left dominant eye, right handed, how do you handle it?

[johnson1942]

both my children are right handed and left dominant eyed. the sixteen year old son learned to shoot left handed and is good at it. my daughter most like will have to do the same. she just spent a couple of days with a glock in college as she is majoring in criminal justice. she did well the instructors said but suggested she learn to shoot left handed this summer with my handguns. their has to be several instructors out their and good shooters with this problem and can give us several suggestion on where to go with this. she sent us pictures of her targets and she did well. thanks before hand from you all.

[NSB]

When someone is learning to shoot any gun, be it handgun, rifle, or even a bow, it's not that hard to learn to shoot it left handed even if you are right handed. Even right handed people do a lot of things with their left hands, and do them well. Think about it.....shooting a bow isn't really "right handed" when you're holding the bow with your left hand. Shooting a shotgun requires you to use the left hand to guide the gun to the target. I've shot both ways over the years and found out that I could become quite proficient in very short order simply by working at it with a little bit of effort. I truly believe that if you're starting out and you're left eye dominant, you're way ahead of the game to simply shoot left handed. One more thought on this.....if you're pitching a ball while playing baseball, what hand do you catch with? Again, the left hand. It's all perception, not reality when we tell ourselves we had to do something with a particular hand. I used to get laughed at for shooting with either hand. I use to tell my buddies "I'm amphibeous, I can do it with either hand" :redneck:

[dilly]

I shoot rifles left handed and pistols right handed from my left eye. I probably would have been better off to start shooting the pistols left handed but it never happened, and the cross dominance with a pistol is really not so bad.

Also, why do they make left handed guitars but not left handed pianos? Both rely heavily on the use of both hands.

[contender1]

A more common problem than many imagine. One eye is dominant over the opposite hand.
We teach shooting here, (we have a WOT clinic this weekend,) and we see this a lot. Even my wife, who is one of the top 10 ladies for the NRA WOT program is right handed, left eye dominant. I also shoot USPSA, and work as a RO. Just finished the Area 6 match. This is to let you know I see this a lot.

It can be handled in several ways.
If you want to train your "off" eye to where your eye & hand are the same dominance, you can add scotch tape to the lens of your glasses to "blur" the image to where the other eye does the work. If a person wears glasses daily, and can do this,, you can exercise your weaker eye to where it becomes stronger.The problem with this is many folks do not wear glasses daily, OR can tolerate the time & work it takes to make this happen. But I have seen competition shooters do this just for their matches. Very common there.

Next, as noted,, you can have them learn to shoot left handed. Not too hard,, but again, it takes work to MAKE yourself only pick up a firearm with the off hand & immediately grip it using the off hand as the dominant hand. Motor memory skills again are needed to assure that under stress,,, (such as a LEO shooting situation,) so a lot of practice is necessary. Dry-firing skills can work on this method a lot.
Next,, and I've also seen very accomplished shooters do this,,, is for a person to slightly "cant" the gun to align the sights with the dominant eye. The only problems with this method arise when shooting long distance, or with heavier recoiling handguns. When canted, a long range shot, (over 100 yds generally,) the alignment isn't the same as "normal" and can have a difference in accuracy. The longer the distance,,, the more noticeable the inaccuracy will appear. And in big bore handguns,, by canting the gun, or even turning the gun to align the sights,,, places more felt recoil in the grip.

Each person has to choose which method fits their needs & work on that method.
If SD is the primary objective, for a person who only occasionally shoots & isn't going to develop motor memory skills,,, then canting or turning the gun will work.
If a person is going to shoot a lot, and spend time with things, and shoot a diverse array of handguns,,, then learning to shoot left handed is excellent.
And if competition is your foray, then the simple tape over the lens works.

[dvnv]

"I shoot rifles left handed and pistols right handed from my left eye"

This...Rifles and shotguns left handed, handguns right handed. I'll note that I started shooting handguns left handed and after a year or so tried right handed and found I shot better. I use my left eye for all.

[Harter66]

I've been cross dominant for life . I learned long guns left handed from my Dad who lost his left eye at age 7 and a combat Marine that had to learn to shoot from scratch right handed on an M1 after shooting lefty the 1st 16 shooting yrs of his life because "Marines don't shoot left side " ,circa 1944.

I've always shot hand guns right handed because it just "felt weird" to have it in my left hand .
After 30 yrs of lefty I decided I should shoot a bow and my left eye took a dive . 15/20 to 20/40 in 18 months . The vision crash actually helped with the right handed bow draw ,I wasn't able to consistently lock the draw with the left side with a recurve and forget letting off on an unfired compound .

