Both Eyes Open
Shooting with both eyes
By Marisa Lee, Regional Hunter Education Coordinator,
Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries
Most of us have heard of eye dominance but few people
really know the significance of what it is and how it works.
Essentially, the dominant eye looks directly at an object
while the non-dominant eye looks at the same object
from a slight angle. This small difference provides us with
depth perception.
The dominant eye is primarily relied on for precise posi-
tional information and the non-dominant eye is used to help
determine distances. This ability to determine the distance
to an object is due to the two eyes receiving slightly different
images due to the wide positioning on the face. The two im-
ages are contrasted by the brain to calculate distance. This is
especially important in shooting sports disciplines.
Keep Eyes Open
For shooting sports that involve moving targets, using
both eyes gives the shooter greater peripheral vision, which
allows them to pick up the target sooner and judge its direc-
tion and speed. The targets will look larger, closer and appear
to move more slowly. Closing one eye robs your ability to
distinguish depth of field and things will appear flat. Depth
of field is an important attribute in our ability to make cor-
rect judgments about the distance and behavior of a target.
For shooting sports that involve stationary targets, shoot-
ing with both eyes open gives you a much brighter and more
natural field-of-view, even when looking through a peep
sight. The dominant eye focuses crisply and does the actual
“sighting” through the restricted area of the peep sight, and
the other eye “fills in the gaps” in the picture.
Additionally, the eyes adapt to the incoming light by con-
stricting or dilating the pupil like a camera lens. If one eye is
closed, no light is allowed through the closed eye, while the
transmission of light through the other eye is high. This forc-
es the pupils to regulate the different amounts of light and
16 Outdoor Alabama | OCTOBER 2010
open is the correct method
whether shooting at moving
or stationary targets
will cause your eyes to dilate differently. For a moment, the
data your brain receives appears confusing and even out of
focus at times. The brain is configured to operate with both
eyes open and your eyes are used to working together.
Furthermore, shooting with both eyes open will prevent
excessive strain on a single sighting eye. Closing one eye over
long periods of time fatigues the muscles of the face. Over
time, it will also begin to fatigue other parts of the body.
Once mastered, keeping both eyes open becomes a natu-
ral part of the shooting process. Benchrest shooters do it
because they must make shots at the exact instant the wind
flags move to the correct position. Benchrest shooting is a
long distance precision shooting sport that uses flags to de-
termine wind direction and speed. It is much too slow and
ineffective to continuously open and close one eye to see
both the reticle’s position on the target and then the position
of the wind flags.
Practical pistol shooters could not move and shoot as fast
as they otherwise could if they didn’t keep both eyes open.
Try walking or running with one eye closed. It is disorienting
to say the least as well as inefficient. Shooting with two eyes
open allows for better balance and orientation while holding
the firearm. Like anything else, keeping both eyes open may
take practice. Once learned, however, it becomes second na-
ture and the results are well worth the effort.
What does shooting with both eyes open have to do with
your dominant eye? In order to shoot a rifle or shotgun, we
must align the firearm underneath one of our two eyes, with
the stock on our shoulder. If this shoulder is not the one that
corresponds with the dominant eye, then your brain could
be fed a visual picture that would be erroneous, causing you
to miss your target.

The author demonstrates
the correct stance and
safety procedure when
shooting—using eye
protection and keeping
both eyes open.
Determining Eye Dominance
So how do you determine which eye is
dominant? Start by making a small triangle
with your hands. (See Step 1) Keep your arms
outstretched away from your face, and with
both eyes open, bring the triangle up to eye
level. Focus on the top of a friend’s nose. Your
friend can then tell you which eye is looking at
him or her through the triangle of your hands.
You can also do this yourself by using a mir-
ror and doing the same procedure on yourself.
Another way is to look through the triangle
at a small distant object and then bring your
hands to your face while keeping the object in
view through the triangle. The eye that your
hand comes to is your dominant eye.
Determining which eye is dominant deter-
mines if you need to shoot right or left hand-
ed. When shooting a bow, rifle or shotgun, if
you are right eye dominant you should shoot
right handed and if you are left eye dominant
you should shoot left handed, regardless of
which is your strong or weak hand. Being
right or left handed will not necessarily de-
termine if you are right or left eye dominant.
Approximately two thirds of the population
is right-eye dominant and one third left-eye
dominant. In a small portion of the popula-
tion neither eye is dominant.
Cross dominance is a term used to de-
scribe someone who is right handed and left
eye dominant or left handed and right eye
dominant. This can be a highly intimidating
STEP-BY-STEP
Determining Eye
Dominance
Make a triangle with both of your
hands by overlapping your thumbs
and the top half of your fingers.
2 Extend your
arms toward
your target.
situation. Some adults who are cross dominant
may not want to take the advice of shooting
opposite handed due to the time and dedica-
3
tion required to re-coordinate yourself to
using your least dexterous side. It may feel
awkward at first, while the muscle memory is
being relearned; however, in time it will come Look through the
triangle at the target.
to be second nature and feel just as natural as
it did to shoot with your strong arm. Shoot-
ing from the shoulder on the same side as the 4 Keep your hand-triangle
dominant eye is the best option to make you a small enough so that only
one eye can look through
proficient shooter long term. it up close.
There are always those people who say, “I
can’t do that!” I tell them nonsense; you can 5 Keep both eyes open.
do anything you set you mind out to do. My
mother always told me, “Can’t never did a
thing; he died in the poorhouse and the ants
carried him out the keyhole!” As a child, I
was not really sure what that meant, but oddly
enough, after she told me that, I always ac-
complished what I said I couldn’t do.
6
I could list countless professional shooters Move your hands
in all disciplines who have mastered the tech- back to your face,
nique, as well as non-professional shooters still looking at the
target through your
including my Dad. Are you really any different hands. Whichever eye
from any of them? your hands gravitate
Bottom line, in the shooting sports, you toward is your domi-
nant eye.
should shoot with both eyes open, and shoul-
der your firearm under your dominant eye.
The rewards will be worth the effort. Before
you know it, your scores will skyrocket and Double check by holding the triangle
at arms distance again and closing your
your time on the range or in the field will be non-dominant eye. The target should
more productive. remain centered in the opening.
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