question of the day: Should you aim and shoot with one eye closed or both eyes open

This topic gets so much discussion steeped in dogma that it is usually very confusing to most new shooters.

The truth is this: Do what you need to do to see your sights well enough to make an acceptable hit on the target. It does not matter what you do to your eyes to get there. Keep both eyes open, or close one eye, or tape your glasses, or wear an eye patch and a parrot on your shoulder.

It does not matter.

Personally, I get far too much visual confusion when I keep both eyes open, so I close an eye. I shoot just fine.

I find that I get more visual information with both eyes open. It was confusion at first but over time my tiny mind has figured out how to interpolate the two eyes info. I don't think that it was any coincidence that my initial two eyes open success was with a pistol at closer fields of range. I just kept adding more range. With a pistol I find that I have to close an eye at the 25 yard mark. With a scope I find that I close an eye if my magnification isn't right for the shot. My eyes, my brain, I know that others will differ. There are benefits to both eyes being open if you are able to process what they both see. Some days are better than others...
 
So, if you shoot with both eyes open, do you actually use both for aiming, or just use one and let the other drift off to do its own thing?

I used to keep both open, but ignored the image from my non-dominant eye (that's easy for me, since that eye is a bit lazy; ignoring the double image comes naturally).

But now I've got new prescription shooting glasses, which have a near-vision prescription in the right eye (for a sharp focus on the front sight), and a far prescription in the left eye (for sharp focus on the target). I'm finding this very challenging to adapt to. I find myself still ignoring the left eye image. But the right eye view of the target is even more blurry now.

Do people with two good eyes actually do that? Use both eyes at once to focus on both the sights and target, and their brain somehow synthesizes it all together?
 
Since red dots don't work properly with one eye closed, both open with a dot. With irons, one closes as the sights come on target - at the same time as the finger goes to the trigger, opens immediately after the shot. Either eye, depending on which hand is primary on the gun - switch hand, switch eye.
 
Depends how tired my eyes are. If I've been at work all day staring at a monitor, I'll need to close one. At least for a couple hours anyways. After a couple hours my dominant eye will start taking over again...so, do what you need to do. Generally both eyes open though (unless it's a scope. I can't have both eyes open with those for some reason).
 
If possible, shoot with all three eyes open. The third eye, or anja chakra, is the gate that leads to higher consciousness, which the Jedi masters refer to as "the Force". Using this technique you will hit all targets and defeat all enemies.
 
I tried shooting my pistol with both eyes open the other day and OMG is it ever hard lol. I will be practising with dry fire more and more to get better at it.
 
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