Shooting with one eye or both open

[Creek Henry]

Yo

Both eyes open... Look at the target but put all of your mental focus on the front sight. Works for me anyway but takes a lot of concentration.

 

[Doc Holliday 1950]

I posted last I'm left handed but my dominate eye is my right eye. When I
close my left eye, I see one single image. When I shoot with both eyes open and look down the sights, I see double. Can anyone explain what's happening
or how to stop it?
Thanks Storm for the post. I always wondered about this.
Doc

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I posted last I'm left handed but my dominate eye is my right eye. When I
close my left eye, I see one single image. When I shoot with both eyes open and look down the sights, I see double. Can anyone explain what's happening
or how to stop it?

Everyone sees a double image when shooting with both eyes open. You can't stop it -- it's natural and normal. If you DIDN'T see a double image, that would be abnormal.

See my post above. The key is not to "stop" the double image, since you can't, but to train the brain to ignore the image from the non-dominant eye.

 

[darkgael]

Training

As noted above, two images are normal.....they are also an indicator that your eyes have already begun to adapt to one eye focus. Note what happens when you lower the gun away from the aiming path as you are seeing two images.....as soon as you lower the gun, you see one image. What happened? Well, you removed the object that you were supposed to focus on....the front sight....and your two eyes reverted to normal vision.
It is helpful to remember when you are training the eye for both open shooting that your aiming eye is not focusing on the target but on the front sight which is less than three feet away.
The human eye is remarkable for its adaptability. The best example of this is the fact that the images that the lense of the eye focuses on the retina are upside down.....the brain flips them for us so we perceive them as upright. Compared to that, training to focus attention on the front sight while ignoring the image from the non aiming eye is no big deal.

 

[Danw]

I'm right handed but my right eye is legally blind so my dominant eye is the left eye. Both eyes open when shooting pistol and rifle. I got used to both eyes open years ago while doing photography and it carried over into shooting.
Basically, the only way I shoot rifle is with a scope as I do use the right eye (with a contact lens) as I can't get my cheek over far enough to use my left eye.
Tried shooting left handed but just too awkward for me.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Both. Greater situational awareness.