eye dominance and target alignment

[Chris17404]

Hi all,

I've been practicing mounting my 870 recently at home. I've done the typical eye dominance tests and my right eye always comes out to be the dominant one.

However... when I mount my gun, and keep both eyes open, I see two images of the barrel: one that is transparent and "ghost-like" and the other is a more fully-formed image.

The problem (I think) is that the more fully-formed barrel image comes from my LEFT eye. But when I close my left eye, my right eye is perfectly positioned right in line with the barrel, and I see it fine.

My question is... is this issue a problem? Since I am very new to shotgunning and target shooting, I'd like to start learning by keeping both eyes open when firing, but could that cause problems given what I explained above?

Thanks for the help.

Chris

 

[jeremywills]

well for me I see just a tiny bit of the barrel out of my left eye too, im right eye dominant, but left handed, go figure

If I try and hold a rifle left handed, I see a bad double image of both and cannot focus on the sights at all, so I have to shoot right handed, probably best as things like bolts, ejection ports, charging handles etc... typically are on the right of the rifle and make lefty shooting hard, this is just my opinion, but keeping both eyes open gives you a wider field of view, I would think every advantage you have is a bonus, why cut off your visibility, a slight double image is not a bad thing, with practice and patience, you will be able to pick out that sight with your dominant eye and still be able to keep both eyes open, a very good thing

best of luck sir

 

[Dave McCracken]

Two eyed shooting beats one eyed shooting, but not everyone can do it. Keep trying, as a new shooter you can form the best technique now and refine it later.

 

[Rupestris]

Chris,
I have the same problem. I don't know if its a problem with the dominant eye being dominant enough or not.

I worked in a lab environment for a few years where everything was visual (color matching for automotive paint) and had vision tests twice a year. I had a hard time focusing through a microscope where both eyes are used.
I talked to the eye doc and he ran some simple tests. Turned out I had 20/15 vision but weak eye muscles.

He gave me a simple test to determine I had weak eyes. Take your hand and hold it out at arms length with your index finger up and move it towards your eyes (kinda right between them). If you lose focus rather quickly and begin to see two fingers then your eyes could be weak. If you stop where you lose focus and can bring your finger back into focus, then move it closer again. You'll probably lose focus again rather quickly. Most folks can get their finger to within a couple inches or less before losing focus. I started losing focus at about 4".

Now, if that is the problem then there is a simple exercise that will help tremendously but you have to keep it up.

Get a small pair of 8X binoculars and use them whenever possible. Good ones will be a better choice. Take up bird watching if it helps. With weak eye muscles it takes a second or two to gain focus so that all you see is a single image. With repeated use of the bino's you can strengthen the eyes so when you use 'em you see a clear image right away.

HTH,

Chris

(hey, lookey there. Post #1000 )

 

[MCgunner]

I'm nearly blind, 20/80 corrected, 20/200 uncorrected in my right eye. I'm right handed, of course. At a very young age, about 7 years old, I figured out I should be shooting left handed. At first it felt very odd. Now, I'm so used to it, I feel awkward shooting right handed. I've adapted to right hand bolts. Sorta like Hendrix playing a right hand guitar left handed I guess. I have to break contact with the scope and raise the gun a little with my left hand, take my right hand off the stock and work the bolt. It's a little slower, but no biggy. I'm usually shooting over a rest, after all.

Shotgunning, I can leave both eyes open. I can't see ????e anyway out of my right eye. No sense closing it.