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I'm another cross-dominant shooter. Rifles and pistols I shoot right handed, just close my left eye. Shotguns, now that's where things are messy. I started shotgunning right handed and was pretty inconsistent. Occasionally I would have to shoot left handed due to the way birds were coming in (geese) and I noticed my shooting improved. Bought my wife a LH 20 ga. and started using it (on upland birds) as she wasn't. I definitely am more consistent shooting birds lefty.

So here's my take. IF the boy is truly left eye dominant, teach him to shoot lefty with left handed equipment, in the long run he'll be a more consistent shooter. For a right handed person it's a bit awkward at first, but with practice, running a lefty gun becomes natural.

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Originally Posted by Ramblin_Razorback
Something I didn't think to mention in my earlier post is that, at least for me, when using a rifle scope (with magnification) with both eyes open the eye looking through the scope becomes the "dominant" eye.

That's really user-specific. I can't force my dominant eye not to be dominant without closing or covering it. Everyone is wired a little different. My son is the same way. My brother is the same way. My daughter is the outlier, and she is more like what you describe than she is like me. It's really an individual thing, and to some extent (again individual) you may be able to "train" yourself. But not everyone can.


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Originally Posted by Muffin


My hats off to all you guys that can wipe your butt just as well with either hand..................

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I had both my shoulders replaced three years ago. When you're in a sling for three weeks with no behind-the-back movement allowed, you get good at it really quick. There's just some things a wife won't do for you... eek

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I'll give my answer based on the science and research. I will also say that I'm a hunter and competitive shooter and my experiences also support what I will offer. Similar to JB, I don't doubt that folk have had success doing it "the other way" (following the handedness, or just closing or blinding the dominant eye). But on the whole the evidence is pretty strong for the following; results are best when you follow eye dominance instead of hand dominance.

When it was studied, shooters in an intramural shooting program were found to do better (score, enjoyment and comfort) following eye dominance instead of following handedness.

When competitive rifle shooters of various abilities were studied, the prevalence of contralateral (shooting off the shoulder that was different than the dominant eye) grew smaller and smaller the higher the level of competitive until at the Olympic level, there were no contralateral shooters.

I have been fortunate to coach hundreds of junior shooters including more than a few collegiate team shooters and a national team shooter, and our experience mirrors the above We for the most part applied the above methodology. The exceptions where we didn't was related to availability of equipment. We had only so many left handed rifles in our program and there were a couple of times where we had too many left eye dominant kids.

I will add a couple of points. It was harder to get boys to switch off the right shoulder to the left. My theory was that they had a decade of running around with toy guns ingrained with their right shoulder (hard to undo a decade of ingraining) The girls generally had no problem shooting off a shoulder that didn't match handedness.

Last point. Closing the off eye (whether it's your dominant or non-dominant eye) is not a good idea. Closing an eye causes a phenomenon called sympathetic dilation where your open eye's iris opens in response to the opposite closure. It seems your brain expects a certain amount of light and will open up the remaining eye's iris to get it. Wider open iris means poorer acuity. Bad if you're shooting iron's. I haven't experimented with glass. But at my age and optical capabilities, I care not to sacrifice any of my visual acuity.

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I'm left handed and all my guns are right handed. A left handed gun is the most awkward thing I have ever tried to shoot.

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https://www.trapshooters.com/threads/clear-tape-on-glasses-vs-one-eye-shooting.828843/

Interesting read................. a quick review and NOONE suggested switching from right hand to left!


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Trapshooters...all going away targets, premounted gun and they see the same targets over and over.

The fact that these few didn’t switch doesn’t mean some didn’t and were better for it.

Switching is extremely difficult...know one guy who quit sporting two times trying....then went back and dedicated himself and his wallet to sticking with it. It takes effort and being willing to work thru the frustration. Most are not completely committed to making the effort.

Now he is constantly in the high 80to low 90,s.


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Close that eye!

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I know of no eye/hand sports were closing an eye is an advantage. Yet it is often the first suggestion for shooting.


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Wife, son, daughter and I are all cross dominant, the joy. Anyway, we all now shoot lefthanded rifles. They all shoot lefthanded shotgun as well as archery. I shoot a shotgun closing left eye and shooting righthanded cause at age 10 I was taught that. As a result I am an average shotgunner. I simply can't get it together shooting a shotgun lefthanded after all those decades. But very glad I taught the kids to follow their eye dominance.

Have a safe full of lefties now. Much safer using a lefthanded bolt with a lefthanded shooter. For that reason alone I took the extra effort to source lefthanded rigs for the kids. So after all that, just listen to UTAH708 as he is on the money again.

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Originally Posted by ChrisF


When it was studied, shooters in an intramural shooting program were found to do better (score, enjoyment and comfort) following eye dominance instead of following handedness.



While I don't have Chris's experience coaching shooters, I am familiar with the research study to which he may be referring and want to offer a bit more detail. It was conducted using students in a Basic Marksmanship course at Penn State University (back when such a course was on the books.) They took a large number of students taking the course, and randomly assigned them to two experimental conditions--they were either taught to shoot the rifle based on handedness or taught based on eye dominance. The results were statistically significant that the group taught based on eye dominance made more early progress and in the end were more accurate shots.