Now I shoot rifles mostly either way if I have time . I was very surprised to find my rifle on my left shoulder after shooting a running 165# boar. The same applies to the unexpected game flush with shotgun. Must be that muscle memory stuff . I also shoot both eyes open 90% of the time as I never in my 49 7/8 yr managed to learn to wink my right eye .

Being that there are so very few left handed hand guns available I wouldn't sweat the process. Buy a cheap lefty holster and let her work it for a week she will know whether it feels right or not ,if it doesn't flow and feel right it doesn't work to force it some people are able to just switch hands and it's just a change and some may as well be using their foot. I was very lucky to be taught by such diversified teachers .

If you and she can stand it watch saving private Ryan and pay attention to the sniper/Rifleman with Tom . He's a lefty and does the reach over bolt cycle but shoots his pistol right side . There is an advantage in the field also as the rifle and pistol don't run into each other when the rifle is slung .

My mom shoots both hands for pistol equally well but is more comfortable left hand right eye .

[Dusty Bannister]

While I was learning to shoot hanguns, I shot left handed, left eye, and right handed, right eye. The reason is if you shoot cross dominant, it seemed to me that the recoil movement was different. One tended to break the wrist to the side, and that pushed the hand across the body rather than vertically. I continue to practice with both hands and both eyes, just in case one becomes injured.
Sometimes, shooting with the weak hand will make one think a little more about their shooting and they do better. Dusty

[wlkjr]

As an RO I've noticed this a lot also. But it doesn't seem to hurt some people. I had a temporary issue with my right eye a few months ago and I shot left eye dominant for a couple of matches. Didn't seem to affect my score any. I'd say whichever eye works the best just go with it.

[yovinny]

My son is right handed, left eye dominant.
With long guns, he just closes his left eye. With hand guns, he shoots a modified weaver position that places the firearm in front of his left eye.
I dont think it's a big handicap for him (or maybe all those years of me yelling FRONT SIGHT finally sunk in,,,lol) as he took top shooter in his 1200 person class at the NYC Corrections academy a few weeks ago.

[Paul D. Heppner]

My oldest daughter is cross eye dominant, right handed left eye. We just went left handed on everything. She can't "wink" her right eye. We spent a very short time with the scotch tape thing, common trap/skeet shooter crutch. In doing so I firmly established the issue. The tape was taken away quickly because it buggers up your depth perception which is important in all shooting, especially wing shooting. She now does well with her left handed Remington 1100 and her Marlin 30-30. The handgun is up in the air right now as she hasn't got her permit yet. Probably go with a semi of some sort with a mag release that can be reversed. There are some left handed bows in there too.

Some interesting cross dominance trivia: From what I understand about 10% of the male population, about 30% of the female population, and about 30% of the athlete population (male and female) is cross dominant. Having worked in an archery shop for several years I found that young kids quite often don't have a dominant eye until they are 8 or 9. Figuring out which eye works is most important in archery because the arrow needs to be brought under the eye that the brain wants to rely on. Same goes for shot gunning.

[McLintock]

I've had that problem as I've been legally blind in my right eye since birth, but right handed in most things. I never bothered to shoot a handgun with my left hand until I got into Cowboy Action Shooting, where you use two handguns for each stage. I originally shot only with the right hand, using a cross draw holster for my left side gun, but finally decided to learn to shoot with the left hand, so I could use two strong side holsters. Took a little while, but just repetition and doing it, I got pretty comfortable with it, drawing, aiming and sqeezing the trigger. I think just do it in practice until she's comfortable with it.
McLintock

[flyingmonkey35]

I have cross eyed dominant since I was 12 when I injured my right eye.

The Army taught me to shoot pistols right handed and rifles left handed.

As they stated if your hitting the target that way who cares.

Strong hand for pistol. You aim where you point so its no big deal.

Left hand for rifle for the same reason.

Sent from my draconis using Tapatalk

[str8wal]

I am right eye dominant and left handed. I just learned to shoot right handed from a young age. It's really not that difficult if you start early.

[sixshot]

I'm left eye dominant & shoot right handed & its not a problem to simply squint a bit with my left eye to see the sights. For me thats much easier than trying to learn to shoot left handed & I'm a long time competition USPSA shooter & did very well until old age tapped me on the shoulder. I never had a problem simply squinting a bit & my revolver ran just as fast as almost anyone in the country for several years. Also it would be easier to slightly move the gun to the left eye than to learn to shoot with the left hand in my opinion, I've done that lots of times & its quite easy to do & still stay fast on the trigger. Switching hands would be a last resort for me even though we did quite a bit of weak hand shooting in major matches.

