One eye or two?

[H2oPumper]

Do you close one eye when you look through the scope or do you keep both eyes open? My natural instinct is to close my one eye, but then I hear others shoot with both eyes open.

 

[Joe_m107]

I try to keep both eyes open while shooting. I say "try" because I sometimes struggle with it.

I find it easier to shoot with both eyes open with a rifle, than with a pistol. With a rifle, only my dominate eye can see the rear sight. But with a pistol, either eye can see both the rear and front sight. This sometimes confuses me, and makes me pause for a fraction of a second before properly lining up my sights.

With a scoped rifle, I can easily keep both eyes open, but my brain only "sees" the image through the scope.

 

[jeepnik]

God gave you two, use them.

 

[Salmoneye]

One eye with a scope...

Two eyes most other times, except shotgun which is always two eyes...

 

[jmr40]

I've never understood why anyone would try to do anything using only 1/2 their vision. Would you drive your car with only 1 eye or 1 arm, assuming you had 2 healthy ones.

 

[wally]

Red dots both eyes open, scopes I need one eye closed unless its ~1X power.

 

[Snowbandit]

It depends on the scope's power. Above about 6X I tend to close one eye. Below that I usually keep both open. I keep my scope power turned down most of the time for just that reason.

 

[Walkalong]

At high power it can strain the eyes after awhile if you keep both open all the time. At 1X two eyes open is the way to go.

 

[HKGuns]

I use one eye nearly all the time, including shotgunning. Whatever works best for you is how you should do it.

 

[jim243]

Do you close one eye when you look through the scope or do you keep both eyes open?

Me. I keep both eyes closed, helps keep my groups small (LOL).

Just joking, one eye scope shots.
Jim

 

[tahoe2]

I have low power scopes(1-4x) and medium power(3-9x & 2-10x), so two eyes open 4x and below, one eye on high power(5x & up). two eyes open for clays & one eye for handguns.

 

[TonyAngel]

I always shoot with both eye open.

 

[Snag]

Rifle scopes and stuff I close one eye. Pistol scopes like a red dot I keep both eyes open.

 

[gamestalker]

Shooting with both eyes open ahs always come natural to me. Most that I've talked to about this say that unintentionally using 2 eyes is a gift.
GS

 

[cyclopsshooter]

One eye only, always

 

[Sav .250]

One eye. For me it makes for better concentration on the target.
Put another way..........different strokes for different folks.

 

[CharlieDeltaJuliet]

Both eyes open

 

[303tom]

One eye with a scope, both eyes with irons & shotgun..............

 

[HarcyPervin]

Both eyes for lower power scopes, my perscription is such that my weaker (left eye, RH shooter) allows me to have a wider field of vision. It's great for hunting, especially when having one eye closed and staring through a scope with the other may mean not seeing the other deer, or the tree that a deer is about to walk behind, or in the worst case, blaze orange.

 

[BADUNAME37]

Even with trifocal lenses in my Rx glasses, I typically keep both eyes open for any kind of shooting. I kind of just blank out my non-dominant eye which is my left eye.

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I needed to take a shot at a woodchuck with the gun against my left shoulder and using a scope with my left eye, as there were leaves from a maple tree blocking the scope's view with the gun on the right shoulder, so I had to improvize. I should practice that shot more often. I did hit the critter, however before I found him collapsed in a pile of large rocks I thought he might have gotten away! This was out of a roof window and the 'chuck was on my back lawn stone wall near my wife's vegetable garden. No woodchucks get to live near her garden, that is an unspoken rule we have.

 

[kcshooter]

Seems in in the same boat as many others. I use two eyes for everything 4x and under. One eye for anything over 4x.

Spend a couple hours with both eyes open behind a 10x scope and your brain starts itching.

 

[ForumSurfer]

Spend a couple hours with both eyes open behind a 10x scope and your brain starts itching.

Sounds funny, but it is a pretty accurate description.

Both eyes for me except beyond 1x. I don't spend much time behind anything beyond 1x.