Am I left eye Dominant?

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The Grand Inquisitor

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I haven't been shooting in a good long time, and thus I've been thinking about it alot and one of the things that has crossed my mind is that I might be left eye dominant but right handed (and footed for that matter).

When I started shooting I never really thought about which eye to shoot off of, but lately I've been messing around trying to see which of my eyes is stronger, and I'm pretty sure it is my left eye (both of my eyes are pretty bad, but fine with glasses/contacts).

Over the years that I have been shooting, the one thing I've never been all that good at is shooting pistols - with rifles I am perfectly normal, but with every pistol I have ever shot I have been...off.

How would I go about giving myself a meaningful test of which eye is dominant.

And, if I really am LED, what the hell am I going to do? I've tried holding my TANTAL's and Garand's right handed with a left eye and it was a mess, but I'm assuming there are ways to get around this.

Any idea's?
 
Make a circle with your thumb and index finger. Extend your arm and sight through the circle at an object on the wall such as a light switch while keeping both eyes open. Now hold that sight and close one eye, open it again, close the other. Whichever eye holds the object in the circle is the dominant eye.

I hope this helps,

TerryBob
 
Eye dominance should not be an issue when shooting rifles or pistols since in your case the left eye would be closed. The area that you would need to concern yourself with would be shotguns since both eyes are open. The only way I would think that you would have problems with a rifle or pistol would be if you were using a red dot or holographic sight where you need to keep both eyes open.
 
USMC - Retired said:
Eye dominance should not be an issue when shooting rifles or pistols since in your case the left eye would be closed.
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Says who?

I was taught to shoot with both eyes open...
 
If you are left-eyed and right-handed, you are probably cranking your neck over to get your left eye behind the sights, or having to hold the pistol farther to the left and as a result putting a bend in your wrist.

If you tilt the pistol in your right hand to the left a bit -- perhaps 20 degrees -- you can line the sights up with your left eye while leaving your neck in a comfortable, natural position and keeping your wrist straight.

Keeping both eyes open reduces muscle strain and keeps more of the world vislble.
 
Says who?

I was taught to shoot with both eyes open...
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Are you right handed and left-eye dominant? And can you hold your groups to your satisfaction? If so congratulate yourself. You've managed to do what most can't. I have the dominant eye problem and have to close one eye, or accuracy sucks. Seems everyone I talk to with the same problem has to do the same thing.
 
I have the dominant eye problem and have to close one eye, or accuracy sucks. Seems everyone I talk to with the same problem has to do the same thing.
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I have this situation as well (left eye dominate, right handed) and have not been happy with my grouping at all. I learned to shoot with both eyes open as well. Next time I'm out shooting I'll have to give this a try.
 
TerryBob posts the correct procedure for determining eye dominance.

For cross eye dominance with handguns, the accepted practice is to cant the gun 15-20 degrees towards the dominant eye, as WaynConrad posts.
 
Stevie-Ray said:
Are you right handed and left-eye dominant? And can you hold your groups to your satisfaction? If so congratulate yourself. You've managed to do what most can't. I have the dominant eye problem and have to close one eye, or accuracy sucks. Seems everyone I talk to with the same problem has to do the same thing.
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No I'm not. But my Sister is. She refused to believe that She needed to shoot left handed. Trained herself to shoot right handed (with both eyes open), than did a shootoff switching off between hands. She shot well right handed, but was better left handed (quicker follow up shots, tighter groups). She's the one that gets the compliments on her shooting!

IMO you're at a disadvantage in a defensive situation if you've trained with one eye closed...
 
Ah, yes, the joys of cross-eye dominance. I shoot right handed but I'm left eye dominant.

With shotguns I use scotch tape on the left lense of my shooting glasses so I can keep both eyes open but have vision in the dominant left eye blocked when I mount my shotgun. It ain't perfect, but it works.

With rifles using iron sights or scopes I close my left eye and aim with my right eye even though my vision in my right eye is much worse than my left eye. Red dot sights are the greatest thing since sliced bread since I can keep both eyes open and just put the dot on the target.

With handguns I hold right handed but sight using my left eye. It puts a little bend in the wrist to line up with the left eye, but it works ok.
 
And I thought I was the only one with this curse

I close my left on rifles and such, my right eye isn't that great, but I naturally shoot pistol left eye, with both open, never really noticed a problem there, I'll have to check my form next time I shoot. I seem to shoot around the same quality as the as my friends who are "Normal" lol.
 
Welcome to my world...,

Welcome to my world of being right handed, left eye dominate!:what:

Until I went to TDI, Tactical Defense Institute, for a day of defensive shooting, my shots were all over the place. Then one of the instructors there who shares our problem spent 5 minutes with me, and that was worth the whole 8 hours. The problem when standing with your feet parallel to each other is that you are bringing the gun over in front of your left eye instead of it beinging centered to your body. Put your right foot back. This brings your left shoulder forward. This is a very natural position for me to go into without even thinking about it. Turn your head to the right, so that your chin is pointing towards your right shoulder. You naturally will look down the barrel with your left eye and the gun will become centered with your body. You will be amazed how quickly your shooting improves immediately. And shut that right eye.

