Old eyes & open sights... again.

[Flinter]

Daryl, I have read the thread, and I saw the earlier post of dominant eye. If I cover my right eye, then the target moves. I should not have said, “I can not understand why someone would close one eye to shoot.” I have gone to several optometrists to get corrective eye glasses. My left eye is brought up to the same correction as my right eye. When I am driving down the road, I feel like a sand crab going sideways. I guess I am lucky that I have a dominant right eye.
I am glad you got a little humor outa my post Roger. Shooting to me is just fun, and this a good thread.


Mike
 

[Harnic]

Shooting to me is just fun, and this a good thread.


Mike
 

I agree Mike, shooting is for fun!  We seldom need it for survival anymore.  Some folks take it much too seriously & it stops being fun for everyone else when they do.

[Flinter]

I am not trying to change the thread into another direction Harnic, but shooting also relieves stress for me more than anything.

[Harnic]

I am not trying to change the thread into another direction Harnic, but shooting also relieves stress for me more than anything.

THANKYOU Flinter!  I'm going to show your post to my wife!  I get the feeling she thinks I'm nuts when I tell her the same thing about shooting as a stress relief!

[Daryl]

I agree, there is nothing like hammering down 6 sils in 2 seconds with a 12 bore pump to relieve stress!

[Dan]

There's an article in this month's Muzzle Blasts about this and the solution was to wrap a couple of wraps of white cloth round the muzzle, over the sight if practical.  Think the author was John Curry...maybe.  To his surprise it worked minute of dead deer at 50 yards.

[Harnic]

There's an article in this month's Muzzle Blasts about this and the solution was to wrap a couple of wraps of white cloth round the muzzle, over the sight if practical.  Think the author was John Curry...maybe.  To his surprise it worked minute of dead deer at 50 yards.

?

Not sure how covering the front sight with a rag is going to improve accuracy, I have enough trouble seeing it with nothing over it!

I went out again using the Merit disk and shot fantastic!  I got a 3 shot group at 50 yards I could cover with a half dollar coin.  I've been ready to replace the GM barrel I used on this rifle figuring it was $#*&.  It's my !@*%&@ eyes that are $#*& & the Merit disk seems to be the cure.

[Dan]

Curry read about the idea in an old obscure text and thought it a bit bizarre too, but being of open mind gave it a whirl.

The reference came from "The 1771-1773 Knox/Skaggs Long Hunt!" It describes an old vision impaired fellow referred to as Russel who was required to wrap white paper around the muzzle in order to see it. the old fellow was successful hunting like this for a couple of years as I recall.

Curry set about replicating the process with more than a little skepticism and placed a target about 30 paces down range.  He centered the white blob in the notch sight and all of that on the target. So encumbered he put 4 of 5 shots in about a 2" group, centered on the target, with a fifth about 4" out at 10 o'clock.

So yeah, it seems a little outside the box, but it also works.

[Harnic]

So yeah, it seems a little outside the box, but it also works.

Outside the box is an understatement Dan, but I will read the article and give it a try.  Thanks for bringing it up!

[ironsights1]

When I tell my shooting/hunting buddies that I shoot with both eyes open and concentrate on the target with the sights somewhat blurry, they always tell me that I'm doing it wrong and should conconcentrate on the front sight and blur the target. My method has worked great for me over the past 60+ years and has been very successful from a hunting standpoint.  I'm sure that years of shooting traditional longbow instinctively which requires that one concentrate on the target and let the brain do all of the calculations as to where the bow needs to be held has had an influence on how I use sights in relation to the target.

[Harnic]

I just  found another adjustable iris for your shooting glasses made by Anschutz at: http://ahg.anschuetz-sport.com/index.php5?menu=46&sprache=1&seite=83&produktID=278 .  It looks much better than the Merit disc because it will flip right up out of the way for when you're not aiming.  I'm going to order one over the winter to try out next year (fair weather shooter here), so I'll report back when I get it.

[Robby]

Thanks Harnic, I don't see where they offer it for sale on that sight, but it looks like it will be worth tracking down!!
Robby

[Harnic]

Robby, I imagine any target shooter supply house that carries Anschutz will have or could get them.  In Canada it lists for $97 so I imagine a couple dollars less will get you one in the U.S.  Looks like just the ticket for the trail walk as it will get out of the way so I'm not tripping over stumps & roots!

[Kermit]

Just in case there are some out there who are wondering about this dominance thing, Here's what you do. This is for righthanders. Lefties are used to translating into their speak.

Hold your right arm straight out with your thumb sticking skyward. Look at a smallish object across the room--a light switch or doorknob will do. Cover the object with your thumb so you can't see it.

Now close your right eye. If the object is still covered, you are "right eye dominant." If your thumb "jumped" to the right, you are "left eye dominant."

When I do this, sometimes I see my thumb AND the object for a while. If I wait a bit, the image of the object fades out. Then I close my right eye.

[Robby]

Kermit, Another easy way to do this, is to punch a hole in a piece of paper, a pencil will do, hold the paper out at arms length with both hands, look at something through the hole, slowly bring the paper back to your face while keeping that which you are focused on in view. It will come back to your dominant eye. I did this years ago and found out I was right eye dominant. I'm a pretty solid left hander, with the exception of batting a baseball, probably explains why I couldn't hit for beans, but I figure it explained why I have always been a pretty good instinctive archer.
Harnic, I found a place that sells that item, $75.00, thanks again!

