want to. It will allow you to shoot and be aware of much more of your environment than closing one eye.

You have to train yourself to keep both eyes open. When I first started shooting small bore I had to use a blinder, now I do not need one. I suggest you use a blinder, just put an index card between your non-dominate eye and your shooting glasses and keep both eyes open.

Can't say I have that issue.


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ANother often overlooked advantage of "two eyed" shooting is that your balance is much better.

with a target-focus, everyone sees a paralaxed image of the front sight, don't they? but some of us quickly and easily train to not notice, and others can't so much. sounds like an eye dominance problem, which isn't anything wrong with the eyes... just a perception issue. don't have that problem myself, so i can only advise you look into some informed professional sources... i WILL say that my wife seems to be cross-dominant, and the odd 'compensation' she receives for the trouble she has shooting strong-side is that she shoots just as well weak-side... a true ambidextrous shooter!

I'm gonna look pretty damn stupid at the range!

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No, you won't.
In the first place, most of those guys at the range either learned the same way, or never bothered to learn correctly in the first place.
Second, it's only until you learn to control your brains perception of the image.
Think about how good you'll look when you're outshooting the guys who have been shooting as long as you've been alive.

Some of the best IPSC shooters in the world have used the scotch tape trick. As another poster said after a while you won't need it any more. It's simply a matter of reconditioning your brain to see the world as two separate images on different angles when it wants to combine them into one image so it can construct depth perception. The best is yet to come - after you learn to see this way the image of the front sight that you are focusing on will appear semi transparent - you can actually see throught the front sight and see the bullseye at the same time. Now your brain is seeing much more information than it used to. I'm not making this up. You too can be a Jedi pistol shooter.

A problem with the Scotch tape approach: if you draw your gun in a SD emergency, you won't be wearing it.

Are you going to keep both eyes open if that shows you two pairs of confusing sights? Or are you going to close one eye and get a clear sight picture? I don't think the Scotch tape approach will decide that for anyone.

if you draw your gun in a SD emergency, you won't be wearing it.

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Dude, he's 14.
I think by 21 he'll have it figured out.

I shoot with both open. It just seems like it is easier to get my sights or scope back on target.

Dude, he's 14.
I think by 21 he'll have it figured out.

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Why tell me that? OP: he says you'll figure it out by the time you're 21.