How to train myself to shoot with both eyes open?

[Hunthigh1]

I've shot rifles and bows with one eye closed my entire life. I am right handed and right eye dominant. I have heard/ read discussions of the merits of shooting with both eyes open. It seems to me that it would increase situational awareness and light gathering ability.

I have tried and failed at this many times. Does anyone have advice for training myself to shoot with both eyes open? TIA

 

[5MilesBack]

I am going on 57, and I have shot guns and bows with one eye closed my entire life. I have yet to experience a problem with that. I have tried my bows with both eyes open......up to three months at a time of shooting that way. And I shoot much better with one eye closed. So I won't even try that again. I see two sets of pins and two targets with both eyes open.

 

[Antares]

I shoot pistol, shotgun, and rifle with both eyes open. It's much more comfortable once you get the hang of it. I had to work on it in the beginning too, so here are two things I would suggest you try:

1) shooting glasses with scotch tape over the left lens will help get you comfortable with both eyes open but only let your right eye focus. You can gradually reduce the amount of tape on the left lens. The glasses I wear for trap just have a tiny piece of tape positioned just so it covers my left eyes view of the bead.

2) wear a ball cap with the brim pulled down real low so you're looking right under the brim. This one really helped me in the beginning. You're essentially helping your eye focus by reducing the aperture of your view.

Once you get your brain trained to focus on the correct target (ignore the double vision) you can ween yourself off the aids mentioned above. Hope that helps.

 

[35WhelenAI]

I've been shooting with both eyes open for years now. Took a short while to get used to it but it's second nature now. For me that's primarily with rifle shooting, working on refining it with my handgun shooting as I have not done as much handgun shooting until recently. Best way I can describe it, it allows me to look "through the shot" and have seen the animals reaction better vs. one eye looking through the scope.

 

[Steve from GA]

When you say you have failed, can you describe what you mean? When you keep both eyes open, focus on the reticle, breath and squeeze, what happens that makes you feel like it’s not working?

 

[Scott1776]

It's a mind over matter thing while you get started. Like anything it will become second nature with time. Just like how you taught yourself how to properly utilize a solid trigger pull all it takes is repetition

 

[Wrench]

Both eyes open is easier to get used to with pistols. Once the optics magnification comes into the picture, it can take some focus.

 

[Hunthigh1]

When you say you have failed, can you describe what you mean? When you keep both eyes open, focus on the reticle, breath and squeeze, what happens that makes you feel like it’

When you say you have failed, can you describe what you mean? When you keep both eyes open, focus on the reticle, breath and squeeze, what happens that makes you feel like it’s not working?

That is a great question. Not one I was prepared to answer. I will do some shooting tomorrow and try to better understand what is challenging me in a way that I can better describe here. . . Maybe it really just is just a mind over matter thing like somewhat mentioned above. Will see how it goes tommorow.

 

[bigW]

if you are right eye dominant and right handed, what benefits do you expect from shooting with both eyes open?....what ever the benefits might be, I would assume that anything you do that reduces the focus of your right eye will have a negative impact on accuracy.

Eta: you wouldn't expect any improvements from using your left hand as the dominant hand from now on, or?

 

[Lawnboi]

Start with a squint of the non dominant eye. You have to train your brain.

 

[MallardSX2]

Shot with both eyes open for over 30 years.

 

[N2TRKYS]

One eye closed for guns and both eyes open for bows.

 

[Wrench]

if you are right eye dominant and right handed, what benefits do you expect from shooting with both eyes open?....what ever the benefits might be, I would assume that anything you do that reduces the focus of your right eye will have a negative impact on accuracy.

Eta: you wouldn't expect any improvements from using your left hand as the dominant hand from now on, or?

Target acquisition, situation awareness, eye strain.

Kaminski did an interesting topic on eye dominance. We tend to assume people have a dominant eye, but the Olympic coaches had a test that showed dominance is a variable....not a constant.

