Eye Dominance

[Salopian]

As far back as I can remember there has always been a debate about whether to shoot with both eyes open or to close an eye.

Now we know that if you can always shoot with both eyes open without a 'pull' to your 'off' eye it has got to be good, but many people just cannot do that .

So I would like to know how many of us shoot both eyes open all the time and how many of us wink or squint the 'off' eye .

Think about it carefully , do you always shoot both eyes open or do you wink or dim down an eye on certain types of target?

 

[Charliej]

Right handed left eye dominant i shoot both eyes open for any driven and going away targets usually both on loopers and battues but often close or squint on closer crossers and quartering ones .

 

[donna]

Right handed and left eye dominant (a lot of females are apparently) and I have to close my left eye or else I see two hazy barrels and two hazy clays.  If it’s really close and quick I close eye before I call pull but if I’ve enough time I call pull, and when I see the target clearly I close my left eye which still gives me enough time to focus fully on target.  

 

[Westward]

As far back as I can remember I've never been able to close one eye without partly squinting the other one, so it has to be two eyes for me and I'm not overly bothered what my dominance is.

 

[antse7en]

Both eyes open, all the time - only exception being extremely slow rabbits where I may squint my left eye to shoot blank at it.

 

[Will Hewland]

 Both open all the time. Right handed and firmly right eye dominant so I have to blame everything else for not being good enough. 

 

[Fred Flintstone]

Recently took a friend of mine along to some sporting practice. He is right handed, and, before we set off, we soon established he is also left-eye dominant.

The obvious short term answer, just so he could experience the pleasure of the sport, I told him to ‘shoulder the gun and close your left eye’... oh the fun when he then told me he has never been able to wink or squint with one eye either!

Still, an enjoyable day!

 

[Salopian]

Thanks for the replies so far !

It really does surprise me how many are in fact in denial , they all want to shoot both eyes open because they have been told that is the only way that you can be a good shot , so they will never admit or even realise that they do actually wink or dim an eye.

Also many who have never ever shot before and know nothing about eye dominance can be right handed and very dominantly left eyed can just pick up a gun , be told what to do and without any problems at all centre a clay .

It really can be a fascinating subject .

 

[Fred Flintstone]

Even though I am ‘right and right’, I do squint my left as soon as I mount the gun, just to check my eye is centred down the rib.

Think it has now become a habit from prior to getting a (fairly) consistent mount.

 

[mpmilo]

Always shot right handed, right eye dominant, with left eye closed, in fact i have my left eye closed in all photos much to the other halfs amusement (not ).  However last sept i lost the vision in my right which meant to carry on i needed to shoot left handed, hard after 50+ years, I have on the odd occasion shouldered the gun in left shoulder and promptly shut left eye. Which as you can imagine makes target acquisition extremely difficult 

 

[Richard59]

 Both open all the time. Right handed and firmly right eye dominant so I have to blame everything else for not being good enough. 

This, am not aware of any "wink" "squint" nor "closing eye" a frown that may look like squint yes but a frown all the same

 

[PhilR]

I'm one of God's chosen few, being both left handed and left dominant eye, and shoot both eyes open. 

However, in the mid 80's during my transition from shooting skeet and sporting, which I used to shoot gun down and both eyes open, to DTL I had lessons with, at the time, a renowned shooter and coach.

He told me I had a master eye problem and I should obscure the focal point of my right lense to ensure my left eye was in control of the gun. I learned some considerable time afterwards that what I was actually doing was looking at the front bead without realising it. Shooting gun down is totally different to shooting a pre mounted gun and the big white blob in front drew my eye and I was essentially rifling the targets. What the 'coach' should've done was encouraged me to 'look at the clay, not at the bead'. 

In 2000 I took the plunge to have Lasik laser surgery on both eyes. The consultant assured me I was left eye dominant and nothing he would do could change that. I had a mountain of annual leave to use up at work so took three weeks off and shot every day I could find a trap shooting ground open, by this time I was shooting OT and UT and had left DTL behind.

I bullied myself to shoot with both eyes open, it was hard going and very frustrating as now I had perfect vision and seeing things clearly was a revelation and my brain had to adjust to getting binocular vision signals, rather than from one eye.  

I think the change to two open eyed shooting transformed my shooting and it was a great pity the 'coach' didn't spend sufficient time working with me on this critical point 35 years ago. 

