TargetTalk

I'm short sighted and can't see sharply without glasses. I have a lens for my shooting eye, and a small translucent blinder for the other eye, on a shooting frame. What I am wondering is does perception from the non shooting eye have an affect on balance and therefore should I get a correcting lens for it too? My experiments with contact lenses seem to suggest yes.

The eyes work in tandem. That's why you need a light colored blinder (as opposed to black), so the eyes will receive about equal amounts of light. When I'm using a Red Dot sight I don't use any blinder, as the eyes are working together.

Another thing to consider is that the head must be level to give you best balance. To see this in action, watch a motorcycle road racer in a corner.

I don't have an answer for the OP, but I have another question. I have always shot with one eye closed. I have never had any balance issues shooting this way and I don't have many problems with sway unless I hold for too long. I do have issues with small oscillations. Would shooting with both eyes open and a blinder help with the oscillations?

I don't know of any top shooter (and there are many at my club) that would try shooting with one eye closed. Whether it would effect your balance....???? You say you have small problems... I say it is a small solution.

As a mediocre and elderly club shooter who never shot five tens in a row I have only non expert observations but whereas I take 100% the concept of equal light for both eyes and balance effect, I wonder what that means when snuggled under a visor looking through a 1.1mm iris. How much light is that? With our club lighting most shooters use the rubber iris surround too. Its why I prefer a dark blinder on the rearsight.
I have experimented with pistol shooting lenses and its noticeable if you close the non dom eye the focus of the dom eye changes. However with a rifle iris I cant see any effct and unless the eye pupil gets smaller than 1mm I dont see how it could. A light or translucent blinder would let in far more light than through and around the iris.

I do agree that closing the other eye is just very tiring and hardly ever done.

TenMetrePeter wrote:As a mediocre and elderly club shooter who never shot five tens in a row I have only non expert observations but whereas I take 100% the concept of equal light for both eyes and balance effect, I wonder what that means when snuggled under a visor looking through a 1.1mm iris. How much light is that? With our club lighting most shooters use the rubber iris surround too. Its why I prefer a dark blinder on the rearsight.
I have experimented with pistol shooting lenses and its noticeable if you close the non dom eye the focus of the dom eye changes. However with a rifle iris I cant see any effct and unless the eye pupil gets smaller than 1mm I dont see how it could. A light or translucent blinder would let in far more light than through and around the iris.

I do agree that closing the other eye is just very tiring and hardly ever done.

if you're not using the rubber surround, there is LOTS of light let in to your eye from the sides as your eye is not pressed against the rear sight, hence the need for equal light to the non-aiming eye. If you have a rubber surround on the rear iris then it makes sense to block the light to the non-aiming eye to maintain light equilibrium through a dark blinder or some other means (but not closing the eye!).

Yes but I would say a 30mm x 100mm black blinder and the unshrouded black iris when one is fastened to the other allow in equal light. translucent blinder or no blinder is far too bright for me. But its personal I guess.

I have been shooting for 35+ years with reasonable results (when I was trying) and have always shut my left eye.

I've never had a problem with balance.

David Levene wrote:I have been shooting for 35+ years with reasonable results (when I was trying) and have always shut my left eye.

I've never had a problem with balance.

Well I say keep doing it then!

For rifle shooting, closing the left (or non-aiming eye) can change the shape of the cheek. This can affect how steadily and consistently your head sits on the stock, and so the quality of your aim. David is a pistol shooter, so this may not be a concern.

Closing the non-shooting eye (other than fatigue) is only a problem if you vary the amount you keep the eye closed. Changing the light received by the non-shooting eye will cause your group to open up horizontally.

It does matter to pistol shooters because closing one eye reduces the acuity of the other, hence blinder.

peashooter wrote: What I am wondering is does perception from the non shooting eye have an affect on balance and therefore should I get a correcting lens for it too? My experiments with contact lenses seem to suggest yes.

Vision helps in keeping balance. (if you doubt that, stand on one leg for a minute and compare how stable that is with eyes open vs eyes closed).
I'm convinced that visual info from your non-aiming eye can help you in improving your balance. However, it's mainly your peripheral visual field that does the stabilisation. Vertical elements close to you work the best. (That's why scopes were becoming popular even for 10m AR some years ago: not for looking at your shots bur for giving the shooter a nice close-by line of reference in the visual periphery. Until ISSF said 'no' to this).
In your periphery, you don't see that sharp anyway so I suppose a correcting lens won't help here. Getting rid of blinders will. However, I'm curious about the OP's experiments with contact lenses.

Not everyone's brain can cope without blinders but they can be kept to a minimum size to just obliterate the aiming mark. My best pistol blinder design was a button 3/8 diameter so my poor brain didn't have to ignore the double image but 95% of the rest of the room was in view. My rifle blinder is just wide enough to clip my LH eye line of sight.

TenMetrePeter wrote:Not everyone's brain can cope without blinders but they can be kept to a minimum size to just obliterate the aiming mark. My best pistol blinder design was a button 3/8 diameter so my poor brain didn't have to ignore the double image but 95% of the rest of the room was in view. My rifle blinder is just wide enough to clip my LH eye line of sight.

I have been using this type of blinder for pistol shooting for 50+ years. RF pistol shooters on paper targets have a plentiful supply of these.