Aiming with eyes open or closed for CCW Shooting
One of the most important things to have control over when it comes to hitting your target is to make sure your aim is ‘dead on’ and accurate. Making sure your aim is accurate involves many different things, and one of those things is how you ‘see’ your target. Let’s face it, if you can’t see your target, then you are less likely to hit it. However, there are different ways of making sure you see your target and, depending upon your instruction as well as your own preference, you may choose between aiming with one eye closed or with both eyes open and can change depending if it is a CCW senario or just a day at the range.
Some instructions on aiming may come from attending your permit to carry course or from information you get when you apply for a concealed weapon permit. Depending upon where you apply and the instructor, you may be advised a different technique than another place. The thing to keep in mind is that you should do whatever is the most comfortable and effective for you.
One eye opened technique
Those that subscribe to the one eye opened technique for setting your sites and aiming claim that this gives you better focus and a greater ‘bead’ on your target. For some people, this is likely true. However, this also depends upon which eye and arm is dominant. For example, most people are right-handed; therefore their right eye is more dominant. In this case, it can be work well to close the left eye and focus through the right eye while your right arm is stretched out to shoot. In this way you have a direct line of vision from the dominant eye and arm.
However, for those that have what is referred to as a ‘cross-eye’ dominant, this technique will not work. Cross eye refers to those that are left handed, for instance, but their right eye is the more dominant. If this is the case, then when you go to aim and shoot at your target, your balance and aim will be off because you are ‘crossing’ your dominant eye with your dominant arm.
Both eyes open technique
Keeping both eyes open while siting a target is not a bad thing and works well for many people. This technique is especially helpful for those with cross-eye dominant circumstances. This way, you can make a more accurate site and aim without being thrown off by balance.
The best thing to do is to figure out which eye and arm are dominant and then work with them to see which technique works best for you.
