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

The most common solution is to shoot with the dominant eye. It kinda comes naturaly. With shotguns, I keep both eyes open, but luckily I'm right/right.

I was teaching a kid to shoot who couldn't hit the target at all and it was an issue of eye dominance. Once he switched to left/left, he hit it easily. This was with a rifle with a scope.

My son (now 8) is LED/RH and is now shooting lefty. When he started shooting a couple of years ago, he was missing targets by feet, not inches and terribly frustrated with his shooting. Archery posed the same problem. I had him try it with his left eye and lo and behold, he started hitting what he was aiming at. I then added a red dot to his Chipmunk improved things even more. Right now shooting a single shot, gun manipulation isn't a real problem but I do worry about that down the road. I'm not an eye doctor but that is my experience with this problem and the solution that worked for us.

I am true cross dominant. My sister (Older) is left handed.

It helped me in college, as I played Left O Tackle. My dominant eye was out, my strong leg was in.

BMT

CCH, I've been shooting right handed bolt actions since I was 13 years old and love them. I started out with a 1917 enfield and found bolt manipulation was pretty easy because the bolt handle is big and easy to grab a hold of. I've read on some sniper forums that some left handed snipers actually prefer the right handed bolt gun because they don't have to release their strong (left hand) from the grip near the trigger and they can also maintain the cheek weld as they say, and can operate the bolt with their right hand (thus making them faster than a right handed shooter using a right handed bolt gun). I'd suggest having your son use the controlled round feed actions because if he learns to rotate the gun as some lefties do so they can reach the bolt better and still keep the gun shouldered, the weird angles won't affect the chambering of the round.

BMT- It helps in other sports as well. A baseball batter can watch the ball to the bat, and the golfer who can see the club "hit" the ball. Just not so good for shotgunnin.

bsa1917hunter, I can see snipers working a rifle "crosswise" because they're almost always on a rest. I'd think it'd be hard shooting offhand (happens in the timber) especially for a 12 year old (big game legal here) with limited strength. How has that worked for you?

From a female shooter[25+years experience, with long guns and handguns]

After struggling a while when I started shooting shotguns, I believe that it is the visual interference of the gun itself in front of my right eye that makes the left want to to take over. In all the usual tests for eye dominance I come out right-eye dominant. I use the piece of tape method on the left lens of my shooting glasses, for shotgunning as well as iron-sight shooting. It causes too much eye muscle strain to close the left eye during a 40 round metallic silhouette match, it affects the right eye negatively when I try. Don't have any problem shooting with a scope right-eyed.

Of course everyone's individual situation is different, but I find it interesting that many female shooters have similar problems. In my own case I expect if I had tried to learn to shoot left-handed, the right eye would be trying to take over!

In the OP, the gentleman was teaching a small child to shoot. Many times I have observed smaller/younger shooters struggling to get the head down to the stock, in the process the head tips to the right when shooting right-handed. Could this be part of the reason the left eye seems to be more in line with the sights? Just a thought....good luck to the OP and the little girl!

CCH, One thing I've learned a while back is never compare myself to anyone!!!!!!! A very hard lesson to learn and sometimes very frustrating. I started out with a 1917 enfield when I was 13. If you don't know what that is and how heavy it is then you can google it. The enfield actions is a tank and the one I started out on was even more so because it had a target barrel on it (gun weighed in at around 11 pounds with scope). I grew up in northern Nevada and learned to shoot at moving targets thanks to the thousands of jackrabbits and coyotes the state possesed. As it stands I am just as fast at shooting offhand as any of my hunting and shooting buddies. However, when I shoot competition trap, I use left handed shotguns though if that makes you feel any better. I'd say, if you don't have the money to buy your son a left handed bolt gun and want him to use your right handed guns then by all means do so. It will not hurt him in the least. If you have the money, then he may be better off starting out with a left handed bolt or even a pump action. I do totally understand where you are coming from because I have a daughter that is 12 almost 13 and she can barely shoulder the cute little ruger hawkeye all weather I just bought her and it weighs in at 7 pounds on the nose.

Owned a sporterized 1917. It was not what I'd call light to be sure. I don't have spare guns for my kids so he'll be getting his own, most likely a LH 700 short action of some sort.

As a right handed youngster, I could not hit the side of a barn. Some old timer told be about how to determine which eye is dominant. I started shooting left handed and was amazed at how much better I shot. I converted my shotguns to left handed Williams safeties then (before the lawyers apparently made them disappear) and I shot my bolt actions rifles left handed, keeping the rifle to my left shoulder and operating the bolt and never had a problem. The hardest shot I ever took at a deer was from my right shoulder with a Ruger No. 1 and it was the most uncomfortable shot I ever made but I got him. Thanks...Bill.