Aiming a pistol vs. aiming a bow

**MEGA JESUS-SAMA** · Posted On: 8/27/2006 8:14pm

Do gun shooters aim with both eyes open? Do you have problems with double vision, and if so how do you deal with it?

**tellner** · Posted On: 8/27/2006 8:34pm

Depends on what you're shooting. If you're using, say, a rifle with a telescopic sight or apeture sights you would close the non-dominant eye. For pistols you're not supposed to close the non-dominant eye although many do. With training you just look at the front sight with the dominant eye and the other one zones out and is ignored by the brain. Point shooters look at the target with both eyes and blast away.

**MEGA JESUS-SAMA** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 3:14am

Closing the non-dominant eye isn't really an option, since it tightens up the face and neck muscles too much.

Anyway, the problem I'm having is that when I shoot with both eyes open, I have two aperatures visible. I was told by mid-level archers to just ignore the one on the right and use the one on the left, but I haven't been able to ask a pro yet.

**tellner** · Posted On: 8/28/2006 3:20am

There's a trick to ignoring the input from one eye when shooting. I don't know how to explain it. It just came with practice.

**Dirty Rooster** · Posted On: 9/12/2006 12:33pm

Originally Posted by Don Gwinn

That's exactly what I thought, but I didn't see it happen all weekend. Can't really explain why, because they were leaving red lines on their forearms all day.

The 'drawing to the ear' bit might just be a trick to get them to draw back enough as beginners. They might not actually be drawing the string back to their ear, but their intention to do so will at least get them to pull it back 'enough' and maybe not throw their fingers forward on release.

**MEGA JESUS-SAMA** · Posted On: 9/12/2006 6:05pm

Giving beginners false information is bad under any circumstance. That would be like telling a new boxer to hold their hands above their head, hoping that they'll slack off and keep them in front of their face.

Anyway, in archery shot execution is paramount, and because muscles work best while in motion totally percise aiming is both impossible and useless. So focusing on the target and just surrounding it with an open aperature is best for beginners. While better archers (who have naturally superb execution) can put a little more focus on aiming, perfect form will always produce tighter groups than perfect aiming. Shooting a gun, on the other hand, is significantly less complicated, so more attention can be put on aiming without mucking up the shot process, and precise aiming is vital because bullets do not self-correct in flight.

And shooting with both eyes open was just a matter of doing it until my mind canceled out the double-vision naturally.

I'm so awesome I can figure out the answers to my own questions.