Here’s some context, in a life and death situation you will naturally have both eyes open out of fear. You may even have tunnel vision so train with both eyes open because that will be your default vision when the SHTF.
I’m right handed and left eye dominant. My work only uses iron sights. On the range, I find myself closing one eye when shooting from 25 yards and both eyes open from 3-15 yards.
*I started with both my eyes open and managed to transition to one eye closed through the squinting method. Now I'm able to shoot with both my eyes closed. An upside of this method is that I'm able to reuse my paper targets almost indefinitely being very few impacts in them.*
I am a right handed shooter with my dominant eye being my opposite “left eye”. This has been a challenge for me. I have learned to shoot fairly accurately . I have now begun taping over my dominant eye and trying to train my self this way. This has helped somewhat with , let’s say accurate shooting training for best shots on target so to speak. Now I am working on trading to shoot with both eyes open. This is challenging but working through my dilemma👍. Patience and practice. Appreciate that content Myles always good key takeaways. G…
@@geoobs18 I heard that if you put chapstick over your glasses on the side you're trying to cover and then slowly take it off until you don't have it anymore you'll train your eye
Another reason to train with both eyes open is because, when presented with an actual threat, your body might override your single-eye training and make both eyes wide open - fixated on that threat. In that case, being able to aim with both eyes open would be a big plus.
That's like saying it is best to train with your finger on the trigger because, presented with an actual threat, you might override keeping the finger off the trigger and forget to shoot. The fact is, muscle memory overrides EVERYTHING. If you consistently practice, your muscles will make your movement natural. I know people who have always kept one eye open as they unholstered their gun to shoot and automatically opened their eyes after the shot for situational awareness. I know one person who did this when he was being robbed. The reason they do this is for shot placement. Making the shot with one eye is far easier than with both. I say, do whatever will make that bullet hit its target consistently. Then, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
I'm like you - my eyes are constantly changing right now - getting old! My left eye is starting to become dominant over my right, so it's been messing me up when I keep both eyes open. Still keep both open, but close my left eye quickly just to make sure I'm on target.
I shoot a scoped rifle with both eyes open and a pistol with one eye closed. Crazy but I can shoot pretty good. Guess it works for me but not highly recommended for others.
i just searched how to aim on pistol because i have airsoft gun and what im pointing goes not right way thats why im searching for these. and plus this video help me how to shoot now it goes right way
I have read, and been taught as a part of defensive handgun courses, that physiologists describe tunnel vision which occurs naturally when adrenline is released into the system during times of extreme stress. That such is part of the design of mammals with binocular vision in order to help them concentrate on threats and danger. It brings up the question whether having both eyes open gives any advantage with regard to peripheral threats, since tunnel vision affects both eyes and, for all intents and purposes, eliminates peripheral vision. I would imagine that highly trained people, like special warfare operators, might gain some advantages to training to shoot with both eyes open because they also invest a lot of time in controlling the attendant stresses and adrenline flows. That takes a LOT of specialized training. And those folks are very different than Joe Average like me. Not saying don't try it. Just saying that, if push came to shove, it wouldn't make much difference to the average person.
As a Southern California police officer, I've always looked over the top of my sights. This causes me to shoot just smidge low. Not a problem when "aiming" center mass. I generally needed to be able to see multiple threats simultaneously.
starting with the squinting method i eventually got used to it and was able to translate to shooting with both eyes open. my question is how do i transition to shooting with my third eye?
I've noticed after shooting for the past 10 years. I started with one eye open and transition to both eyes open. However, all my focus is pretty much down Range. So having that peripheral vision is not really there and I've kinda gone back to one eye. Have you ever experienced someone maybe having that same issue!?
Can you tell me about the brand of hearing protection you used in this video. I am noise sensitive and having a hard time getting what I need. I am not price sensitive, so I am willing to get a better solution. I appreciate any response you can give me. Thanks.
I appreciate yourvideos and I wanted your video about one or two eyes when shooting my problem is the sites are blurry so I need glasses when shooting and reading so what do people li,like, me do elapse if something were to happen I will not have time to put on glasses so what does a person do them?
Do you focus on your front sight or on the target? I've seen some videos where instructors recommend focusing on front sight and videos where others recommend focusing on the target.