Dick

[pworley1]

My son has the same problem (left handed right eye dominant). He shoots both rifle and pistol right handed. He has never had a problem.

[Bigslug]

Keep your head upright and cant the gun to the dominant eye.

[bedbugbilly]

I'm right handed and right eye dominant - but have lost the central vision in my right eye so now must must use my left eye as "dominant" so to speak. I really can't explain "how" but for me, after shooting probably 40 years and having to use my left eye for the last 10 or so years . . . you just adjust to it.

Some may disagree with me . . . but if your children are right handed and left eye dominant - for pistol . . . put an eye patch over the right eye so they have no vision out of that eye and start shooting. They'll learn.

As far as rifle . . . I now have to shoot left handed but it really isn't any issue for me whether it be a lever gun, bolt, etc. A semi auto might cause a problem depending on where it ejects the casing.

I do think that if they are young, shooting both right handed and left handed with a dominant left eye would be a good thing to practice. I not only shoot semi-auto but a lot of revolver as well - both DA (llSmith K & J frame) and SA Army style revolvers. If I am shooting one handed (right hand) I have learned to hold at the proper angle with my left eye doing all the work. Two handed - the same way.

[johnson1942]

i thanks every one for the response. when she is home for the summer in 2 wks. and the weather is better we will shoot alot with my 2, 38 special revolvers and see where it goes. ive been loading all day and will have a icecream pail full of ammo for her to burn up. i dont have any semi autos but she can learn how to hold, and feel comfortable with a hand gun.

[rbuck351]

I am right handed right eye dominant and shoot hand gun with both eyes open. If you concentrate on the target, each eye sees a gun but the brain will make the non dominant eye barely see a gun. It takes little effort to move the other gun to the target thus switching eyes. With just a bit of practice you can shoot with which ever eye you want.

[Ural Driver]

I am right handed...I shoot right handed. Handguns, long guns, shotguns and bow. Never knew I was left eye dominate until I was about 25 years old.......didn't change a thing.

[kentuckyshooter]

When your daughter gets home run this simple test. Have her make a triangle by overlaping her thumbs and index finger hands turned palm out. Then with both eyes open have her center an object 15 to 30 feet away from her in the triangle. Next have her close one eye and then the outher. When looking threw her dominant eye the object will still be in the center of the triangle. When looking threw her weak eye the object will appear to have shifted from the center. If she does show cross domince the folks on here have already gave good sugestions. I would start with trying to shoot weak hand as that will give you the best ergonomics. How ever this is a case by case basis. Ever watch a right handed carpenter have to drive a nail left handed. Some just caint do it. It will feel odd at first. I sugest a 22 or powder puff loads in that 38 till she gets used to it. If she simply caint get the hang of shooting southpaw then look at modifieing her normal shooting stance. The most important thing is she must be able to safely and confidently handle the firearm.

Personaly i prefer to shoot long guns and bow left handed and pistol right handed. I can shoot any of them eather way as need be but thats just what im comfortable with. No real difrence in accracy either. Guess im the odd duck in that my eyes are codominant. Just about didnt learn to read becouase of the duble vision it causes. Since then i have just learnt to deal with it and barly notice it anymore. Its all in what you are used to. You can train and strenghten the muscles in your eyes to strenghen them. I have to consuly focus on what i want to see or else i do have dubble vision.

The point of it all is you have to find out what works for her. It may not be text book but you caint arguee with results. I do support learning to shoot with both hands anyway. I pray that she never needs to but it could save her life some day. For punching holes in paper find the results you want then tweak and pratice till its comfortable.

[Jeff Michel]

Practice your shooting skills, everything else will take care of itself. It's harder to change hands or alter you technique once your body is used to as certain way. Been left dominant, right handed since the start. I can shoot left, but much better right and a whole bunch more comfortable. Never has been a big deal, at least for me.

[6bg6ga]

Maybe you should crack open the NRA GUIDE " Basics of PISTOL Shooting" and see what it has to say. Great little course for all to take.

[gwpercle]

Right handed , right eye dominant all my life. At age 36 lost the sight in my right eye.
Stopped shooting for a long time, until a skeet shooter said " just shoot left handed" I said what do you mean...he turned me around , put the shotgun on my left side and said take a shot at the bird...amazingly I busted it ....been shooting left handed and left eyed ever since. It's not hard to retrain yourself to shoot lefty...it's not like writing.
Gary
Handguns were never a problem, hold gun in right hand , tilt head a bit and aim with left eye.

