Cross Eye Dominance

Fortunately I don't have to deal with it but I understand it can be a huge problem for some. I have more experience with shotgun sports than anything else and I've seen people black out their dominate eye with dots on their glasses so the non-dominate eye takes over. As was pointed out that limits your vision and creates it's own handicap.

If you have very little time with long guns or you are a new shooter, going to your dominate eye side is a no brainer. For old hands it will be difficult but I always encourage people to make the effort. Personally, I've never seen anyone shoot a shotgun well shooting from a non-dominate eye side. I've read that military instructors move people to their dominate eye side in training because it's unusual that a person can qualify shooting from a non-dominate eye side.

Sometimes you have to take two steps back to take three steps forward. It's not a lot of fun.

if you want to work at it enough, and get your vision corrected to the same in each eye, you can teach yourself to use the other eye. I did it by lying around, dryfiring the pistol at the ceiling. When you keep both eyes open and see "two guns", pick the "inside" one to focus on. That is, the left one for the right hand, the right gun for the left hand. Focus on it and the other gun will "go away". took a few hundred hours, tho. Needs fairly frequent updating like every week or so, for a few minutes, and if the vision in one eye is better than the other, it will 'take over", no matter what you do. So see your optician once a year.

Personally, I've never seen anyone shoot a shotgun well
shooting from a non-dominate eye side.

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My father and I (were)are both left-eyed/right-handed
We both shot low-gun* skeet right-handed, and both have "100-straight" patches


*
While he was still with us, "we" defined our persopnal Low-Gun
contests as stock had to be in contact w/ the hip

That is exceptional and it sounds like you both put in a lot of work to get there. I'm sure there are others who master it but I believe you are in a small minority. I have started a few new shooters and always try to determine the eye dominance up front before we start. I'm not an accomplished rifle shooter but I suspect given the relationship with the eye and proper barrel alignment with a shotgun it seems to me it would be even more difficult to master. I see the term cheek to stock weld used a lot with the rifle fundamentals. If one tries that with a shotgun you will probably end up with a bruised face. I like my cheek to barely touch the stock and I need a lot of cast off.

I trained myself to shoot with my left eye, as I mentioned earlier. The trick is to tilt the head to the right and keep both eyes open.

For me this has always been a non-issue. I learned to shoot, starting at age 5, with a Browning T bolt .22 my Dad bought for me. I was right handed, so it never occurred to me to shoot any other way. When I got a bit older, I started shooting pistols, and I shot them the same way I did the rifle: right-handed, with my right eye behind the sights.

I didn't find out until I was in my late twenties that I'm actually left eye dominant.

And I didn't change a thing.

Why would I? I always shot expert in the army, and now, on the police force, I usually shoot 100s on the annual qualification course. I'm not about to go win a gold medal in the Olympics or start winning IDPA matches, but I can shoot better than most people shooting the way I've always shot. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I don't close my left eye either. I might squint slightly with the left eye, but it stays open, and I actually don't find it difficult to use my right. And if that were not enough, in recent years, I have developed a very slight astigmatism in my left eye which is not present in my right. It's correctable, of course, but it's so slight I've never bothered with it. But the result is my vision is sharper with my right eye, even though it's not the dominant eye, so I'm not about to switch away from it. I'd be resistant anyway, since everything in the world is set up for the right handed majority. For a lot of people, I'm not convinced the switch to poorer left-hand ergonomics on most long guns would outweigh the benefits of learning to shoot from the right shoulder and continue using the right eye.

Sam1911 said:

I've seen new shooters try to do that but I don't think I've ever seen anyone get it to work. Could you post a picture of how you do that? How do you get your head so far around that your left eye gets behind the rear sight?

I assume this only works with v-notch sights mounted pretty far down the barrel? I can't imagine it would work at all behind an aperture sight like on an AR or M1.

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If I can figure out a way to photograph myself doing it I will post a photo. It will work with peep sites and scopes too you just have to know how to do it. Come too think of it I might have one already I'll have to check to see if I was posing right or left handed when Oleg took those photos years ago.

I have the same issue, right handed but left eye dominant. Fortunately for me my first introduction to shooting was in the scout's shooting 22 rifles and 410 shotguns for clays. An observant range instructor saw very quickly that I was left eye dominant and switched the long guns to my left shoulder and I have been shooting left handed ever since. I was a police officer for about ten years and being cross eye dominant is a huge advantage starting out. I shoot left handed, but my strong hand is the right. So flashlight, baton, taser all in the right hand and feel totally natural. Shooting in left hand felt totally natural as well. For most police, learning to use your left hand for flashlight and baton is an issue.

I am also right handed/left eye dominant.
When I was a kid, I always shot my "rifle" left handed. I never knew it wasn't "right". I shoot pistols right handed. When I found out I was left eye dominant, I started to shut my left eye and I'm learning to shoot with my left hand as well. It feels natural but after shooting right handed for all these years it'll take some time to be proficient. I continue to shoot rifles left handed.

I shoot cross-dominate. I don't find the need to close my dominant eye, just squinting a little is enough which preserves some of my peripheral vision compared to fully closing it.

Larry; it's fine to shoot pistols strong hand cross-eye. Just a very slight shift (usually you can't even tell you are doing it), and it's in line with the correct eye.

Rifles and shotguns are where people will have the problems.

Long range rifle isn't a big deal; your eye will go through the scope no problem, and if you're shooting irons at long range, you'll shield or close your off eye.

But tactical rifle (3 gun) where you have to acquire targets fast, and keep your peripheral vision wide open, is a big deal.

And skeet shooting is right out. It can be done by developing a strong natural point of aim, but it's much more difficult to master.

