Do You Close Your Eye(s) at the Shot?

[Canadiankeeper]

Me ole pah tawt me not to close me eyes when shoot'in.
How else you gonna see if you hit it?, he would say.
So I practise this concept religiously and I t'aint awll dat religeeous.
Might help to better control this habit with shooting a 22.
Oar bring sum tewthpicks.
Jest an eye-deer mind you.

try extra hearing protection. Muffs and plugs

If you are closing your eyes that means you are anticipating the shot and likely slapping the trigger...... Neither are good things.....

This, its a bad habit. The odd time I will catch myself with a blink when using a scoped rifle that is not mine, still can see impact on the gongs. It usually a nasty ole hunting rifle. Not one of my range princesses with muzzle breaks or more comfortable calibers.

Grab a 22 and get at the practice.

 

[Smcx]

Only with my 7.5" AR in 7.62x39. I try to keep my eyes open, but the concussion closes them most times.

 

[ruger22]

Using full coverage eye protection?

Body takes in lots of concussion and there fore perceived recoil via the eyes, I was told.

 

[smiley1]

If you blink while shooting, this is a type of flinch. It's a normal reaction to blink, when there's an explosion going off by your face...it doesn't mean you're less of a man. There are several types of flinches and blinking is one of them.

Use ear plugs and muffs, if you cut down the noise you may not blink as often. Counting while you shoot can also help. Also shooting big noisy guns don't help. The more experienced you get, the less you'll likely flinch.

 

[carverk]

I suffer with blinking it's buck fever happens at least once a year to me
a bit of time at the range and sum dry fire exercises help but the best thing is to grab a 22 and do sum small game hunting in the Field it realy pays off when it comes to hunting big game

 

[NL-Hunter]

So here is my input:
Since starting to shoot many moons ago, I quickly realized i could shoot just as well from Left or Right. With open sights that is/was. The annual moose hunts proved successful using a scope but I noticed that I had to keep my left eye shut. I practiced keeping left eye open with miserable results. A few years ago, I realized glasses were needed for reading, but I adjusted scope to compensate for sighting, practice and hunts. This was also about the time when I started to close my right eye after the shot. I recently acquired a CZ Safari in .375 H&H and wanted to try it with open sights first to get used to the additional recoil before adding a scope. Without glasses I could clearly see the target but open sights were blurry. With glasses provided opposite results, the target at 100 Yds was blurry. Needless to say, scope was my only option in being able to use it for this years hunt. Keeping my left eye shut and closing right eye at shot have not prevented me in filling freezer or get adequate accuracy at the range.

Skip forward to today:
Started reading some info various rifle and hunting links and saw a person holding his two hands up to form a triangle ... I clicked on the link to find out it is a part of a test to see if you have cross domination. I.E. Right handed with Left Eye domination. Did the test and BINGO, I was surprised to realize that I am Left Eye Dominant. It is all starting to make sense now. I have a need for a new rifle in Left Hand.

I will take a few of my bolt actions in various calibers and try them with both Left and Right side to see if my theories are correct. Right eye "flinch" and target acquisition issues should become a thing of the past.

Will update ...

 

[cdn1canhunt]

You can correct some of the left eye dominance NL hunter..rather than buy a left handed rifle... Just take pair of glasses and tape over the left eye lense. Then head to the range with a few tins of bb's or better a few bricks of .22rimfire. After a brick or 2, you should have much improved right eye use.. It may not completely cure it but save you haveing to buy a left handed rifle

 

[NL-Hunter]

Too bad, I always wanted a Left Handed Rifle.

I will try to tape up my left eye first all the same. Shooting with glasses (safety glasses maybe) is out of the question, maybe a pair of "no lens in the right one" and tape up the left.

 

[hart]

I've got the perfect ammo to see if you blink. A buddy give me some old 303 ammo. About half goes bang and the other half goes click.

 

[Juster]

My instructor told me to pick a small phrase, in my case "sight picture" and repeat it over and over again as I take aim and squeeze the trigger. At first I had to say it aloud (I say it in my head now). It worked like a charm and brought my grouping in from 10 inches to 3 in short while. He explained that what this does is change the area of your brain that you are using from the excitable area needed for "flinching" to a calmer area required for speech.

I have a degree in Physiology, and that sounds plausible. Surgeons are not supposed to talk while cutting, since speaking does affect fine hand movement.
I shall try this, thanks!

 

[DealersAdvocate]

tagged

 

[cdn1canhunt]

Too bad, I always wanted a Left Handed Rifle.

I will try to tape up my left eye first all the same. Shooting with glasses (safety glasses maybe) is out of the question, maybe a pair of "no lens in the right one" and tape up the left.

You can always go pirate style....the old eye patch. Either way it's a stupid look lol. .but I was 10 yrs old when my uncle saw what I was doing .......happy to be a pirate and shoot my BB gun in the basement.

 

[j_06]

So here is my input:
Since starting to shoot many moons ago, I quickly realized i could shoot just as well from Left or Right. With open sights that is/was. The annual moose hunts proved successful using a scope but I noticed that I had to keep my left eye shut. I practiced keeping left eye open with miserable results. A few years ago, I realized glasses were needed for reading, but I adjusted scope to compensate for sighting, practice and hunts. This was also about the time when I started to close my right eye after the shot. I recently acquired a CZ Safari in .375 H&H and wanted to try it with open sights first to get used to the additional recoil before adding a scope. Without glasses I could clearly see the target but open sights were blurry. With glasses provided opposite results, the target at 100 Yds was blurry. Needless to say, scope was my only option in being able to use it for this years hunt. Keeping my left eye shut and closing right eye at shot have not prevented me in filling freezer or get adequate accuracy at the range.

Skip forward to today:
Started reading some info various rifle and hunting links and saw a person holding his two hands up to form a triangle ... I clicked on the link to find out it is a part of a test to see if you have cross domination. I.E. Right handed with Left Eye domination. Did the test and BINGO, I was surprised to realize that I am Left Eye Dominant. It is all starting to make sense now. I have a need for a new rifle in Left Hand.

I will take a few of my bolt actions in various calibers and try them with both Left and Right side to see if my theories are correct. Right eye "flinch" and target acquisition issues should become a thing of the past.

Will update ...

I suffered from the same thing and like you only recently discovered I was cross dominant while learning to shoot a bow. I had always closed one eye as the sight picture to me jumps from left to right as each eye is fighting the other. The glasses with one lense covered really helped and improved balance while shooting too. Really helped with rifles and bows for me and my now I use iron sights almost exclusively . You really can train your eyes.