 

[Carpenterant]

Do dry fire practice with firearms

 

[ElPollo]

Carpenterant and I were on the same track at the same time. There are people who will recommend gadgets and eyewear, but the best way to learn this is constant and consistent dryfire practice. If your wife will let you, start with a low power scope on an empty gun, and dry fire at light switches in your house about 50 to 100 times a day. Practice looking at the switch and bringing the scope up without changing your focus. As you get more comfortable with it, start increasing the magnification.

 

[Marbles]

For me, getting a bluegun https://www.blueguns.com/ and just playing with it taught me. I did not specifically try to learn both eyes open, I was just using it to train draw and movement with a pistol. However after a few months I noticed that I was sighting both eyes open. This probably involved thousands of repetitions.

It is really just training your brain, and that takes time and repetition. Removing the need to be accurate helped me relearn.

Dry fire would be much the same, it is just easier to grab something like a bluegun and mess with it during a few minuets of free time in a safe manner.

Edit: For those who wonder why both eyes open, it is about situational awareness and is more natural in the stressed state that comes with violent encounters. You don't need to learn it to shoot, but if you keep a gun for protection not knowing how to shoot with both eyes open is as negligent as not knowing how to clear a malfunction.

 

[Holocene]

Just throwing this out there --

Do we really need to think of eyes closed/open in such a black and white way?

In my shooting (bow, shotgun, or rifle), there are relaxed times when both eyes are open and I'm seeing clear and feeling good. Then, there are times when I've got to squint a little or really bear down and close my non-dominant eye to clear up a sight picture. As a shooter, I think it pays to be able to shoot either way in most disciplines.

In general, for shotgun I'm both eyes open but will sometimes squint the non-dom eye. You get more field of view this way, which is cool in wingshooting since if you're doing it right you are focused on the target and just vaguely aware of the barrel's relationship to it.

For bow, I tend to really squint or close the non-dom eye entirely. Better precision. Like 5MilesBack, I tend to see a double image with both eyes open. Not good for bow!

For rifle scopes and red dots, either way. Sometimes both open and let the dom eye clarify the image. If that's not working in the moment, I'll squint or close the non-dom eye as a kind of focusing tool.

For what it's worth, I'm left eye dominant, right handed. Always been that way even as a kid. Used my right hand for tactile things like writing, throwing a football, eating spaghetti, etc. But when hitting a baseball or shooting, I always did those tasks left-handed since the eye matters a lot in those disciplines.

Now, I shoot rifles, shotguns, and bows (mostly compound but experience with recurves) and even used to coach these things through work.

End of day, I'd say the proof is in the pudding. Try various techniques out and methodically track your scores and hits -- when are you better?

 

[525xcw]

I'll have to try some of the techniques mentioned here, as I haven't had much luck trying to retrain a 40 year old habit.

 

[bigW]

Target acquisition, situation awareness, eye strain.

Kaminski did an interesting topic on eye dominance. We tend to assume people have a dominant eye, but the Olympic coaches had a test that showed dominance is a variable....not a constant.

I missed this vid from Jake, but watched it now - he always (well most of the time) has interesting stuff to share, here the link:

...well worth watching....

 

[bpurtz]

Start with a squint of the non dominant eye. You have to train your brain.

This ^

if you are right eye dominant and right handed, what benefits do you expect from shooting with both eyes open?....what ever the benefits might be, I would assume that anything you do that reduces the focus of your right eye will have a negative impact on accuracy.

Eta: you wouldn't expect any improvements from using your left hand as the dominant hand from now on, or?

I am left eye dominate but right handed. I was easily able to learn to shoot my bow left handed and can keep both eyes open while using the sight on my bow. I can shoot a rifle left handed, but I'm more comfortable and confident with my accuracy shooting right handed - the problem is I have to close my left eye to use a scope and when I come off of the scope it usually takes several minutes to regain focus. If I'm using a spotting scope, I always use my left eye and am able to keep both eyes open. Closing my dominate eye definitely impairs my vision for a few minutes.