One-eyed shooters

[dmarbell]

During my two SC coaching sessions with a Level II Instructor, the coach determined I was equal eyed. He taught me to close my left eye as I mounted the gun from low gun. He says I should always shoot that way.

I've been practicing my mount, with and without a mag lite in the barrel. During this exercise, and during SC shooting, I feel like I am losing the bird between first sighting with two eyes and my one-eyed mount. Even with slow movement, the light seems to jump when I close my left eye. I guess this could mean I am left eye dominant. However, when I concentrate on an object in the distance with both eyes open, it jumps when I close either eye, leading me to believe I am equal eyed.

Question for anyone else so afflicted. Can you train yourself to not lose the bird during this transition? If I mount the gun with the light in the barrel, close my left eye and concentrate on the light not jumping around, will that train my eyes?

Question for those blocking out one eye. If you obscure a small spot on the off-side eye (which I assume you position while looking down the barrel), do you then position your eyes to pick up the bird with both eyes? Then let the obscuration naturally block the vision as you mount?

Has anyone tried shooting with the off-side eye completely blocked out, like obstructing the entire lense on one side?

Lastly, the last time I shot I was shooting alone with a club employee pulling trap. He said it looked like I was stopping my swing, which had not been a problem during instruction. Isn't that an indication of looking at the barrel more than the target?

I've searched and read the previous threads on THR. I'd like to know what some shooters have done, things that have helped.

Danny

 

[hossdaniels]

Well, I am left eye dominant, and learned to close my (left)eye when I first see the target. The target does still "jump", but my right eye has adjusted by the time the gun comes up.

 

[TrapperReady]

A couple things to try:

1) Put a small smudge or piece of tape on your shooting glasses. If you are shooting vright-handed, you would put it on your left lense. This prevents your left eye from seeing the end of the barrel, but you have the remainder of your field of vision.

2) There are a number of fiber optic sights available which have a small tube through which you view the bead. Because of the tube, you can only see the bead with the eye which is correctly aligned behind the top of the barrel.

3) Do the "flashlight drill" mentioned in Gil and Vicki Ash's book "If It Ain't Broke, Fix It"... a LOT. Back up that practice with range time and lots of targets. I think they would argue that if your target focus is sufficient, the problem would go away on its own. BTW, that book is available in the Lending Library thread at the top of this forum.

 

[dmarbell]

Tape on lens

I put a piece of Scotch-style tape on my left lens, and positioned it after mounting my shotgun and placing my left index finger on the lens to obscure the end of the barrel and target. I have been practicing my mount with this setup. I can see the target launch position with both eyes, and the target (stationary at this point) does not seem to move as I mount the gun. I am looking down one barrel with one eye at one target after the mount. A perfect world, minus binocular vision.

I'll report back after using this on the range.

Danny

 

[Will Fennell]

Let's be sure....

Danny,
Before you start imprinting some cluttered images in you subconsious, I would suggest determinig whether you are truly left or right eye dominate. I have only seen 2 folks in 7 years of instruction that truly had a cases of niether eye being dominate. I get folks ALL THE TIME that think they are "sometimes" cross dominate. Give me a call me a call if you want.....we can discuss.

803-328-9321 home/office

www.willfennell.com

 

[mswestfall]

I'm a trap shooter that is right handed and right eyed. I shoot with my right eye only. I am trying to open my left eye a little on the trap ranges, so far it's not been a real problem. Still have a lot of work to do to become a two eyed shooter.

I do open both eyes to pick up a high house bird on the skeet range on stations 2, 3 and 4.

Sporting Clays. I have no idea what I'm doing, except having fun.

 

[ArmedBear]

He taught me to close my left eye as I mounted the gun from low gun. He says I should always shoot that way.

Maybe you shouldn't believe everything you're told.

As Smokey the Bear says, "Only YOU can prevent cross fires."

I am naturally left-eye dominant and right-handed. This was a problem at first. I had even shot pistol left-eyed for over 20 years, so I'd reinforced my eye-dominance. Furthermore, my left eye is a "better" eye, with very clear, sharp focus, whereas my right eye has slight astigmatism.