[Harnic]

Good price Robby!  I only found one place in Canada who carries it so they can get what they demand for it.  Maybe I should buy south of the border.  I just hate dealing with Kanada Kustoms!    Let us know what you think of it please.

[Daryl]

Harry- 9 1/2 times out of 10, small packages come straight to your door. You will pay no more.  Periodically, depending on what the retailer puts on the blister envelope or small box, the package stops at a customs nearest you and you'll have to pay HST + $5.00 customs fee.  That comes to about what PST and GST combined used to cost.  Either way, it is usually cheaper to buy from South of the border - sometimes faster, too.

[Harnic]

Daryl, I've found that anything that costs more than about $30 gets you dinged for HST & customs fee, this so-called free trade agreement is such a joke!  I do buy a lot of things south of the border, except consumables such as powder, primers, & bullets which I get at the Wholesale Sports store in Kamloops when I visit my son.  Their prices are much better than mail order & being dinged the hazmat fees.  This new iris will definitely come from the USA.  I can't believe how clear my sights are now with the Merit disc & the Anschutz version looks a lot handier.  Look out next year at Heffley!  I'll be able to see where I'm shooting!

[Canute Rex]

Kermit and Robby,

I tried both your methods and got two different results. According to Kermit I am left eye dominant, and according to Robby I am right eye dominant. I am right handed and sure I am right eye dominant.

I am thinking that Kermit got the directions flipped, because a right-eye person trying to hide an object with his thumb would line up his thumb and the object with his dominant eye. That would make the thumb "jump" for a righty and stay for a lefty. At least that's my theory.

Whichever eye is dominant, the sights are getting fuzzier as the years pass.

[Daryl]

Finding our which is the dominant eye is not theory - it is fact.  If you look with both eyes at an object across the street, ie: basketball hoop, and placing your thumb over it, your dominant eye will control the position of your thumb.  Closing the left eye for a right eye'd person leaves the object covered, no thumb movement.  Closing the right (dominant eye) caused your thumb to jump to the right.

For a left eye'd person, closing the left eye will make the object jump to the left.

When doing this 'test' concentrate on the object beneath your thumb, not your thumb itself.  For a person with close eye dominance, concentrating on the thumb, can show cross dominance, ie: I'm right eyed, but if I concentrate on the thumb, I also see a non-thumb-covered basketball hoop to the left of the one covered with my thumb. Moving my thumb over to the one on the left, then closing the right eye, leaves my thumb on the hoop which would indicate I'm left eye dominant - I am not.

 You have to concentrate on the object, not your thumb.

[Canute Rex]

Daryl, you and I wrote the same thing in different ways, but both of us contradict what Kermit wrote in terms of which eye closed makes your thumb "jump." Hmmm.

Back to old eyes - I found that filing a 45 degree flat across the top rear edge of my rear sight creates an interrupted bright line. Sort of a poor man's fiber optic. It allows me to concentrate more on the front sight and the target.

[Roger Fisher]

Daryl, you and I wrote the same thing in different ways, but both of us contradict what Kermit wrote in terms of which eye closed makes your thumb "jump." Hmmm.

Back to old eyes - I found that filing a 45 degree flat across the top rear edge of my rear sight creates an interrupted bright line. Sort of a poor man's fiber optic. It allows me to concentrate more on the front sight and the target.

Yes, Ol Daryl had a good idea there and I did that thingee immediately... Depending on the light it helps define the top of the front sight blade (for me at least)

[Daryl]

We all have the 45 degree angle on our blades as well - and on the beads too.  In the bush, it picks up the slightest light and shines like a little beacon.  A dusting of felt pen darkens it for bright targets, but for hunting animals in the trees, the polished 'slanted' blade or bead is a good sight.

[SPG]

Gentlemen,

I'm a little late to the thread but the subject of Merit disks and tape has come up in our newly started Over-The-Log matches. We have enthusiastic shooters who simply can't use barrel sights and be competitive. So we started a separate class known as Match Rifle which allows any pre-1850 iron sight. This allows the vintage-style peep sights seen on the old rifles without opening the door to Redfield Olympics. Seems to work so far...and it keeps people shooting.

Steve

[Kermit]

Yep, I got it backwards. Dyslexic I expect.  

For some folks who find "reading glasses" from the grocery or drugstore to be helpful, there are little stick-on reading lenses in various diopters. They are meant for folks who want to be able to still read without springing for new glasses or who don't want to buy those bifocals yet.

Anyway...if you think the reading glasses trick might work for you, try these. They come in various powers and you can stick just one in the upper corner of your glasses--right in your line of sight when you acquire your sight picture. Put it in front of your dominant eye, now that we have established how to determine that.  

I had some of these that I put on my prescrip sunglasses when I couldn't read the dashboard anymore. They are fairly cheap to give a try.

http://www.buffaloarms.com/browse.cfm/2,348.html

Might avoid the sight disc disallowance problem, and do it cheaply.