Shotgunning with one eye or two eyes open?
BY Herschel Smith
1 year, 5 months ago
BLUF: Both eyes open.
Frankly, the other option never even occurred to me. You lose your depth and movement perception without both eyes open, and you need both to shotgun.
On June 23, 2023 at 8:24 am, Drake said:
Two eyes when shooting trap. One eye when shooting slugs – like a rifle.
On June 24, 2023 at 12:58 am, luigi said:
Start shooting with what ever is comfortable, and productive. If you start with one eye, after a while, you will see that your second eye is opening on it’s own, without you thinking about it. Likewise, if you start with both eyes open, and you need precise accuracy, you will find that your support eye is closing on it’s own.
On June 25, 2023 at 4:34 am, bobdog said:
Eye dominance is the problem.
One eyed trap requires you to use a low hold (“on the house”) to avoid the bird being blocked by the barrel when it comes out of the house. That requires vertical movement of the gun, as well as left-right movement, every time you shoot. Much more complicated movement, and it’s hard to do this consistently.
You can test for this by closing your eyes and holding a finger in front of you at arm’s length. When you open your eyes, either the left eye or the right eye will be in control, and you can tell which. If it’s your off-eye, you’ve got an eye dominance problem and will pretty much require one-eyed shooting, particularly with hard-left and hard-right targets. If your off-eye is in control, you’ll be off by five feet or more at the bird. Your eye is the rear sight with a shotgun.
A two-eyed shooter holds high above the house (barrel held horizontal) because you can see around the barrel with your off eye. That greatly simplifies gun movement to a simple left-right swing.
Some shooters have a more dominant off-eye – a right handed shooter with a dominant left eye – which results in “cross firing” – sighting with the left eye instead of the right – which pretty much requires one-eyed shooting. Some shooters put tape on their glasses to overcome this problem, effectively “blinding” the off-eye, but you’re pretty well forced to use a low hold. Tape never worked well for me.
I shot competitive trap all over the country for 15 years, and I’ve shot both ways, including a couple where cross-firing was a big issue for me. Two-eyed shooting is highly preferable, because it’s a simpler movement. That’s a big plus during a match, especially in the afternoon when you get tired. An ATA match typically involve 400 rounds a day for a week, and believe me, you do get tired.