I have been shooting shotguns for 61 years now. I'm "better than the average bear" but certainly no "master" shooter. I am even included in the pool of "instructors" at my sporting clays club when corporations hold events and ask for "instructors". I've never had any complaints! When I'm asked by shooters, do I keep both eyes open or close one eye, my answer is always - shoot with both eyes open!
I have had bouts of "cross dominance" in years past (defined as temporary periods/situations while shooting where the left eye starts dominating the normally dominant right eye in my case). I solved these during these periods with the old trick of putting a piece of translucent tape over the left lens to keep the open left eye from focusing on the target.
Ok, fast forward to a month ago. I was out practicing at my sporting clays club and absolutely could not hit fairly simple right-to-left crossing and quartering clays. At that time, I did not have any tape on my glasses. After a frustrating box or two, I decided just to close my left eye. Holy smokes! I couldn't miss a target with the left eye closed!
I concluded I needed to "tape up" again so I did that. I've shot in a couple of tournaments and numerous practice rounds and not struggled particularly with those shots. Yesterday I'm out practicing (tape is on the shooting glasses), and the right-to-lefts become a struggle again. A moderately difficult r-to-l chandelle was about unhittable for me! I closed my left eye and crushed 7 straight!
When I close my left eye, the total sight picture seems to come into a super clear focus! It's almost like slow motion and I'm burning a hole in the target. The sight picture I'm getting reminds me of what you see when you view shotgun targets on YouTube through a ShotCam! I just recently had an eye exam and my left eye is not significantly weaker than the right from a focusing point-of-view.
I'd just like to share this and ask if anyone else out there has ever experienced this? It's driving me crazy that to hit these right-to-lefts, I seemingly have to shut one eye, but hey, I guess if it works, what the heck?
Thanks and happy shooting to all you guys out there!
I have had bouts of "cross dominance" in years past (defined as temporary periods/situations while shooting where the left eye starts dominating the normally dominant right eye in my case). I solved these during these periods with the old trick of putting a piece of translucent tape over the left lens to keep the open left eye from focusing on the target.
Ok, fast forward to a month ago. I was out practicing at my sporting clays club and absolutely could not hit fairly simple right-to-left crossing and quartering clays. At that time, I did not have any tape on my glasses. After a frustrating box or two, I decided just to close my left eye. Holy smokes! I couldn't miss a target with the left eye closed!
I concluded I needed to "tape up" again so I did that. I've shot in a couple of tournaments and numerous practice rounds and not struggled particularly with those shots. Yesterday I'm out practicing (tape is on the shooting glasses), and the right-to-lefts become a struggle again. A moderately difficult r-to-l chandelle was about unhittable for me! I closed my left eye and crushed 7 straight!
When I close my left eye, the total sight picture seems to come into a super clear focus! It's almost like slow motion and I'm burning a hole in the target. The sight picture I'm getting reminds me of what you see when you view shotgun targets on YouTube through a ShotCam! I just recently had an eye exam and my left eye is not significantly weaker than the right from a focusing point-of-view.
I'd just like to share this and ask if anyone else out there has ever experienced this? It's driving me crazy that to hit these right-to-lefts, I seemingly have to shut one eye, but hey, I guess if it works, what the heck?
Thanks and happy shooting to all you guys out there!