Thread: Both eyes open..... ?????

Gday,

Out of curiosity who here shoots there rifles with both eyes open?.. I'm a lefty and I struggle to keep my face relaxed closing my right eye for long periods if Im shooting groups ect. With both eyes open it is far more comfortable but then there is the issue of my focus sometimes changing.. how do you fine people do it..

Cheers
Tim

Absolutely always with both eyes open, found it never to be a problem and keeps a lot of peripheral awareness.

Pistol, Rifle or Shotgun, I always shoot with both eyes open.

I try to. But don't always do it. I find I have to close my left I eye to let the right before dominant. Then open left and its fine

Both eyes open for me

Both

Both when shouldered to the right and left eye only when rifle shouldered to the left.

thanks for feedback. I was a one eye closed man but am transitioning to opening both eyes far more relaxing

Most of my scopes are 4x or more. I have problems keeping both eyes open with the higher magnifications. Well not open, I have problems getting the "scope" eye to stay focused when the non scope eye is open. I suspect I am left eye dominant but shoot with the right eye. Though I use the right eye for the spotting scope as the left does not like that either. Maybe I am just stuffed....

Both - always have. Got mono vision but it's still easier with both eyes open.

Yip im both eyes wide open too. Just feels more natural to me. The animals seem to go down all the time so it must work

Originally Posted by timattalon

Most of my scopes are 4x or more. I have problems keeping both eyes open with the higher magnifications. Well not open, I have problems getting the "scope" eye to stay focused when the non scope eye is open. I suspect I am left eye dominant but shoot with the right eye. Though I use the right eye for the spotting scope as the left does not like that either. Maybe I am just stuffed....

you can put obstruction on side of your scope so offside eye is blocked out from seeing....a pair of sunnies with paper dot or smear of grease right in line with where offside eye is looking works too. Ive always closed offside eye but after years off shotgunning the offside eye just sort of does its own thing now,open sometimes and shut at others.
if shooting south paw I do have to close right eye.

Originally Posted by Tussock

If you are having trouble relaxing its most like the wrong eye,

You are not left or right handed for shooting really, you should shoot with your dominant eye and work the rest out from there.

Both eyes open is good, but need to use dominant eye through scope.

Hold a finger up and align it with an object. Let your vision go double, and then close one eye, then the other.

When one eye is open, and the finger stays stationary relative to the object you aligned it with, that is your dominant eye.

The other eye will move relative to the object (parallax error).

Shoot with whatever side has you dominant eye looking through the scope.

On low powers, up to 4X, the eye will not care that you are looking at two different depths with both open. Once you are at higher powers, the lenses in the eye are trying to adjust to two depths and the extreme difference can fatigue you, so closing or covering one eye is Ok.

Two eyes allow your brain to do its mathematically impossible calculations for range, rate of movement etc. Have HUGE faith in your brains capacity to make all those minute corrections faster than you can consciously think of them. We survived for 150,000 years by throwing things accurately. You have all the stuff in your head already, the hard part is not over thinking it, and training your brain to apply all those genetic tools (like little computer programs for the brain) to shooting, where the projectile goes a lot faster!

Thanks tussock... Great reply..

Im certainly left eye dominant, though I'd never done that test before that you mentioned. You had me a little nervous for a tick as I'd already invested in a lefty bolt action... I think it is just practice as I said it does feel more comfortable with both eyes open therfore more relaxing..
Interesting no one had had ever pointed it out to me before. I will keep an eye (pun intended) on my mates to see if they could benefit from some guidance in that department.. I only picked this up from watching @Norway 's THLR.no youtube channel.. If you haven't watched some of his tutorials I highly recommend you do..
cheers
Tim

+1 Tussock you beat me to it. deepsouthaussie if you have been taught to use the Right hand to write (as I was at school) it can create a bit of a conflict in the brain. But now you know you are part of the southpaw club, practice and it will eventually become second nature. Try some open sights and shotgun also, good practice to train the brain.

I am fortunate I have shot with both eyes open since day 1, iron sights and scopes - way back in the time when you were supposed to shut the non aiming eye full stop! Also in target shooting it is vital to shoot both eyes open in order to reduce eye strain (during long strings) that comes from shooting one eyed. Some shooters cannot get eye master with both eyes open so they shoot with a blinder attached to rear diopter sight so they can maintain both eyes open and focus OK. Obviously not an option in the hunting environment. One way that works for some is to train your eyes by half shutting your non aiming eye and then slowly open whilst on aim. You should eventually be able to automatically shoot both eyes open. As I said, only works for some.