Two eyes, or one

[spleify]

Ok maybe this is an old subject, but I am interested to see how many people shoot with one eye, and how many shoot with two eyes.

I am right handed and left eye dominant, and I have a really hard time figuring out how to shoot with both eyes open. I always have to close one to get on target. I know this is not the best practice as you are losing half of you vision and that makes it hard to see what is going on around you.

Any suggestions or techniques for shooting with both eyes open would be great!

[StagLefty]

Due to newer optics the last couple of years I've been able to shoot with both eyes open on some of my long guns. I have an Eotech and a red dot on 2 rifles which lets me shoot with both eyes open. I still close one eye with handgun and standard scopes. So I guess I'd suggest looking into some different optics to help you. I'm sure someone with more expertise will be along. [Beer]I have the same right handed-left eye dominant issue.

[gnihcraes]

need a both option... I've always been a one eye, but have been doing two the last few times at the range...

[OgenRwot]

I didn't pick one because I do both. If I'm shooting my AR with the EOTech I shoot with both eyes open. Pistol is one eye open. I have bad eyes and if I shoot with both eyes everything get's all messed up. I actually have to alternate throughout a range trip because my vision will get too blurry if I just shoot through my right or left eye. I can't way until I can afford surgery[Rant2]

[Ranger]

I'm a freak of nature, I'm ambidextrous. Write right handed. shoot pistols left or right (generally right), rifles right or left (usually left), bat left, shoot pool left. I'm left eye dominant, so it get's tricky sometimes but I typically close an eye because of how I sometimes have to angle things to see down the sights.

[palepainter]

I am like you Ranger. Left handed pistol, and right handed rifle. So I use both eyes open. It is nice so you can double gun when in real shitty situations. :) But when using my longer bolt guns with big scopes, I have a tendency to use my right eye alone. All the red dot stuff goes both eyes.

[Troublco]

I've tried both, and I tend to close one eye to sharpen the sight image and wind up having blurry vision as a result. When I started shooting bullseye pistol I wound up taking a pair of shooting glasses and using a piece of 1" wide electrical tape and put it over the eye I wasn't using, so I could keep both open, get a good sight picture, and still have the benefit of only using one eye. It's also cheap, and easy to fix if the tape peels off or you just want the tape off. Alternatively, you can get the flip-up black or white eye covers from shooter's supply places like Creedmoor and just clip them to your shooting glasses. I did this after the first season shooting bullseye because it's nice to be able to flip it up and keep the glasses on. The electrical tape option is cheap, easy, and you can vary how much of the lens is blocked. Or, if you have a pair you don't mind permanently altering you can mask off the lens you want to use and hit the other with flat black spray paint.

But blocking off the eye you're not using is the best way I've found to be able to keep both eyes open and shoot. That preserves my peripheral vision while giving me the sharpness of having only one eye looking at the target. I find I shoot better that way than closing my off eye.

I'm not sure if this would be classified as one eye or two? [Wink]

[jim02]

Two eyes opened, I still revert back to one eye at times when I am getting tired and trying to make a precision shot.

My advise is my advise only, I am no expert, I suggestion is to start to use the two eye technique only and you should become used to it after only a few days of shooting. Given you shoot for a few hours at a time and you shoot fairly often. If you only shoot 1 time a month or year then it may take some time to get switched over in my personal experience.

[Graves]

Normally I use both open but I find myself using one if the optic is magnified.

[spleify]

Great info folks.

I have heard of the tape on the glasses trick, I might just have to try that.

If I am doing some target shooting and looking for precision, I find the only way to do it is with one eye. If I am doing some practical training and just looking for torso shots on a target I find I am ok with using both eyes. Maybe I just need to practice more and get honed in on two eye shooting.

Thanks for the feed back!

[TS12000]

Two eyes now but I catch myself slipping sometimes. I also squint one every once in a while but I think that is more because of my crappy eyesight than anything

[Irving]

Like many, I try to shoot with two eyes open (for pistol), but will sometimes close my left eye to help acquire sight picture. I couldn't imagine shooting a rifle with both eyes open unless it a Red Dot, or maybe just iron sights. The only rifle I have is a peep hole, so I close one eye.

[hurley842002]

Two eyes for Pistol and one eye for Rifle. When I had my Eotech for the AR, it was two eyes, but since i've gone back to irons, its one.

[SA Friday]

One eye, both eyes... Doesn't matter. The question is flawed to begin with. What gun at what range with what type of sights? A iron sight pistol at 10 feet is both eyes open and a general sight picture. A 22x scope at 600 yards is left eye firmly shut. An iron sight pistol at 12 yds is left eye open but squinted, but a pistol with a red dot C-more is both eyes open on the same shot. M-4 with a 1x red dot or iron sights at 50 yards, then both eyes open. Same set up but a 300 yd shot left eye is shut. An iron sight pistol at 50 yds is left eye firmly shut. Getting shot at is both eyes bulging, pistol aimed in the general area of the shooting and me running the other way.

What you see and how fast you can react to it is what determines a D class shooter from a Grand Master. This subject is deep enough to write books about it.

[StagLefty]

left eye firmly shut.

I'm screwed then being left eye dominant !! [ROFL1]

[GreenScoutII]

Shotgun with both eyes open. Rifles and pistols, left eye shut.

[BigBear]

Two eyes. Tunnel vision is very dangerous for a myriad of reasons. Periphal vision let's you keep track of other targets while engaging the primary.

For pistol work, try some close quarter point shooting with both eyes open. After a few rounds, go ahead and aim as usual. Then more point shooting, etc. For a while try switching hands and eyes... I guess what I'm saying is that I doubt there will ever be a situation where you'll get to sit there for 5 minutes and aim a pistol shot. So go ahead and get some time in using both hands and both eyes in alternating progressives so that you literally can just "point and click" with some degree of accuracy.....

Even on shotty and long guns I use both eyes open. People who spend a lot of time on rifle scopes need to be cognizant to not develop tunnel vision. That baing said, if your job is to take the 1K shot... the I would expect it to be one eyed for the utmost concentration, less distraction, etc..

eh, but what do I know? I'm just a keyboard comando or whatever the terminology is.

[iamhunter]

Two eyes, long guns and hand guns.

I'll close one eye if I'm doing long range precision shooting, but that's the only time.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

I didn't realize how much I was one eyeshooting til I took a class. It took a bunch of dry firing, but now I shoot two eyes open 99% of the time. from about 7-10 yards in I have a target focus and 'see' the sights, past 10 I switch to a front sight focus and then past 25-30 I switch to a single eye. I don't shoot past 25 that often at all. This allows me to hit plate sized areas as fast as I can shoot under 10 yards, as fast as I can see the sights between 10-25, and as fast as I want to waste ammo past 25 ;) . It all happens seemlessly as the shots get harder.

I did switch to a fiber optic front sight, and I think that helps alot in re-aquiring the sights during rapid shooting. I highly suggest it.

The key was dry firing bad actors on the TV at home- it seems you train your brain to disregard the 'second set' of sights. You actually see with you brain, not your eyes- so eventually your brain will filter out the wrong set of sights- be it the whole gun when you have a target focus, or the rear sight when you have a front sight focus. Then I went to the range with a 22 and shot 900 rounds one day, a few hundred on some other days. Just trigger pull and sight acquisition.

[cowboykjohnson]

I can and do shoot scoped rifles, Iron sight rifles, and handguns with both eyes open, but I can't make myself do it with a shotgun.