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both eyes open and eye relief

Nik S

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Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
May 13, 2018
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I've heard for a long time that you should keep both eyes open when looking through a scope, but whenever I tried it, I'd get double vision, and it was really hard to make sense of what I was looking at through the scope. I figured I was cross dominant, and spent the rest of my years shooting with one eye.

Along the way, I tried my hand at a "scout" scope with extended eye relief, and I was able to keep both eyes open quite successfully when the scope was further from my eye. It worked quite beautifully. I attributed the long eye relief allowed my eyes to focus differently to bring the images together.

Yesterday, I purchased a new rifle scope, and lo and behold, I can also make good sense of what I'm looking at through that scope too, with both eyes open.

Now this is leading me to a question. Originally, I'd assumed extended eye relief was "solving" my double-vision with the scout scope, but the eye relief on my original and new scopes are pretty close. What could be going on here?
  • Original scope (double-vision with both eyes open), eye relief 3.5"
  • Scout scope (clear with both eyes open), eye relief 8.5"-14'
  • New scope (clear with both eyes open), eye relief 3.75"

Nik
 
That sounds about right. Can't recall if I ever did that. Was just starting out, and probably didn't.

I'll have a chance to check that tomorrow!
 
I had to use a string felt a little stupid , but with in a month or two i could use both eyes while looking through a scope with out any blur at least till me eyes get tired then I just take a 5 min break and start up again It helped with scopes and my pistol shooting a lot . I used cheap twine and two nuts and bolts worked the same as string and beads .
 
The more dominant your dominant eye the easier it is to shoot with both eyes open. Just do what works for you when looking through a scope. The non sighting eye open or closed really doesn’t matter. If you were wingshooting with a shotgun or throwing a football this answer would not apply.