SAM1911 said:

When I shoot a long gun right handed I lean my head to the right and sight the gun with my left eye.

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I've seen new shooters try to do that but I don't think I've ever seen anyone get it to work. Could you post a picture of how you do that? How do you get your head so far around that your left eye gets behind the rear sight?

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Sam, I do this. But not with just any rifle, because as you surmise, it is not always easy to get the left eye behind the rear sight. But there are "work arounds." With lever actions, they have enough of a drop with the comb that with a scope mounted high enough, it is easy to do. Otherwise, with more typical stocks, a forward mounted scope, a la "Scout mount" style, makes it easy. But with iron sights? I don't think so. At least, I don't even think about doing that. Nowadays, I just opt for a Scout mount.

I agree that it would have been better to learn to shoot lefty from the get go. But I was an adult before I started shooting, and shot for a while before I realized I was cross eye dominant. It just seemed easier to adapt, rather than to struggle to learn to shoot all over left handed.

What I do works for me. It may not work for others.

Left handed, right eye dominant.....I learned to shoot a rifle right handed so it didn't matter.....I shoot handguns left handed and use my right eye....Only a few other people are in the same boat.

ok i'll jump in here too!

Everything is right handed except for vision. So I shoot IDPA right handed with my eyes open, and concentrate with my left eye.

With rifles, its right handed and right eyed and always seems to do pretty good!

Growing up I always shot with my right eye, just lately I added the Dominant left eye to my pistol shooting!

be safe

I'm right handed/left-eye dominant. I grew up shooting everything with my right eye only. I had to close my left eye to hit anything.

A couple of years ago, I started shooting pistol much more and I now shoot right-handed, but sight with my left eye and keep both eyes open. Shortly after that, I picked up an O/U shotgun and decided to learn to shoot that one left-handed. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would to actually shoot better with my left eye than shooting right handed. There were days that I could go a couple of rounds of trap or 5-stand and only miss one or two right handed, but it wasn't consistent. Other days, I'd go less than 50%. Once I started shooting left-eyed, I haven't had any screaming awesome days, but I'm rarely less than 80% and much more consistent.

For rifle, I still shoot right handed/right eyed. If I ever pick up a gun with a stock that's comfortable from the left shoulder, I'll start shooting that lefty too.

Matt

Eye dominance and both eyes open

Is eye dominance all that important if a shooter shoots with both eyes open?

It’s extremely important, but a dominant eye is not an absolute. A famous shotgun instructor (mostly sporting clays - I can retrieve his name for anyone interested) believes that eye dominance can momentarily change for several reasons. I KNOW he is correct because it kept me from running many straights at international skeet.

One of the tips he gives in his video is to close the non-dominant eye (when the dominant eye is on dominant side) the moment before pulling the trigger. I followed his instruction and it helped me immensely. YMMV.

daniel craig said:

Is eye dominance all that important if a shooter shoots with both eyes open?

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For aimed fire, yes. Most people tend to shoot/aim better with their dominant eye. But it is still important (perhaps critically so) to learn to shoot with either hand with either eye.

For point shooting, no.

I'm a 'both eyes open' shooter..

It does affect your sight picture. It's important to practice keeping the same sight picture as you acquire and line up on the target. Four years ago, when I started shooting again after being away from it for 25+ years, I was closing one eye and aiming. My eldest son had always shot both eyes open, so I gave it a try about a year ago. Now I found that I shoot WAY better keeping both eyes open, whether I shoot my rifle or pistol! Happy shooting..

in 50 something years of shooting I mostly shot with one eye open.

A few years past I started using a Aimpoint sight ,training myself to shoot both eyes open.

Since that point of time I find myself shooting both eyes open when firing a handgun with favorable results....

guess you can teach an old dog new tricks!!!

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A famous shotgun instructor (mostly sporting clays - I can retrieve his name for anyone interested) believes that eye dominance can momentarily change for several reasons. I KNOW he is correct because it kept me from running many straights at international skeet.

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This is absolutely true. I am right handed and MOSTLY right eye dominant. There are many times (like when shooting shotgun or rifles with no-magnification optics) where the right eye is occluded enough that the brain switches to using the left eye as the dominant eye.

I recently made the switch back to shooting irons on my carbines in the hopes that I can rewire some of my brain's processing in this area.

I too am left eye dominant, but with added problem of not being able to wink my left eye. As I do some things right handed, but some left, it is not too difficult to shoulder a long gun on the left. Since I was a teenager, I have had all my long guns with a left handed safety. As for hand gun, I shoot right handed, with the sights lined up on my left eye. That took some practice, but it works.

I am right handed but more than 60 years ago my late father figured out that my left eye was dominant. He was also right handed but left eye dominant. I switched to shooting long guns left handed just like my dad. When I got into bow hunting it seemed very natural to shoot a left handed bow so all of my bows are left handed. I shoot hand guns right handed with both eyes open. Other than shooting long guns and bows I can't do anything left handed.

Both of my kids are cross-eye dominant. My son is left-handed, right-eye dominant. My daughter is the opposite.

Both of them, thankfully, first shot rifle at our local range's junior rifle program. There they were encouraged to shoot from their dominant eye side. So, they both shoot the opposite of their handedness. Now it's second nature to them and they're both shooting rifles very well.

My son can shoot handguns either side... he has a slight affinity for his strong hand, and simply cants the gun slightly over to line up with his dominant eye (as has been mentioned before). My daughter's only shot a couple times and seems to prefer shooting 'weak-handed' with pistols as well.

I definitely think that, if you're trying to get really consistent with rifle shooting, teaching yourself to shoot appropriately to your vision is the right way to go. But, YMMV.