Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Cross-eye dominant...

My daughter is in her mid thirties. She is cross eye dominant. It was easier for her to learn to shoot left handed than to keep fighting the issue. She must have been under 10 when she we figured this out. She has been shooting high power for a number of years and while she really liked the idea of a left handed Stag, she shoots a right hand rifle left handed in order to be able to compete/comply with the rules.

My optometrist states true cross dominance is rare, and not nearly as prevalent as people believe.... In most cases,he says, people are using, generally, the right hand when they are truly left handed. I dono, that is his position.

As a 7 or 8 year old kid I ran into the same issue of being right handed and extremely left eye dominant. It was so bad my dad had to give me a eye patch to wear while trap shooting with my good ole .410 single shot. I could barely get myself to use my right eye when I first started shooting. With practice I overcame it and learned to shoot right handed with my right eye. Kids are very adaptable and in my case it was a learned skill. Over time my left eye dominance has decreased and it's not near as bad as when I first started. By the time I got my first hunting license at age nine it wasn't a problem.

One time when I was about 10 or 11 I switched to lefty while hunting jacksnipe and I didn't have a problem one shooting lefty and hitting birds. It some ways it was easier being left eye dominant. Going lefty from the start might have worked better in my case. That's in direct conflict with I what I just said in my first paragraph. ? ? ? It goes along with that thing of kids being very adaptable.

Back then hardly anyone wore shooting glases. I didn't nor did most hunters that showed up at the range. This is where I'm going throw in my WAG. Try the trick of putting a piece of dull tape on the left eye of your daughter's shooting glases and see how it works for her. Or, try having her shoot a scoped .22 to start with instead of iron sights. It may not even require a range session to she how she adapts to it. She might be able to catch on really quick.

There's one big plus in shooting right handed and that's not having to buy left handed firearms for the rest of her life. It's a worthy consideration.

This reminds me of a thread a while back about shooting with both eyes open. It seemed like some were blasting me about sometimes having to slightly squinch my left to be able concentrate with my right eye. Now a bunch of folks are posting that they have to do something similar. Huh. It's how I've had to do it and it hasn't been a problem, FOR ME. I'm absolutely not suggesting teaching someone to shoot with restricted vision in one eye. That's not what I do. I don't close my eyelid. It's more like just tensing the muscles around my left eye so that my right eye takes over. I'm still seeing and shooting with both eyes.

She should learn to shoot with both eyes open no matter what. One eye closed is definitely a no-no. If doesn't work out for her right handed then teach her to shoot lefty.

Good luck with it and work with your daughter to find out what works best for her.

A subject dear to my heart. I am 74 yrs. old. With rifle I squint the left eye.

Even with a scout scope (2.75X), my left eye is so strongly dominant that I have to squint my left eye.

With a pistol, I still have to squint my left eye.

I'm not a geat wing shot!!

Go figure.

The usual field eye dominance tests are not completely accurate even if the kids are paying attention, particularly if eye dominance is mild. Primarily we watch the shooter, eye dominance issues are particularly obvious in archery. The real fun is figuring out what's going on with a shooter whose eye dominance varies!

Both of my girls are right handed, but left eye dominant. They chose to shoot right handed, as that felt best to them. When they struggled with trying to overcome the left eye dominance (they wanted to use their left eye to sight, and claimed they couldn't keep the left eye closed), I resolved the issue by placing a piece of tape on the front of the left lense of their shooting glasses. That forced them to rely on the right eye. I just make sure I take their shooting glasses hunting, as that is what they are used to.

You haven't met my daughter...focusing on the task is NOT an issue!

When my son first started to shoot, it took me a minute to figure out what looked so terribly strange. He (who is completely and totally left-handed) was holding the shotgun left-handed but was tipping his head completely across it to sight with his right eye. We got that straightened out by moving the gun to the right side. I did notice the other day that he shoots a handgun (well) left-handed but right-eyed.

This also brings to mind the story about Ole and Lars and the cross-eyed bull. Someone told them that if they stuck a rubber hose up the bull's tailpipe and had one of them blow on it while the other fellow hit the bull in the head with a hammer, it would straighten things out. They inserted a hose, Ole blew on the other end, and Lars wielded the hammer. Nothing happened, so they decided to trade places (Ole and Lars - the bull remained in the middle). Lars was pulling the hose out of the bull and turning it around. When questioned by Ole as to his actions he replied, "You don't think that I'm going to put that hose in my mouth after you've had it in yours, do you?"

my four year old son is right handed and left eyed.

after some experimentation, he doesn;t appear to be strongly cross-eye dominant, he could use his right eye if I asked him to, but would instinctively use his left. a piece of tape on the glasses helped a lot.

