In light of AmmoLand’s lawyers pitching a fit over linked articles here at TCJ, we’ve been working on getting permissions from quality sources that don’t mind sharing praxis while driving traffic back to them. Quality training, ideas, and techniques you may not have considered, and specific instruction to get better with our tools is the goal. We’ve already posted several Handgun Training exercises. We’ll tag those and all upcoming training posts with ‘Tactical Drills and Training,’ so we’ll have one tag to use as a reference resource.

Many of the readers here will find some of these to be entry-level. However, there are some with less experience who don’t comment much. The idea is that we all teach and share, encouraging one another. We’ll have higher experience/skill level posts soon.

The first article we’ll link is handgun training from Shooty McBeardface. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s at the usual online places.

From a defensive standpoint, habitually shooting with both eyes open is vastly superior to just using the one. Here I’ll explain a simple method that works; one you can use starting today.

When any of us first starts shooting we make a point to close our off eye so that we can have a clear sight picture. That clear, unambiguous sight picture is vital at this stage because we typically have no trained mechanics or muscle memory to assist with our effort to shoot accurately. What’s more, most of us are unaccustomed to directing our focus into one eye while the other eye remains open.

All of this is to say, there’s a bit of a learning curve to proper defensive firearm technique (of which the eyes are just one component).

I say defensive firearm technique because there is little benefit in target shooting with both eyes open. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t target shoot with both eyes open, but the point of having both open is so that your field of vision remains as wide as possible so that you don’t miss something important or deadly in a fight for life; yours or someone else’s. However, since humans are creatures of habit, it is best to make a habit of shooting with both eyes open.

Picture: Shooty McBeardface

He continues with some basics and explanatory photos, including finding your dominant eye, aiming, and encouraging you to get out there and practice your new shooting technique to build lifelong skills. Please give him a click.

How I teach folks to check for their dominant eye is to extend both hands out straight in front of the face with the back of the hands facing you, forming a triangle (pictured below). Then focus on an object 20 feet away—close first one eye, then the other. You should be able to see the object with your dominant eye and not the other. I happen to be opposite-eye dominant, which means my dominant eye is not on the side of my dominant hand.