Optical focus vs. stereoscopic alignment (was: Focus cross eyed?)

[MostlyHarmless]

All right, when it comes to actually shooting hand guns, I consider myself a bloody beginner. Forget that I did my service time 25 years ago in the West German Navy ... either I had forgotten everything they told me, everything they told me back then was wrong or everything I learned within the past few weeks (here and on the range) must be wrong. I doubt the latter the most.

Anyhow, so I was reading this wonderful article. Which is only one of about 25,000 reasons why I feel the need to get a forum subscription. Like so many other authors, he emphasizes on focusing on the front sight. Only that Ted explains in much better detail how to add the rear sights to the whole picture (kudos to Ted ... will rep you after confirming on the range that this all works with me as a test subject).

Okay, so far so good. So after reading all that I'm sitting on my sofa, Ted's guide on my netbook, "fake gun" (aka PPS loaded with snap caps) in hand and play around.

Ooops ... what happened seemed odd and I didn't expect it to happen from Ted's descriptions. You all probably know these stereograms, where you can see a 3D image inside that pattern image when you stare "straight" but get the focus on the image (the first one on that page is a heart, for those who have not seen one yet). I always found those stereograms rather easy, maybe that is an explanation for what's going on here. I can explain in more detail how exactly those stereograms work, but for now it is enough that in order to see the 3D object inside, you need to disconnect the two eyes so that their common center point is at a different distance than their focus point.

Long story short, what actually happens is that I find myself "focusing" on the front sight (front site crisp clear), but my eyes coordinate in direction so that the two pictures are aligned at the rear sight. In other words, I don't see a single, crisp clear front sight and double target and rear sight images. Instead I see a fuzzy double target, a crisp clear double front sight and (very slightly) fuzzy "single" rear sights.

Before I go ahead and "practice" using this, I'd like to your opinion on whether this is something to

a) CORRECT IMMEDIATELY
b) just as good as doing it "right"
c) leave as is, because "THAT'S IT".


Jan

[Brick]

Do you wear corrective glasses? if yes be sure to use them when shooting or practicing. (If you don't wear corrective glasses make sure you start wearing safety glasses .) When you're training use your glasses and put a piece of neutral colored tape over your non-aiming eye i.e. right handed, aim with right eye, tape left eye. (Or you can use a clip-on patch or blinder) Keep both eyes open when shooting or dry firing. That way you'll be training your strong hand eye as your master eye. Over time you'll train yourself away from problems. Your point of focus is the front sight.

[MostlyHarmless]

Yes, I do wear +3 all the time (at my age it leads to headache not to).

Maybe my Title was a bit misleading (I'll change that). I'm NOT cross action! Both, hand and eye. are dominant on the right side.

The thing that happens is that I focus on the front sight, while aligning the two eyes "directional" for the rear sight. If I just do this, then close or block my left eye, nothing in the picture changes other than that the (to be ignored anyways) duplicate images of the front sight and target disappear. The duplicate of the front sight is somewhere left of the gun and the duplicate of the target far left. Don't know how to explain it any better without a white board.

While it feels right and is easier to do (for me anyways), it could be one of those "feel right but be wrong" things, people should not train, like squinting the non-dominant eye. Squinting is what I have unfortunately done until now. Gonna be a pain to untrain that one. So I don't want to untrain squinting by using the next mistake.

I'll give it a shot (or a box worth of shots) and see where they go. The way I shoot right now, it can only improve. Or maybe I should shell out some $$$ and get a one-on-one with a trainer.

Thanks for the input. Rep is on the way.


Jan

[Brick]

I have an astigmatism and do wear corrective lenses. With or without my glasses and even without a pistol in my hand, if I point my finger at something in the distance I see two images of my hand one a true image the other a "false image" offset somewhat to the right. Don't bother asking me why this happens, because I don't know. I guessed at the beginning you were having a similar problem. Now if I close my left (the "weak") eye I see only one image. But, closing the eye while shooting increases muscle fatigue, so instead of closing the eye, I used a patch, until I trained myself to ignore the "false image".

If you go to a Bullseye or ISSF tournament you'll see many shooters using patches and blinders (to eliminate peripheral vision), you'll even see some shooters using Knobloch shooting glasses with a single custom lens for the shooting eye and a patch for the non-shooting eye.