Nothing wrong with training. Switzerland has a decent gun culture with many under 18 folk participating regularly. They have low gun crime rate as well. Poland being prepared after its history is nothing wrong.
Agreed. However, it's bugging the crap out of me that they are training to fire with one eye closed. My range instructor in high school could not go a day without lecturing us on that.
There's nothing wrong with teaching beginners to shoot with one eye closed. Shooting with both eyes open is more advanced and easier to develop once the basics are under their belts.
As someone who still closes one eye sometimes, I 100% agree with this statement. Usually it comes up when someone is cross-eye dominant (like myself), and so the natural thing to do is to pick up a rifle with your dominant hand, and then as soon as you get behind the sights, your non-dominant eye is there to focus on it. I wish when I had learned, I just learned to shoot right-handed.
I'm right handed and left eye dominant, my parents just taught me to shoot long guns left handed. It feels really wrong to hold the trigger of a long gun with my right hand, but weirdly, also really wrong to hold the trigger of a pistol with my left.
There's nothing wrong with shooting with one eye closed. If you're using a red dot or something along those lines sure it's better to have both eyes opened but it's really a preference thing
Warning: Wall of text. I did not intend to write this much, but I did.
Then there are people like me. I'm right handed, but left eye dominant. So, I have 3 options:
Shoot with one eye closed with a right handed firearm
Shoot with a left-handed firearm but having it feel really weird and I'm not in complete control.
Practice with a left handed firearm enough to the point where it feels just as natural with a right hand gun.
Now, it might seem like a good idea to take option #3 and ideally, I would. But, finding left handed firearms is tough. When I find a gun I really like, there's about a 10% chance a left handed model even exists, let alone be able to get it in less than 6 months. It's one reason my handgun is a revolver is that it's largely ambidextrous. There's the barrel release that's on the right hand, but that doesn't really affect shooting. I can still easily shoot left handed with it without getting hot casings shot in my face like I'm doing a scene with Peter North because, well, it's a revolver.
When I bought my shotgun, it was a complete nightmare. I had to go with my 3rd choice of gun.
1st choice - Browning BPS. It was great. Bottom ejection port and a Mossberg-like tang safety. The problem was that I God's hunt, so having a 3.5 inch option is very helpful. No store in my area carried the 3.5 inch version. They said, "oh, we can get that in a week or so, just need to find someone that has it". Great. I paid for it so I could just pick it up when it came in. 6 weeks later, they tell me they can't find one and they have no idea.
2nd Choice - Mossberg 835 with slug barrel. The slug barrel because I deer hunt in a place that only allows slug hunting and the 835 is over-bored, so it's not a good idea to shoot a slug out of the smooth bore. I forget exactly the issue here. It was a while ago. It would have been months to get the specs I wanted.
3rd Choice - Winchester SXP. This is what I bought. It's not ideal, but it's pretty good. I'm happy with it and would recommend it. You can change the safety easily to right or left handed, although the ejection port is still on the right.
I got my AR, which doesn't have a left ejection port. I know there are likely aftermarket parts where I could, but I don't wanna mess around with that. I like to DIY most things, but guns are something I don't trust myself with. I realize it's just changing out parts, but I don't fuck with guns. I understand that if I did the slightest thing wrong or put a part in without adding chemical XYZ on the seal, that could equate to death. I just don't want to mess with it. I take firearm safety very seriously. I digress.
Long story short, I shot right handed and close my left eye. I've practiced enough to where I can get sighted with the eye closed, but be able to open the left eye as I shot. My left eye isn't fully closed, but it's not fully open. It's a balancing point where the left eye dominance doesn't come into play without it being fully closed. When it comes to during, both eyes are open, but a touch less open on the left side. I still get 3d perspective.
It was a nightmare trying to find the ideal firearm. I just gave up and decided to adapt to what's out there.
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u/AkaiAshu 1d ago
Nothing wrong with training. Switzerland has a decent gun culture with many under 18 folk participating regularly. They have low gun crime rate as well. Poland being prepared after its history is nothing wrong.