One Eye open or Two?

[ER_STL]

...so you can keep that BS "situational awareness" 180* for that millisecond that you close your eye to shoot.

Some tangos are too fast to afford having one eye closed for any length of time...

[Robinson]

With pistols I almost always keep both eyes open, but once in a while I catch myself closing my left eye. I don't worry about it too much.

With long guns, if I am using an aperture sight (which I prefer) I keep both eyes open. If using standard iron sights or a magnified optic I am more likely to close my left eye.

[MistWolf]

People put way too much thought into this topic, especially on the internet. Highly overrated topic IMO. If you do it great, if you can't don't sweat it. Most people with eye dominance or sight issues usually a small squint will help with the focus and still keep the vision available in your non-dominant eye, so you can keep that BS "situational awareness" 180* for that millisecond that you close your eye to shoot.

I don't know how much "situational awareness" a shooter gains by keeping both eyes open. For the most part, I am so focused on the target, I don't think I am noticing anything else.

The real advantage to shooting with both eyes open is reduced eye fatigue. It's more relaxed. Closing one eye is an asymmetrical use of facial muscles. Muscles on one side has to keep an eye closed, the other to keep an eye open

[Surf]

I don't know how much "situational awareness" a shooter gains by keeping both eyes open. For the most part, I am so focused on the target, I don't think I am noticing anything else.

The real advantage to shooting with both eyes open is reduced eye fatigue. It's more relaxed. Closing one eye is an asymmetrical use of facial muscles. Muscles on one side has to keep an eye closed, the other to keep an eye open

Since there have been many conversations about the "see what you need to see, to get the hits you need to get" topic, I will just quickly add that I may or may not keep two eyes open when shooting and that is very much situation dependent and this is often the case for many people. Primarily, I often force dominance because of personal eye issues so I may go from two eyes open to a mere squint to a full closed non dominant eye.

Now the point you and I are making IMO is a part of the issue when this topic arrives. I force dominance (squint or close one eye) only at the point where my visual focus shifts to the front sight. This happens when the sight comes into my primary vision after it leaves my peripheral vision. In other words, as the weapon extends about half way between position 3 and 4 and I am picking up the sights in my peripheral vision with two eyes open. When the pistol hits the last 1-2 inches of extension as I am decelerating the pistol and I am refining my sight picture, I will adjust for "seeing what I need to see". Between this point and breaking any shots is mere fractions of a second and my focus at that point is on the target that I am shooting anyway.

As soon as the shot string is finished, both eyes are open again as I am opening my focus up to a myriad of other things in my surroundings. Even a good two eye open shooter should still be narrowing their mental focus onto the target to get quality hits and then open their world back up after finishing their shots. In essence for that ~.25 of a second to when the gun stops going bang, one eye or two eyes open is still going to see (mentally process) the same things. If someone can get quality hits in that fraction of a second that the gun is going bang AND process other things in their 180* peripheral vision, they are either super human ninjas or missing what they need to be hitting. I often tell people stuck on this topic that I don't clear a structure or run a course of fire with only one eye open and for that moment that the gun is going bang and I am forcing dominance, I am losing nothing over a two eye open shooter. It is a silly argument IMO and nothing worth sweating over.

For the eye or facial fatigue, it can be real, but I don't give that too much thought either. I have shot over many days straight, up to 3 weeks straight, over many thousands of rounds and never found myself to have this become an issue. It can get tiresome at the end of a long day, but at my age, everything is a bit more tired at the end of a long day.

As a side note, I get far more fatigued much quicker when laying behind a scoped long gun and a spotting scope than I do with a pistol, carbine or shotgun.

[BN]

Lots of good advice here. I shot with my weak eye closed for years before I learned to shoot with both eyes open. One thing that helped me was the advice that when you are seeing 2 sets of sights, one set will look darker. These are the ones to use.

Recently I've been shooting a scoped rifle with both eyes open. The weak eye doesn't really see much, but it is less fatiguing.

[Mr_White]

As soon as the shot string is finished, both eyes are open again as I am opening my focus up to a myriad of other things in my surroundings. Even a good two eye open shooter should still be narrowing their mental focus onto the target to get quality hits and then open their world back up after finishing their shots. In essence for that ~.25 of a second to when the gun stops going bang, one eye or two eyes open is still going to see (mentally process) the same things. If someone can get quality hits in that fraction of a second that the gun is going bang AND process other things in their 180* peripheral vision, they are either super human ninjas or missing what they need to be hitting. I often tell people stuck on this topic that I don't clear a structure or run a course of fire with only one eye open and for that moment that the gun is going bang and I am forcing dominance, I am losing nothing over a two eye open shooter. It is a silly argument IMO and nothing worth sweating over.

Exactly right, IMHO.

[MistWolf]

Since there have been many conversations about the "see what you need to see, to get the hits you need to get" topic, I will just quickly add that I may or may not keep two eyes open when shooting and that is very much situation dependent and this is often the case for many people. Primarily, I often force dominance because of personal eye issues so I may go from two eyes open to a mere squint to a full closed non dominant eye.

Now the point you and I are making IMO is a part of the issue when this topic arrives. I force dominance (squint or close one eye) only at the point where my visual focus shifts to the front sight. This happens when the sight comes into my primary vision after it leaves my peripheral vision. In other words, as the weapon extends about half way between position 3 and 4 and I am picking up the sights in my peripheral vision with two eyes open. When the pistol hits the last 1-2 inches of extension as I am decelerating the pistol and I am refining my sight picture, I will adjust for "seeing what I need to see". Between this point and breaking any shots is mere fractions of a second and my focus at that point is on the target that I am shooting anyway.

As soon as the shot string is finished, both eyes are open again as I am opening my focus up to a myriad of other things in my surroundings. Even a good two eye open shooter should still be narrowing their mental focus onto the target to get quality hits and then open their world back up after finishing their shots. In essence for that ~.25 of a second to when the gun stops going bang, one eye or two eyes open is still going to see (mentally process) the same things. If someone can get quality hits in that fraction of a second that the gun is going bang AND process other things in their 180* peripheral vision, they are either super human ninjas or missing what they need to be hitting. I often tell people stuck on this topic that I don't clear a structure or run a course of fire with only one eye open and for that moment that the gun is going bang and I am forcing dominance, I am losing nothing over a two eye open shooter. It is a silly argument IMO and nothing worth sweating over.

For the eye or facial fatigue, it can be real, but I don't give that too much thought either. I have shot over many days straight, up to 3 weeks straight, over many thousands of rounds and never found myself to have this become an issue. It can get tiresome at the end of a long day, but at my age, everything is a bit more tired at the end of a long day.

As a side note, I get far more fatigued much quicker when laying behind a scoped long gun and a spotting scope than I do with a pistol, carbine or shotgun.

My experiences are close to this.

Eye fatigue is a factor for me because daily I use my eyes to make critical alignments, taking measurements with a scale or micrometer or lining up a tool with a cut line or drilling at a crosshair. Like you, I find the onset of eye fatigue is quicker when looking through optics than iron sights. It's one reason I won't waste time or money on cheap optics