As an experiment, I put a scope on the rifle (Savage Cub) and he is much more comfortable using his right eye, since he doesn't have to think through sight picture.

At his age its hard to determine just how much easier it would be to switch hands or eyes. He claims to be very unfomfortable shooting left handed.

I think I will leave the scope on for now and just let him have fun for a while until he is a little more aware of what he sees and feels, and be ready to switch over to left hand left eye at that time.

Well so far: Patch, don't patch. Change sides, don't change sides.
She may grow out of it. Why fight it. With a pistol no problem, with a shotgun, problem. This is what I do. Which I would note is not an answer to your question.

What answer/conclusion have you arrived at to help her out? From what you tell me she is trying her best. You on the other hand have been given a multiple choice test by what I gather are well meaning individuals, so far none of which have backed their answers up with expert credentials, and since you're asking, you do not have any to base a guess on. Just sayin as they say here.

I am left eye dominant and shoot left handed rifle and shotgun. I shoot with both eyes open. But, I shoot pistol right handed. It has been no problem to just move my head slightly to the right so that my left eye lines up with the pistol sights. However, I have developed a problem in my left eye, that has been checked by an ophthalmologist, and it can't be corrected. Through a scope or looking at anything with the very center of my vision has become wavy to the point I can't use my left eye for pistol shooting any more with iron sights. So, I just squint my left and use my right eye. In a matter of weeks it has become a habit and now my right eye works fine for pistol shooting. I still use my left on rifle and shotgun. I never did shoot a bow well (right side) and now in my later years I know it was because I couldn't line up my left eye with the arrow. I've thought about bows again but I've got to many things started to get into that or black powder. Am working on shooting rifle on the right side but most of my rifles are now left bolt. Shotguns will stay just where God intended them to be.

Drew

What in the name of hell does any of that have to do with the original posters question of his 7 year old Daughters eye dominance problem and what he should do about it?

FWIW:

I shoot LEFT HAND and I an Right handed dominant.

I have no trouble with anything but bolts.

Just have shoot what ever way makes it easiest.

I shoot AR and pistols just fine.

BMT

Just wondering Battue,do you have a cross eye dominance problem?

I used to date a crosseyed domintrix. Didn't work out. She kept pouring hot wax on my navel.

BMT-I was having my eyes checked a few weeks ago and asked about this condition. I think he believes there are/have been those who are naturally left handed, and forced or naturally learned to be, into being right hand users. With the opposite not being so much the case.

I ain't saying the condition doesn't exist, as I have it myself. It was why I asked him the question. Along with how to handle it. His answer was the black tape on the glasses solution.

Personally, I have always closed the left eye as I let the shot loose when using a shotgun. Not so much a problem with a rifle or pistol.

Hutch,
Yes, and it leans more to a central dominance in that whichever eye has the best view wants to steer. With a shotgun at least it can cause difficulties with putting the shotgun in the right place. It can be overcome, but requires certain adaptations. Then again some days it is all R. eye and things are cool.

With a kid starting their shooting experience and there are any eye abnormalities, I can not see any reason not to get it exactly right to the best of our ability from the beginning. Guessing is the wrong way to go about it.

As one poster stated(make a game out of it)so it will be fun.If eye dominance switches then the kid will be able to switch hands also.Its a lot easier for kids to adapt than adults.I still believe it is better to shoot with dominant eye with both eyes open.Muscle memory is pretty easy to relearn.

Have a friend whose son had cross dominance issues until he was around 13 or 14 then it just went away, at which time the kid became a better than good shotgunner. Sometimes it is best, especially with boys to let it go until an absolute determination is made. It has been reported that girls are predisposed to dominance issues more than boys.

Then there are those who think they have a dominance issue when the reality is they try to aim a shotgun instead of just concentrating on the target. Trying to sight down the rib on a moving target causes all kinds of problems that often mimic cross dominance.

This is simple, If the kid is left eye dominant don't start her off on the wrong side and hope the eye will miraculously switch dominance. I usually just read and laugh my a off on this forum, but had to step in because I'm left eye donimant and write with my right hand (only because I was forced to do so in kindergarten). My grandfather was smart enough to know if I couldn't see down the barrel of a gun because I was trying to close my right eye and shoot the gun right handed(just couldn't see the sights!!!!!!!!!!!), then I must be left eye dominant and he switched the gun over to my left shoulder: I could see the sights, imagine that. If your daughter ever gets into competition shooting she'll thank you for swithching her over to the correct side. I've seen guys at the trap range put tape over their lenses or totally block out one side so they could only see with one eye. What good does it do when you can't use both eyes? You are so much quicker and you can see better with both eyes open.