 

[westley]

Always have shot with both eyes open, being right handed and right eye dominant. I used the both eyes open routine for shooting pistols as it was a form of 'practical pistol', but always one eye open for rifles. I have been fortunate in having had a couple of minor strokes, a detached retina and a cataract operation, it has always been my left eye. I had laser treatment to both eyes in the early 1990's, the best thing that I ever did. 

 

[JoostB]

I am right handed, left eye dominant. Shot r/h my entire life. Never heard about eye dominance until a couple of years ago. That was when I started ISSF 10mtr air rifle. My right eye doesn’t refresh its picture often enough when trying to aim with a peep sight on a target with rings. 
I had to then transfer the sights to my left eye with some special add ons. 
I can shoot clays r/h with my right eye by closing the left eye right before I pull the trigger. But it doesn’t work so well when I am tired. Perhaps the eye doesn’t refresh the picture too much anymore then again. 

 

[Jonny English]

Both eyes open, right hand, right master eye. Used to shut one eye when I was a teenager and then at around 17 or 18 went to Grimsthorpe reistered and for some reason my body took over and at the first stand I just shot both eyes open, had never even though about doing it, it just happened. Very weird feeling indeed, but never shut an eye since in 23 years.

 

[Doctor Lecter]

Thanks for the replies so far !

It really does surprise me how many are in fact in denial , they all want to shoot both eyes open because they have been told that is the only way that you can be a good shot , so they will never admit or even realise that they do actually wink or dim an eye.

Also many who have never ever shot before and know nothing about eye dominance can be right handed and very dominantly left eyed can just pick up a gun , be told what to do and without any problems at all centre a clay .

It really can be a fascinating subject .

i call pull both eyes open     dim / squint my left eye  as i fire shotgun     optician tells me  I'm right eye dominant   but my left eye is visually stronger ,   complex subject !!!  

 

[Robden]

Is it something to do with focal length as well?  

I'm right eyed and right handed, but have to close left eye.  With both eyes open and sraring only at the clay, when the barrels come into my peripheral vision                     

they are just a blob/mass of something. Closing the left eye and staring at the clay, when the barrels appear, it is just the one barrel.

I know that vision can change with age, so every few months I try a few rounds with both eyes open but nothing has changed....yet.

 

[DavidJ]

Is it something to do with focal length as well?  

I'm right eyed and right handed, but have to close left eye.  With both eyes open and sraring only at the clay, when the barrels come into my peripheral vision                     

they are just a blob/mass of something. Closing the left eye and staring at the clay, when the barrels appear, it is just the one barrel.

I know that vision can change with age, so every few months I try a few rounds with both eyes open but nothing has changed....yet.

I'd say that perfectly normal. 

 

[MartynB]

Is it something to do with focal length as well?  

I'm right eyed and right handed, but have to close left eye.  With both eyes open and sraring only at the clay, when the barrels come into my peripheral vision                     

they are just a blob/mass of something. Closing the left eye and staring at the clay, when the barrels appear, it is just the one barrel.

I know that vision can change with age, so every few months I try a few rounds with both eyes open but nothing has changed....yet.

Age is a factor that no one can understand until they’ve got there .  Laser surgery lasted 20+ years but nothing is for ever . 
I can still pass an eye test for DVLA standards , but further out the sharpness and contrast of a clay  , especially against a dark backdrop is problematic . My left eye has become stronger .  I think shooting one eyed is a practice  to be avoided .

 Thanks to two very interested opticians I’ve got  a) some shooting specific prescription distance specs that make focusing on the target a whole lot easier .

I’ve also just got b) one day throw away contact lenses , game shooting in the rain was miserable in the specs ! . The contact lenses are a bit of a gem , single vision gave the best and sharpest contrast compared with multi vision lenses  . So , soft , single vision , one day wear and chuck , and corrected for astigmatism.  I got them from Costco , £19.99 for an assessment and I got  3 appointments and 14 trial pairs . The optician spent ages with me .   No contract , just buy what I want , 90 pairs cost me around £1.20 a pair . They’ll last me for ages . 
I’m going to experiment , just for the hell of it , with shooting with just one in my right ( weak)  eye . 
 Since I’ve spent some time and cash on my vision  my shooting ( and enjoyment ) has certainly picked up .