[bgw45]

I was right/right. I lost all but 10% vision in My right eye. Shooting pistols I use an isociles ( can't spell either ) stance lifting the pistol to my left eye using my strong right hand hold.. I don't have to close my right as it doesn't try to dominate any longer. Shoot rifles from the left. Still enjoy the sport.

[Nueces]

I'm also right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot most handguns using a Weaver-like two handed hold and often used to simply hold a bit left and use the left eye. Or, I would momentarily blink the left eye to force the right to take over. Now, most of my handgun shooting is done in cowboy action competition and I use custom shooting glasses (Wiley X Romer II), with the right lens set for a 26 inch focal distance and the left lens ground for distance. It now takes nearly no time to accustom myself to these before a match and the brain now effortlessly sees the sights with the right eye and the targets with the left.

[Tom W.]

I learned to almost lay my head on my right shoulder,using a modified Weaver stance. Ungainly looking but very effective. At my age I'm not going to change.

[Naphtali]

If they shoot either wearing prescription spectacles or shooting spectacles, a non-threatening method that may - repeat MAY work - follows.
1. Put on spectacles.
2. Hold firearm in its shooting position for whichever shooting hand-arm is their strong one.
3. Using a [temporary] dry marking device, mark with a dot on the presently dominant eye that is viewing's lens - not the strong arm's eye - where that eye's center of focus is for sighting.
4. After removing spectacles and removing the dry mark if you can remember its location, use a 1/4-3/8 square piece of translucent tape to cover the spot and its immediately surrounding glass/plastic. You are not trying to blot out vision. You are trying to mute or rendering much less distinct at that center of focus vision.
5. Now using those spectacles, go shoot.

If things work out, the dominant eye will no longer be dominant, but the shooter will continue to see well from it - except that center of focus will no longer be sufficiently sharp to override the strong side's less dominant eye.

If it doesn't work, remove the tape and move to Plan B. If it does work out, the tape can be infinitely removed and installed in the same manner.

Hope this helps.


both my children are right handed and left dominant eyed. the sixteen year old son learned to shoot left handed and is good at it. my daughter most like will have to do the same. she just spent a couple of days with a glock in college as she is majoring in criminal justice. she did well the instructors said but suggested she learn to shoot left handed this summer with my handguns. their has to be several instructors out their and good shooters with this problem and can give us several suggestion on where to go with this. she sent us pictures of her targets and she did well. thanks before hand from you all.

[swmass]

I didnt even know what eye dominance was until I had already learned to shoot... I learned to shoot right handed right eye. After figuring out I am left I dominant I now shoot pistols with my left eye and get a clearer sight picture and tighter groups. I just move my head over a bit and look through my left eye. Cant be that big of a deal.. hickok45 does it the same way [smilie=l:. Rifle I suck it up and use my right eye... Im too stuck in my ways of shooting rifle right handed. The sight picture isnt as crisp as it could be but I get the job done... The worst part is the first few days of duck season... I'll raise my shotgun up and try to use my left eye in the heat of the moment and see nothin but the side of my shotgun. Besides that its never been that big of a deal for me... If anything it was a good thing. I became a better shooter when I started using my left eye

[upr45]

Born a leftie(eye and hand), started shooting in the 60's -- no such thing in my circle then as a leftie rifle. Started shooting right. Still shoot right. Close my left eye except for scout scopes. Learned to live with it, now too old to switch. Handguns I shoot with either hand. Maybe that's why I never took to shotguns? Much prefer rifles and handguns to shotguns.

[tastiger]

Shield or patch your eye, some of my friends do that shooting.

[Shiloh]

I aim with my dominant left eye and shoot with my right hand. Been doing it for decades with no issues.

SHiloh

[finattic]

I have read all the post here and unless I missed it no one has said Shoot with both eyes open. I learned to shoot with both eyes open shooting nbrsa bench rest matches looking thru the scope with one and watching the wind flags with the other. I know it sounds strange but it can be done and with some practice you can pick up speed shooting pistols since you have a full field of view to the target. Tell her to try this and adjust the sights to fit her aim point. Granted no one else can probably hit with it but who cares if she can

just something for you to ponder on

[johnson1942]

i want to thank every one here for their help. i also shoot with both eyes open. she will be home in a week and then when the weather is better and she has a day off from work we will do a lot of shooting. the weather is very cool and wet the last few days so ive been loading a lot of 38 special and 45 long colt. she likes my cowboy guns. P.S. wallmart helps put a lot of young people through college. she works their all summer and even through the school year back at college. the money she earns adds up and gives her good work experience.

