Do you close one eye to aim your handgun?

I have both my eyes open whether I'm shooting my handguns, rifles, or shotguns. It just feels more natural to me, but it was how I was taught when I was just starting out.
 
Closing the non-sighting eye will definitely make it easier for almost anyone to aim more accurately, since there is no need for the brain to compensate for the off-kilter image of the sights coming in from that eye. Yes, most people can learn to shoot quite well with both eyes open with practice.

In defensive shooting, keeping both eyes open while aiming greatly improves situational awareness and allows for depth perception, which are critical factors. Closing one eye is often not smart.

In bullseye shooting, keeping both eyes open prevents eye strain and improves vision. Having one eye closed for an extended period of time creates a "mixed message" in the brain about light conditions -- the closed eye says it's dark and to open the iris of the eyes, the open eye wants the irises closed to match actual light conditions. For this reason, most bullseye shooters have a blinder over their non-sighting eye so that they can keep both eyes open, but only use one eye for sighting. It's like having one eye closed while it's actually open.
 
I spent my first dozen or so years of shooting experience using only the one eye. I've forced myself in the past year to adopt the use of both eyes. It takes getting used to, and for the first couple of months I was having all sorts of trouble. Now keeping both eyes open is second nature (and far more effective).

Cheers,
Payam
 
both open,...I find squinting one eye, shooting rifle makes my face tired and can lead to twitching. I was always taught to hold both eyes open,..rifle or handgun. Some people close one eye when shooting great distances with handgun. Eotech and Acog users probably don't even think about closing an eye,..it just comes naturally to keep both eyes open using these types of sights.
 
Keep your eyes open, it won't hurt:D;)
The key is to hold those sights, the same each time, elev/windage..
After a bit your muscle memory and your sight picture will start to work together.
Oh wrap that wrist if the gun wants to jump out of your hand;)
 
if you are finding it difficult to shoot with both eyes open, you are probably attempting to hold the sight picture too long.
 
are you are not sure of your dominant eye. You may be right handed/ left eye dominant; with handgun shooting,..you need to slightly turn your head right, so you are getting a left eye sight picture.
 
Up until fairly recently I didn't think it was possible to learn to shoot with both eyes open. Anything that required the use of one eye more than the other I've always done with my left eye closed, be it shooting, photography, whatever.

Then one day with a friend out at the range I noticed him shooting with both eyes open. My buddy is a very new shooter (we used his car, my guns) and I wondered how he managed to do that. He said that he couldn't do it any other way- to close one eye threw him off quite badly. He'd long ago, during his many years as a professional wedding photographer, trained his left eye to "tune out" information it didn't need.

As skeptical as I was I started to try to train myself to keep both eyes open and, I'll be damned, it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be and made my shooting that much more relaxed. I'd never realized how much tension I was introducing in to my positioning by closing that eye.
 
Ed CGNM gave the best anwer so far. I am shoooting bullseye and practicing defence pistol as well. Bullseye requires me to use blinder on my left eye, it does improve my score no matter how hard I practiced shooting with both eyes. Closing non-shooting eye helps but blinder is the best. I hear a lot of bravado "I always", "natural" etc - google olympic pistol shooting and you will see everybody uses blinder in some form. Simpliest one is a piece of paper behind non-aiming side of safety glasses. You can also rub that side of glasses with emery paper if you don't mind making change irreversible. Some people use piece of white mathe hard plastic attached to headband. Idea is to allow light to non-shooting eye and prevent it from actually seing anyhting.

If people at the range start asking stupid questions or making silly jokes - flip them off, they are good guys but just don't know.
 
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