New handgun shooter has a dumb question.

[xdiminished]

I've heard alot of different things about how to properly aim with a handgun, but one thing that remains pretty consistent is that you are supposed to aim with both eyes open. Maybe something is wrong with me, but I find that if I focus on my target, the sight post is WAY to blurry to accurately use to aim. Does this have anything to do with eye dominance? Can I train myself out of it ?

Thanks for any input.

 

[wahsben]

Your supposed to focus on your sights especially the front one. Also have you checked which eye is dominant?

 

[szaino]

What type of handgun and what type of sights do you have?

You generally should be focusing on the front sight unless you are using something like a red dot sight.

 

[vellnueve]

Focus on the front sight post, not the target.

 

[xdiminished]

hmmm, well in that case this is even more alarming. when I focus on the front sight post, my target splits into 2. I think i need to see an eye doctor.

 

[matt]

Focus on the front sight post, not the target.

+1. both the target and the rear sight will be blurry, and that's ok believe it or not.

The eye can only focus at one distance at a time, just the way it is and it is not just you.

Some people, accepting this fact, still have a very difficult time shooting with both eyes open and prefer to use one eye (where you will still have the same focus issue). That's ok too, but both eyes open is better (peripheral vision and depth perception in defensive situations, eye fatigue (at least for me) while target shooting).

Personally, I shoot with both eyes open even if I'm using a scope.

Matt

 

[matt]

hmmm, well in that case this is even more alarming. when I focus on the front sight post, my target splits into 2. I think i need to see an eye doctor.

no, that's normal (to a degree). You should see something like this:

The trick is to make you dominant eye do the work and let your non-cominant eye go along for the ride. It can take some practice.

 

[Killjoy]

Two basic types of pistol shooting techniques; precision shooting, involving focus on sights (specifically front sight post) and point or threat-focused shooting which involves focusing on the target.

In precision shooting, the shooter lines his sights up, with the front sight post centered and level with the rear sight notch. In taking courses at Sig Sauer Academy, the instructors had an easy to remember mantra of "float the dot, shoot the shot". It means that most people instinctively center a front sight post, and not to spend excessive amount of effort trying to achieve a "perfect" sight picture, as it can interfere with your trigger pull. In precision shooting the target should appear blurry or out of focus; only the front sight is crystal clear. Most shooters close their non-dominant eye during precision shooting, although some people can precision shoot with both eyes open. One method to discovering which eye is dominant is to pick a distant object, like a clock across a room and look at it. Hold your hands at arms length and form a diamond shape with the web of your hands, with the object centered in it. Slowly, and without thinking about it, pull your hands back towards your face. The diamond should naturally gravitate towards your dominant eye. If you are righty, and you are right-eye dominant (as most righties are), no problems. If you are cross-eye dominant, meaning you are left eye dominant, but right-handed, it shouldn't present too much of a problem, especially with a pistol; simply leave the pistol in your dominant hand and use your dominant eye.

In point shooting, body kinesthetics and focus on the target (or threat) are the most important aspects. Simply put, if you can lock your arm at an object and point at it, keeping both eyes open and focused on your target, you can hit it. This is especially true at the close distances that most real-world pistol gunfights occur (usually less than 7 yards). In real-world gunfights the adrenaline dump and loss of fine motors skills associated with high stress, most shooters have difficulty breaking their attention from the threat and putting focus on their front sight. But each method has its uses and pistol shooter should be familiar with both.

 

[xdiminished]

Thanks everyone, good to know. Since I had lasik corrective surgery last year i'm afraid that every little thing out of the ordinary is a serious side effect caused by the surgery.

I can shoot with both eyes open using a scope or an aim point with my rifle fine, I just find the focusing unnatural with a smaller handgun.

 

[Supermoto]

Close one eye or put a piece of scotch tape on your glasses over your weak eye.

 

[matt]

btw, welcome to NES!

 

[xdiminished]

Thanks glad to be here. Everyone seems to be pretty knowledgeable around here and Im learning a lot just from browsing the forums.

 

[biff44]

You can always cheat and get one of these sights:

http://www.eotech-inc.com/

 

[boomerang]

hmmm, well in that case this is even more alarming. when I focus on the front sight post, my target splits into 2. I think i need to see an eye doctor.

This is because you're trying to focus both eyes on the front sight post.

When you focus with your dominant eye on the front sight, the image of your gun will split in two.

If your dominant eye is your right eye, you should focus on the left sight picture.

If your dominant eye is the left eye, you focus on the right sight picture.

Both images of the gun will be transparent. It takes practice to mentally exclude the image from the non-dominant eye, but it will become second-nature.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Mostly cause I'm a wise ass....But when I saw the title of this thread I wanted to respond, "The hole in the barrel faces downrange!!!"

 

[xdiminished]

Thanks boomerang, I am right eye dominant, and just realized that the left sight picture was the one I needed to be looking at. Any tips on how to mentally exclude the image from the non dominant eye? Is that what the scotch tape over the glasses is?

 

[Fixxah]

Thanks everyone, good to know. Since I had lasik corrective surgery last year i'm afraid that every little thing out of the ordinary is a serious side effect caused by the surgery.

I can shoot with both eyes open using a scope or an aim point with my rifle fine, I just find the focusing unnatural with a smaller handgun.

Go green, it's going to allow you to attend shoots and ask unlimited questions and get real time answers. PLus you will probably shoot some cool guns.

 

[TonyDedo]

Great graphic, Matt! I'm going to steal that for future use!

 

[joehaus]

Great graphic, Matt! I'm going to steal that for future use!

+1 on the pic.

 

[MichaelJ]

I'm cross eye dominant and cannot use iron sights with both eyes open FWIW.

 

[WILDCATT]

two eyes

las adjusts your astigmatizim or near sighted.cover the lazy eye.some use glasses and cover the lazy eyes lens.That is what I did.

 

[xdiminished]

I think I will go green. I'd like to attend some shoots. Ill get on that ASAP.

 

[WayneWong]

I'm a big fan of the scotch tape method Supermoto recommends. I am (left) cross eye dominant and couldn't hit anything right handed with a rifle if my life dependend in it. After dismissing the scotch tape on the safety glasses for a while, I got frustrated enough to try it. IMMEDIATE improvement. Now I almost can't miss. It is definitely worth trying, but for your purposes, put the tape over your weak eye.

 

[VARCHAR2]

I am a relatively new shooter and just recently figured out what works for me in terms of keeping both eyes open while shooting. The double image thing was very irritating, and as a new shooter I was never able to figure out (and remember) which image was the correct one, so I resorted to closing one eye.

I learned two things that were very helpful: 1) which eye is dominant (I am opposite-eye dominant), and 2) to rotate the head to bring the dominant eye into alignment with the sights.

What happens is this: as I'm focusing on the front sight and rotating my head, at a certain point the second image just drops off (the non-dominant eye just stops trying to "help" bring the sight into focus).

Not sure any of this would be helpful for someone whose dominant eye is on the same side as their dominant hand, but I might still suggest rotating the head a little bit to cause the non-dominant eye to not try so hard.

 

[boomerang]

More thoughts on the topic from the precision shooters.

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=19525

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=19695