changing from right hand to left hand shooting

[flexible]

Hi Everyone; flexible here. I'm actually asking this for my brother. He just started shooting clays with me but he has a problem. He is right handed but left eye dominant, his right eye is very weak and he can't see either clay (or paper) targets. He has tried blocking the left eye but with the condition of the right eye is doesn't help.
Does anyone know of training courses, books, workshops, etc. that can help.
thanks
flexible

 

[troy fairweather]

i don,t shoot shotgun much but shoot most anything. dad made us learn to shoot with the the weak hand to make us better shots hen we got older. u dont under stand this hen y are young, but now i do. this helped me the most when i damaged my eye when i was 12 and shot left handed for over 2 years, until my right eye got better( never got back 100%0). shooting weak handed help when hunting when that deer came out where u could not shoot the normal way.

it is hard to learn but the best thing is practice to the point u feel comfortable and make it feel natural. the hardest thing for me was using the other eye i could not lose my left, but after practice one day it happened. using a blinder worked for me. the best is to use something that is translucent, milk jugs work good. i went back to this when i was in air rifle and that got me to the 2008 olympic qualifier. i could not finish because of the car accident i was in( we had a good team going ). hope this helps any.

 

[cfullgraf]

I do not know of any specific courses but I suspect any course that teaches you how to shoot would be beneficial especially if it was geared to left hand shooters. Any course would bring up things that long time shooters take for granted and have forgotten the specifics.

Several years ago before I had cataract surgery, I went on a prairie dog hunt. The cataract in my right eye had gotten so bad that I could not see the targets through the scope. To salvage the hunt, I began shooting left handed as my left eye was not as bad.

Over the three days of shooting, I got more comfortable shooting left handed.

So, it can be done. It will take some time and lots of practice.

 

[FL-NC]

We called that cross-eye dominant. As a sniper instructor, we had students switch to firing the rifle through their dominant eye. I knew a few people who were like this who fired the rifle dominant eye but the pistol non dominant- so you had a guy carrying and shooting his rifle with the right and wearing his pistol and shooting it from the left. It looked weird, but he was faster and more accurate than I could get.

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

Your brother should have started out shooting left hand. I'm cross dominate myself, right handed left eye. I''l bet your brother can easily adapt to left hand shooting and surpass his right handed performance in a short time just through practice and repetition. A few minutes of dry fire practice every day is what I would start with.

 

[entropy]

I am left eye dominant, but grew up in an era where "you vill shoot off ze right shoulder, und you vill enjoy it!" After a year or two of deer hunting and seeing the deer show up on the right hand side of my stands, I decided to teach myself how to shoot off the left shoulder. It wasn't that hard for me, but the older you are, the harder it can get. But in your brother's case, it is critical he learn how to shoot off the left shoulder. How long has he shot right-handed?
Basically with shotgun, you mirror the stance you use RH. I shoot an occasional round of trap left handed, and while it's not up to my RH avg., it's not bad.
Here's the best training video ever made for Trap, and contains a segment about shooting LH and stance, with the late great Dick Baldwin shooting:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The LH segment starts @ 18:29, it should start there.

 

[1KPerDay]

Your brother should have started out shooting left hand. I'm cross dominate myself, right handed left eye. I''l bet your brother can easily adapt to left hand shooting and surpass his right handed performance in a short time just through practice and repetition. A few minutes of dry fire practice every day is what I would start with.

Same here. Handguns righty long guns lefty. He can learn and it will be second nature before long. Luckily my dad checked my eye dominance and started me on the left shoulder.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I'm left eye dominant and right handed too. I went for a bit shooting righty but when I got serious into archery my non dominant eye as not going to cut it shooting both eyes open. So, in my late twenties I learned to shoot both bow and long gun lefty. It was for the better but still about 8 years later I will want to shoulder a rifle righty.

Still shoot handguns righty and use my left eye on the sights.

 

[gwpercle]

Shooting a shotgun left handed isn't that hard to do. I was right handed and right eye dominant , lost the sight in my right eye and stopped shooting because I was trying to use my left eye and couldn't hit diddly.
At the skeet range, Boy Scouts were getting badges, when done the RO asked if I wanted to shoot a few birds . I explained situation and he say's " shoot left handed "...he showed me how to stand and mount the gun lefty..felt a little strange but when I yelled pull I smoked the first bird ...much to my amazement !!!!!
Getting used to mounting the gun to the left is the hardest part , pulling the trigger left handed is easy...not like writing...aiming comes natural. After shooting a couple rounds of skeet you will have it down.
Don't think about it too much once you get the gun mounted to your left shoulder...it will come naturally.

Like earlthegoat says ...the hardest part is getting the gun to the left shoulder...I still carry it in my right hand.
Gary

 

[4v50 Gary]

Practice with the left eye or get a custom stock made.

 

[MCgunner]

I figured this out and trained myself to shoot lefty at the age of 8 with my Benjamin .22 pellet rifle. It ain't that tough for a kid, not sure an adult. I can't shoot a left handed bow and don't wanna train to do it, so when Texas started allowing crossbows for bow season, I was in business!

I've been shooting lefty so long I find it weird to shoot right handed. I prefer tang safeties due to this. I did find a left handed safety to install in my Winchester 1400, though, some time back. I need to buy one of those (they are available) for my 10/22.

 

[jmorris]

Put a piece of translucent tape on the outside of his glasses where the dominant eye would focus on the bead.

 

[MCgunner]

I've heard people say you could blind the good eye, force yourself to look though the non-dominant eye. Well, it didn't work for me. Eye doc tried that when I was about 5YO. Didn't work. I have severe astigmatism. My right eye is for all intents legally blind...20-70 corrected. My left eye makes up for it, though.

I had a bout with cataracts last year. THAT was miserable. I had the surgery and am fine, now.

 

[George P]

Shoot off the strong eye shoulder; that's the easiest and best way to address this situation.

 

[jmr40]

My younger brother went through the same thing as a teenager. He is right handed and started shooting from that side but was struggling. I figured out that he was left eye dominate and he simply changed and started shooting from the other side. There was a learning curve and he struggled for a while. But after he mastered it is now a pretty decent shot.

 

[bassjam]

Your brother needs to start shooting left handed. It'll suck at first, but he'll get it. I'm left handed and started shooting left handed with my bb gun at 10. By the time I was 20 and discovered that I was right eye dominant I thought my left handed shooting habits were set in stone. I struggled the most with archery though, so I finally broke down, sold me left handed bow and bought a right handed bow. Soon I was shooting groups tighter than I ever had, so I decided to force myself to start shooting firearms right handed as well. It probably took 6 months before I was as comfortable shouldering a gun right handed as I had been left handed, but the transition was worth it.

 

[MTMilitiaman]

I too am cross-eye dominant. It helps when you get an early start on it. I started wearing glasses when I was 9 years old and only occasionally did some plinking with a .22 rimfire at close range. A couple years later when I was being introduced to centerfire rifles at longer ranges, in preparation for hunter's safety, my grandpa noticed that I was trying to lean my head across the stock to see through the aperture sight on a Mini-14 with my left eye. He switched the rifle to my left shoulder and I have been shooting left handed ever since.

It just takes practice. Shooting from the left shoulder will feel foreign and abstract for a while, but putting the practice in will eventually make it natural.

 

[12Bravo20]

I have to agree with others. Flexible, have your brother shoot left hand using his dominant eye. It will take time for him to get use to it but it’s worth it in the long run.

I am cross eye dominant also and taught myself at an early age to shoot left hand.