Shoot both eyes open vs focus on front sight?

I am right-handed, left eye dominant, but not by much. If I focus on the front sight, I see two targets. If I focus on the target, I see two front sights. I currently close my left eye if I want to hit the target. So, am I doing something wrong?
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This is one possible result of weak dominance--neither eye is clearly dominant.

I have this trouble, sometimes worse than at others. When it's really bothering me, it's as if the target is switching back and forth between being doubled and not being doubled while the sights remain constant.

It is sometimes possible to retrain dominance, but it's not really a simple thing to do.
 
I am a cheater. There I said it and now everyone knows. I focus on the front sight with my dominate eye and I squint with my slave eye. During a shooting session I will tend to open my slave eye wider and wider but never as wide as my dominate eye.
 
consider making an occluder to help you train with both eyes open. A piece of scotch tape on your glasses works great. Put it on your non-dominate eye of course.
 
eyes

Having both eyes open offers a number of positives to the shooter.
The eyes are sympathetic....what goes on in one eye affects the other eye, at least to a degree. If one closes or squints the non-aiming eye, then the aiming eye is affected...some of its acuity is lost. In close encounters, this may not be an issue but for longer range repetitive shooting it is. Eye muscles become fatigued. The aiming eye dilates open a bit and depth of field in that eye is compromised. What many shooters do to deal with this is to occlude the non aiming eye with piece of opaque tape on the lens of their shooting glasses or use a clip on occluder. Of course, this is not practical in a defensive situation.

note:
Rifles, shotguns and pistols are all the same.
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Not quite so. Shotguns, depending on their use, may be quite different. In a close defensive situation, it may be that a aiming a shotgun is "the same".
Trying to hit at a flying object....a real or a clay bird, for instance.....the dynamics of a shotgun are quite different. There is no rear sight to look through and so the fit of the gun the the shooter is important. The shooter looks at the bird; properly fitted and properly mounted, the shotgun will shoot where he is looking.
Pete
 
I was born 95% blind in my right eye.
Despite have pretty much no sight in my right eye, I close it so I can shut out any distractions.
 
Many competitive shooters occlude one eye with tape or something else to block the vision of the non-dominant eye.
This only reinforces my prior point. Both eyes open is preferred for defensive shooting. But for competitive shooting where accuracy at distance is critical, closing or occluding one eye is necessary. Look at bullseye shooters or Olympic shooters.
 
eyes

RadNY: Maybe a minor point....occluding the non-aiming eye is, as you note, common in match shooting.......the eye is still open, it still gathers light, etc. it is just not being used otherwise
 
I've heard for many years that shooting with both eyes open is the "best" way to do it. It may very well be, but I simply cannot do it.

50+ years of shooting rifles, pistols and shotguns with my left eye closed has created a "muscle memory" or habit, call it what you will, that I simply have not been able to break with any degree of success.

Put quite simply, when I shoot with one eye, I HIT what I aim at, when I use both eyes I often do not. Right or wrong technique in the eyes of a trainer, I'll stick with what works for me, no matter what they say.

After all, what its all really about is what works, for you. There are methods that work well for most people. There are methods that work well if you begin your shooting training using them and become ingrained, so learning to use a different method is more difficult because you have to unlearn then learn.

I was once nearly forced into such a situation, in Basic Training. I shoot a rifle the way my father taught me. When I'm not using it for support, my right elbow is up in the air, not tucked down against my body. (and, I had a decade of shooting skill using this form, before I went into the Army)

One of the Drill Sgts began to get on my case about it, because my style was not what they were teaching everyone. A barked "WHO taught you to shoot that way TRAINEE?????" My answer "My Father, Drill SGT!!!!" clearly did not make him happy, and it was clear he was winding up for a rant that would end with me doing pushups and having to use the position exactly as they taught it.

Then, to my surprise, one of the other Drill Sgts showed him one of my targets. Group size was half the size of anyone else in my platoon, and only two other guys in my COMPANY matched, or beat it.

The Drill Sgt who spotted my "mistake" grunted, paused for a moment, then said, "well then keep it up!" and went on to make life miserable for another trainee.

The old saying "if its stupid but it works, its not stupid" isn't completely false. It doesn't have to be stupid, if it works for you (or for me) then it works.

