# Any solid facts regarding one eye or two open when shooting a bow?



## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

I realize there are many opinion polls on AT regarding one eye or two but I'd like to know if there are any facts proving one or the other is actually better. I'm looking at strictly target shooting, not hunting. I usually start with both eyes open but begin to lose focus after 5 seconds or so. Am I at a disadvantage if I just squint my left eye to keep focus? I use a lens so both eyes are looking at the target in a different "power". What confuses me is some of by better shots come with both eyes open but I am more consistant when I squint because I never lose focus this way. 

Thanks for your thoughts 
Doug


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## Mahly (Dec 18, 2002)

While there is sound reasoning behind keeping both eyes open, there are entirely too many great archers that squint or close an eye for it to be a huge impediment to your competitiveness.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

I doubt you'll find any "facts". The best you could hope for is a poll, which still wouldn't help determine which is better for you.


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## Fury90flier (Jun 27, 2012)

one fact...you lose all binocular vision with only using one eye. With using two eyes you keep depth of field allowing for a more precise sight picture.

If you're having problems with grouping...give it time to actually work with it and you may get the tighter groups.


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## carlosii (Feb 25, 2007)

Research shows it is better to do one or the other. 


I'm not sure about the impact of binocular vision when you'e shooting a scope, lens, and peep.


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## loveha (Mar 11, 2014)

There are no hard facts, only what works best for you. For me, if I close one eye, I can see how much more my pin moves, and I guess you can say it is panicking. Not "target panic", but enough to make me go, "oh man, to much movement", and I hurry my shot.
With both eyes open, I see less pin movement, and everything seems easier. It took time to train my eyes to focus through my scope on my bow, and for the first couple days I had flyers. It is just practice, but there are people who can never get it to work.
Something you may want to try, is a blinder. Something you can clip to your glasses or a hat. Not sure what effect that has on helping one focus with both eyes open.


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## AJ the TP Guru (Jul 29, 2011)

cbrunson said:


> I doubt you'll find any "facts". The best you could hope for is a poll, which still wouldn't help determine which is better for you.


Agreed.

I've tried it both ways, and have seen very little difference in my scores.


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## Padgett (Feb 5, 2010)

I don't think there are hardly any hard facts in archery, the key is to try a variety of methods and then learn which ones compliment your shooting.

I shot with one eye for decades and now I shoot with both open and it just happens to be in my most solid portion of my life of shooting, I will say that one issue that I have is my eyes blur during my shot window on a pretty good percentage of the time. So I have added to my shot sequence a blink just when my pin settles on the 12 ring so that I have a fresh look at the target and hopefully it will remain blur free for the entire shot.

The other thing I have learned to do is even though I am left eye dominant and a left handed shooter sometimes when I come to full draw my eyes are way to balanced and my left eye needs reminded that he is in charge. So I will do a right eye blink and this gives control back to my left eye instantly, I have shot enough that I recognize this really quick right as I come to anchor and look through the peep for the first time during the shot and I quickly blink the non dominant right eye and continue on with the shot.


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## cbrunson (Oct 25, 2010)

AJ the TP Guru said:


> Agreed.
> 
> I've tried it both ways, and have seen very little difference in my scores.


I definitely see a difference between the two. I can’t relax squinting, or closing one eye. I also have issues with a lens indoors, so I use a blinder. So in a sense, I kinda do both.


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## RCR_III (Mar 19, 2011)

I think I have an idea on what you're searching for, but I don't know if anyone's ever done any scientifical/medical research on this topic for archery. However, I'm betting you could find information about it regarding rifle shooting. 

From my own personal experiences though, I know that with both eyes open you bring in more light and it can make it easier to see the target. It also can help with balancing what you are seeing. It takes some time and effort to get the brain to process the situation though. So incorporating squinting, blinking, or anything like this can help get the brain back on track and retrain how it perceives what you are looking at. You'll see some great shooters that squint their non dominant eye and do great. The first one that came to my mind was Steve Anderson. He has a pretty pronounced squint. 

The thing about being right or wrong is that I'm not sure you'll be able to get a textbook response as to what you should do because everyone's brain is different. They all function differently and because of that what works for me might not work for you.


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## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

Padgett said:


> I don't think there are hardly any hard facts in archery, the key is to try a variety of methods and then learn which ones compliment your shooting.
> 
> I shot with one eye for decades and now I shoot with both open and it just happens to be in my most solid portion of my life of shooting, I will say that one issue that I have is my eyes blur during my shot window on a pretty good percentage of the time. So I have added to my shot sequence a blink just when my pin settles on the 12 ring so that I have a fresh look at the target and hopefully it will remain blur free for the entire shot.
> 
> The other thing I have learned to do is even though I am left eye dominant and a left handed shooter sometimes when I come to full draw my eyes are way to balanced and my left eye needs reminded that he is in charge. So I will do a right eye blink and this gives control back to my left eye instantly, I have shot enough that I recognize this really quick right as I come to anchor and look through the peep for the first time during the shot and I quickly blink the non dominant right eye and continue on with the shot.