Rifle shooting...,oh my! Near impossible to do holding the rifle right handed. You're going to have to learn to shot left handed. I have a long ways to go to ever conquer this. I can not hold it right handed and get my left eye far enough over the gun to see out the scoop. I prefer handgun shooting, so I probably will never become proficient in rifle shooting.

Those who don't share our problem will never understand. They can give all the free advice, but that's about all it's worth unless they've shot thru our eyes.
 
I am, I cant my pistol to the left as described above. And I shoot longarms from the wrong shoulder with both eyes open. When I shoot a longarms from the correct side, I have to close my left eye if I want to hit anything.
 
Same Problem Here

I am left eye dominant but feel more comfortable shooting right handed (rifles anyway). I cannot keep just my right eye open to save my life...I guess it will just take time shooting left handed to get used to it.
 
Re rifle: I'm a "crossie," and I shoot rifle right-handed, mostly.

With a scoped rifle, I can shoot right-handed for hundreds of shots in complete comfort. At some point, however, my left eye will decide that it doesn't like playing second fiddle, and in my brain I will see what the left eye sees and what the right eye sees superimposed on each other... a tiny, far away target and a magnified, close-up target together. It takes a long time looking for the scope before fatigue causes that to happen. On a good day, I my eyes never get tired at all and I shoot right handed all day.

And this has gotten better over time. Apparently, eyes can be trained.

With iron sights, the superimposition can happen much earlier... right away, sometimes. When that happens, I either close my left eye, or switch to shooting left-handed.
 
I was taught to shoot with both eyes open...
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Ideally, yes....but the easiest solution, and one I can't find fault with (at least witha scoped rifle) is to simply close the left eye.

I was/am ambidextrous, and it caused me all kinds of confusion when I was young....I wanted to hold a bow, or shoot a gun left handed, although I did most other things with my right (like writing)...But because of the scarcity of left handed bows and guns, I learned to shoot right handed....

Now, I CAN (at my advanced age) keep my left eye open....But mainly becasue I have vision problems, and it won't focus beyond a coupla feet (this is intentional, the left eye has been corrected for "up close", the right eye for distance.) But usually I just close my left eye. I can shoot with the best of 'em, so I don't consider this to be a big problem.
 
We find about 15% of the general population is cross dominant, but it nears 50% with women. I have been instructing in rifle and pistol since 1968, and coaching Olympic style rifle since 1988.

Learning to shoot with the dominant eye is the correct answer for both rifle and shotugn (and usually only takes about thirty days of practice to get comfortable, not proficient). We have had high level juniors (top ten in the country) who were cross dominant, but learned to shoot with the dominant eye.

With a defense pistol you should really learn to shoot with both hands, and always with both eyes open. Closing one eye leaves too much area for an opponent to come at you unseen.
 
Yep, cross eye dominant and it stinks.

I can compensate with a rifle by closing my dominant eye but need some serious optics help because my right eye just flat stinks.

When shooting a handgun, I have tried and tried to adopt an isosceles stance but can't. Even canting the gun a bit still leaves too much of my lousy right eye with a piece of the target and I get terrible accuracy and monster double images.

So I've had to use a Modified Weaverish stance in order to keep both eyes open and get the right eye out of the picture as it were. I don't think that is a great solution, but it's the only one I have found so far.
 
Put your right foot back. This brings your left shoulder forward. This is a very natural position for me to go into without even thinking about it. Turn your head to the right, so that your chin is pointing towards your right shoulder. You naturally will look down the barrel with your left eye and the gun will become centered with your body. You will be amazed how quickly your shooting improves immediately. And shut that right eye.
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(emphasis mine) Quite correct; this is exactly what I do and have been doing for the last 30 years or so. Rifle is a different story. When shooting from a bench it's easy. Simply close the LEFT eye.

Works for me!
 
Right handed/ left eye dominant here. :uhoh:

Pistols are a breeze, rifles are a different story.

I have been using tape over my left lens to shoot rifles right handed, helps a lot and makes me use my right eye. But it is so much easier on the eyes and getting the sight picture comes right in when I practice left handed, both eyes open.
 
I am also apparently a left eye dominant right handed shooter. I find that i cant shoot with both eyes open. Instead of closing one eye i just squint my left eye and im good to go. I dont believe my left eye is extremely dominant.
 
Holy Cow!!

For cross eye dominance with handguns, the accepted practice is to cant the gun 15-20 degrees towards the dominant eye, as WaynConrad posts.
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I knew I had this problem. I shut my left eye when shooting long guns (with pretty good groupings and accuracy), but keep both open when training for SD with my pistol. My groups are always to the left. I've tried everything I can with the trigger finger (because that's what the shooters at the range told me the problem was), but nothing I've tried solves the problem 100%.:banghead: I'm sure going to give some thought to some of the suggestions posted here on my next range outing.
 
How's this for a scenario for you guys.

In all actuality, my left eye is near sighted and my right eye is far sighted. I'm a right handed person. My left eye has become dominant, so pistol shooting is rough. I shoot long guns left handed so I have no problem, so long as I use a scope to see the 100 yards to shoot a rifle. I'd like to see how well I shoot right handed while using my right eye, but here's the kicker.....I can't close only my left eye. It's either right eye only, or both eyes. Any of you have an idea how I can train my muscles to close my left eye and keep it closed?
 
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