Article 8 – 2024 (September)

Australian Shooter Magazine

Question and Answers

Article 8 – 2024 (September)

Question:  I am hoping you can help me make sense of the “two eyes open” argument as opposed to closing one eye debate when I use my shotgun once and for all. I have been shooting many types of firearms all my life and in the field and I have never really had any issues, but recently I attended a fun clay target event where the instructors tried their very best to convince me to open both eyes. The coaches were very professional and they confirmed my dominant eye is my right one and I do shoot from my right shoulder, but when I open both eyes, I always see two barrels when I look at the front sight of my shotgun and cannot hit anything. Can you convince me why I should open both eyes?

Alexander Shore, Romsey VIC

Answer:  It is a popular topic to debate, but it is a no-brainer if you want to progress in the sport. If you are right eye dominant, are able to shoot from your right shoulder and have two healthy eyes then use two eyes. You would shoot from your left shoulder if you are left handed and left eye dominant and once again, I would strongly suggest you use two eyes. I have answered this many times over the years and could just leave it there, but of course I won’t.

I am exactly like yourself, right eye dominant, right handed and I also can see two barrels if I am looking at the front sight on my shotgun. But I don’t look there. I look at the target I am shooting at. The front sight is just a reference point helping me identify where the end of my barrel is. You have learnt some very bad habits years ago, probably from rifle shooting and now think that your shotgun is an aiming tool like your rifle once was. It’s not. Your shotgun is merely something that you point at your target.

Let me give you a couple of examples. If you have ever driven a Mercedes Benz car you will notice the polished silver three-pronged ornament in the middle of the hood at the front of the vehicle. It sort of tells you where the centre of the car is and if you are travelling down the highway, you will know if that ornament is a couple of metres to the left of the white line in the centre of the road, then you should be pretty safe. You don’t actually have to look at this metallic emblem to know your car is safe as your vision, just like in shotgun shooting, should be softly focused down the bitumen a couple of hundred metres so your brain can compute any forthcoming bends in the road or any oncoming danger. If your focus was just on the front of your car your time on the highway would be short lived before you become another road fatality statistic. The point is you know by feel that your car is on the safe side of the road, you don’t really need to mechanically aim it there.

It’s the same if someone stands thirty metres from you and throws you a tennis ball to catch. You know what you need to do to catch it. After a bit of practice, it is easy. Even though you are going to catch the ball in your hands you never have to look at your hands to catch the ball. Your eyes and brain take your hands to the ball instinctively to capture it. If you started seeing your hands clearly in your fore vision as the ball was travelling towards you then you are likely to miss it. It is exactly the same when shooting a shotgun.

Provided your stock fits you and your dominant eye is situated perfectly down the centre of the barrel then busting a clay is simply a basic reflex action that your brain will do for you provided you place your eyes where they need to be; first of all softly focused in the target acquisition area and then once located, solely on the target.

You sound like you are trying to see a perfectly clear relationship between your target and the sight on the end of the barrel. In rifle and pistol shooting, when the target is stationary, I am sure this is acceptable. If you are shooting clay targets nailed to a fence post with your shotgun, I would stringently suggest you keep your current method of operation, but sadly most clay targets are flung through the air at great speeds and distances and you just don’t have the time or capability to focus on the end of your barrel, then the target and again at the end of your barrel to calculate the perfect amount of lead before pulling the trigger.

Get your shotgun set up correctly, try to maintain a simple technique that you can replicate time and time again and then you just have to trust yourself that if you let it, your brain will work with your eyes and it will take the barrel for you to the perfect place in the sky for you to pull the trigger. Shotgun shooting is a pretty basic sport, but if you try and over complicate it then it becomes a nightmare to learn. Many shooters are forced to shoot with one eye covered or closed for a variety of reasons, but if you don’t have to close an eye just don’t!

Good luck with it.