I just can’t do it…

P

paulie

New member
I’ve been trying for quite a while to shoot with both eyes open, but for the life of me – I just can’t do it.
I shoot right handed, and have determined that I am right eye dominant.
I can sit behind the rifle and look thru my 36x scope with both eyes open, and see the target and flags properly. That only lasts a few seconds though; than one of my eyes ( or my brain ) goes out and than I can see the target or the flags, but not both.
It gets to be so distracting, that I end up just squinting my left eye and looking thru the scope with my right eye, while constantly moving my head a bit to see what the flags are doing.
I don’t think shooting one eye is the proper way, plus it takes a bit more time trying to synchronize everything – but I have no idea what else to do.
Is there a trick to getting the brain and both eyes to work together while looking thru a scope?
Please… any help will be appreciated.
paul
 
I know this is 'benchrest' . . . but, here's a wild stab at it . . .

paulie said:
I’ve been trying for quite a while to shoot with both eyes open, but for the life of me – I just can’t do it.
I shoot right handed, and have determined that I am right eye dominant.
I can sit behind the rifle and look thru my 36x scope with both eyes open, and see the target and flags properly. That only lasts a few seconds though; than one of my eyes ( or my brain ) goes out and than I can see the target or the flags, but not both.
It gets to be so distracting, that I end up just squinting my left eye and looking thru the scope with my right eye, while constantly moving my head a bit to see what the flags are doing.
I don’t think shooting one eye is the proper way, plus it takes a bit more time trying to synchronize everything – but I have no idea what else to do.
Is there a trick to getting the brain and both eyes to work together while looking thru a scope?
Please… any help will be appreciated.
paul
Click to expand...


If you have a hand-gun (preferably, one with iron-sights), get out and learn to to shoot that with both eyes open - if not a hand-gun, then drill with an iron-sighted rifle . . . or, lacking THAT, archery gear. Especially with the high magnification scopes, using one eye is a BIG disadvantage.:eek: Good shootin'! RG
 
paul

Being an ex-handgun competitor I'm here to tell you that both eyes open is best. But, like everything else, it takes training, and practice, lots of practice. If you're an old guy it's probably too late. You should have started when your eyes were able to accomodate the commands that your brain was sending. If you're my age, be thankful you can see the target at all.:rolleyes:

Beyond that, I wouldn't worry about it. Many shooters do OK with one eye.

Ray
 
Shoot Free Recoil. I shoot with both eyes open and head straight up watching my flags. Once you're set up the only thing that touches the rifle is the tip of your trigger finger.

If you're not familiar with the technique watch this video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9194636798795391569#.

You're watching Birgir Runar Saemundsson, an Engineer from Iceland who set a 10 shot World Record in 1988, with a Heavy Bench Rifle at 200 yards. :)

P.S. Why don't we have a video of top U.S. Benchrest shooters on file ??? :(
 
If you can't do it, then you just can't do it!

Adapt and overcome.

After turning 50 I can no longer run the 2 mile event on the PT test in under 12 minutes. SO you know what I did to overcome this?

I started running it in under 13 minutes.

Just adapt and overcome and do the best you can.
When I get to where I can't see the last flag at 200 yards then I will just stop looking at it.

Ted
 
paulie: I also have a similar problem. When looking thru a high magnification scope for more than 5 or 6 seconds it will start to blur on me, then must look away, then go back. Everyone I talk to agrees it's eyestrain, and it helps if I use a blinder attached to the scope eyepiece. Lets me keep both eyes open, but I'm only seeing the view thru the scope. A similar "eyeshield" is pictured on page 145 of Sinclairs 2009-B catalog, although it's shown with iron sights. I made mine from 1/8" thick reinforced black rubber, 5 1/4" long x 2 3/4" wide, circular hole cutout to fit over the eyepiece of my Leupold scopes. It does partially block the wind flag, but am able to look around it when needed. Does seem to help. And, yes, I agree it is much better to shoot with both eyes open. Did that for 45 years of match pistol bullseye competition.
 
