Front sight, both eyes, focus problems

[anotherKevin]

Yesterday I was practising with my air pistol, in the garage. I've been trying to get used to having both eyes open, instead of just one. I am focussing on my front sight, then letting the blurry rear sights come into alignment. After that I make sure my target is like a sun rising over the horizon, in front of my front sight.

The problem I had was that my eyes were going into some kind of spasmodic reaction! They would be focussed on the front sight, and then suddenly jump to the target, then the rear sight, then the front sight again and repeat this till I couldn't see a darn thing!

I have had eyestrain lately from staring at a computer for long periods of time, and do wear "reading" glasses.

 

[ChickenHawk]

The answer is exactly what you expect it to be!

Practice, practice, practice.

It took me a while to get used to shooting with both eyes open, but I am a FAR better shooter for having made the transition. My accuracy has improved, my stamina has improved (I don't get fatigued from squinting for an hour at a time), and of course I have MUCH better peripheral vision.

Some people simply are unable to adjust, but don't give up. Most people do just fine if they keep at it for a while.

Stay safe,
ChickenHawk

 

[Mr. Tettnanger]

Eyedoctor visit in your future.

I would suggest a visit to your eye doctor. I assume that you are 40ish. I make and sell eyeglasses for a living. What you describe is very common. The visit would rule out any "problems" that may be present. As far as shooting, there are many schools of thought on how to deal with the blurry sights issue.


Mr. Tettnanger

 

[Steve C]

Your dominant eye should be the one focusing on the sight. I generally don't close my left eye completely but do so partially. This helps keep the right eye dominating the sight and still allows the left eye to pick up peripheral action. One eye open only is still better for precision shooting with handguns or rifles using iron sights.

 

[Lou629]

Could you be cross-eye dominant? In my case i shoot right handed but my left eye is the boss of the pair. Once i had gotten that figured out, i was able to adjust my stance to keep my left eye on the sights and started shooting a lot better. I now shoot handguns with my left eye only but usually keep both open. As for rifles, two eyes open has become the norm, since i am too uncomfortable trying to shoot left handed.

 

[Owen]

A couple of potential issues:

Do you have enough light to really see the front sight? I started shooting bullseye indoors, and didn't relly understand what the old-timers were talking about until I shot a few outdoor matches. The amount of light you have is critical to being able to focus on the front sight, at least in the beginning. Take a pencil and mark a line about 1mm below the top of the front sight. If you can't see it when you are shooting, you aren't looking at the front sight. If you can't see it at all, you probably need more light.

You may have weak eye dominance. You can help out by putting some semitransparent tape over your non-dominant eye, or shooting with a clear lens on your dominant eye, and a heavily tinted lens on the the non-dominant eye. The goal is to force your brain to depend on the strong eye, without totally occluding the non-dominant eye. As you get better and better at using the dominant eye exclusively, you can decrease the amount of tape or tint on your safety glasses. It's also possible that your eye dominance is so screwed up that you will always have to close one eye. There are something like 40 factors that affect eye-dominance, some of them as obsure as blood sugar levels and if you have to pee or not. Some people's dominance changes depending on what hand they are using. The brain is a complicated thing.

The sights should be aligned when the gun comes up. By trying to sit the front sight in the rear sight, your brain wants to look at the rear sight. As soon as you think "rear sight", you are going to be looking at it. As soon as you think "target", you are going to focus on the target. Think "Front Sight" and nothing else. If the sights aren't aligned as you come up to the target, you need to carve on your grips, so they are. A mind game that was very helpful to me was imagining that the front sight was attached to the trigger. As I pull the trigger to the rear, I imagine that the front sight also moves to the rear. The goal is to pull the front sight through the middle of the rear sight. Try it out. It's pretty a pretty weird thing when you start to actually believe that the front sight is moving.

Good Luck

 

[steveracer]

I shoot with one eye still.

I have the same problem as you, and for 20 years now, I just close my right eye when shooting pistol, and close my left eye when shooting rifle. I have found that at every pin shoot I've been to, I'm the fastest guy on the line to get the first pin off the table, and I have to close my eye to hit it.
Good luck. I feel your pain, bro.

 

[mpmarty]

Something Else

may be the problem. You said "in your garage". Do you have flourescent (sic) lights in the garage. If so that could be the problem. This type (I won't try to spell it again) of light is not steady but flickers at a high rate and can contribute to the type of problems you encounter.

 

[RevolvingCylinder]

Your dominant eye should be the one focusing on the sight. I generally don't close my left eye completely but do so partially. This helps keep the right eye dominating the sight and still allows the left eye to pick up peripheral action. One eye open only is still better for precision shooting with handguns or rifles using iron sights.

I have to partially close my weak eye too. But I'm near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other. Both eyes completely open gives me double vision when focusing through something near my face.

 

[miko]

I suggest you first practice with a rifle while aiming at a distant target.

The greater rear-front sight and front sight-target separations might help as it's more work to refocus.

miko

 

[anotherKevin]

more information

I'm not entirely bad with a rifle, but I use my right eye when focussing, whereas the pistol is my left eye. Nothing I can do about that so far, it's my dominant eye.

However, I have booked an eye test, I find my left eye is out of focus when I look at things a little further away, so I may need bi-focals. The garage is indeed dark and flickery from the fluorescent lighting.

I do find that most of the time when the pistol comes up, that the rear sight is in the correct position, re: the front sight, so I've got some muscle memory working out for me so far.

thanks for the advice, folks.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I'm right eye dominant, but as I grew older I became far-sighted in the right eye, near-sighted in the left. I had to change my shooting style to shoot with the left eye (which can hold the sights in sharp focus.) I progressed to shooting both eyes open, so that both sights and target are in focus.

It takes about 3,000 repititions, they say, to achieve a natural reflex so that you no longer notice or think about how your eyes are working. I did 10,000 dry fires using the left eye, plus quite a bit of shooting in between dry-fire sessions. Then I went to both-eyes-open for a similar regime.

 

[wildburp]

rifles are tricky

Just close both eyes and squeeze the trigger as fast as you can. If this does not work, buy a handgun.

wildburp

 

[ripcurlksm]

I feel your pain

I used to have 20/20 - Now after 7 years of doing web developement my eyesight has diminished significantly. And the worst part is Im 25. Sucks.