Another method may be better, more efficient, more effective, maybe, but if you can't get there, if it doesn't work, for you, then its not better, for you.
 
I've heard for many years that shooting with both eyes open is the "best" way to do it. It may very well be, but I simply cannot do it.
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Likewise. If I try to focus on the front sight, to aim accurately, I need to at least squint with the non-dominant eye. Else I get various vision artifacts, like doubling and the like, and I can't shoot worth a damn.

I get that in a self defense shooting scenario keeping both eyes open is an advantage, but not shooting worth a damn isn't much of an advantage. At really close distance point shooting would be okay, but as soon as the gun comes up to use the sights, I squint with the right eye automatically.
 
Doesn't it seem that hard focusing on just the front sight kind of defeats the purpose of good sight alignment?
If you're going to use the sights, why not concentrate on both?
The rear sight is there for a reason.
Ignoring it and just using the front one has got to result in some sloppy shooting, even at close distances.
 
Always focus on the front sight with a handgun whether you shoot with one eye open or both. With open sights the eye will focus on the target, the front sight or the rear sight. It can't focus on all 3 at the same time. This is why bullseye competitors use red dot sights mostly. With the red dot you can focus on the target and do quite well.
 
Well, the eyes can't focus on two or three different objects at different distances so you have to pick a focal length just as you would need to do so with a camera. So if you focus on the front sight your rear sight will be at least slightly out of focus, and the target more so.

If you focus on the target, your sights are going to be fuzzy. Nearly everyone agrees that maximum accuracy for free hand pistol shooting is achieved by focusing on the front sight. The rear sight will still be sufficiently in focus to allow proper sight alignment. The farther away the target is, the fuzzier it will be.

But if someone is charging at you from 20 feet away brandishing a large knife, your eyes are probably going to be focusing on the target.
 
Both eyes open, all the time, for pistol, rifle and shotgun, focusing on the front sight. Target and rear can be a little fuzzy, doesn't matter. Competition and self defense shooting are both a flash slight picture, you don't get 2 minutes per shot like Bullseye.
 
G.wilikers, I see the rear sights and the target but they are not in sharp focus. The sharp focus is placed for me on the front sight. In fact I have found that I do better if I hyper focus on the front sight in a way that ensures for me that it is perfectly aligned. So I will focus on the tiny spaces of light on either side of the front sight, ensuring they are the same on either side. Even the tiniest variation on those can change POI by half an inch on an inch at 25 yards. And I also ensure that the top of the front sight is perfectly even with the top line of the rear sight. I have found that this is even harder for me to keep perfect due to recoil. (I almost always train with a shot timer so that I'm pushing for faster speeds.) Once I can maintain that perfect sight alignment the trick is then holding my arms out steady to keep it on the fuzzy target downrange. Strength of grip and a push/pull grip of the gun help me do this. No easy task but a lot of fun.
 
I had this same question come up about 3 months ago when I decided to make myself shoot w/ both eyes open and speed up the pace of shooting.

I couldn't make it work. I decided to change from shooting 5 shot groups at 1 inch X's and grading myself on the 5 shot group sizes.

I decided that in self defense shooting, I don't care about group size, but I do want the rounds going into an effectively small area.

I wound up using 6 inch circles drawn on white paper - not black or orange or red blotches that aren't there in real situations.

I grade my shooting on the percentage of rds. that are within the 6 inch circle. Inside the circle is +1, outside is -0-. I like this better than shooting at plates because I want to keep track of where my misses are going. It seems like a logical system, at least to me.
 
I shoot everything with both eyes . But it is difference shoot a shotgun .
Shooting a shotgun competitively You need a gun that fits well . All you should see is the target . If you see the front sight your gun does not fit you . (unless your trying to hit the front sight )
 
time

you don't get 2 minutes per shot like Bullseye
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You don't get two minutes a shot in Conventional Bullseye either. You get plenty of time but not two minutes.
Ten rounds in ten minutes is the limit for slowfire. Most shooters use less time than that. The High Master shooter Darius "Doc" Young often shot the ten rounds in one minute. Remember, also, that - outdoors at least - they are shooting at a target that is 50 yards away.
International Precision pistol (Free Pistol) allows two hours for the course of fire which is 60 shots. Target at 50 meters.
Pete
 
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