Shooting With Both Eyes Open ?

[ElDub1950]

You need to try one of the occluder methods I linked to in my earlier post. Your brain nedds to be taught how to correctly process what it's seeing. By obscuring slightly the vision in your non-aligned eye with an occluder, your brain will accept what it sees from the aligned eye. Try it, you'll be amazed at how simple it works.

I'm cross dominant too. My dominant eye developed cataracts and my right eye has now become dominant .. it's like having a 24x7 occluder. Having the cataracts removed next month and counting on the right eye remaining dominant.

Cataracts are NOT the recommended solution but pretty good proof that occluders work.

[APV]

This one was a new way of shooting for me. I tried shooting with both eyes open at the range this week and got surprisingly good results. I even was able to hit the bullseye twice in a row at 25 yrds. Though it required me to adjust my shooting habits as mentioned in other posts.
Thanks OP for bringing this up.

[ziconceo]

Ive been a one eye only shooter for 11 years. After reading this thread I decided to try shooting with both eyes. It's really difficult to break an engrained habit but I see the benefits. My groups are the same but sight alignment is much more difficult and makes slower follow up shots. I'm sure ittl be fine with more practice though

[APV]

Slow fire bullseye it doesn't matter, but for action pistol sports or self defense it makes little sense to obscure vision by closing an eye.

Agree on this one. I just tried to see if two eyes shooting is still accurate enough in case of my own eyes. It seems accurate enough.
On the same page, how fast is expected to be repitative shots in case of action shooting? I tried rapid fire last week and still got about 2sec delay between shots with cz75b.

[Lead Waster]

Ive been a one eye only shooter for 11 years. After reading this thread I decided to try shooting with both eyes. It's really difficult to break an engrained habit but I see the benefits. My groups are the same but sight alignment is much more difficult and makes slower follow up shots. I'm sure ittl be fine with more practice though

I've not made it to the range yet, but I've been practicing at home with my airsoft PPQ. I've got it to the point where I "press out" the gun and automatically use both eyes. Not sure how well it will actually work, but it seems that you CAN practice it to the point that your brain can discount the extra image. It wasn't as bad as I thought, retraining my brain.

Only real range time will tell though.

[himurax13]

Agree on this one. I just tried to see if two eyes shooting is still accurate enough in case of my own eyes. It seems accurate enough.
On the same page, how fast is expected to be repitative shots in case of action shooting? I tried rapid fire last week and still got about 2sec delay between shots with cz75b.

What is your definition of rapid fire exactly? A 2 sec delay between shots sounds a tad slow.

Last sunday we were messing around after the USPSA Match and only two of us in our group were able to draw, lean around a barricade, and engage and hit two 5" steel plates @ 30 yards within three seconds. This is painfully slow in my eyes.

Here is something I would define as fast. Trust me, you cannot do this with one eye closed.





The main reason why I dislike shooting with only one eye is that it causes the shooter to have tunnel vision. I prefer having situational awareness and accuracy.

[APV]

What is your definition of rapid fire exactly? A 2 sec delay between shots sounds a tad slow.

Last sunday we were messing around after the USPSA Match and only two of us in our group were able to draw, lean around a barricade, and engage and hit two 5" steel plates @ 30 yards within three seconds. This is painfully slow in my eyes.

Here is something I would define as fast. Trust me, you cannot do this with one eye closed.




The main reason why I dislike shooting with only one eye is that it causes the shooter to have tunnel vision. I prefer having situational awareness and accuracy.

I tried series of three or five shots. It was not possible to draw the gun at the range, so I practiced picking up the gun from the bench, insert the mag, load and shoot several shots as fast as I can. After watching the video I see that two seconds between shots is really slow. Looking backward I think aiming took too long. Shooting on the move should be really tough. Thanks for the video, now I know what to work on.
Speaking of your results, I am impressed. Hitting two 5" targets at 30 yards withing 3 sec. while changing the position is amazing.

[himurax13]

Speaking of your results, I am impressed. Hitting two 5" targets at 30 yards withing 3 sec. while changing the position is amazing.

Well it did take 2 tries and I stopped because I knew it wouldn't get better lol.

I do practice dry fire drills at home with my main focus on transitioning between targets. I don't focus on trying to get a perfect hit, rather I focus on getting in good hits while moving smoothly between targets, engaging, and moving smoothly to the next target and so on and so on.

[APV]

Well it did take 2 tries and I stopped because I knew it wouldn't get better lol.

I do practice dry fire drills at home with my main focus on transitioning between targets. I don't focus on trying to get a perfect hit, rather I focus on getting in good hits while moving smoothly between targets, engaging, and moving smoothly to the next target and so on and so on.

that was a good advice. I bought snap caps, practiced dry shooting at home and found immediately few problems causing deviation from the target in case of a one hand grip. Dry shooting practice seems to save lots of ammo in my case.

[freebug]

Here's what I found works for me. I am cross eyed dominant.

Trijicon - nope doesn't work. Too hard to shoot since there's not enough contrast in the front sight on a pistol.

Fiber Optic - works best. The brightly lit fiber makes the less dominant eye draw to the front sight and focuses MUCH easier. Both eyes open. I switched about 50% of my pistols to this setup and 100 X happier.

Glock - the white dot helps focus, but the rear white rectangle causes problems. Blacked out rear U notch works best.

EoTech / Aimpoint - both eyes open. Red dot does what the fiber optic does on the pistol - draws eye focus.

[Dannicus]

I tried it before, but it was hard, so I decided it wasn't right for me.

[Kowan]

Both eyes open with my ACOG or iron sights.
I'm left handed, right eye dominant and shoot long guns righthanded.
Long guns or handguns, both eyes open when shooting.

[Dannicus]

Both eyes open with my ACOG or iron sights.
I'm left handed, right eye dominant and shoot long guns righthanded.
Long guns or handguns, both eyes open when shooting.

Why not shoot handguns right handed, too?

[Donnovin]

For handguns the Center Axis Relock system works well for me (right handed, left eye dominant). Your hand position permits one eye to be on the sights/target, while the other eye is 'occluded' by the back of your hand. Very quick and accurate for me at distances under 15yds. Sometimes referred to as C.A.R.

[Kowan]

Why not shoot handguns right handed, too?

I do as a weak hand. I trained in USPSA style which requires weak hand shooting.
In a gun fight, the strong hand can and is hit as the attacker focuses on the threat which their tunnel vision hones in as the gun.

During a qualifying stage during a match, I heard one of my squad say he couldn't believe how fast I was shooting one handed. I snickered because it was my weak hand he was impressed with. I had yet to shoot strong handed in that stage.
I scored master class in that stage.