gzg38b

This year I started keeping both eyes open and it worked great at first. But lately I notice myself dropping my bow arm when I see the arrow fly. If I close my right eye and focus on the pin instead of the target, I holdsteadier and I don't drop my bow arm upon release. So now I keep both eyes until the pin is steady on it's mark. Then I slowly close one eye as I'm squeezing the trigger. I try to concentrate on the pin as the bow fires. It seems to help my follow through. By keeping focused on the pin as the bow fires, it helps me to have a suprise release because I'm not focused on pulling the trigger. What do you guys do?

Matt / PA

I have always subscribed to the theory that we were given 2 eyes for a reason.
I don't think we were designed to do anything with one eye closed, especially things that involve balance and hand eye coordination.
Now throw in hand eye coordination and balance and possibly uneven footing, maybe 25 feet in the air and stress and I want as many eyes working as God gave me.

Just try standing still with one eye closed for any period of time and see what your body thinks of that. I just think that learning to shoot with one eye closed will have a negative impact on a persons inherent shooting ability.

Eye dominance issues can be worked on by squinting down slightly on the dominant off eye to take it out of play but I would never close it entirely.

gzg38b

Matt - When shooting w/ both eyes open, do you focus on the pin or the target?

YooperMike

i have always been a one-eyed shooter. Possibly because the first weapon I ever used extensively was my .22 with scope. I am extrememly right-eye dominant so having the left eye open doesn't really help me out anyway. I can't say how it has effected my shooting ability because I haven't done it any other way, but I am a pretty darn good shot, so it doesn't seem to have adverse effect.

Matt / PA

Target.

My eye never leaves the spot I want to hit......I just let the pin float over that spot and concentrate on the release process.
I'm more concious of how my peep aligns with my sight ring than I am with the actual pins themselves. Once I am confident my peep is aligned precisely the rest is just looking at the target and execution.

It gets even easier to do when gapping pins. When you have a pin sight set up for say the standard 20-30-40 yardage settings, when you want to shoot 25 yards you don't aim high with one pin or low with the other. I aim with the imaginary pin in between the 20 and 30.....just stare at the spot you want to hit by bracketing it. It's essentially aiming with air as you don't look at either pin at all, just the spot you want to hit.

If you shoot closer to or farther from one pin or the other's exact yardage you just shade the gap a little in the necessary direction.

You'll be amazed at how accurately you can shoot by simply staring at that spot you want to hit.

Proff

I too have always been a one eye open shooter. That is just how I learned and it has always worked. I tried it the with both open before and I truly did better with one, so I stuck with it. I have always been a really good shot so it seems to work for me.I know that alot of people think that there is only one right way to do everything but I have never believed that. I know guys that have very weird styles of doing many things that are very successful. Look at the way some NFL QB's have an unorthodox pass delivery, but threw their way into the HOF.
In one of Randy Ulmers articles I read he said that their is really no totally wrond way to shoot, as lond as you can do it consisitent time after time after time. And I believe that. I am not a golfer, but in the golf leauge where I work, there is one guy that they always talk about that has the goofiest stance and way he hits the ball. They say that it is hilarious to watch, but he is the guy laughing the most when every year he is accepting his first or second place award for the year.

Mykey

I've always shotbows and firearms with both eyes open. The older i get the more i'm glad i do because my eyes surely aren't what they use to be. Years ago I tried shooting with one eye closed but I can definately see the target better with both eyes open and i agree with Matt, always focus on the target. Come to think of it i do pretty much everything with both eyes open. I've even been accused of sleeping that way! But honestly i wasn't asleep!

ButchA

I have to shoot with one eye open.... I'm a goofball.... You see, if I open my other eye,I see two set of sights, or two sets of targets. There has to be a trick, that I've never figured out....

Left eye dominant, left handed, and shoot with right eye closed. Open right eye, and everything goes to heck in a handbasket real quick.... But yet, I can shoot skeet with my Remington 870 shotgun with both eyes open. Explain that!

Kamil

i look at this in 2 ways.... 1 eye is good for target shooting if thats what you like...but when first light hits and you can barely see that deer, both eyes open will help you see where the animal is instead of a dark spot...you will most likely make a better shot with both eyes open...theres no disadvantage of having both eyes open you just have to train yourself in your form properly..

MO_Bowhnter

ButchA, I see doubles too when I open my other eye. I think that if I practiced enough with both open, I could change but I shoot fine with one closed.