Opposite Eye Dominance

[Underdog 1,593]

I am helping a friend learn to shoot and I am looking for information to pass to him to help him with his opposite-eye dominance.

[Bully 749]

Handgun isn't a problem as long as your friend knows his dominant eye. My wife is cross eye dominant. Now that she knows what to expect, it's pretty easy to compensate.

 

Rifle is another story and someone more knowledgeable needs to chime in.

 

C

[plode 0]

I'm left eye dominant and right handed. I shoot rifle and shotgun left handed, and pistol right handed. I keep both eyes open when shooting pistol.

[mipafox 438]

I'm left eye dominant and right handed.  I shoot rifle and shotgun left handed, and pistol right handed.  I keep both eyes open when shooting pistol.

 

This is what I do but I close dominant eye for pistol.  I don't like the way my body lines up using dominant eye/non-dominant hand. I am no expert but I have brought it up during instruction courses and they said what I was doing was fine.

[checko 180]

I'm left eye dominant. I don't have any problems lining up my handguns straight up with my left eye. It's not canted or using my left as my dominant hand.

 

For rifles and shotties I have no issues using my right eye. Being right handed I've had no choice but to learn how to shoot and aim that way.

 

I'm sorry I don't really have any good advice. Just practice the way it feels comfortable until its second nature

 

I will add for long guns it may help to use a patch or something to block the dominant eye while learning to shoot at first

[Spartiati 63]

I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot both pistol and long guns right handed. Pistol is easy. I use sort of a weaver stance so I can maintain good alignment with pistol and arm. At first I had to close non dominant eye but over time have been able to go to both eyes open unless the target is really far away.

 

Rifle is also no problem shooting right handed.

 

Shotgun though was tricky at first when shooting clays/birds. I could shoot stationary fine but once the target gets moving my dominant eye would take over view of the sight and my shots would be way off unless I closed my left eye, but that would make picking up moving targets difficult. I then found a inexpensive sight which is essentially a tube about 4 or 5 inches ling which has the fiberoptics in side so my dominant left eye can't see it once the gun is mounted and voila I can now keep both eyes open and only my non dominant right eye can see the bead.

 

Most instructors in the begining encouraged my to learn to shoot left handed, particularly with the shotgun, but I just could not get comfortable. So I have made it work well with practice mounting right handed.

[SgtToadette 59]

From what I understand, it is bio-mechanically possible to change your eye dominance, but for most people the effort isn't worth the result. According to some quick Google searching, Larry Vickers is cross-eye dominant and simply shoots long-arms on his eye dominant side.

[FLHX 1]

My left eye is dominant and I shoot pistols right handed and just move the pistol over a little to my eye. I shoot long guns lefty and it has always felt right to me. I can shoot long guns right handed but it just doesn't feel the same using my right eye. I have practiced shooting both ways and I can now shoot right handed pretty good. When I first started shooting I thought there was something wrong with me that I was shooting left handed but When I brought a rifle up for the first time it was instinctual to do it lefty.

 

Have him practice using strong and weak side and it will come pretty natural for him.

[TheDon 3]

IMHO, it would probably be much easier to lean to shoot left-handed than to change your eye.

My son is cross dominant and we worked on him using various theories for quite some time. In the end, he just learned to shoot left handed and he is doing fine.

[hd2000fxdl 422]

Surprised nobody mentioned it, and this would be mostly for Handgun games, but what about just shooting with both eyes open?

For longer shots go to the dominant eye and same for rifle and scopes..

[blksheep 466]

There is only eye dominace when it comes to closing one of your eyes to achieve proper sight picture. If you are keeping your head straight and have BASIC fundamentals down, as long as you lining the sights and have some understading of what sight picture is then it does not matter. Eye dominace is a HUGE misconception in firearms teaching.

[Bambinomontana 0]

I have been having problems with my sight picture aqusition and found out that I'm also left eye dominant (but right-handed). I intially closed my dominant eye, but was crossing over to both eyes open and thats where the problem began. I also noticed that I had to aim low-right to hit my target center mass. I was told to put a piece of tape over my glasses, until I get used to the correct aqusition. I was wondering if I should put the tape over my dominant eye or my right eye (knowing that my right eye will have me aiming low right). I might try it both ways and see what works best. My right eye does seem to strain, when I close my dominant eye. I'm able to shoot my AR right handed with no problems, could be because I'm moving my head to the right.

[Bambinomontana 0]

I just found a similair post in the training section which answered my question (see below):

 

http://njgunforums.com/forum/index.php/topic/43004-right-handed-but-left-eye-dominant/

[Banka871 0]

Im left eye dominant, right handed. Its simply a matter of practice. Like others have said, teach him to shoot both eyes open.

[SHY_Veritas 0]

I'm cross eye dominant as well. I knew that going into shooting so I've always just shot righty. I'm not too bad at shooting although I haven't been through as much as the rest of you. I hope to do more soon.

[High Exposure 5,678]

There is only eye dominace when it comes to closing one of your eyes to achieve proper sight picture. If you are keeping your head straight and have BASIC fundamentals down, as long as you lining the sights and have some understading of what sight picture is then it does not matter. Eye dominace is a HUGE misconception in firearms teaching.

 

 

^^ this

 

 

From what I understand, it is bio-mechanically possible to change your eye dominance, but for most people the effort isn't worth the result. According to some quick Google searching, Larry Vickers is cross-eye dominant and simply shoots long-arms on his eye dominant side.

If it is still an issue, than do like The LAV. Shoot with both eyes open as much as possible and shoot long guns from the dominant eye side, regardless of the dominant hand.

[SgtToadette 59]

 If it is still an issue, than do like The LAV. Shoot with both eyes open as much as possible and shoot long guns from the dominant eye side, regardless of the dominant hand.

 

I'm lucky since I'm left handed and left eye dominant, but for me it would only really be an issue with handguns.

[Jack 0]

I think that a red dot sight on you rifle can help shooting with your non-dominant eye.