Both Eyes

I used to shoot handguns a lot back in the 70's, some local competitions, and the first thing you learned was both eyes open was the best way. Because of that, I have no problem shooting Benchrest with both open.

But then, who am I to talk. At this time, I am trying to change my shooting style to take advantage of my new ejector set-ups. Old habits are hard to break. I am beginning to think I am not coordinated, or smart enough, to be affective at it.

But that is a mental thing. If you have a physical problem that just won't allow you to adapt to shooting with both eyes open, then do what you can with what you have.

As was said, there are a lot of great shooters who probably shoot with one eye. Try not to fall into that trap of thinking that just because you can't do it exactly like "so and so" does that you can't be very good at this game.........jackie
 
Paulie

Just my 2 cents worth but I like you had a very difficult time teaching my brain to do what I wanted when I wanted, but now is the best time to start.
Since we are in the off season I used this time to try the technique of shooting with both eyes open.
Actually they are open but your mind can be taught to use one or the other independently of each other. Ie scope--- other eye.
Get set up looking through the scope like you usually do and then open your left eye and tell your mind to look at the flags with the left eye, don't move your head. Look a little bit and then tell your mind to look at the target. You will develop the ability to switch back and forth easily the more you practice.
It will take some, well it took me quite a few weekends, practice to start to get it down but by your second year you'll have it down pat.
Yes, this is coming from an Old Pistol shooter.
A friend of mine wears contact lenses, one for close up and one for distance,
Yes, Both eyes open. :)
Centerfire
 
Centerfire said:
Just my 2 cents worth but I like you had a very difficult time teaching my brain to do what I wanted when I wanted, but now is the best time to start.
Since we are in the off season I used this time to try the technique of shooting with both eyes open.
Actually they are open but your mind can be taught to use one or the other independently of each other. Ie scope--- other eye.
Get set up looking through the scope like you usually do and then open your left eye and tell your mind to look at the flags with the left eye, don't move your head. Look a little bit and then tell your mind to look at the target. You will develop the ability to switch back and forth easily the more you practice.
It will take some, well it took me quite a few weekends, practice to start to get it down but by your second year you'll have it down pat.
Yes, this is coming from an Old Pistol shooter.
A friend of mine wears contact lenses, one for close up and one for distance,
Yes, Both eyes open. :)
Centerfire
Click to expand...

I would think it would be the other way around with a right eye dominate shooter. You would want the shooter to view the flags with the left to lock its focus and open/close the right eye when the left began to lose its attention.

I am ambedextrous and have never had an eye dominance, in fact the biggest problem is choice indecision/overload..............Don
 
Just be thankfull!

Reminds me of a conversation at the pistol range. I was about to complain that the target was blurred by my old eyes. The guy next to me said he had scare tissue from a 16 penny nail that embedded in his right eye, should have had his safety glasses on. The other guy said he had a nail gun blow the head off a nail right through his safety glasses, has had 30+ pieces of safety glass removed over the years from that accident. Just be thankfull you can see at all and do your best.
 
OK, back to the top.... :)

I may be heading in a false direction here paulie but HOW did you determine your eye dominance?

Eyes and brains is tricky things. I establish eye dominance 5-6 different ways with my Hunter Ed classes and many times different methods will yield different results.

One thing to try..... just shoot for a while using the other eye. Switch over to lefty, don't worry about form or setup or groupage, just look through the scope and around the area. In fact, you can do this at home. Remove the bolt (please :)) and just set up on a table or something and pretend for a while. Make sure that, clumsy as it is, make SURE that you can't see better that way.

I'm currently shooting both ways. I've shot matches both ways. I'm torn, but I've managed to train for both as far as shooting both eyes open.

al
 
al,

It can be tricky.

My brother shoots pistol left hand/eye, rifle right hand/eye, uses a broom left handed & a shovel right handed. In his case, whichever hand he grabbed it with first was the way he used it. The bugger was a barber & used to swop scissors & comb from right to left hand, just to really worry the customers.

