Oculars

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:45 am

Is using an ocular for the non-dominant eye when shooting a pistol using iron sights advantageous? I always just shot with both eyes open. The thought of an ocular never crossed my mind until I watched some olympic air pistol videos. In said videos every shooter was using them.

I also notice that some shooters were using a bleach white ocular, and others were using a clear but heavily frosted one. Whats the difference?

Post by **Bullseye** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 9:50 am

Occulars help reduce double sight vision and or facial muscle fatigue. Some folks cannot shoot with both eyes open due to seeing two images. Closing one eye helps prevent dual vision. Using a blinder (occular) helps cut the dual image without having to manually close one eye. Using a blinder that allows for ambient light to enter the eye is more natural and helps the shooter see clearer from the other eye. A white or translucent blinder helps the shooter's blocked eye gather in some light but still occludes the image. You don't have to get a fancy occular occluder, just take some celophane tape (Scotch tape) and put some over the part of your non-shooting eye's lens on your shooting glasses. You don't have to tape over your whole non-shooting lens, just place a strip of tape over the part where the sight image would be seen. This works exactly the same as one of those store bought ones. I use tape on my shooting glasses for highpower rifle and I have a semi-circular cut out in the lower part of my non-shooting eye's lens to allow for viewing through my spotting scope.

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:23 am

If one does not experience double sight vision while sighting with both eyes is an occular necessary? Once I focus in on the front post, I only see one image (rifle and pistol) when using both eyes. Perhaps it would still help with the facial muscle fatigue?

Post by **Bullseye** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:47 am

If you don't have trouble with double imaging, then this shooting aid is not necessary. If you end up closing one eye, and do so for long shooting periods, then an occluder could help with facial muscle fatigue. If you want to try an inexpensive alternative then try using the scotch tape method - won't cost you a cent.

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:24 pm

I will try the scotch tape method this evening at the range. Even though I don't get the double vision, it will be interesting to see if it causes a negative or positive change in my scores.

I understand that when you shoot a red-dot the tube already occludes the vision of your non-dominant eye (assuming you aren't cross dominant). With that being said could using an occular with a red-dot have a negative influence on a shooter?

Lastly, should a shooter decide to occlude for rifles should they also occlude for pistol for consistency?

Post by **Bullseye** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 4:56 pm

Using a blinder works for anyone who suffers from double sight vision - rifle or pistol (scoped or unscoped). Lots of smallbore rifle shooters have the occluder actually mounted on the rear peep sight. One can experience double target images with a red dot scope as well as with iron sights. We humans have binocular vision, its our brains that sort out the images and arrange them by dominant and non-dominant eye. Someone with cross eye dominance issues would really have troubles with double images if they were using their non-dominant eye to aim with.

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 3:05 am

Wow, the result of occluding my non-dominant eye was both revealing and shocking. It turns out I do suffer from double sight vision! I'm very astonished that I hadn't noticed before. I didn't even notice when I first put the occluded glasses on, I noticed it when I took the tape off and put the glasses back on. Now I notice the double vision clear as day. I dismissed the tape before even firing a round, so I don't know how it will affect my scores.

What problems does double vision cause? To me it, it is clear which image to use. Couldn't one just use the dominant image and ignore the non-dominant?

Post by **Bullseye** » Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:10 am

Basically that is what most people do but not everyone can handle the over stimulation of two sight images while shooting. Marksmanship is a mental game. It takes 100% concentration on the fundamentals. To get good at this sport you have to throw off as many non-fundamental distractions as possible, otherwise one cannot properly focus on the mechanics of the technique. Limiting your eyes to one image is one less distraction to your brain. This frees up more concentration power for sight alignment and trigger control. This is a subtle change but when you add up all the subtle distractions, there's a lot that the brain is processing while concentrating on the fundamentals of marksmanship. Perhaps you want to try the occluder and see if this doesn't relax you a little bit more during your range session.

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:10 pm

I have found that using an occluder did improve my shooting. When I use Iron-sights, I find I am able to reacquire a good sight picture faster; however, there is no improvement in my accuracy. When I use a red-dot, the difference was like night and day. When I occlude using a the dot I get a fairly major improvement in accuracy as well as faster target acquisition.

I had been wondering why my iron-sight shooting was so much better for quite some time. Heres my theory on the big difference: I know you are supposed to use the opposite sight picture of your dom-eye. With Irons its ez for me to automatically know which picture to use, I can only use one of them (for me the sights aren't aligned in the non-dom picture). With a dot its not so clear, both black dots seem like viable options.

Post by **Bullseye** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:23 pm

Sounds like this was a very beneficial topic for you George.

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 12:44 pm

After nearly a year of occluding one eye, I have found a potential problem for me. Hence my resurrecting this thread.

Before I get into what I am experiencing, I'd like to say that I am still using the tape-mod that Bullseye mentioned to occlude, and that I only seriously shoot pistols right now.

Over the past year, I have found that using my occluded glasses for an extended shooting session (3+ hours) causes my vision (mostly in my dominant eye) to become blurry. Yesterday, just for a control test, I did 4 hours worth of trigger time to see if my vision would become blurry as a result of eye fatigue; it did not. At the end of that session my vision was totally clear.

Has anyone else experienced this or know the possible cause? The only thing I could think of is that perhaps the tape I am using is not allowing enough ambient light to hit my non-dominant eye.

Thanks.

Post by **Bullseye** » Sat Jun 05, 2010 8:41 pm

Was the 4 hour test occluded or non occluded?

R,
Bullseye

Georgezilla · Post by **Georgezilla** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:35 am

The 4 hour test was done non-occluded. I did it to see if I started experiencing blurry vision as a result of eye fatigue after focusing on the sights for an extended period. which I did not.

Post by **Bullseye** » Sun Jun 06, 2010 12:22 pm

I suspect eye strain on the uncovered eye is the cause of the blurriness. Especially if it was covered for 3 hours.

R,
Bullseye