[gray wolf]

From a high ready position, two hand hold, pistol straight out from your chest, close the right eye.
You may have to shift the pistol 2 or 3" to the left, or cock your head slightly.
In a half hour your pistol will start to center under the left eye.
--Done.--

No need to jump through hoops here.

If you want to shoot one handed ( bulls eye style ) jump through the hoops.

[runfiverun]

have them wear an eye patch on their left eye for 3-4 days.
the brain will switch sides for them.
and keep it there.

[clum553946]

I'm right eye dominate & left handed. I shoot my rifles right handed so no problem there. With a pistol, I align my head a little to the left & look down the sights with my right eye. Been doing that since I started shooting & didn't realize I do that until I started shooting competition years back. Since it's natural for me now, that's how I deal with it. It does cause me to shoot to the left a bit, so I just adjust my sights accordingly.

[JWT]

At cub scout camp in first grade (5yr old) my son got set up over the BB gun right handed and flopped his head over to try using his left eye. After learning about his cross eye dominance we blacked out the left lens of his shooting glasses and did some practicing. He now (11ys old) shoots right eye/right hand.

My Dad is left/left and learned to shoot in the late 60s. He switched to right because of a combination of rifle availibility/cost and a bad experience shooting an M1 lefty (hot brass down the shirt).

Because of my Dad's negative experience and the fact that all of the rifles my son will have access to, and some day own, being right handed we worked on making the switch.

[MT Chambers]

If you mess with eye dominence too much you can end up cross-eyed and people will think you abused yourself when you were younger.

[Lead Fred]

Open sights, Mrs Fred with her Winnie 94 can shoot it as well as I can, tho she shoots it left handed, and levers it right handed.

Her SKS we had to install a Vortex Strikefire Red Dot on it. She chews the center of a 50 yard target at 75 yards.

[palmettosunshine]

I'm also right handed and left eye dominant. Like others have said I shoot handguns right handed and just tilt my head over a bit. I do keep both eyes open. With long guns I shoot lefty. Never been an issue. I've occasionally grabbed a handgun lefty to see how it goes and have never noticed any difference in accuracy.

[slughammer]

Hand guns don't require anything special to shoot with the opposite eye. Try shaking your head "No". Now using this same motion simply rotate your head and use the dominant eye. My son is right handed / left eye dominant and started shooting at a very early age, I didn't have to teach him this for handguns, it came naturally. (for rifles I taught him to switch the gun to his dominant left eye).
For defensive / offensive shooting; tape, glasses and other tricks should be avoided. Shooting naturally is the best way to go.

[tygar]

Interesting problems. Mine is slightly different. I am right handed & right eye dominent (but just barely) but my left eye is 20/10 & right eye 20/15 & my stronger eye which is close to dominent tries to take over.

I actually shot shotgun left handed but rifle & pistol right. I could always shoot good but I would close or squint my left & also did the dot on the shooting glasses thing for comp. I ultimately changed the shotgun over to rt hand, just to keep it simple.

I do practice combat shooting with both hands & with that having both eyes open & not doing match type aiming, the strong left eye is not really a problem.

[Texantothecore]

Thanks for all your answers. Having to do this for a short while.

[TCLouis]

I am trying to shoot pistol as Shiloh described.
Right handed , left eye.
I will try this a lot with air pistol and see if I can train myself to do it "all of the time.

Rifle, I will continue right handed right eye

[smorin2]

I shoot rifles left handed and pistols right handed from my left eye. I probably would have been better off to start shooting the pistols left handed but it never happened, and the cross dominance with a pistol is really not so bad.

Also, why do they make left handed guitars but not left handed pianos? Both rely heavily on the use of both hands.

this is how i shoot also,been doing that way for the better part of 35 years.

[gray wolf]

Hand guns don't require anything special to shoot with the opposite eye. Try shaking your head "No". Now using this same motion simply rotate your head and use the dominant eye. My son is right handed / left eye dominant and started shooting at a very early age, I didn't have to teach him this for handguns, it came naturally. (for rifles I taught him to switch the gun to his dominant left eye).
For defensive / offensive shooting; tape, glasses and other tricks should be avoided. Shooting naturally is the best way to go.

Why is this so hard to grasp ? Some people ( read as a lot ) will never be able to switch hands and become a good shooter.

Most ( read as many ) can move there head 2/4 inches.

Just sayin,

[marlin39a]

No problem here. I shoot handguns with my right hand, from left eye dominate. Rifles/shotguns off left shoulder. I'm 60 yrs old, and discovered this in my youth playing Cowboys and Indians. I don't own any left hand guns. Right hand rifles work just fine.