Both Eyes Open, Pistol iron sights?

[An Undocumented Worker]

Shooting both eyes open with the ghost ring sights on my AR is no problem, nor is using the Acog with both eyes either an issue, at any range/distance.

Shooting a pistol with the standard 3dot, notch/post style sights is difficult when keeping both eyes open. Mainly because when focusing on the front sight, the target doubles, and at 25 yards this becomes a problem. Or is there a different technique I should be using with a pistol to shoot both eyes open?

[John_Wayne777]

I have the same sort of double issue myself. No matter what range I'm at, I can choose between seeing two sets of sights or two targets. I obviously choose to see two sets of sights. I've had the issue as long as I can remember, and it's only fairly recently that I've come to the conclusion that most people don't see the way that I see. As an example, when I drive down the road and I'm looking out at the highway, I see two sets of wiper blades on my windshield. When I look at the wiper blades I see two highways. (Sometimes 1.5 depending on how far down the road I'm looking) From what I understand most people don't see things that way.

...but that doesn't mean I can't see my sights. What I've learned over time is how to have a clear, sharp focus on the sights even though I'm looking "through" them to a degree in order to see one target. A while back I started from scratch on my handgun skills and part of that process was learning how to see my sights. At first I just had the same confusing ball-o-crap I always had but over time through simply aiming a gun (unloaded, of course) at various household objects (light switches, even a bulls-eye target I hung up) at varying distances under varying light conditions I trained my brain to start to make sense out of my sight picture.

Vision is difficult because each of us sees the world uniquely. Think about it: What is "blue"? What does "blue" look like through someone else's eyes? Trippy, innit?

Unfortunately there's no magic technique that will instantly make everything comfortable for you. You simply have to practice getting a useful visual reference, training your brain to see what it needs to see and to ignore the extraneous nonsense that shows up in your field of view. Thankfully this is something you can do at home without firing a shot if you so desire. At some point you need to begin to integrate visual training with live fire, but most of it can be accomplished at home.

You may even wish to invest in an airsoft gun similar to your main piece and start practicing with that as well.

On your real gun you might want to play with different methods of making the front sight stand out. Personally I find standard 3 dot setups to be a huge pain in the ass. Yes, I can use them...but I prefer arrangements where the front sight is highly visible compared to the rear notch. On a standard 3 dot sight picture the easiest thing to do is sharpie out the rear dots. That tends to draw my focus more naturally to the front sight. I also tend to paint the visible surface of my front sight some loud color (generally canary yellow model paint) so that in conditions where lighting is sort of blech my front sight stands out against the background.

Ultimately this is something you will have to figure out through trial and error. All folks here can do is sort of point you in the right direction. It may be that to get any useful hits at 25 yards you need to close one eye...if so, do it. Ultimately what we're trying to do here is get hits. While it's more ideal to have both eyes open, if you can't make hits that way it's useless to you. See what you need to see to get the hits.

[An Undocumented Worker]

That is basically what I have been trying to do so far. I can pick out the correct set of sights much easier than the correct set of targets, when looking past the sights but still aware of them.

I'm just not sure if the "sharp focus on the front sight" still applies when shooting with both eyes open on a pistol. From the sight picture I get when trying that, it just isn't possible to be sure of the target you are aiming at, if maintaining sharp focus on the front sight.

[Jay Cunningham]

Personally, if you are shooting at 25 yards and you need to close one eye to get your hits, I don't think it's a big deal.

[An Undocumented Worker]

It may not be a big deal to close one eye for that amount of range to target, but if it is possible shooting at distance with both eyes open is a skill I want to work on.

[Jay Cunningham]

As JW alluded to in his edit, blacking out the rear may allow you to focus more on the front.

[JeffWard]

Most of the guys I shoot with (USPSA) who are shooting open-sight pistols, shoot two eyes open inside of about 10-12 yards, and at least squint one eye out past 20 yards. From 10-20 yards??? Depends on the size of the target, and movement.

I can place precise hits with both eyes open out to about 15 yards. if I'm shooting a 8" plate at 25 yards, on the clock, my weak eye is almost completely closed.

Shooting my AR, everything inside 50 yards is shot with my scope on 1X and both eyes open.

Jeff

[John_Wayne777]

I'm just not sure if the "sharp focus on the front sight" still applies when shooting with both eyes open on a pistol. From the sight picture I get when trying that, it just isn't possible to be sure of the target you are aiming at, if maintaining sharp focus on the front sight.

For your eyes it may not be possible. I don't know because short of hacking into your brain there's no way I or anyone else can know what the world looks like through your eyes.

All I can tell you is that I once thought the very same thing and I've found with practice I can see the sights clearly and I can see the target clearly enough to hit it when I do my part on the sight alignment, trigger control, and not-jerking-the piss-out-of-the-shot fronts. I can see the sights with what I believe is excellent clarity and I still see one target.

You can probably learn to do the same although what it takes for you to achieve it may be different. I've heard some people say that focusing on an imaginary point between the sights and the target allows them to see both with decent enough clarity to get the hits. You may also want to consider going to the eye doctor to figure out if you have any underlying vision issues that are complicating matters. When I figured out I saw the world differently than others claimed to I went to the eye doc and there was basically nothing he could do for me. My issue is apparently something to do with the way my brain processes signals either because I'm a mutant or because I caught a line drive with my eye socket as a kid. My eyes themselves function within normal parameters as far as I can tell. When they did the vision test thing I came in at normal in one eye and better than normal in the other.

If you have underlying vision issues, discovering and correcting them might help.

[6933]

At each TigerSwan pistol class I have attended, the instructors said go with what works; be it both eyes open or one eye closed. I figure they know a little somethin'

[ToddG]

While there are benefits to shooting with both eyes open, those benefits are fairly minor and cannot outweigh more fundamental things like "getting hits." Some of the best shooters I know close one eye.

Some of the worst shooters I know close both eyes, but that's another story.