With conventionally mounted high magnification scopes, and distant targets ..... I have to close my left eye ..... the disparity in image size bothers me. I learned to shoot with just my dominant eye ..... when I started shooting handguns I had to work really hard keep both eyes open ..... same with a scout scoped rifle.
One eye or two when sighting--which do you use?
- Thread starter stagpanther
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With conventionally mounted high magnification scopes, and distant targets ..... I have to close my left eye ..... the disparity in image size bothers me. I learned to shoot with just my dominant eye ..... when I started shooting handguns I had to work really hard keep both eyes open ..... same with a scout scoped rifle.
I'm not Stagpanther, but I just do it. I used to close the off eye years ago, but just made up my mind that I wasn't going to do it anymore. And I don't. Nothing other than just trying and finding it worked better.
IMO the only people that have a legitimate reason for not using both eyes are those shooting from their non-dominate side. And they need to learn to shoot from the other side. It seems awkward at first but I've watched several make the switch. There was a learning curve, but every one of them became a better shot after they mastered it.
I shoot rifles, shotguns and handguns. It is near impossible to be any good firing a shotgun at moving targets with one eye closed. You have to have both open for your brain to accurately judge speed and distance so you know how much to lead the target. Handguns are usually fired from near the centerline of the body so which eye is dominate is much less of a factor.
If you're having trouble using a scope with both eyes open you might want to try a better scope. Especially one with lower magnification to begin with. Scopes with 3X or less are easier to use, but I even keep both eyes open on scopes up to 12X. Which is the most magnification of any scope I have.
stagpanther
New member
A problem I have with sighting 1 eye only is that within a fairly short time I had trouble maintaining a good picture without squinting--which leads to a headache after a while. The mere act of squinting seems to add "tension" to the whole picture.
I shoot handguns with my left hand and left eye. Long guns are right hand and eye. I shoot with my shooting eye open and the other partially open. From the reports I have seen under stress two eyed shooters usually close one eye when they shoot under a stressful situation. Even though they trained themselves to use 2 eyes in practice.
raddadmike
Inactive
Two eyes, but it took a bunch of practice. I still find myself closing my left eye on occasion
That's interesting. I read an article that someone else posted that I think is linked upthread that claims to be written by a Green Beret that states the exact opposite, that under fear your eyes open wider and you should train to shoot both eyes open because that is how you will be shooting if you fear for your life.
I'd be interested to read reports that state the opposite.
stagpanther
New member
I did finally find one kind of sight I still have trouble with without using just one eye--and I discovered it today when I removed a scope from my lever gun intending to use just the buckhorn rear leaf and front bead iron sights. I found that to be very challenging with both eyes open, even though I haven't had the same problem with other iron sight systems. I never did well with buckhorns even when using just one eye--so that may be the problem.
stagpanther
New member
That 's because your brain is hard-wired from years of doing it dominant eye, you can overcome that without too much effort if you just practice often enough.
stagpanther
New member
I did a bit more practice with the buckhorn with both eyes open--the problem is now that I've "brain trained" my eyes to ignore the ghost when sighting with both eyes open--when using the buckhorn the rear sight vanishes altogether and only the front is in focus. Problem with that is that I still need the rear ghost image to get an elevation reference point--even though main focus on the front iron is what I want to do. I've progressed to the point that a "slight squint" can keep enough of a blurred ghost of the rear leaf for elevation reference without going to full one-eye-closed. I'm sure a rear aperture or peep would eliminate the issue altogether--but I'm interested in trying to adapt to the "factory stock" buckhorn, just for the heck of it.
stagpanther
New member
My second day of working with just the buckhorn irons and using 2 eyes. This is quite hard, I have to admit I can't get a quick sight picture with both eyes open right from the start--I still have to begin with squinting enough so the rear leaf comes into reference for elevation before focusing exclusively on the front bead. I think I can get the hang of it with a bit more work, but there's only so much of teeth and brain rattling I can take with the warm 300 gr speer JHP loads I'm using, so I'll have to gradually work up. Another issue is that the notched elevation slider always slides forward under recoil knocking the elevation down, took me a while to figure out why my vertical spread was so significant.
50 yds; not great but I think I can get it down with more practice.
50 yds; not great but I think I can get it down with more practice.
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stagpanther
New member
I'm guessing it's a fitment issue with easy solution (I hope).
Interesting thing about this. When I actually picked up a scoped rifle and say 'OK, I'm gonna look through this scope with both eyes open' I can't do it.
A couple of weeks ago I had the scope cranked up to 12x and was on the rifle about to fire when a thought about both eyes open crossed my mind and I realized that I had both eyes open right then.
So, I guess I do without even realizing it.
A couple of weeks ago I had the scope cranked up to 12x and was on the rifle about to fire when a thought about both eyes open crossed my mind and I realized that I had both eyes open right then.
So, I guess I do without even realizing it.