Shooting w/ Both Eyes Open - Pistol w/ Iron Sights

[fishing]

Is being able to shoot an iron sighted pistol precisely with both eyes open a useful/necessary skill?

I shoot both eyes open when shooting a pistol with a red dot on it, but never with iron sights.

Occasionally I will see others at the range shooting with both eyes open, and have some curiosity/skepticism about it.


http://blog.beretta.com/Shooting-Tips-Accuracy

"Shooting with both eyes aids survival. Research has found that both eyes will remain open during a shooting. This is instinctive and cannot be controlled. Therefore, it would be advantageous to learn to shoot with both eyes before being faced with a deadly force situation."

[blues]

I do it with my Aimpoint on my AR as it's easy to do and is the best way to make the most of the system .

I have more difficulty doing it these days with iron sights on a handgun due to some astigmatism. Though if the target is not very far away it's not that bad. I think my new HDs will help with this.

[breakingtime91]

I have no real (like useful in anyway) eye dominance. It is almost impossible for me to shoot with both eyes open with irons. My slight eye dominance actually switched in the last year and my right eye takes over instead of the way my left used to. Strange but I just roll with it.

[Peally]

RE both eyes open versus one eye open: it really doesn't matter. Close an eye if you need to, otherwise keep them open.

[Mr_White]

I think that there is some advantage to shooting with both eyes open - better balance, depth perception, peripheral vision - however in a great many cases I don't think those are the most overriding factors.

There are some people who can and do learn to retrain their eyes to shoot with both eyes open, but there are also many who beat their heads into the wall fruitlessly, and probably many more who don't even bother trying to convert (nor do I think they necessarily should.) Biological wiring of eyes and brains make changing from one eye closed/squinted to both eyes open an impossibility or an impracticality for a whole lot of people. So that's a big limiting factor.

Also, I believe the advantage of field of view provided by having both eyes open, is counterbalanced by inattentional blindness in a lot of instances. That is, the mind is busy paying attention to the sights (or threat, for that matter), possibly with a degree of tunnel vision going on to boot, and it may not notice little things in the peripheral vision even if they are right there available to be seen.

The advice I generally offer is to shoot with both eyes open if you can, and if the resulting double image causes burdensome visual confusion, then simply close or squint the nondominant eye and drive on.

[fishing]

i currently can only get a hard front sight focus to my satisfaction if i shoot with my weak eye closed.
i do shoot unmagnified optics on long guns with both eyes open no problem.
bindon aiming concept on acogs has not been fruitful for me, but i havent put much effort into it.

i will make it a 2017 goal to flesh this out more fully - if it is at all something i can learn, i would like to be able to shoot pistols as well with both eyes open.






i have one of these, fun toy.
i wish i was smart enough to develop some sort of app that could utilize the vr headset to train/modify eye dominance. there is an opportunity there.

[Leroy Suggs]

I shoot everything both eyes open. Irons,scopes, and dots. Pistols, shotguns, and rifles. Have from the beginning.

I don't think it matters except maybe wing shooting with a shotgun..

[Leroy Suggs]

double tap

[rjohnson4405]

I agree with Gabe (yeah, I know, who doesn't).

I tried the tape on the shooting glasses for a while, lots of dry fire, and continuously checking myself for eye dominance changes. Nothing ever really worked. Maybe 4 out of 6 times it would work out, the other two I either had to close one eye and re-align the sights after I lost them or I would send a round off target with a sight picture that "looked" good and decent trigger pull.

Shooting every other week and some dry fire just didn't cut it when shooting smaller targets, especially the further away they got. Gave up chasing it as it was affecting my ability to effectively practice other, more important techniques.

AR with Aimpoint is both eyes open and that has been easy except I do notice on low probability targets I still tend to squint.

[SecondsCount]

I taught myself both eyes open about 20 years ago so I can't remember how I did it, but I think I move the pistol around until I get the sight picture that I want. Hope that makes sense.

My wife, who shoots quite a bit, has tried it and cannot do it. When she shoots both eyes open it messes with her eye dominance and her hits go left.