# Is it better to shoot with both eyes open ?



## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

I am new to handguns and I shoot with a Glock 17 and a Sig Mosquito.
I am trying to shoot with both eyes open but I am not comfortable doing so. I am still more accurate with my left eye closed or half closed.
What are your advices ? Thanks in advance


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## TOF (Sep 7, 2006)

For combat shooting (i.e. fast and furious) both eyes are best. For absolute accuracy I find one eye works best for me.


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## shaolin (Dec 31, 2012)

TOF said:


> For combat shooting (i.e. fast and furious) both eyes are best. For absolute accuracy I find one eye works best for me.


agree


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

black.cap17 said:


> I am new to handguns and I shoot with a Glock 17 and a Sig Mosquito.
> I am trying to shoot with both eyes open but I am not comfortable doing so. I am still more accurate with my left eye closed or half closed.
> What are your advices ? Thanks in advance


If you're having trouble with shooting both eyes open, you may be what is called cross~dominant in that your dominant eye does not correspond to your dominant hand. For example I am right handed but left eye dominant. There are several threads on this here, I will post links later


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## rex (Jan 27, 2012)

I have cross dominance,which isn't a big deal,but I can't shoot with both open and tried quite a few times to train my eyes.The dominance is so slight that no matter what either eye will focus on the front sight.The problem is I can't control which one to focus and it's hit and miss if the one that should focus is the one that does.I don't close one eye,I just squint it a little to make one take over and still have some peripheal vision.Shooting clays,trap,or skeet is pure hell for me.I even tried to get my right to be the dominant one but it just won't co-operate,so I live with it.


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## retired_diver (Jun 22, 2013)

TOF said:


> For combat shooting (i.e. fast and furious) both eyes are best. For absolute accuracy I find one eye works best for me.


I agree also.
If you are cross eye'd dominate you could try this, it worked for my brother who is left eye dom and right handed. We changed his stance to left foot back and hold in his right hand that way your left eye is straighter on the sight than the right. it helped him try it if you don't like it go back to whatever stance you are using.


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## Jayghf1978 (Jun 11, 2013)

Trial and error, that is why we have ranges to practice and experiment.

Either may work, one might work better than the other. Do what you are most comfortable.

I shoot with both eyes closed. Just kidding.


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

Train and shoot with both eyes open. You'll quickly become accustomed to this.


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## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

Thank you all for your replies.
So, I understand it's also OK to squint or close one eye. But I will try again to keep both eyes open, just to know if I can get more comfortable with it.
I don't think I am cross-eyed dominant : I am right handed and I aim with my right eye.


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

black.cap17 said:


> Thank you all for your replies.
> So, I understand it's also OK to squint or close one eye. But I will try again to keep both eyes open, just to know if I can get more comfortable with it.
> I don't think I am cross-eyed dominant : I am right handed and I aim with my right eye.


Try this to really start getting use to using both eyes. Fire from a standing position, free hand, and a target 21 feet out. Use the isosceles stance, which is both arms fully extended forming an isosceles triangle with your body, handgun firmly gripped. Now try squinting. It's not natural, plus the fact that you will not shoot as well as you will with both eyes open.

The reason you want to practice this way is peripheral vision. This is greatly reduced when your weak eye is closed or squinting. You do not want to do this in an extreme encounter... you need all of your faculties working at their peak. If you train like this, it will become second nature.

Hope this helps.


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## TAPnRACK (Jan 30, 2013)

Here's my 2 cents...

I teach both eyes open for self defence and combat shooting for quick acquisition and greater peripheral vision of surrounding threats. 

To check for eye dominance... using your dominant hand, point to an object with your index finger (picture on wall, etc). While pointing, close each eye... one at a time. Which ever eye allows your finger to still be pointed at the object is going to be your dominant eye. 

As Southern Boy stated... get into the correct stance and grip the gun firmly... raising the gun to your eyes, not tilting your head down.

Focus on your target/threat... not the sights. Once focused on the intended target you'll notice your able to pick up your sight picture & sight alignment quite easily... from there you simply line em' up while focusing on the target/threat and press the trigger straight back. If done correctly you should have the same sight picture as if you were using your dominant eye (squinting).

I had a difficult time getting used to this as I was so used to picking up my front sight & focusing on it... the method I use is also the eye technique utilized in the C.A.R. system.

Give it a try... it must be practiced, and may seem awkward at first... but you'll learn to quickly identify you threat, line up your sights and still maintain your situational awareness (peripheral vision).

Good luck.


