One Eye open or Two?

[holmes168]

I'm still a new pistol shooter trying to learn the basics. During the Civilian Carry podcast with Gabe White he mentioned shooting with two eyes open. I learned shooting M4's with one eye closed and have shot like that ever since.
This week I dry fired with two eyes open and picked up the front sight just like Gabe described. Live fire at the range was a disaster though. I couldn't pick up the front sight well at all. Seeing what seemed like ten guns didn't help either.

What do the rest of the PF members do? One eye open or two? For those who transitioned to two eyes open- how long did you work at it?
Or is two eyes open what you've always done?

[Drang]

Keeping both eyes open has been recognized as a "best practice" since long before the term "best practice" became a cliche. I've been working to keep both eyes open since high school.

It can also be very difficult, if not nearly impossible, for many people.

[scott]

I was taught to "keep all your eyes open". That's how I teach new shooters and it generally works okay. But I'm blind in one eye, so that's as much as I can say.

[Odin Bravo One]

Try putting a piece of scotch tape on your non dominant eye eye pro. Just enough to blur the sight picture a bit, and let your dominant eye continue to do the heavy lifting. Gradually work until you don't need it at all.

Of course, this may not help you at all. I've seen it work miracles for some people, and was a waste of time and effort for others. Good luck.

[txdpd]

This week I dry fired with two eyes open and picked up the front sight just like Gabe described. Live fire at the range was a disaster though. I couldn't pick up the front sight well at all. Seeing what seemed like ten guns didn't help either.

Are you trying to see how your groups are forming up? If you're looking at the target between shots, your mind is eventually going to cut out the back and forth and just try to focus on the target. I broke that habit by using black targets where I couldn't see holes in the target.

My eyes are so bad now that it's one eye open if I want to focus on the front sight, I'm not willing to throw in the towel and shoot with reading glasses on.

[MistWolf]

The ideal is to shoot with two eyes open. Some shooters cannot do this but with practice, the majority can. Be sure to identify which eye is dominant. Trying to use your non-dominant eye will result in seeing two sets of sights. If you're positive you're using your dominant eye and still see two sets of sight, you may be focusing too hard on the front sight.

Degree of eye dominance varies from individual to individual, I've worked with some new shooters with weak eye dominance

[Mr_White]

Try putting a piece of scotch tape on your non dominant eye eye pro. Just enough to blur the sight picture a bit, and let your dominant eye continue to do the heavy lifting. Gradually work until you don't need it at all.

Of course, this may not help you at all. I've seen it work miracles for some people, and was a waste of time and effort for others. Good luck.

I think this is exactly right fwiw.

[spinmove_]

I've been working on this myself for a while now and I've found that the biggest things that have helped me shoot with both eyes open was @Mr_White's article/thread on focus and accommodation (if you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it) and working on my presentation/press-out. The trick is accommodating on the target and, during press-out, bring your focus back to the front sight.

If you're doing it right you'll see one target and two sets of sights, but that second set of sights is so far off to one side of your vision that if you manage to start focusing on that you're totally off base on what you should be paying attention to.


Sent from mah smertfone using tapathingy

[Clobbersaurus]

As Mr. White pointed out, Sean M's advice is very good. If you can make it work, do it.

I tried this, and though I really would love to shoot with both eyes open, I just get too much visual confusion with both eyes open. I have to close or partially close my right eye (I'm cross eye dominant as well) to see what I need to see.

Please don't get too hung up on what the internet says is proper and do what works for you. I wasted a lot of time with the vision stuff when I should have just shot the damn gun and let my eyes do what they needed to do to see what I needed to see. As MistWolf pointed out, please try to use your dominant eye and adapt according to your vision.

With vision there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Do what works for you.

[DC_P]

This is the way I learned - with a lot of dry fire and draw practice without actually shooting. It can still be difficult and I have to squint sometimes to get the focus, but consistent practice makes it a lot easier.