Help to convert to two-eyed shooting

[JohnRov]

Well, my first year of trap ended last night. I ended up with about a 39 average. I've only been shooting a shotgun since last December and am right-handed left-eye dominant. I decided that since I haven't been shooting long I am going to switch to shooting left-handed so I can shoot with both eyes open. I have been using the Magic Dot and it works OK but it's not great. I expected when I mouted the gun (left-handed) I would have a great sight picture, but I could still see the right side of the rib. Is this normal? What do you see when you shoot with both eyes open? I did this this morning and I am extremely tired so I wonder if that could change things around. I have to figure this out because switching is going to be a major thing and I want to make sure I am making the right choice.

 

[mete]

First thing is that a shotgun is pointed not aimed. For those like myself shooting rifle for years before learning shotgun , you have to break the habit of aiming. In trap it's too easy to aim, in fact some trap shooters use sights . Skeet or sporting clays would be better. Since you are focusing on the target what you "see" as far as the gun is in your periferal vision so you should not be aware of any details of ramp etc. REsearch has shown that it's easier to train the hand than the eye so you're taking the right step. It might be quicker to learn properly if you get some individual lessons. They may seem expensive but the learning curve will be much shorter and you can avoid bad habits like aiming.

 

[ysr_racer]

OK, here goes. YMMV

Most/all of the shooting I do is on a sporting clays course. I ALWAYS shoot with both eyes open. In sporting clays you look HARD at the target. If you look at the target / barrel relationship, you've missed.

While looking HARD at the target, I can still see where the barrel is in relationship to the target in my peripheral vision. But at NO time do I ever look at the barrel / bead /sight picture.

When you're driving your car do you look at the hood or where you want to go? Even without looking at the hood, you know where it's at.

Part II:

Everybody and I mean EVERYBODY that has 2 eyes in the front of their head sees 2 images when they look at something in the distance while holding something at arms length. It's called parallax.

Try pointing at something in the distance and focusing on it. You'll see 2 images of your finger. I'm right handed and right eye dominant so I'd use the left image if I were to aim at it.

Part III:

Since trap is mostly going away birds, it's easy to aim a shotgun like a rifle and still do pretty good "about a 39 average". But it's not the best way to shoot a shot gun.

Like I said, your mileage may vary.

Brad G.

 

[ysr_racer]

.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Lots of folks are not strongly dominant on one side. The brain kinda sifts out the images and decides on one.

For the first few shots, close the RIGHT eye. See if that gets things started.

HTH....