Maybe We Are Dorks?

Some of us get quite a bit of flack while we’re out shooting. We wear gloves (this helps with bow torque), we shoot with stabilizers or counterbalances (this helps with holding steady), we even get fancy and shoot with all our arrows matching in size and fletching (ha ha). Well, we don’t do it for the attention. We do it because it helps us one way or another. These things help us to be better shots.

Not long ago, we discovered that our eyesight could be a major disadvantage. Obviously archery is a very vision dependent sport and better eyesight equals better aiming. This really isn’t anything new.

Recently one of us was practicing a field round at the local range and he was noticing some accuracy problems. What he was experiencing was that he would shoot a great group in the spot on one target and then shoot a great group out to the left on the next. He watched his centering, aiming, and form as close as possible. But, to no avail, he could not figure out what was wrong.

When he got back home he checked his equipment as thorough as possible and it seemed fine. As he started thinking about it, it seemed like he mainly had these left and right problems when he shot outside. So, he decided to breakdown his form and try everything he could possibly think of to re-create those left arrows. Finally, he shot an arrow 3” left at 20 yards. Then, using the same shot setup, he shot the next arrow out left as well.

He had FINALLY figured it out! When he closed his left eye (he’s a right hand shooter) the arrow would go left. So, to test the theory he pulled the bow and aimed with both eyes open. And while aiming he closed his left eye, and low and behold his pin was aimed roughly 3 inches left of the “X”.

I know what you are thinking, he must be left eye dominant. Not true! He was wondering that as well so, he re-did the tests and came out 70 percent right eye dominant.

His eyes were close enough to being the same that the obstruction of the peep would cause his non-dominant eye to take over the aiming. The real problem was that his non-dominant eye would not aim all the time. The aiming seemed to bounce back and forth between the eyes and seemed to be very affected by different lighting. He remembered that when he was shooting on the round at the club range, the lighting ranged drastically. Some of the shots were in the sun and some were under that ever so dark, tree canopy.

So he started keeping his left eye shut and his scores and accuracy increased substantially. Instant gratification.

You can check to see if you have the same problem. Try aiming with both eyes open and then closing the non-shooting eye and see if you are aimed in a different spot than with both eyes open. (Do check in different lighting.)

It wasn’t long before that closed eye kept trying to creep open, and sometimes did. When it did, it caused accuracy problems. Finally, a friend suggested using one of those dorky looking blinders. But that would look stupid! However, the friend was relentless and just about had to hold him down to put it on his hat. The friend pointed out how important it was to stay relaxed during the shot, starting with the head (face). During the longer tournaments, the squinting would lead to face fatigue. Nobody wants that. He was right!

Many people think the blinders are used to block out the distractions, but that is really only a bonus. The real purpose is to keep the non-dominant eye from doing any of the aiming.

When the info was passed on to the other shooters here at Spot-Hogg, everybody tried it, and pretty much concluded they had better use a blinder or close the non-aiming eye (some of them elected to squint because they were dork conscience).

The idea of shooting with both eyes open is a carry over from the instinctive days (both eyes open helped with the depth perception and yardage judging). With a sight on your bow, you decide the yardage before you draw. So, you really don’t gain anything with both eyes open, except the possibility of aiming flaws. (Note: If you are shooting instinctively you probably should shoot with both eyes open.)

In other very vision dependent sports such as competitive rifle shooting, you will notice that many of the top shooters do use means to block their non-aiming eye. They will wear blinders, put tape on their glasses, or use special glasses that have a blurred lens over the non-aiming eye. (Trap shooters, a lot of the time won’t because they need their peripheral vision to pick up the clay pigeon coming out of the thrower.)

I know you are thinking that this will not work in a hunting situation. And we don’t, and won’t wear blinders when we hunt, either. That would seriously handicap one of our senses (and believe you me we need all the senses we can get). What most of us do, is aim with both eyes open, locate the vitals and right before that moment of truth, close the eye and adjust our aim if needed. It works great!! And is very accurate. You can take the accuracy in practice to the woods with you. And we do.

Good Shooting!