This spot on what I have been experiencing. Before I got into target archery I always shot with both eyes open, pins without a lens and a 1/4" peep. Now with a 3/32 peep, 4x lens I struggle with both eyes open. I was using a blinder on my scope until recently when I decided to give this some serious practice time. I am in the same boat as Pagett except I'm right handed. I can blink my left eye, refocusing my right (dominant) eye for about 5-7 seconds at which time my left eye creeps back in giving me a distant view of the target. I think I just need to practice this for the standard "21"days to see if I can become comfortable with the way Pagett explains. Part of the problem for me is losing my shot rhythm causing me to hold and aim too long. Due to my daughters graduation I will not be able to attend London ASA so my goal will be to work through this, one way or another, before Metropolis. 

Thanks for the feedback


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Practice is all it is. I'm left handed and left eye dominant and shoot right handed and shoot pretty darn decent. I squint for a instant so my right eye takes over and I'm good to go throughout the shot.

You, daughter graduating, age. As we age our eyes begin evening out. So perhaps a little more orientation will be required.


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## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

SonnyThomas said:


> Practice is all it is. I'm left handed and left eye dominant and shoot right handed and shoot pretty darn decent. I squint for a instant so my right eye takes over and I'm good to go throughout the shot.
> 
> You, daughter graduating, age. As we age our eyes begin evening out. So perhaps a little more orientation will be required.


Absolutely age is getting the best of me. Thankfully my sight at distance is still above average but my arms are no longer long enough for me to read anything without reading glasses. I plan to stick with it and see where it takes me. Thanks


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## chilipowder (Nov 1, 2012)

I do group better with two eyes open. I try every so often with one closed, but the fact is I group better with both open. The reason I try with one closed is I have double vision and it's always there. I tolerate double vision with both eyes open as I get better scores. I'm RH and test RH dominant every time, but double vision is a fact for me. I often use a hat blinder but can't be bothered using it all the time.


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## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

Double vision/losing focus with my dominant eye is what I am trying to work through. I am hoping I can train myself and my eye to overcome this. I've used the hat blinder but had better luck with the Double Vision Blocker on my scope. I still want to see if I can train eyes and remove any "crutches". If not, I will learn to squint or just return to the blocker on my scope...

Thanks for all the replies...glad to see it's something others work on...




chilipowder said:


> I do group better with two eyes open. I try every so often with one closed, but the fact is I group better with both open. The reason I try with one closed is I have double vision and it's always there. I tolerate double vision with both eyes open as I get better scores. I'm RH and test RH dominant every time, but double vision is a fact for me. I often use a hat blinder but can't be bothered using it all the time.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Labs said:


> Absolutely age is getting the best of me. Thankfully my sight at distance is still above average but my arms are no longer long enough for me to read anything without reading glasses. I plan to stick with it and see where it takes me. Thanks


Heck, I can't see to adjust my sight frame without glasses and can't shoot with glasses. I'm going to try the flip-up magnifier that fits on the bill of a ball hat. And the times I've dropped or lost my glasses. Lord! Dang lucky someone didn't step on them.


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## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

SonnyThomas said:


> Heck, I can't see to adjust my sight frame without glasses and can't shoot with glasses. I'm going to try the flip-up magnifier that fits on the bill of a ball hat. And the times I've dropped or lost my glasses. Lord! Dang lucky someone didn't step on them.


LOL...I carry four pairs of glasses in my stool at all times...just in case.


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Labs said:


> LOL...I carry four pairs of glasses in my stool at all times...just in case.


Yeah, wife bought those $5 cheapos and I was surprised. Work great, but have to take them off so I can walk or see out to distances.


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## Akwasr47 (Nov 7, 2014)

I can't tell you which is better for shooting but maybe this can help you to understand a little better. 

The dominant eye (in most cases) can only see an image clearly approx. 3 degrees in a 180 degree (including peripheral vision) area, in other words while reading this you can clearly see a typed word or two but the rest is blurry. The use of the non dominant eye is mainly an early warning system to tell your dominant eye to swing that 3 degrees over to focus on the object that drew attention and to allow a point of reference for distance judgement. So in theory you can shoot well with both eyes open or one open ect and it should make only a minimal change (physically) on pin perception, mental focus is a whole other ball game of course.


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## elkbow69 (May 7, 2010)

Shooting spots at 20 I am better and more accurate and score higher scores while shooting with a squint or left eye closed.

While shooting outdoors on the other hand, I am more accurate and can shoot tighter groups when shooting with both eyes open. 

