Both eyes open, or one eye open?

My wife has the same issue with cross eye dominance (right handed/left-eyed). A master-level IDPA shooter instructed her to make sure she lines up the gun with her dominant eye, and an Isoscoles stance works the best for this situation, so when extended her arms are just a bit to the left to get the sights in line with her left eye without tilting her head. The key to this is consistency and repeatability - remember the gun comes up to the dominant eye, not the other way around and your head should be square with your shoulders forward.

He also advised her to shoot with one eye (the dominant one). He says that tactically it is better to have both eyes open but when it comes time to break the shot, there is no mistaking sight alignment with the weak eye closed. So the idea is to use both eyes in assessing targets or moving around but when it comes time to shoot drop the weak eye enough to get a clear sight picture. BTW - he's retired British SAS and can shoot like nobody's business, and has had to do it in real life many times.

I asked another master-level shooter if he shot with both eyes and he says he also drops an eye just before the shot breaks.

As for me, I trained for years in the Leatham/Enos/Barnhardt style of both eyes on the front sight. I personally find that my dominant eye has a much stronger sight picture, so much so that I can actually shoot a peep-sighted rifle with both eyes open. So when I'm shooting IDPA matches I usually shoot with both eyes open out to about 12-15 yards, and beyond that I drop my weak eye to get a clear sight picture. Also when shooting while moving I find hits come more consistently when dropping an eye to prevent sight picture confusion. This is especially important using the Steyr's standard Tri/Trap sights as there is a lot of "air" around the front sight so alignment is fairly critical for longer shots.

IMHO, shooting with both eyes open comes down to - as in most physical tasks - your individual biomechanics.

Here is an interesting link for both-eye shooting training: http://www.waynefrazee.com/personal.php/hg_d_eyesopen

Jeff

I'm cross-eye dominant I guess. Mostly I'm just confused. I throw right handed which I guess means that's my strong side, but do almost everything else left-handed, shoot rifles and shotguns, eat, write, et c. (BTW, if you're in an Arab country and you're a lefty, don't eat left-handed. That's the hand Arabs use to wipe with so you're telling the Arab cook, "Your food tastes like sh*t" which is not a good way to survive a meal. Learned that during Navy service in the Middle East in '60s-'70s.)

But for some reason, my natural tendency is to pick up a pistol with my right hand, so until recent months, I always shot right-handed but had to align my left eye to get a good sight picture. Since I bought my M357A1 last December, I'm working on both eyes open with the pistol in my left hand, but when the shot is critical, I still close my right eye. No doubt both eyes open is best, particularly in a self-defense situation, but I'm a real slow learner.

When I visited Pittsburgh recently and went to the range with BigTaco, I found myself closing my right eye all the time because I really wanted to outshoot that guy! Didn't work. Maybe when I get better with both eyes open...

P.S. Thanks jng1226 for the Wayne Frazee drill. Maybe that will help me get over my "amphibious" confusion. :mrgreen: