One or two eyes?

[Jeff XD]

I have been shooting my XD40 Service for about 2 months now and felt comfortable enough to try something different. First a little bit of background on my experience.
I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns, never shot a pistol before a 2 years ago. When I started shooting my first pistol (Browning Buckmark) I fell back to my rifle experiences, one eye closed. Since then I have talked with various people who have much more experience with pistols than I do and they suggested trying to shoot with both eyes open. I understand the tactical advantages this offers but is there an easy way to train your dominant eye to focus on the front sight?
I tried on my last trip to the range and my eyes wanted to focus on the target instead of the sight, so at times my aiming was more instinctive than seen. Oddly enough my groups were tighter and more accuate with both eyes open.

[slugger6]

I close both eyes and cross my fingers! Seriously, I have tried it both ways and am now shooting with both eyes open most of the time. Whatever you do focus on the front sight, not the target.

[amishclark]

for me, it just took a lot of practice. it's like those weird pictures that look like nothing, but when you focus "through" them, they look 3d...perhaps start with the pistol at "reading distance" (with your finger off the trigger, of course ), and focus on the front sight. i remember reading something about this being easier to do because your eyes are more used to that focal distance. slowly move the gun into your shooting stance, while staying focused on the front sight (target is blurry). maybe try it with an unloaded and checked gun first...dry fire a bit. that stuff...at least, that's what i did. now, i feel like my eyes have muscle memory for a new focal distance...sometimes...

[nsnate02]

I couldn't shoot with both eyes open till I got my SureSights. The way the are set up makes it a lot easier. I think it depends on the sights and practice.

My Hi-Power has a very tight sight picture. It is almost impossible to use both eyes.

[PilgrimChapter33]

I can't do it, but i'm cross dominant (right handed, left eyed), and this seems to be the problem. Many of my shooting buddies shoot two eyes open though.

[dzine808]

im left eye dominant...tried two, but only for rifles looking thru the scope.

[jednp]

shoot both eyes open. You will notice a little bit of sights with both eyes... but you should be able to tell which one is your dominant eye. Sit and practice it until it is natural to you. It helps so somewhat squint your other eye, but don't close it all the way.

Do this even when using scoped rifles too. You will find that your other eye tends to see what the one looking through the scope does. It's almost like holding one hand maybe 1-2" in front of one eye while looking with the other. It appears you can see through your hand.

When you close one eye, you ruin the vision in it. If you were forced to use your other eye, it will be blurred from being closed.

I had a bit of problems at first too with using both eyes, but I trained myself to do it. It's natural now, and I do it with all guns.

[40SWXDSHOOTER]

Eyes open or closed depends on what you are shooting.
When I'm shooting a USPSA match, and the stage has open targets from point blank to about 12-14 yards, I use what they call target focus (That is when you are focused on the target, and the gun is held in your line of vision, and you aren't even realy looking at the gun, just holding it in your line on vision). You need to know where your gun points when you have a proper grip.
If it is a harder shot, like past 15 yards, upper A zone, hard cover, or no-shoots, I shift to sight focus, and focus on the sights with the target blurred, but both eyes still open.
Now if they have 50yrd standards (Targets at 50 yards), then I shoot with one eye open, and one eye closed, and focus on the sights.

[nsnate02]

That's called "Point Shooting" and is a tried and true battle technique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_shooting.

Not to rave about SureSights, but I am cross eye dominant as well and I had to Point Shoot a lot before I got them. With the bigger sights I can cross between the Point technique and open eye shooting. With practice I have improved accuracy and maintained a good, practice vs real world, shooting system.

[bham shooter]

I have a small problem that I have been able to overcome. I had perfect vision up until I was about 21. Then I noticed myself not seeing things as clearly at night while driving. Got my eyes checked, and the left one is fine, but the right one has a little problem. It gradually got worse over the past few years, and now it seems to have stabilized. No Rx change in the past two years, which is good. The problem is that my right eye is dominant. My Dad was watching me shoot and noticed that I was closing my right eye and using my left to aim with. He told me all about the dominant eye thing, and he's not even a shooter. He told me to try using my right eye to aim with, and I was a little stubborn at first because I could clearly see better through my left eye, even with glasses to correct the right one.

I tried it, and my shots were much closer to center than before, even not being able to focus on the front sight as much. Since then, I have changed glasses to ones with a slightly larger lens, and that seems to help too.

I usually squint some, but don't close my left eye.