I trained myself to shoot two-eyes open, right-handed, with a shotgun, and I can hit fake birds and real birds, low-gun or high-gun.

One-eyed shooting is a SERIOUS handicap. If I ever lose an eye, I'll learn, but as long as I have two eyes, I'd as soon shoot with one arm tied behind my back, or one leg in a sling, as with one eye closed. Hunting with one eye in rough country where birds pop out everywhere and you are balancing on a boulder? Good way to miss the bird, hit your hunting buddy and break your own neck!

I retrained myself with a Ruger .22 pistol, then with a shotgun. I still a bit of dry-swing practice at home.

I tried the tape-on-the-glasses thing. Good luck. I don't understand how or why anyone would advise someone to do that.

Like Will said above, "Before you start imprinting some cluttered images in you subconsious..."

Best of luck.

(Caveat: this has been true for me. You are not me.)

 

[dmarbell]

...everything I'm told?

ArmedBear,

Problem is, I paid for the advice.

Made an appointment with an eye doctor for Friday. Haven't been in 9-10 years. I was told when I made the appt the dr is really into sports, and very interested in eye dominance stuff. I'll report back.

Danny

 

[dmarbell]

Right eyed

My optometrist decided that I am, indeed, right eye dominant. There is no objective test for it, just the subjective tests that abound.

My dominant right eye is my weaker eye, optically. I have prescription shooting glasses on the way.

Let's now see if I can focus on details on the bird!!

Danny

 

[ArmedBear]

Problem is, I paid for the advice.

Cool.

Go shoot one-eyed, then, if it makes you feel better about the money you spent. Hope your scores don't plateau too soon that way.

(And yes, if you stop the gun, you're probably looking at the barrel, or letting your eye come to a focus on the bead instead of infinity. Or thinking too much. Or not standing at a good angle to the target. Or just stopping the gun because, well, you stop the gun and you need more practice following through. See, sometimes it doesn't mean anything but that.)

Have you shot any trap or skeet?

The issues you're talking about are pretty basic -- not always easy to deal with, but they're fundamental issues. By that I mean that Sporting Clays is a helluva place to try to figure them out. You're adding a lot of complexity on top of an unstable foundation.

You can learn to use your eyes with high-gun trap or skeet shooting, for example. Ultimately, it's YOU who has to get to know your eyes and practice your focus. Little rules of thumb are a good start, but nothing more. You'll probably develop new problems along the way, too. It's part of the learning process. Plan on thousands of rounds. A teacher can help you along, but no amount of teaching can replace the thousands of rounds it takes to stop overthinking and start busting birds.

I maintain, though, that, since you have very little experience at this, the LAST thing you want to do is learn to shoot one-eyed. If you do, you will probably regret it, and somewhere along the way, if you stick with the sport, you'll spend a lot of time, ammo and money UNlearning the habit.

Good luck. Don't forget that it's supposed to be fun.

 

[dmarbell]

One eyed

ArmedBear,

You're right about the one-eyed shooting. I don't know if it came through in my messages, but I am very reluctant to learn to shoot with one eye closed. The new glasses are going to equalize my binocular vision. I'll shoot some with the new specs, and then I'm going to experiment with obscuring my left eye some.

I have practiced some inside my house and garage this past week or so with some safety glasses and scotch tape. I have to say that I like the way the mount looks when I get the barrel blocked out of my left eye with tape over a small portion of the left lens.

(For right handed shooting) - It seems to me, from my static practice, the most optimum lens block would be placed so that the left eye can focus on the clay in the distance, but cannot see the barrel of the gun. It requires precise placement of a very small block, and would require that glasses be worn in the same place consistently, mounting the gun consistently, etc. The other fix is to focus on the clay so intently that the barrel does not exist, in your sight plane.

On the last idea above, what is the best way to practice at home? With a mag lite in the barrel, the light focused on the wall is large and it's hard to focus on a small point. Is it worth investing in a laser?

Remember, this is all discussion, since I don't have my glasses yet. Corrected vision, with my visually weaker but dominant right eye matching my left eye, might solve some of these issues. At my age (52), shooting is like sex: it's almost as much fun to get drunk and talk about it!

Danny