One Eye or Two Eyes Open?
I’ve been hunting for over 20 years and have always kept one eye closed when shooting a shotgun, and have been a pretty good shot. I got interested in sporting clays, and at first, I did good with the one eye closed, but a friend told me to try to shoot with both eyes open. However, when I attempted this, it did no good and my scores got worse. Should I shoot with one eye open as I have for 20+ years? Or do you think it would be worth my time trying to learn to shoot with both eyes open?
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There is no right answer. This helps, huh?
Is it better to shoot with both eyes open? The answer is definitely YES. The targets will look larger, closer, and move more slowly.
Is it going to look completely different when you shoot? YES. Remember, your eyes are used to working together so that you can walk or drive a car. If you will think of shooting your shotgun like driving your car, and merge into the lead with the gun, you won’t have to be so concerned about the barrel. If you are looking at the barrel of the gun, you are not looking at the target and focusing totally on it. That will put you behind the target. There is a 3/10th of a second delay between when the eye sees the lead and the brain tells the body to pull the trigger, which will also put you behind the target.
Try focusing really hard on the front of the target and bringing the gun up in front of the target. And as it touches your cheek, pull the trigger. A way to practice this is to find something small to focus on – such as the light switch or the edge of a picture frame. Look at it and count to 10. Start to train your eyes to stay focused on something small in a large area. That’s what you have to do when you are shooting. Finding a small 4″ disk in the sky and focus on it.
My question to you is, are you willing to take the time to retrain your brain on the pictures?
I had to do the same thing years ago. I’m left-eyed and shoot right-handed. I went from one-eye shooting to both eyes open. It took some time, but it really helped. It will be frustrating for a while, but after you have seen the picture a few times it will get easier. It will make the targets look slower and larger. Just trust the gun a little more, since it is going to go where your eyes are looking.
Hope this helps. Let us know.
