Using a red dot sight with both eyes open

[Flipperz]

I shoot right handed and am right eye dominant. When ever I try to shoot with both eyes open, I can only do it while shooting left handed. Is there any way to do this shooting right handed?

Example:

No, because when you use it correctly and just focus past it, on your target, you simply see a floating red dot as if it were part of your natural eyesight.

If you're a right handed shooter, align your right eye behind your sight, and align your left eye along the side of your gun. If you practice you can consciously focus on your target with only your left eye and your right eye will procure the dot and your central nervous system will do the rest automatically like it always does.

If you focus through the sight, you might form a habit of occasionally focusing on the dot itself, which is inches in front of you, and this will cause tunnel vision.

This is basically the concept.



The dot was obviously added with Photoshop, you can't achieve what I'm talking about without binocular vision so you can't really take a picture of it by any means I have at my disposal. Also, this is kind of far to the left, you'll have a bit more of the replica in your vision.

I also purposely focused the camera as far out as I could. Your gun should not be in focus when you're aiming at a target, they should be.

[Reyna]

Do what's comfortable, if Southpaw is the way that is comfortable for you then work with it. Look, keeping both eyes open is important in CQB situations, the whole reason for it is so you can keep from getting sucked into the fatal funnel and lose bearings on your surroundings. However during regular open terrain skirm's... its not so important because you can take a second and get your head back on right. If you want to train yourself to use your right eye and right hand it's just something you have to practice. Try looking just above your scope and when its time to shoot, snap up you rifle and fire one or two rounds. You can even take a nice bladed stance and practice "Ready Ups". On the prepatory command of ready you're looking over your scope, the barrel of your weapon an inch or inch and a half below your target. On the execution command of up you raise your rifle, flip your selector switch to fire and fire one to two rounds and force yourself to keep your eyes open. If it makes you feel better you can just eyeball the target with your viewpoint above your scope and then gradually work down.

Dude SRM (Short Range Marksmanship) is a technique that can hinge very thoroughly on shooter comfort. It's a tool, make it your own and use it how you want.

I've had A LOT of training in SRM so you can take it for what its worth but this is how I learned it.

[Strikerz]

I usually keep both eyes open when its dark in CQB. It allows more light into your retenas. So you can see more. But like Reyna said, do whats Comfortable

[binicb2r]

im a right handed shooter too. i always use both eyes open, even with a high power scope. as was said above, the reticule will just kinda float in your vision. after a while you will notice it will become faster to put the sight on the target. do whats comfortable but remember, your dominant side will be faster and usually more accurate.

[Patrick750]

Well i'm a left hand shooter and pride my self with target acquisition speed and accuracy which means I rarely need to aim. The sights naturally fall on the target. When I use my red dor for outdoors I aim the sights with one eye. When it's aligned i hold it there and open both eyes to return to my normal FOV.

[Solid]

It's really just an acquired skill through practice. You may be holding the weapon too far out to the right if it's not working correctly for you.

[Cap n pickles]

Shoot how ever it feels comfy to you.

[Henschel]

Flipperz, the most likely reason you are haveing trouble with your red dot is because your probably left eye dominant. Just because your right handed does not mean the same for your eyes. The easiest way to tell is as follows:

-Hold one of your fingers verticaly in front of your face at an arms length.

-Super impose your finger over an object at a distance as you would the front sight post of gun.

-Without moving your arm, keep both eyes open and look at your finger.

-Close one of your eyes, then switch eyes.

-The eye that does not change your "sight picture" is your dominent eye.

Hope it helps, and good luck.

[Steve]

It's a practiced skillset.

Does your optic have a flip-up front dust cover? (I can see the rear, but not the front in the picture). If it does, turn your optic on, and then close the dust cover in the front. Practice keeping both eyes open and putting the dot on the target with the dust cover down (red dot, black background through the optic). Your brain will superimpose the dot on the target by including data from your non-dominant eye. Practice like this for a while. Then try it with the cover flipped up and see if it helped. Then repeat for hours on end. Do this until you can keep both eyes open while putting the dot onto your target with the target in focus and the dot a bit fuzzy.

Once you are a little more comfortable lining up on targets this way, start practicing shooting positions. Take a good stance, bring the weapon up and focus through the optic on the target. Then let your eyes widen out to where the red dot is sort of fuzzy, the target is clear, and both eyes are open. Hold this position and remember what it feels like to be in this position. Take a bunch of time to do it right. Then, lower the replica and relax. Slowly (and I mean glacially slowly) assume a good shooting position again. Concentrate on how it feels as the weapon comes up. Keep looking at the target. Bring your primary up to your shoulder and bring the optic into your field of view. Keep both eyes open and focused on the target and drag the sight to you rather than trying to look through the sight at the target. Repeat this, a lot, over the course of multiple days. You want to do this slowly rather than quickly because you are trying to build muscle memory. It is better to spend 4x as long building the muscle memory than it is to build a bad habit that you will have to train yourself out of later. Concentrate on doing it right, and as slowly as you can possibly do it. Fast comes later. Much later. Also, slowly builds muscles better. Useable muscles, anyway. Fast reps at high speed builds mass, but low speeds held builds endurance. And being able to do something once is neat and all, but being able to do the same thing for 7 hours straight is more of what you are looking for with this (probably, anyway)

[Attack37]

Because of "optical drift" make sure you zero your weapon and use the sights the same way you zero, otherwise you can get quite a shift in your shot group.

[binicb2r]

with things like an eotech or a red dot you dont need the exact same sight picture to be accurate. try it, its creepy but it happens.

[Steve]

with things like an eotech or a red dot you dont need the exact same sight picture to be accurate. try it, its creepy but it happens.

Depends. Generally you run into parallax up close, and it isn't until you are 25-50 meters away with most red dots before you get to where you can do that. Differs depending on what optic you are using.

[Attack37]

with things like an eotech or a red dot you dont need the exact same sight picture to be accurate. try it, its creepy but it happens.

Depends. Generally you run into parallax up close, and it isn't until you are 25-50 meters away with most red dots before you get to where you can do that. Differs depending on what optic you are using.

I was gonna try not to comfuse the young lad with such terms.... basicly parallax refers to the focal point of your eyes...so up close your "red dot" will not be as accurate to the strike of your round without cheak to stock....however, out past 50m you lose that problem...and the round strike and the dot match.

[Steve]

with things like an eotech or a red dot you dont need the exact same sight picture to be accurate. try it, its creepy but it happens.

Depends. Generally you run into parallax up close, and it isn't until you are 25-50 meters away with most red dots before you get to where you can do that. Differs depending on what optic you are using.

I was gonna try not to comfuse the young lad with such terms.... basicly parallax refers to the focal point of your eyes...so up close your "red dot" will not be as accurate to the strike of your round without cheak to stock....however, out past 50m you lose that problem...and the round strike and the dot match.

Basically, it is that you are drawing a ballistically curving line down the bore, and drawing a straight line from your eye through the optic. The lines are very close to identical, especially the farther out you go. This really only matters for close range, and extremely long range. The problem being, 50 meters (or a bit over 150 feet) is not exactly close with airsoft rifles. Best advice? Zero at the longest range you are going to make precise shots, and shoot a group at 20 feet or so, so you know your offest.

[Attack37]

With reflex sights the precision isn't needed at close range, the body is a large target to hit, but at longer ranges that differential is smaller. Basicly, make sure that you are using the 5 principles of shooting when zeroing an airsoft rifle.

Sight Picture
Cheek Weld
Trigger Squeeze
Breathing
Steady Position