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. 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

[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?

[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!