We won't talk about how he used to shape up when we had a difference of opinion.

Seriously, I'm not far behind him. I am maybe 51/49 right/left dominant. When I had seven lefties in my high school army cadet platoon, I shot leftie all year except the unit championship. When I get real tired, I have to close or blinker my left eye or it tries to become dominant.

John
 
Lets look at the basics of eye dominance. If you have stereoscopic (normal) vision, one eye looks straight ahead and the other eye looks over to it. This is what helps your eyes to focus on fast merging objects. It is also what gives you depth perception, like when you are fast approaching a brick wall.

Determining eye dominance is no biggy. Pick a small object about 20' or so distance, like a light switch on the wall. Now hold a small object like a pencil vertically and point the tip at that light switch. Now close your left eye. Did the pencil move? No. Then you are right eye dominant.

Now repeat that exercise this time closing your right eye. Did the pencil jump over? Yes. You are again proving your right eye is dominant.

You can repeat this over and over, first positioning the pencil on the light switch with both eyes open. The eye that always looks straight ahead is the dominant eye.

There are several methods of changing eye dominance. Too much to go into here. Practice of whatever you are wanting to do sometimes solves the problem,
 
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Both eyes open

I shoot a scope real well with both eyes open, but when it comes to my 45 Sharps with the "peep" sight I run into trouble. I cured the problem with a flip down cover that attaches to my shooting glasses and covers the "off' eye. Still watch the flags with the sight eye and can switch back and forth quite easily. May this will work for you with a scope.

Vita est breves

jerrold
 
Why does it make a difference?

For the last 5 years I have been shooting with both eyes open when shooting pistols. It did seem to improve my scores but it could have been all the practice that it took to switch over. I thought that because I had been shooting pistols with both eyes open that it would be easy to do the same with rifles off the bench, it wasn't. I still close my left eye when shooting rifles off the bench.

Why, do you think, it makes a difference? Besides the quicker read on the wind flags and eye strain/squinting involved with one eye open, one eye closed, what makes it better when shooting a rifle off the bench?

I understand the benefit of greater field of view and peripheral vision when hunting, shooting at moving targets, or needing to switch targets rapidly or correctly. Many years ago I shot a silhouette in the wrong order in hunters pistol using a scope and one eye, probably would not have happened with both eyes open.

Funny thing, I have a .357 revolver with a variable power scope and if I dial the magnification down to 1 or close to, I get double vision that I can't make go away if I shoot with both eyes open and I just have to shoot the right target, crank up the power and the double vision goes away.

Anyway, are there any reasons for shooting with both eyes open that I have not covered? Should I put more effort into keeping both eyes open when shooting off the bench?

Tim
 
For me, it’s a matter of time(ing)… meaning if I aim and shoot without having both eyes open, it takes me too much time to get on target, than wait for the flags to position themselves where I would like them, than go back to the scope to check the point of aim, than to set off the trigger….. each segment changing which eye is the one I am working with.
If I could concentrate on both the target and the flags… using both eyes… I believe it would leave less of a lag time for the winds to do their tricks – I think.
Lotsa good ideas above that I am going to try to work with / on.
 
Probably a more important ability than watching both windflags and crosshairs, is the ability to load while not taking the eye off of windflags, which takes as much or more practice to do smoothly..............Don
 
I am one of those

unfortunate folks who's brain does not process what I see with my left eye while looking through the scope with my right. I have tried and tried to make it happen but Alas - - -! An alternative may be to shoot "heads Up". I have tried this and watched others do it and it works well as long as one has a solid POA with their rifle and one does not move the rifle when shooting it.
 
Shooting with both eyes

I myself am right eye dominant and my left eye is alot weaker than my right, so theres no way I can look through the scope and watch my flags. I taught myself to shoot heads up, and I position my head where I can still see marage and the bullseye just barely. You need a very sturdy bench set up and a joystick is very helpful.
 
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