Mule Deer is correct in his comment above that most of our beliefs about this issue are personal/anecdotal (and I would contend that even some of his points in a post above are subject to that criticism.) This experiment is one of the few rigorous examinations of the topic that I know of. It is part of the reason I started informally testing my sons for "eyedness" when they were just toddlers. One ended up being left eyed, and the other right eyed, and that gave me double the reason to buy guns for them.

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Thanks Utah708, the research was done by Daniel Landers in the 1970's IIRC. I don't recall which University, but I tracked Landers down to Arizona State U a few years back (I had hopes of asking him questions about some of his other research). The military has tons of research available on-line if anyone cares to search for this topic and share.

I'll go thru the military article data base on occasion when I'm looking for research. I checked my computer folder when I keep these articles and ran across this;
Quote
Eye dominance testing. A simple means of testing for eye dominance is presented, as Soldiers should fire with their dominant eye. Trainers are also advised to check for crossdominant Soldiers and determine whether cross-dominant Soldiers are holding the rifle with the appropriate hand or need to change.

This was published by the Army Research Institute in an article; "Rifle Marksmanship Diagnostic and Training Guide"
by David R. James, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Jean L. Dyer, U.S. Army Research Institute

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All I know is you can buy a lot of LH rifles for the cost of one eye. Shooting a RH rifle from the LH side leaves your face exposed if you have a primer or case failure. I cringe
when I see a kid shooting a RH rifle LH.


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Utah708,

Actually, I didn't criticize some of the posts due to being personal/anecdotal so much as being "examples of one," all implying that since THAT person had THAT result, anybody else will.

The two examples I gave are also examples of one, but so are the individual results in any large study--and are just a couple from a much longer list of my personal "study" of cross-dominance..


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Posted this before, wade thru it and take what you want, however when it comes to eye dominance and shotguns,
this is the guy many of the top “shooters” go to for advice.




More than a little eye dominance issues can be traced back to not really looking at the target/bird, knowing how to look and letting the barrel get in the way.

How many have had a Bird show up unexpectedly, reacted instinctively, shot and the Bird came down....and eye dominance issues magically went away.


Last edited by battue; 01/17/21.

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Originally Posted by battue
Posted this before, wade thru it and take what you want, however when it comes to eye dominance and shotguns,
this is the guy many of the top “shooters” go to for advice.




More than a little eye dominance issues can be traced back to not really looking at the target/bird, knowing how to look and letting the barrel get in the way.

How many have had a Bird show up unexpectedly, reacted instinctively, shot and the Bird came down....and eye dominance issues magically went away.




I've shot against a lot of guys for money and I've seen a lot of guys trying to mask their eye dominance issues with tape over one lens. One guy even smeared vasaline on one lens, so the dominant eye wouldn't take over and cause cross sighting. I felt sorry for a lot of those guys, not being started off on the correct shoulder when they were young. Shooting a shotgun is entirely instinctive and you should be shooting from the dominant eye side and with both eyes open, regardless of which hand you use most. I read through these posts on eye dominance and can see guys' points and respect their views, but Iv'e BTDT when it comes to eye dominance. Seen guys really struggle. Those guys generally give up on shooting for money and go to something like registered targets and let the big boys shoot for money... Just sayin... As for the OP's question on rifle shooting. Guys making good points for both right and left handed bolt actions. Its all good, but if you want to see some fast shooting, give a lefty a right hand bolt action to shoot off the bench or other supported position. A right hander has no chance keeping up. For fun, I shoot against guys in our local golf ball shoots with my bolt gun, while they use their Ruger 10-22's. Lets just say on our last turkey shoot, I walked away with 4 out of the 5 turkeys. Gave the 1 away because I'm a generous person....


Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.

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Originally Posted by battue
I know of no eye/hand sports were closing an eye is an advantage. Yet it is often the first suggestion for shooting.


Yep, closing one eye is a mistake. When you use both eyes open in any shooting sport, it is advantageous. Especially in the trap fields. So much faster reaction times. Guys that don't shoot shotguns competitively don't get it or understand it. I grew up shooting jackrabbits on the run, even with scoped rifles I shoot both eyes open.


Originally Posted by raybass
I try to stick with the basics, they do so well. Nothing fancy mind you, just plain jane will get it done with style.
Originally Posted by Pharmseller
You want to see an animal drop right now? Shoot him in the ear hole.

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Right eye dominant. Left hand dominant/ambidextrous. Shoot LH rifles from LH side with right eye closed. Passable rifle shot. Shoot hand guns right handed (more major muscle strength right hand/arm). Passable hand gun shot. Shoot LH shotguns from left side. Suck with a shotgun...

With 50 years of muscle memory shooting from the left side, I am not going to invest the time and effort in my remaining years to learn to shoot from the right. As stated multiple times above, I really, really wish someone had started me on long guns, especially shotguns, from the eye dominant side 50 years ago... If the boy is amenable, try him out on a proper LH shotgun.



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Go with what the kid likes best. But I would strongly encourage shooting from the dominant eye side for rifles and especially shotguns. Pistols can be either. What I would do is encourage the shooter to be ambidextrous, might be easier when just starting out.Eye dominance can change and even though I am strongly left eye dominant might right eye is becoming sharper for close images.

In the field it occasionally it is necessary to shoot off the off shoulder and quickly, so being comfortable with it could help.

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I agree with the advice to follow the eyes. Both of my boys are RH and L-eyed. NERF guns were a great way to get them used to shoot from the left side. Cheap, easy, fun practice.

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