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## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

Thank you SouthernBoy, TAPnRACK,

I am still trying but not yet getting any convincing result. I tried your method, TAPnRACK:
_"...Focus on your target/threat... not the sights. Once focused on the intended target you'll notice your able to pick up your sight picture & sight alignment quite easily... from there you simply line em' up while focusing on the target/threat and press the trigger straight back..."._
It works OK. But I am still more accurate if I squint my left eye.

Thanks again for your advices.


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## Shaun32887 (Jun 30, 2013)

My friend suggested this to e a while back. Feels really awkward at first, but you get used to it fairly quickly, and I can see how the enhanced SA would be useful


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## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

Thank you, Shaun32887


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## Glock Doctor (Mar 14, 2011)

A conclusion I've reached after decades of teaching marksmanship: *Everybody's eyesight is different*. So, remember that it's OK to squint with your nondominant eye!

Yes, it's best to keep both eyes, more or less, open. (You can fully open that nondominant eye AFTER you have the sight picture precisely in mind.) Your senses of: motion, depth-of-field, and variations in distance will be thrown off if all you do is use one eye. Archers shoot with both eyes open, and so should you.


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## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

Thanks Doc,

Everytime I go to the range, I try to shoot a few times with both eyes open. I did as you advise :
_"You can fully open that nondominant eye AFTER you have the sight picture precisely in mind"_
(And I also imagine being an archer) And I got some better results ...


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## Glock Doctor (Mar 14, 2011)

black.cap17 said:


> Thanks Doc,
> 
> Everytime I go to the range, I try to shoot a few times with both eyes open. I did as you advise: "_You can fully open that nondominant eye AFTER you have the sight picture precisely in mind" _(And I also imagine being an archer) And I got some better results ...


 You're welcome!

I've spent a lot of time trying to figure this out for several of my marksmanship students - Especially the ones who've been cross-eye dominant. Personally, I'm ambidexterous. One day while switching the pistol from one hand to the other I, suddenly, realized that I wasn't canting my head in order to work with my, so-called, dominant eye.

When I shoot a pistol right-handed, I aim with my right eye; when I shoot a pistol left-handed, I aim with my left eye. Then at a match, one day, I suddenly realized that I'm NOT the only shooter who does this! Other shooters, perhaps unconsciously, were doing it too! If there's, 'a trick' to shooting this way it clearly involved squinting with the opposite eye until a clear sight picture is obtained and the shot string gets underway.

Perhaps if I weren't ambidextrous to begin with, just like every other pistolero, I would have continued to ignore this little known and too often poorly understood personal vision phenomenon. (Then again, yes, I spent many years of my life as a (reasonably talented) archer; and, hey, everybody always kept both eyes open! In my day we shot bows and arrows, 'Indian or Mongol style', and never used mechanical sighting tools. It was, all, highly intuitive; and many archers I knew were much faster and more accurate than anyone I watch on an archery range, today. Both eyes were always open, too.) 

If there's, 'a trick' to aiming a pistol with both eyes open, for me (and other marksmen like me) it's squinting for just long enough to allow your brain to get that three part sight picture well lined up. Once your brain has the correct image it will hold onto it until you finish the shot string; and, if you're like me, you won't even notice that you other eye is open. All that happens is that your depth-of-field and ability to accurately gauge moving objects will improve.

The only time I never find myself squinting while aiming a firearm is while I'm shooting trap (and I've always been a decent trap shooter). In trap shooting the necessity to immediately get your aiming eye onto a rapidly moving bird precludes any necessity to squint. So, in a long life of aiming at things with: rifles, shotguns, pistols, and bows I've learned a few things and find personal vision to have wide variables between both different individuals, and whatever tool is used.

Hope this helps you out!


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

I wondered down to my basement yesterday to put something away and decided to go into my gun safe and handle a few of my little friends (I had open back surgery 2 1/2 weeks ago so this was the first time down there in since the surgery). I thought about the OP's question on this thread and went into my shooting range stance (isosceles with arms straight and locked and a firm grip) and just for the record, both eyes were wide open. It's just so natural for me to do this. Everything lines up as it should and it feels right.

Thought I would just throw that in.


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## black.cap17 (May 12, 2013)

I hope that someday it will be half as natural, and easy, for me as it is for you now, SouthernBoy.


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## SouthernBoy (Jun 27, 2007)

black.cap17 said:


> I hope that someday it will be half as natural, and easy, for me as it is for you now, SouthernBoy.


It will if you work at it and practice in you home a lot. Many people do squint or even shut one eye when sighting and shooting a handgun. The problem with this when training with a gun that is to be a defensive tool is that you loose a lot of vision to both sides of your body. If you ever have to call upon that gun to save your skin, you are going to need all of your faculties working at their peak to help pull you through. This is why I train the way I do.


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