Why Closing One Eye Hurts Your Shooting

If you’re cross-dominant, the first thing someone probably told you was “just close your other eye.” It’s the most common advice, and it does stop the cross-firing. But it comes at a cost that many shooters don’t fully appreciate.

What You Lose When You Close One Eye

When you close one eye, you switch from binocular vision to monocular vision. Binocular vision — seeing with both eyes open — is what lets you accurately judge depth, speed, and angle. It’s how your brain calculates where a moving target is going and how fast it’s getting there.

With monocular vision, that depth calculation gets worse. You’re working with a flat image instead of a three-dimensional one. For stationary targets, this might not matter much. For moving clays — crossers, incomers, outgoers — it matters a lot.

The Fatigue Problem

Beyond depth perception, closing one eye is fatiguing. Over a 100-target round of sporting clays or a long day of trap, you’re fighting your natural instinct to keep both eyes open. Many shooters report headaches and eye strain from sustained winking.

What Other Shooters Have Tried

Most cross-dominant shooters end up cycling through the same set of solutions: closing one eye, tape on the glasses lens, magic dots, eye patches, optical occluders. Each stops the cross-firing, but each forces monocular vision in one way or another.

As one shooter described it: “I have always shot either one-eyed or with some form of vision-blocking device for my off eye. I have tried magic dots, scotch tape, an optical occluder, and a black lens.” — Bud Edwards

Another shooter found the between-shot experience just as important: “This could be a game changer for me as it was nice not to have tape on my lens while at the range. Most importantly, I enjoyed the time in between shots when I didn’t have to look through the tape while waiting for my squad mates to shoot. My eyes felt more relaxed and natural.” — GoDawgs, Trapshooters.com

Is There a Better Way?

The core question is: can you stop cross-firing without giving up binocular vision? That’s what XD Solution was designed to do — block only the barrel view from the cross-dominant eye while keeping both eyes fully open for target acquisition.

For a full comparison of all approaches, read our guide on how to fix cross dominance without losing depth perception.