We've all been told that we really should be shooting with both eyes open unless we're using a high power scope. There are a lot of good reasons for this advice.
First off, having both eyes open gives you a wider field of view; it lets more visual information get into your brain. That extra visual information can be priceless in high stress, fast paced shooting situations like hunting and self defense. Second, without both eyes open you don't really have any depth perception. Don't believe me? Have a friend throw a baseball or football at you as hard as he can and try to catch it with one eye covered. Finally, our brains aren't really as advanced as we think they are. We've essentially got puny little monkey brains with just a tiny little bit of extra frontal cortex tacked on the top. When we're in a high stress shooting situation we might want to close our weak eye in order to get a sight picture, but that little monkey brain of ours is yelling at the top its lungs "look at the target!!". To make things worse, it's yelling so loud that it's trying to open both of your eyes to get a better look at that target that it's so excited about. What if you're so excited (or frightened) that your monkey brain wins? Now you have a split second to take the shot of your life and you're looking at a sight picture that's as alien as the jungle scenes in "Avatar"... good luck with that!
Yet despite all that, a lot of have been closing our weak eyes in order to shoot since we were taking aim at those fearsome coke cans with our Red Rider BB guns. To make matters worse, it really is a hard habit to break; it has become an instinctive part of the process of mounting a gun to your shoulder. I have embarked on a personal crusade to make myself shoot with both eyes open as much as possible, read about my misadventures below.
First off, having both eyes open gives you a wider field of view; it lets more visual information get into your brain. That extra visual information can be priceless in high stress, fast paced shooting situations like hunting and self defense. Second, without both eyes open you don't really have any depth perception. Don't believe me? Have a friend throw a baseball or football at you as hard as he can and try to catch it with one eye covered. Finally, our brains aren't really as advanced as we think they are. We've essentially got puny little monkey brains with just a tiny little bit of extra frontal cortex tacked on the top. When we're in a high stress shooting situation we might want to close our weak eye in order to get a sight picture, but that little monkey brain of ours is yelling at the top its lungs "look at the target!!". To make things worse, it's yelling so loud that it's trying to open both of your eyes to get a better look at that target that it's so excited about. What if you're so excited (or frightened) that your monkey brain wins? Now you have a split second to take the shot of your life and you're looking at a sight picture that's as alien as the jungle scenes in "Avatar"... good luck with that!
Yet despite all that, a lot of have been closing our weak eyes in order to shoot since we were taking aim at those fearsome coke cans with our Red Rider BB guns. To make matters worse, it really is a hard habit to break; it has become an instinctive part of the process of mounting a gun to your shoulder. I have embarked on a personal crusade to make myself shoot with both eyes open as much as possible, read about my misadventures below.
Much to my dismay, I discovered that some people's brain can just naturally handle looking at sights with both eyes. Sadly, I cannot count myself amongst their ranks. I don't know whether it's that little monkey brain of mine that we were talking about earlier or what, but when I mount my shotgun to my shoulder and open my weak eye... I see two guns! Two receivers, two barrels, two front beads, and, especially in the heat of the moment, I can't figure out for the life of me which one of those guns to point at that fragile orange frisbee. I wasted a lot of clay birds trying to brute force my brain into processing this sight picture with embarrassingly little success before I went looking for an applicable training technique.
I'm happy to report that I found one, and that it works extremely well. Here's how it goes:
1) Put on your shooting glasses
2) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty
3) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty (not a typo)
4) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty (still not a typo, see where I'm going with this?)
5) Get in your shooting stance, point the weapon in a safe direction and acquire a sight picture
6) Open your weak eye
7) Have a friend move the tip of their finger around on your weak eye's lens until they cover up the sights
8) Set down the weapon, maintaining a safe muzzle direction
9) Take a small piece of scotch tape (about 1/2") and place it on your glasses in the position indicated by your friend's fingertip
Presto! Now when you shoot wearing those glasses the scotch tape will prevent your weak eye from focusing on the sights and therefore ensure you only "see" one gun. Yet, since you only blurred out a small portion of your weak eye's vision you still have a greatly expanded field of view when compared to shooting with only one eye. Now, much like holding your girlfriend's purse when she runs into the bathroom, you've got to be pretty comfortable with your manhood to be sporting these goofy looking glasses around the shooting range...a small price to pay for becoming a better shooter.
Some of the more perceptive readers might be wondering, "So you're going to wear these goofy looking glasses forever? What about those high stress shooting scenarios that you were so worried about?". The idea is that eventually you will get used to having that weak eye open without having it sharply focus on the sights. At that point you should be able to ween yourself off of the glasses and be just like one of those lucky naturals who only "see" one gun. I've put a couple hundred rounds down range using this technique, and I'm not there yet, but I'll keep you posted.
-K.M.
I'm happy to report that I found one, and that it works extremely well. Here's how it goes:
1) Put on your shooting glasses
2) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty
3) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty (not a typo)
4) Clear your weapon to make sure both the magazine and the chamber are empty (still not a typo, see where I'm going with this?)
5) Get in your shooting stance, point the weapon in a safe direction and acquire a sight picture
6) Open your weak eye
7) Have a friend move the tip of their finger around on your weak eye's lens until they cover up the sights
8) Set down the weapon, maintaining a safe muzzle direction
9) Take a small piece of scotch tape (about 1/2") and place it on your glasses in the position indicated by your friend's fingertip
Presto! Now when you shoot wearing those glasses the scotch tape will prevent your weak eye from focusing on the sights and therefore ensure you only "see" one gun. Yet, since you only blurred out a small portion of your weak eye's vision you still have a greatly expanded field of view when compared to shooting with only one eye. Now, much like holding your girlfriend's purse when she runs into the bathroom, you've got to be pretty comfortable with your manhood to be sporting these goofy looking glasses around the shooting range...a small price to pay for becoming a better shooter.
Some of the more perceptive readers might be wondering, "So you're going to wear these goofy looking glasses forever? What about those high stress shooting scenarios that you were so worried about?". The idea is that eventually you will get used to having that weak eye open without having it sharply focus on the sights. At that point you should be able to ween yourself off of the glasses and be just like one of those lucky naturals who only "see" one gun. I've put a couple hundred rounds down range using this technique, and I'm not there yet, but I'll keep you posted.
-K.M.
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