Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Teaching a new shooter who is left eye dominant?

My wife and both of my sons are right handed and left eye dominant. The wife so much so that I gave in and am teaching her to shoot lefty. I still have hope that I can get my boys to shoot RH As naturally as possible. Any pointers are appreciated.

I'm right handed and left eye dominate. Very much so. I primarily shoot lefty, but I have found it to be an invaluable skill to be able to shoot just as well off of my right shoulder.

There are lots of situations in the woods where you don't get to choose which shoulder to take the shot from. The position of the game makes that decision for you.

I'd make it a game and have fun with it. They can learn to shoot off of either shoulder, just like a soccer player learns to kick with either leg...

Just takes practice.

Try writing with your left hand all day and see how much fun it is.

I see LH rifles in your future.

My oldest is right handed with a dominant left eye. I started him shooting left handed. He's taking to it fine and shooting well.

I often take shots with my weak side (left shoulder) if a deer comes in to my right and I can't turn my body without getting busted....but I have to close my dominant (right) eye when I do.

I'm right-handed and left eye dominant and have both LH and RH rifles, and probably use the RH ones the most and don't find anything difficult about it, shooting from the left shoulder.
Shooting from a bench or prone it is probably an advantage when shooting a RH bolt gun, from the left shoulder.

Go lefty from the beginning. My whole family is doing that.

They'll have to be lefties with long guns, eye dominance overrides hand dominance when it comes to shooting long guns. With a handgun they'll be able to do either.

Pointbock is spot on. By forcing them to shoot right handed, they'll likely be very discouraged.

Eventually, they should be able to shoot on their weak side. Both eyes open for dominant eye, but dominant eye closed for weak side shooting.

I went through this when I was a kid. I was left handed but right eye dominant. It's a pretty easy switch.

Both of my daughters are right handed and left eye dominant. The eldest is able to close her left eye and shoot right handed.

My younger daughter (and the one who shoots the most) is unable to squint her left eye shut and could not adapt to shooting from her left shoulder. To overcome this we place a piece of transparent Scotch tape over the center of her left eyeglass. This blurs up her view enough so she can shoot right handed.

Jim

I'm right handed and left eye dominant and shoot a rifle and shotgun left handed ( Mostly ) pistol right handed. One of my sons is the same way. It can sure be an advantage to learn to shoot from both sides.

I have to suggest going lefty from the outset, particularly if shotgun shooting is likely at some point. Having weak side skill is useful, but your dominant eye-rather than "handedness" should guide which side you train to be your strong side.

Yep, go portside from the outset.

As for shotguns and archery we've tried all the usual solutions when teaching cross-dominant beginners, squint, eye patch, tape on shooting glasses and so forth. That's usually when parents insist that their child shoot from the dominant hand side. Nothing works as well as teaching kids to shoot from the dominant eye side. Shooters have some success with the other solutions, some more and some less, but never as much those shooting from the dominant eye side.

A big advantage with kids is that it's much easier for them to switch "handedness" than it is for adults. I've tried it and it's pure hell, kids can make the switch astoundingly quickly. Science says it has to do with a child's brain still developing, which it does through adolescence.

If the cross-dominance is very mild, near neutral, a small spot of tape or a smudge on the shooting glasses in the right place works well. Usually this is reserved for us old guys when eyes change since we can't adapt like a kid can. We have had shooters where dominance is so close to neutral it can even switch during the shot. Dominance remains set when we can get them to focus hard on the shot but that's asking a lot from a kid when shooting for recreation. Little fixes work well in that case.

Can't speak to rifles and handguns, my experience is lacking there. That's a different game with intentional aiming using sights.

Im left hand right eye dominant. Just decided to start shooting right handed one day after I got sick of my semi auto throwing brass at me.
No problems at all in the change over. Much easier to favour your dominant eye than to try and adjustthe other way round
rob

this is not necessarly true. i am left eyed/right handed, shoot right handed mostly, and never really had a problem. i can shoot well left handed, but i shoot best right handed.

it always boils down to the degree of eye dominance vs. degree of hand dominance. let the new shooter choose what works best.

What he said.

Strosfan:

I speculate that one of our greatest shortcomings as parents and instructors is a failure to assess eye dominance before any person shoulders their first firearm. Start them shooting from the same shoulder as their dominant eye, and it will be perfectly natural. There is no reason to force a person to go against their natural wiring. In the game of life and out in the field, I can think of no area where a right hander will have an advantage over a left hander.

In controlled instances with plenty of time, I can shoot with the off eye. When shotgunning or in instances where rapid target acquisition is needed with a rifle, it simply can't be done.

I'm right eyed and left handed. My first fire arms experiences were right handed and seemed natural. My first archery experiences were unsupervised and I started off left handed. At about age 30, an experienced bowman noticed some issues, insisted that I shift hands or eyes. The eye thing was impossible. With in 3 days of going right handed the dexterity and strength developed and my scores improved drastically. Now I could not physically switch back.

Don't be the dad one of my students described. Her reply as we assessed eye dominance was "that my cheap bastard dad is forcing me to shoot right handed, because he will not spend the money for a left handed rifle." We do not want to be the parent or nun smacking a kid with the ruler for holding a pencil in their left hand.

There are any number of firearms/actions that can go both ways (single shots, pumps, lever actions, and semiautos.

Keep things natural and fun, and ones kids are more likely to stay involved than one who has to work or struggle at it.

Shooting is all about proper alignment. Shoot with the eye that is most efficient.

When one gets to heavy kickers and scopes, the off eye/shoulder thing can also be a safety issue. To shoot with the left eye with a right shouldered stock, one has to turn even further away from the stock. It's much easier then for recoil to move the stock off the shoulder and put the scope into ones eye. Secondly, focus is much better for most of us when the pupil is aligned with the center of ones retina. That does not happen for folks that attempt to separate the eye and shoulder.

Option

1. Close left eye
2. Put a small patch of tape in center of left lense of shooting glasses

You want to teach them to shoot RH for your sake or their's? Learn to shoot following the dominant eye. It's more natural for the mind.

Plenty of good quality LH firearms out there. Get over yourself.

I'm left eye dominant and right handed. #1 is a horrible solution for me if I'm at the range or doing anything other than a fast shot because my right eye gets blurry after a bit with left eye closed.

With a scope I can actually shoot right handed and keep both eyes open since the crosshairs provide enough of a focal point for my right eye to keep it on target, but I shoot better and see better when I shoot left handed.

My suggestion is to teach them archery and shotguns on a purely left handed basis. Teach them to shoot both right and left handed with rifles, and eventually let them pick which they want. The difference in eye strength will make a big difference between individuals.

I am the OP/Dad/Husband on this thread.

We were doing some shooting this past weekend for the first time since last fall (too hot here). My 9 yo shot lights out RH after a few minutes getting reacquainted with acquiring a sight picture through a scope but he initially wanted to look through his left eye. He was regularly breaking clay pigeons placed against cow pies out to 80 yds w/ a scoped Rem 541 22lr. He was even able to hit some of the bigger leftover pieces.

My wife shot the rifle LH and did well in limited shooting but then tried to shoot some thrown clays RH and it didn't go well. I told her to shoot LH but she was Leary of the shells coming out of the right side of the semi auto 20 ga. I guess I will have to find a lefty 20 or a BPS which is ambidextrous with the bottom elect and tang safety. No sense in trying to fight nature I suppose.