@@roflchopter11-- No. You see two guns and sets of sights, but you learn to ignore the one produced by your non-dominant eye. It's just a thing you have to practice.
I think people forget how eyes work. I don't mean that disrespectfully. I'll explain. When you're actually pulling the trigger, you need to be the most accurate that you can be. It's going to be with one eye. It's just a fact. However, you want to have the best field of vision possible in a defensive situation, with practice, your non dominant eye will close automatically as you raise your weapon. Front sight focus, fire, open your other eye, scan, back to low ready/holster.
Lets get real. The firing range is not real life. Both eyes open is an essential skill for shooting when not on the firing range. In an emergency, your adrenaline response will force both eyes to be open. Also, you cannot naturally maneuver in any environment with one eye closed. Therefore, it is essential to learn how to shoot with both eyes open! Also, it is much easier, quicker and less stressful to shoot with both eyes open. By the way, practicing with one eye closed on the firing range only reinforces a bad habit. It will make it much more difficult to shoot with both eyes when the situation demands shooting with both eyes. So, "context" has nothing to do with it.
Thousands of people successfully defend themselves every year, with no training at all. For those who do train, there's an unlimited number of ways to spend your time preparing for an unknown encounter that may or may not call upon any of the skills you've trained to develop. Training to aim with one eye open or both, assumes that you'll be able to raise your arm to eye level between yourself and your attacker, which is a bad assumption to have. Assuming that people who have shot with one eye open for years will be unable to repeat that under stress is also a bad assumption. It's an automatic muscle memory for them when they bring the gun up to fire, not a conscious effort to close one eye. Context usually matters.
Yes, I read that only professional snipers can use only 1 eye while the rest of the regular non-sniper army will use both eyes when under stress in war.
Not really, with pistols you can just index the gun to your left eye and with rifles you can just switch shoulder (shooting left hand). Im cross eye dominant and Ive shot with both eyes open for 5 years, i do competitions too (mainly IPSC).
I'm right handed left eye dominant and it just takes a bit of practice but it shouldn't be to difficult to keep both eyes open, I always have. And with a rifle I just force myself to use my right eye. The key is practice don't just try for 5 minutes and then give up.
@@ujimin5510 Same here. While my accuracy suffers from CED on the pistol range, it’s nowhere near as difficult as shooting right-handed archery as a left eye dominant guy.
I have used both eyes for years with iron sights on pistols, and always struggled with inconsistent accuracy. I started closing my non dominant eye, and my accuracy improved massively.
💥😎Very Good Advice!👍🇺🇸 However what'd ya do if u have One Perfect Eye & ur legally blind in the other Eye...but can still see shapes & colors out of it?
Started w/ one eye. Now I'm mostly 2 eyes. Sometimes I go 1 eye to find focus on the iron sights when I'm trying to get accurate at the range. How I learned to use 2 eyes is by focusing on the target and bringing the gun up, that helps me figure out which 2nd picture I need to ignore.
I am much more accurate when I keep both eyes open with iron sights, but I often have difficulty forcing my dominant eye to assert its dominance. I find that a quick left eye wink usually works, but sometimes I have to lower the gun and reset my whole sighting process. This is obviously not something I would want to do in a defensive situation, so my carry always has a red dot.
I figure if I'm in a self defense situation, either they're far enough away that I have time to get my sights right, or they're so close that I don't really have to ADS anyway
I took all the iron sights off my gun and practiced without them.. What's the point of having them on if I couldn't see those dots.. And I am not shooting for competition.. I'll be good if my shots are falling in 6 inch circle and it did now.. It took awhile to adjust but practice makes perfect, right??
Wow! Squinting has helped me IMMENSELY! I always saw double and knew which sight picture to use (or split the difference). This was a game changer. Thank you!
My struggle is I'm cross eye dominant, and my brain gets pissy trying to process the optical information shooting with both eyes open Red dots on my rifles and sidearms elevates that as I can remain focused on what I'm looking at and where the dot is the round goes. No more focusing on the front sight and trying to align it on a blurred backdrop.