My mellon is all cross wired (I am cross dominant in eye and hand) so I can easily change focus from one eye to the other when having both open. 
I worked alot at it when I first started shooting alot more and taking archery more seriously about 10 years ago. I talked to an ophthalmologist and he recommenced me some eye/brain exercises that helped me develop this further. Creates one heck of a head ache when "training" the brain to do this but it worked.


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## Labs (Jun 3, 2004)

elkbow69 said:


> Shooting spots at 20 I am better and more accurate and score higher scores while shooting with a squint or left eye closed.
> 
> While shooting outdoors on the other hand, I am more accurate and can shoot tighter groups when shooting with both eyes open.
> 
> ...


Would you mind sharing the eye/brain exercises...might be worth a try, headache and all...thanks


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## Cbfastcar (May 19, 2015)

I always shoot with one eye closed for indoor targets anything flat you can do one eye closed but 3 d it is best to have both open for detail option you have a better detail of the target by shooting with both eyes but for indoors I've tried both but squinting works better because it is a flat target and you won't have to deal with your dominant eye changing now this does happen but it is rare I found squinting for indoor target shooting is better but 3 d shooting it's all eyes open


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## Pete53 (Dec 5, 2011)

i have asked this same question one eye or two eye ? well the best i could find is in the book idiot proof archery by bernie pellerite ,bernie says it best what ever works best for you and as far as accuracy in archery each person has to make that decision.myself i shot 2 eyes well for 45 years but now because of health issues had to switch to one eye shooting in archery an actually my scores have improved back to my younger years in archery.my only problem i have with one eye archery hunting is when i shoot at a deer i do not see the arrow pass thru deer or if its a mis. good luck,Pete53


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## montigre (Oct 13, 2008)

Labs said:


> Would you mind sharing the eye/brain exercises...might be worth a try, headache and all...thanks


Here's one site that allows for some free play of the eye-brain exercises offered. http://www.brainhq.com/#


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## SonnyThomas (Sep 10, 2006)

Realize also, when aiming there is also follow through. Whether focused on the target or pin remain focused until focused point is lost or you hear the arrow hit.

In Trap you focus on the target. The sight enters the "picture." Sight catching up the target, moving through target (shotgun swinging) one "slaps" the trigger, never ceasing the swing of the shotgun.
Pistols/revolvers; Focus is the sights and the target allowed "to be there" or blur. At firing one follows the sights until recoil robs the ability to follow the sights.


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## planetbuster (May 26, 2015)

the dirty secret is this.. there are a few facts to be found, but they have nothing to do with target archery.

firearms is what its about, you shoot with both eyes open for various reasons, and those reasons have nothing to do with/do not apply to the situation youre in when youre shooting a bow, at a target, at a competition. parallax affects you much less with a handgun since the sights are rather close to each other on a handgun, at least compared to a bow where you have your peep sight about a mile away from the scope.

most ppl will tell you that shooting (gun or bow, but especially gun) with both eyes open is a natural progression. you generally start with one eye then after a while its both eyes open. if youre having any sort of issue try just keeping one eye shut and get on with it. then after however many weeks or months of dialing yourself in, try both eyes open and if it does not adversely affect anything, then right on. thats all. the rest pertains to situational awareness, peripheral vision and various other things that frankly have nothing to do with shooting a bow.


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## crushedeiffel (May 24, 2015)

I once asked an optometrist who sees a lot of shooter and is one (rifle 300m) about that. His answer was : it really depends on the shooter, because when your dominant eye is strongly dominant you can keep both open without problem. If you are not strongly lateralised you might be better closing one eye.
Seems to apply to what we see in archery : It depends on the shooter.
We could try to do some lateralisation test to see if strong latrealisation corelates with shooting with both eyes open. There are diffrent tests for that, not very reliable, so assessing a value other than left or right is difficult......


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## Cbfastcar (May 19, 2015)

i have always shot target archery with one eye closed because you do not need to see any texture on the target where as 3d shooting you need to see the texture of the animal and the 10 ring one eye closed for target also helps because you don't get the slim chance of dominant eye change it does happen


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## elkbow69 (May 7, 2010)

Labs said:


> Would you mind sharing the eye/brain exercises...might be worth a try, headache and all...thanks


When I get some time to type up something I will get it on here. Its pretty lengthy.
Basically it involves single eye focus shift, and then dual eye focus shift. 
Then using a bowsight for the same thing. 
It'l tweak your mellon pretty good and give you one of those good kind of head aches.


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## Praeger (Jan 7, 2011)

If your dominant eye vision does not begin to fade until after several seconds, consider something in your form might be consistently breaking down resulting in misalignment of your eye-to-peep-to-sight. Test this by aiming for a shot and when the sight picture starts to fade, or you see a double vision image (where your non-dominant eye sight becomes visible) take a moment and try realigning your stance. Is your head tilting forward? Is the peep slightly off center? Is the peep too low?

Take a video close up to watch your shoulder alignment. Look for a slight change at that 4-5 second mark.


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