Iron/Peep Sights: One Eye Open, Or Both?

[Mr. Neutron]

Curious what other, better shooters than myself (pretty much everybody...... ) do when shooting with Irons of any style. Do y'all shoot with one eye open, or both eyes open?

When I shot pistol matches, I shot with both eyes open. Pretty much mandatory to do that for quick target aquisition. But it did (and still does) seem easier to get a sharper focus on the front sight with both eyes open with the handgun.

Try as I might, I have an impossible time keeping both eyes open when shooting a rifle, no matter what style of sights, or with a scope. And especially so with any of my peep sights.

I do know this: After only a few shots when looking through a peep, my right eye gets watery, and focusing on the front sight gets really blurry. And groups go to poop after that......

[Hatchdog]

I have never been successful shooting any type of firearm with two eyes open. I’ve tried, especially with shotguns but my brain just won’t go there.

[Sir Henry]

I close one eye with iron sights but with low powered scopes I will sometimes keep both open. This works especially well with 1:1 power scopes however 1.5:1 isn’t too powerful. This works great for tracking moving targets.

[BigAl52]

Im a one eye guy no matter what I am shooting. Red Dots scopes or irons. Irons are becoming more difficult to get focused at times.

[North Country Gal]

Over the years I've been able to shoot both ways, but I do prefer both eyes open when it's comfortable for me. Pretty easy with most scopes and okay with peep sights, but I usually have to go with one eye for open sights on rifles, but for whatever reason, not so much with pistol.

One trick I learned from way back in my training days, is that when shooting with one eye, be careful not to squint with the eye that you close. Just close it as much as needed, but keep it relaxed. Squinting it shut will produce a lot of eye fatigue over the course of a match, even with the open eye. In the old days, some shooters even went as far as to wear a patch over their closed eye, but I don't think you have to go to that extreme ... unless you want that kind of look.

[brm4450]

I am most comfortable with both eyes open using peep sight or scope,

[CT_Shooter]

I'm one of several unfortunate shooters who is left eye dominant and right handed. I shoot my revolvers and rifles right handed with my left eye shut. Both of my rifles have Skinner peep sights. I'm certainly not the best shot at the range, but I can usually hit the target well enough to be satisfied by my effort.

As a kid, a common birthday party game was to stand over a glass quart milk bottle (remember those) and drop a clothes pin (remember those) into it for for a prize. I learned to shut my left eye and position the pin directly above the mouth of the bottle and win the game... pretty much every time.

[markiver54]

I have always been a one eye shooter and for the most part, I still am. Recently though, when looking through the new scope on my air rifle, I have tried the two open method. With parallax adjusted and reticle in focus, two open is easily doable and seems comfortable...to my surprise.

[Mr. Neutron]

Well, lots of really good "eye-deas" & advice to consider here.....

In my surfing the web on the subject, I've come cross the trick of smearing a light coat of vaseline or something on the lens of the non-dominant eye's shooting glasses. I tried this while shooting with the Buckhorn sights of my Umarex BB rifle today. With this rifle, you have to load indiviual BBs into "cartridges" about the size of a .45 Colt or .357 Magnum (I confess that I've never measured these cases), and the rifle holds 10 rnds.. I think I may have kept my left eye open for maybe 5 shots, and then reverted back to closing it. Sigh...... And I still needed to do a deep clean on my glasses after shooting.....

Gonna be a tough habit to break when shooting rifles, and not sure even if I'll gain anything......

CT_Shooter, I dunno how you do it. When I shot pistol matches we had a guy like you. Right hand shooter, left eye doninant. He shot amazingly well, all things considered, until we had to shoot left handed. He was totally bumfuzzled when the left hand stages come up, for whatever reason.....It just looked way different with his head turned the way he had to so everything aligned......

[Sir Henry]

Sometimes my targets indicate both of my eyes might have been closed.

[Mr. Neutron]

Sometimes my targets indicate both of my eyes might have been closed.

I'm a member of that club too, hee hee.......

[Steve51]

I am a right eye open shooter for everything - handguns, rifles, shotguns, & archery.

[leverjc]

I naturally shoot with both eyes open for everything, but I have noticed that when using a small opening with a target arpeture I have to close my left eye to focus on the front sight. With both eyes open the sights and target blur.

[Mr. Neutron]

I naturally shoot with both eyes open for everything, but I have noticed that when using a small opening with a target arpeture I have to close my left eye to focus on the front sight. With both eyes open the sights and target blur.

That's the same issue I have, but it happens even with a Skinner "standard" aperture opening (.095", I *think???. I do have one aperture with a smaller dia. opening, which does seem to help my groups a tad, maybe, but I still shoot with my left eye closed. I want to try removing the aperture and go "Total Ghost Ring" to see if that possibly helps.

It's weird. When I was able to shoot archery, I shot instinctive with a 50# longbow, and kept both eyes open for that. Shotgun & handgun, both eyes open. But it's the hardest habit to form to make myself shoot with both eyes open with a scoped or iron sighted rifle.

[TRock]

I will go with one eye. I was born blind in my left eye, so I try to keep the other one open. Not only do I appreciate still getting to shoot,but those around me feel a little safer too..LOL. Some People ask what it is like shooting with just one eye. I really can't answer the question because I don't have anything to compare it to. Life is good.

[Travlin]

A lot of the old target shooters and buffalo hunters had shooting glasses with a piece of paper over the lens of the off eye and the shooting eye lens was frosted except for a small circle in the middle. ( Old Guns And Whispering Ghosts p. 72 ) In his book Sixguns, Elmer Keith has a picture of himself being fitted with shooting glasses with a small aperture in the shooting eye .

[dave77]

I can't shut just my left eye, no problem shutting just my right eye. Even though I'm right handed when shooting handguns I shut my right eye and aim with my left eye. That won't work shooting a rifle but I've always been able to shoot my rifles with both eyes open and just un-focus my left eye. Maybe because I'm getting older the last time I shot my Henry with peep sights I was not not able to focus on the sight with both eyes open. Ripped a piece of cardboard from a cartridge box and stuck it between my glasses and my left eye. That worked ok but I need to find a better way to cover my left eye, either a eye patch or something to cover the left eyeglass lens.

[2ffat]

Both.

[GunnyGene]

I only use my 3rd eye when shooting. So I guess that means I shoot with one open and 2 closed.

[GunnyGene]

I can't shut just my left eye, no problem shutting just my right eye. Even though I'm right handed when shooting handguns I shut my right eye and aim with my left eye. That won't work shooting a rifle but I've always been able to shoot my rifles with both eyes open and just un-focus my left eye. Maybe because I'm getting older the last time I shot my Henry with peep sights I was not not able to focus on the sight with both eyes open. Ripped a piece of cardboard from a cartridge box and stuck it between my glasses and my left eye. That worked ok but I need to find a better way to cover my left eye, either a eye patch or something to cover the left eyeglass lens.

Walmart sells inexpensive eye patches. I use one occasionally.