Bro i honestly thought i was the only one…I have a hard time looking through the back sight to the front sight with out like this weird crossing over lay..but once i do one eye open it’s fine
Both eyes open hard focus on the target is the correct answer. Very difficult to shoot both eyes open with a hard focus on the front sight post. This is what amateurs and all of the “cross eyed dominant” shooters have issues with.
I have struggled with double vision shooting with both eyes open all my life. I learned that at close ranges, say seven to ten yards I was able to index off the rear of the slide and do pretty well. Now I’m adjusting to the dot world. I’ve recently added a Holosun SCS to my Glock 19 and this has really helped. The dot is closer to the bore axis.
The tendency to shut one eye is because most of us start off shooting .22 rifles as a kid. Everybody learns to shoot a rifle with iron sights with their dominant eye. At close range I just point shoot for center of mass with both eyes open because I was trained to watch the hands. Hands kill you. At close range (within 7 yards) you should shoot with both eyes open because you need your full range of vision to detect threats. You should practice punching the front sight into the center of the target and snapping the trigger. I don't really "aim" the gun at close range unless it is a head shot. At longer ranges it is dependant in part on your eyesight. Some people have good enough vision to shoot with both eyes open. I can't, at least not well, due to an astigmatism. Some poor folks are right handed but left eye dominant. Red dots seem to work well for them. There are differences if you run a red dot. I don't put red dots on my handguns, just on my rifles, but then I'm old and set in my ways.
I'm lucky in as far as I have near perfect eyesight and I can aim with either my left eye closed (I'm right handed and right eye dominant), or both eyes open. Personally I prefer to do all of training with both eyes open, since that's the habit I want to to have in case I need to defend myself and others. Here and there I might close my left eye, buy I've found that my accuracy doesn't really improve or get worse, if I do.
This may be an odd question/scenario, but I am right-handed with right eye dominant. I usually fire with both eyes open, but right eye focused (I hope you are following me). Now, I am trying to teach myself to shoot left-handed. BTW, this is with iron sights. I find myself focusing on the target with my right eye (fair sight picture), but when I close my right eye to check my targeting via my left eye, it looks like I'm 3 to 5 rings off to the right (paper target at about 20 ft). Is there a way to do this more accurately? Do you have a video on this issue? If yes, please send me the link. If no, would you do a video on it? Many thanks. Even if you do not, I'll still watch your vid's, lots of good info in them.
I have a dominant eye and struggle if I shoot with both eyes open. This is a good video. The only thing that surprised me was the narrator's use of the phrase repeatedly, "seeing two targets and not knowing which target to shoot." Personally, I've never been faced with that issue. My problem with double vision is seeing double sights at the end of the pistol. With two eyes open, I see blurred double sights at the end of a pistol. On a shotgun, with two eyes open, toward the end of the single shotgun barrel, I'll see a blurred second barrel, complete with its own blurred second little round shotgun bead sight. Its bad enough what I see with two eyes open, but I really feel sorry for folks seeing two targets. I didn't know that problem existed, at least, while sober. 😮
I was helping a friend learn to shoot using iron sights. I told him to leave both eyes open. His aim was terrible. Eventually he started to practice with one eye open and his aim improved dramatically. It seems he was using the front post with his left eye and lining up with the notch at his right eye...I've done this too in the past. Now if I can get him to stop flinching... :)
My problem lately is my right eye is suffering from cataract. Left eye still fine. So, right hand shooter, right eye dominant and aiming with my left eye on iron sighted hand gun, makes me forced to close my right eye upon aiming. Period. Troublesome, but suregry is ahead.
Never told how to tell the dominant eye. Hold your finger up onto something in the distance close one eye then the other the one that says on the object is your dominant eye. Also you can train yourself to use both eyes by holding your pistol on target and cross your eyes you know look at the tip of your nose. Sounds silly but works to help get both eyes to focus on one thing close with practice
One weird thing for me is I seem to need to "warm up" with one eye closed. I've noticed my groups are much tighter if I start the range session with one eye closed, and then after a few groups, open up the second. Not sure why this happens, but it seems pretty consistent. Maybe I just don't shoot enough.
with optics i always have both eyes open. irons on a rifle i'm ok, with irons on a sidearm i struggle. i've learned to compensate with sidearms and sort of get a feel for which set of sights in my double vision i need to use lol, if that makes sense. i don't want to lose periphery vision so when i see double i just try to work through it but sometimes i can't. optics though have completely fixed that for me. i really need them for certain sights, like the foresight on my 416 that's basically a giant block with a tiny little hole in it you're meant to look through lol. who tf designed that
Hi there. Question about aiming to the target. When focus is on the front sight of the pistol, target is getting blurry beyond 10 yards. Any suggestions how to handle this?
