Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Right handed, left eye dominant

+1 for dominant eye

You look at the kid in the photo and the answer is obvious. He is using his left eye to sight down that 9mm. It might be inconvenient for those providing the gun, but shooting using the dominant eye will give better results. Often it is the better eye, and that makes accuracy easier. A kid can learn whatever as far as which hand or shoulder. Even an adult can. My SIL had that problem. In fact her right eye had very bad vision. Whomever had been "teaching" her to shoot entirely missed the fact that she was laying her right cheek OVER the comb of the 12 ga she was shooting so she could sight with her left eye. She is tough. Despite the beating, she persisted in trying to shoot like that until I saw her do it and asked her about it. We changed that and she shot a right-handed bolt action rifle from her left shoulder. Shot well.

I am in the camp of shoot using your dominant eye. That is what natural hand-eye coordination is all about.

The comments on stock fit making the difference in being able to see fully out of a scope (line it up right) are right on. Being of smaller stature I used to struggle not to have a black fuzzy ring around the outer edges of the scope. It is difficult to center consistently and group worth a darn that way. With a proper stock length, that is no longer an issue. This lady is tall enough that she may not be struggling with length of pull, but there may be a different fit issue. It still could be distance from scope. If the scope is too far forward, and she has a short neck, she may still not be able to crawl close enough to see full field of view, especially in an awkward field position. Some experimentation may be needed. The AR is a clue, and it could be the stock length is playing a part.

Good luck to her. It is so frustrating not to be able to get a full field of view. Many women comment on this, and most often it is that the stock is just too long for them.

My wife has no dominant eye, and she is right handed. She closes her left eye and shoots right handed.

^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I've had several eye issues, retinal detachments on both eyes, once on my right eye twice on my left eye. I can tell you from experience "dominate" issue can move back and forth as you need it. With a rifle just have the right handed person, close the left eye. Practice enough with anything and it sorts itself out.

Yup

I am cross-dominant, RH/LE. I can shoot well from either shoulder, but shoot right handed by default.

but there are various degrees of hand dominance and various degrees of eye dominance, so at some point hand dominance trumps eye dominance.

the shooter with the problem must have input into the solution.

Might be amazing to you but it will work in some circumstances especially when the kids are younger.After working with him last spring he has improved 100 % and now closes his left eye.It certainly doesn't work for everyone but will make his shooting experience much easier as he gets older and most likely inherits my inventory.

BTW his instruction includes shooting a handgun both eyes open...any problem with that?

Very well stated. I'm very left eye dominant and can't shoot well at all from the right side. If someone would have forced me as a young guy to shoot right it wouldn't have worked and I would have gave up on shooting. Still can't believe that people are still trying to force someone to shoot with their less dominant eye. Someone shooting from their wrong side will never be able to shoot as well as from their naturally dominant side.

THIS. I am left handed and right eye dominant. As a little kid,my dad hung an eyepatch on my by gun and I learned to shoot right handed ever since.Learn to shoot with the dominant eye.

Flyboy I apologize there was no need for being so snide. Good for you for getting the grandson out shooting. I would only advise do what is best for him. Apparently I'm very eye dominant(left) and left handed. Thank god my mentors allowed me to shoot lefthanded. If I shoulder a shotgun right handed line up and close my left eye everything jumps about 10-15 degrees. I couldn't imagine trying to instinctively shoot dealing with that.

Not a problem I come on too strong myself more than I should. I think Brayden's problem had more to do with laziness than eye dominance since he loves to sit on my lap when I shoot the Sharps and properly uses the vernier tang sight but scoped rifles were the problem.

I'm not new to eye dominance as I had to address it many times while working the AF rifle range after my overseas deployments.We found most right hand troops could make the change and qualify by going lefty with a little one on one instructor assistance.A 3x5 card held over the non dominate eye first was replaced with a slight squint..99% of the time with practice this worked well especially with the females who seemed to pick it up much faster.

This has been an interesting thread. This is the first time I have ever seen reference to another person with no eye dominance. Thanks for mentioning it. I learned to shoot right handed-right eyed, but have to close my left eye. I can also shoot left handed-left eye with a handgun about as well as right (practice would improve that no doubt), but have to close my right eye. This happens with a camera, too, and I may randomly use either eye for that depending on position convenience. Long training with shooting long guns right handed makes converting to left handed awkward at best.

What happens for me is that whichever eye is "blocked" by something - like a scope or open sights - the other eye takes over looking at the clear view of the target or object. So to make my sighting eye look at the sight I have to close the other eye. I have attempted to concentrate on shifting focus back to the sighting eye, but it only lasts fractions of a second before the unobscured eye grabs the wheel again. Trying to shoot both eyes open just doesn't work, even though that is the standard wisdom.



I am guessing that while he will learn to shoot long guns right handed as desired, when he shoots both eyes open with a handgun he will be aiming left eyed, as he is doing in the photo.

With the training you referenced using cards, etc., I wonder; how, under stress and with instantaneous response needed, did the training prevail? Or did instinctive eye dominance take over? Maybe it depends how burned-in the muscle memory is.

Good post, I agree..

That "nip it in the bud" idea just isn't going to fly. I want to say what a f ucking idiot, but will refrain from doing so... These threads always crack me up...

My eyes are pretty well co-dominant. I can shoot from either shoulder while keeping both eyes open. I've killed a few deer shooting left-handed from tree stands when they came in on the "wrong" side.

My left eye has somewhat better vision than the right, so I sometimes use it when shooting a handgun right-handed. I keep both eyes open, just look through the left one. I renewed my DL last week, and was able to pass the vision test without glasses courtesy of the better vision in that left eye, but it was a near thing.

Hey, does being right handed in all things, but only able to bat left handed count?

I was into my 50's before an X-ray revealed a curve in my spine, which I think accounts for that preference.

Confused the hell out of opposing ball players. They would all switch to their left in position for a lefty hitter- then I would place hit to their right..... I don't think anyone in high school ever figured that one out - and I didn't tell them.

Not to be off- topic or anything....

You said it anyway and frankly I could care less.As I previously noted "nip it in the bud" was more laziness coupled with LOP problems. Cutting the stock of his pellet rifle down was immediately paramount which BTW has made all the difference. We will continue down this path of early instruction as long as it stays positive,if not then let his own comfort zone prevail.

Excellent question, not sure it was successful later or not since six of us were instructing hundreds a week in those days.. pencil pushers,medical personnel,Civil Eng,maintenance troops and aircrews.The prime directive for non combat types was get em qualified out the door and style points didn't matter.

What ever you do, make sure that your aiming eye is the one with the absolute best visual accuity. If your non-dominant eye has better vision, you will have constant accomadation 'battles' between the two. In my case when I was younger, my (dominant) left eye was 20-20 but my right eye was 20-17. The solution was a contact with just a quarter of a diopter correction but which improved my left eye to the accuity range of the right. No more headaches and much better wing shooting. As an aside, I shoot handguns righthanded but still aiming with my left.

So solving Brayden's laziness is a solution to the OP's cross dominance issue? Brilliant!!!