One Eyed Shooter - How bad is it?

[echo1]

I'm blind in my left eye since '71 at 20 years old. Still been shootin and flyin, got a "Waver of demonstrated ability" for my 3rd class medical. If you want your sphincter to pucker, fly and land with me on a short unlit strip at night. Zero depth perception PAX

 

[MunnyShot]

Are you 100% left hand/eye dominant? The reason why I ask is because I've encountered/trained a lot of people who believe this and after a simple test it turned out that they were forced to be right handed but are left eye dominant. After that turning their head slightly to the left, the double vision/blurriness went away and they could shoot with both eyes open.

 

[RustVendor]

This last part is interesting to me, because what I've been taught for rifle marksmanship is you focus your eye on the front sight/reticle, and you focus your mind on bringing the sight/reticle on the target. The sight should be sharp, and it's ok if the target is a bit blurry. Is it the opposite for pistol? I haven't shot a pistol in years, and I've never had any instruction on it.

Everything changed with dots and scopes because you can have both he in focus at the same time, when people realized that target focus worked better especially in dynamic shooting like in pistols, people started doing target focus with irons too. But there is a limit and for far shots you have to find the balance
Between focusing on the sight vs the target. It really just emphasizes how janky iron sights are though. The technology is here and it's reliable so irons are obsolete

 

[BOOLITZ]

As a former 'squinter' who had 20/20 or better vision and was a good shot, train with both eyes open. It will pay off.

It was a conscious decision to start practicing in a way that was initially uncomfortable, but in the end the practice really paid off.

It took me about a year or two, but I am now better with both eyes open with my pistols than squinting one eye closed. This has led to faster follow up times, and overall better accuracy. And I get the benefits of more natural aiming and natural peripheral vision which allows me to see my shots much more clearly, since I am focused on my target and not the sights/target/sights like when I was one-eyeing it.

I still squint when using scopes, or sometimes for a longer range shot with irons where I'm really taking my time, but almost all pistol shooting is now two-eyes open and I'm a far, far better shooter for it.

Thanks for the advice. My performance is taking a hit right now but I'll stick with forcing 2 eyes knowing will pay off.

 

[BOOLITZ]

Are you 100% left hand/eye dominant? The reason why I ask is because I've encountered/trained a lot of people who believe this and after a simple test it turned out that they were forced to be right handed but are left eye dominant. After that turning their head slightly to the left, the double vision/blurriness went away and they could shoot with both eyes open.

I am left hand left eye dominant but I will try this tonight. Thanks!

 

[ZeroFoxGiven]

I feel people get too wrapped up in what is better, best, etc.

Do what you can do to the best of your ability and skill level and practice. Nothing is one size fits all.

 

[MunnyShot]

I am left hand left eye dominant but I will try this tonight. Thanks!

Try this, with both eyes open hold the point finger of either hand vertically and look at light switch across the room. Close your right eye did your finger move off of the switch? If not with both eyes open do the same except close your left eye. Your eye dominance will be wich ever eye you close and your finger doesn't move.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

No offense but this is terrible advice lol we must have different standards when it comes to good shooting

It’s ok but I disagree. I started shooting at age 10 in 1978. By the time I heard this was a thing I was in my late 30s (which was 20 years ago). By then I was shooting well and I shrugged it off as yet another thing that was overblow as an issue. What I really think is more important is practicing shooting with you non-dominate hand on pistols and non-dominate side for long arms. This actually gets much less discussion and could be more of a real issue in a gun fight where you might need to use the other side. Here’s 200ish rounds at 7 yards where I wasn’t shooting at a rate of round per second with several different pistols with an XS big dot sight. The goal was just to get the round in the black; more like a self defense type shooting. When I used to focus on accuracy, I’d typically shoot about a 1.5” group at 7 yards. The really low “flyers” are mostly from shooting last few mags unsupported weak hand.

 

[Z Arms LLC]

Of my roughly 14 years shooting I had been shooting one eye closed shooting irons exclusively for 12-13 of them, mainly due to my dad never putting dots on his guns. The moment I put a dot on my gun I shot both eyes open and was immediately faster at target acquisition and target focus.

This will mainly boil down to your experience level and time behind a gun. When I was shooting irons I was always front sight focused, the first ever time I shot a pistol with a dot I shot both eyes opened and was target focused. Something just clicked, and I am guessing it was the decade and some change I had shooting previously.

I wasn't bobbing my head searching for the dot, the muscle memory just brought the gun to my eye line and the only difference was I was focusing on the target, there was a dot in the way, and I could see more.

Train yourself to be 2 eyes opened. It will help tremendously if you ever decide to switch to a dot, and allow you more awareness

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Of my roughly 14 years shooting I had been shooting one eye closed shooting irons exclusively for 12-13 of them, mainly due to my dad never putting dots on his guns. The moment I put a dot on my gun I shot both eyes open and was immediately faster at target acquisition and target focus.

This will mainly boil down to your experience level and time behind a gun. When I was shooting irons I was always front sight focused, the first ever time I shot a pistol with a dot I shot both eyes opened and was target focused. Something just clicked, and I am guessing it was the decade and some change I had shooting previously.

I wasn't bobbing my head searching for the dot, the muscle memory just brought the gun to my eye line and the only difference was I was focusing on the target, there was a dot in the way, and I could see more.

Train yourself to be 2 eyes opened. It will help tremendously if you ever decide to switch to a dot, and allow you more awareness

My squinting or briefly closing one eye has been with irons. Haven’t yet put a green dot on my slide. Have been planning to get one to try on a range weapon just to see what it is all about. Now I’m curious to see how it changes both eyes open.

 

[Plenty_Pack_556]

How trained are you with your eyes. Can you look down the iron sights of an AR and have the rear aperature be focused and clear and make the front sight blurry and at-will do the opposite by making the front sight clear within the rear aperature which should now be blurry.?

Well.. not trained., but I imagine alot of people can do this, but I've known a few who couldn't.

 

[Fulcrum]

Thanks for the video. That’s very interesting.

Everything changed with dots and scopes because you can have both he in focus at the same time, when people realized that target focus worked better especially in dynamic shooting like in pistols, people started doing target focus with irons too. But there is a limit and for far shots you have to find the balance
Between focusing on the sight vs the target. It really just emphasizes how janky iron sights are though. The technology is here and it's reliable so irons are obsolete

That’s interesting about how red dots and modern scopes have made it possible to have the sighting system and the target both in prefect focus. When I upgraded my rifle scope to one where you focus the reticle using the eyepiece, and you focus the target and set the parallel distance using a size focus knob, it made a huge difference for me. The entire sight picture was so crisp. That technological leap probably justifies a change in technique.

I haven’t shot a pistol in years, but I’m thinking I might start again next year. And with my eyesight, I already know I will go straight to a red dot. I’ll keep this info in mind.

Thanks to both of you!