I started my Marine life with equal sight in both eyes and learned to be a rifle and pistol expert on both the range and combat course. Crossed rifle and pistol badges for five years. Shrapnel ruined the vision in my right eye. I had to learn to shoot left-handed. Regained my expert range badges left-handed. Never mastered the combat course again. The lack of vision in my right eye slowed my response time, and cyclops does not do so well for target acquisition.
I found that blindness in one eye due to a TBI from a GSW has some odd benefits, you can shoot with both eyes open, but only use one... Lack of peripheral vision from blindness in left eye from damage to the central artery of the left retina, has the head slightly rotating left for handgun shooting so the right eye centers more to be looking evenly down the sights with proper grip angles centered. I found out I had to do this for iscosoles versus weaver stances, but I still prefer iscosoles stance far over weaver stance. I did find for one eye shooters that the rotational 45 degree angled mirror(Eotech makes expensive ones and there are similar ones elsewhere for less than 1/25th price-$500 vs. $25), that by buying two rotational mirror attachments with 45 degree angled mounds, this allows people with only one eye to be able to shoot from both shoulders. The airsoft or other similar ones are 99% as good as Eotech's version! P.S.- You can accurately shoot from below your waste by seeing the target and reticle with limitless eye relief in the optic or behind cover without exposing your head but just a middle finger(aim with index finger by instinctive pointing near target while the middle finger pulls the trigger) the side vision mirrors allow clear view with engagement of your target without facial or body exposure for potential compromise.
I’ve had this question and I’ve shot some not a lot out if I put my finger in front of my face and close one eye seems like the point I’m pointing at changes left or right depending on what eye I close so I have to use the squint technique. I struggle with focusing on the sight if I have both eyes open
So if I wanted accuracy close one eye, if I needed/wanted to see more targets (or was in a small cqc situation) both eyes open, this would be correct, yes? (But not 100% everything of course)
Thank you for this video, I just came from your video on how to use iron sights and red dot sights. One thing I wanted to comment on is this video is not a "How to" video showing, or teaching, someone how to aim. In the "How to" use the sights video, you demonstrated how to, and where to, place the sights on the target for two specific holds of the gun. However, in this video, there was not a demonstration of how to actually shoot with both eyes open. You discussed the difference between the two, and talked about vision issues and target awareness, but there was not a demonstration of actually shooting with one or both eyes open.
I wear glasses and both eyes open are not possible as I have a stigmatism so with both eyes open sighted on a small object and or targets I will see double!
Will CCW Safe cover me if I am working armed security? Still looking for a company that covers me in the line of duty. Unlike police officers, there isn't any unions for security officers that will go to court if we get into a shooting.
No, will not cover you. The PPO you are working under is responsible for defending you in the line of duty and has to carry insurance for that purpose. You legally need to work with a company that has a PPO registered with the BSIS licensing authority. As armed security you are considered a civilian under the law but since employed with a firearm you are ineligible for coverage by CCW Safe, USCCA, AOR etc. Professional tip, avoid getting into a shooting unless you want to turn your life upside down and be dragged through the courts and vilified.
Great info as always. CCW Safe is by far the best IMO. Since I've made the transition to red dot sights on my EDC/self-defense firearms shooting with both eyes open is more natural and seems to be easier to accomplish while shooting with iron sights only. I've trained myself to do so in a matter of speaking. Thanks again, stay safe God Bless ✌️🇺🇲
Very well done video, explained and demonstrated. A lot of methods and ideas explained here. Fairly new owner of a Stoeger STR-9c and I will defintitely come back and watch this again before i make it to the range. Dennis 63 years Austin, TX
Lighting conditions! Natural light, I usually have no problem with eye dominance. Indoor range, I need to squint to maintain consistency. I do have an astigmatism. Short answer is know what you can do and how your systems work best, be able to adapt to all systems that you use.
