To red dot or not?

[loganwayne]

Never will.

Are guys really shooting shotguns with one eye closed?

i do. i pull up and swing with both eyes open but close my left eye right before i shoot. im very heavy right eye dominate if i keep both eyes open im behind or ahead every time.

i also dont have a bead on my gun. i would also say im a sub par shooter at sporting clays but better than average shooter at live birds. Took some shooting classes and the instructor said it had to do with me thinking to much about the shot at sporting clays and just throwing up and shooting in the woods.

 

[ianpadron]

i do. i pull up and swing with both eyes open but close my left eye right before i shoot. im very heavy right eye dominate if i keep both eyes open im behind or ahead every time.

i also dont have a bead on my gun. i would also say im a sub par shooter at sporting clays but better than average shooter at live birds. Took some shooting classes and the instructor said it had to do with me thinking to much about the shot at sporting clays and just throwing up and shooting in the woods.

Always best to use whatever works, but I'd bet some more time on the gun would allow you to keep both eyes open the entire sequence.

Shooting a shotgun is like throwing a baseball, the "aiming" needs to happen without thinking, or bad things happen

 

[Macintosh]

the instructor said it had to do with me thinking to much about the shot at sporting clays and just throwing up and shooting in the woods.

Ie you are aiming on the range, and allowing your eyes to do the work in the woods. This is really common.

 

[Rich M]

I know an older guy who started using one. He was a real good shot before the red dot so don't know if it really helps or not.

I don't use a red dot on shotgun.

 

[Rich M]

No, shotgunning is undeniably more effective when you are actually using your mind's full ability of depth perception, tracking, etc. Closing one eye makes zero sense

Your eye dominance will change on some shot angles - if you don't close your nondominant eye you will miss.

I shoot both eyes open - even with rifle & scope. Have been trying to make an effort to close non-dom eye in some instances. On-coming ducks that will cross overhead is a tough one for me - eye dominance switches about when the trigger breaks.

 

[ianpadron]

Your eye dominance will change on some shot angles - if you don't close your nondominant eye you will miss.

I shoot both eyes open - even with rifle & scope. Have been trying to make an effort to close non-dom eye in some instances. On-coming ducks that will cross overhead is a tough one for me - eye dominance switches about when the trigger breaks.

Sounds like a lot of guys are thinking way too much while shotgunning.

All i know is whenever guys think about aiming, they miss, myself included.

Shooting a shotgun at a moving target by making yourself half blind is not the answer, under any circumstance.

 

[Macintosh]

Your eye dominance will change on some shot angles - if you don't close your nondominant eye you will miss.

I shoot both eyes open - even with rifle & scope. Have been trying to make an effort to close non-dom eye in some instances. On-coming ducks that will cross overhead is a tough one for me - eye dominance switches about when the trigger breaks.

Yes. Station 3 high house on a skeet range is a classic example of this. The bird comes from hard left, so a right handed shooter will pick up the bird first with their left eye. Right handed/right eye dominant shooters that have weak eye-dominance or cross-dominance often have to squint, at least early in the presentation, in order to not have their left eye “grab” dominance. Its common-enough that those opaque sticky dots that come with many shooting glasses are specifically to help with issues like this.
I say this only to point out that partially obscuring the target by putting a rds sight between your dominant eye and the bird, is one more thing encouraging eye-dominance issues.

 

[loganwayne]

Ie you are aiming on the range, and allowing your eyes to do the work in the woods. This is really common.

100% if he told me he was going to throw a clay i was worse than 50/50 on them. if we were talking and he randomly threw one i was about 90%.

i also throw up and shoot fast. i have to make a conscious effort to slow myself down.

 

[Kilbux]

Arkansas duck hunter here. About 10 years ago my friends and myself all tried various dots. We hunt a 50/50 mix of timber and fields. We all saw a drop in dead birds. We tried them for a week and then disposed of them.

 

[Rich M]

Sounds like a lot of guys are thinking way too much while shotgunning.

All i know is whenever guys think about aiming, they miss, myself included.

Shooting a shotgun at a moving target by making yourself half blind is not the answer, under any circumstance.

Edits:

There are different circumstances that require a break from the "norm". Being too stubborn to realize this is only gonna hinder the long game.

Many professional shooters shut an eye or use those eye blockers on shooting glasses for a reason.

Not an all the time thing - you don't have to always close one eye - just when you know you need to. In my case it is close, ducks crossing directly overhead.

 

[KurtR]

There are different circumstances that require a break from the "norm". Being too stubborn to realize this is only gonna hinder you in the long game.

Many professional shooters shut an eye or use those eye blockers on shooting glasses for a reason. But you know better.

Are you talking about the sides like this. I have seen rifle shooters have the off eye blocked but never trap or skeet.

 

[Rich M]

Are you talking about the sides like this. I have seen rifle shooters have the off eye blocked but never trap or skeet.

View attachment 1004545

I understand that some will put shields on one side for specific shots or if they have eye dominance issues. The side things are much more common.

It's not an all-or-nothing thing, just specific shots.

My father shot competitively for 20 years or so. He did all kinds of stuff to try and hit more clays. Said it is ultimately more mental cause mind gets tired or something like that. I would not have understood that our eyes can and do change dominance in some situations if he hadn't been so into this stuff.

It has helped me with the duck hunting so no complaints there. Have an oncoming shot, pull up and block bird out, shoot. If it is right on top of me I try to shut my off eye as the bird crosses overhead - hit em sometimes instead of missing every time. Before starting to close the off eye would miss them.

 

[Blockcaver]

A younger fellow (40-ish) and fairly new shotgunner that shoots at a our range has a red dot on a Remington 1100 with the butt stock built up to help with alignment with the red dot. He also shoot a Beretta A400 Xcel....factory set up. He seems to shoot about the same with either shotgun which is quite well given his experience level.

One day after a round of 5-stand he offered to let me shoot the 1100 w/red dot a couple shots. As a two eye shooter, I chose a couple of fast crossers. Pounded them to dust. Didn't find the dot distracting at all but was cogniscient of it. Haven't considered a dot for clays or hunting but wouldn't rule them out based on my sample of two clay targets, plus watching the Remington 1100 w/red dot owner shoot one.

Good info in a few posts by Terrapin that had data from master class shooters who went down hill with them.

 

[Steve300xcw]

i also dont have a bead on my gun. i would also say im a sub par shooter at sporting clays but better than average shooter at live birds. Took some shooting classes and the instructor said it had to do with me thinking to much about the shot at sporting clays and just throwing up and shooting in the woods.

skeet,trap, sporting clays... I go to hell in a hurry if I dont start out from low gun.

 

[loganwayne]

skeet,trap, sporting clays... I go to hell in a hurry if I dont start out from low gun.

Same.

But even hunting i throw up fast and shoot. Now that I force myself to slow down im killing alot more birds

 

[Macintosh]

Are you talking about the sides like this. I have seen rifle shooters have the off eye blocked but never trap or skeet.

View attachment 1004545

Its not so much the blinders, as it is the “magic eye dots” that you see on some people’s glasses. Photo below has one of the opaque dots pasted over the left eye. It is placed specifically over the non-dominant eye, in order to prevent that eye from taking over dominance. The way this would pop up with a red dot site, is that it is in between your dominant eye and the target, and would perform the same function by slightly obscuring your vision in that eye, encouraging your off eye to pick up dominance. It would be different for different people, but folks that aren’t strongly right eye dominant could easily have their left eye, pick up dominance and screw up their shooting as a result.