Cross eye dominant.

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Muddydogs

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I think my 5 year old Grandson is cross eye dominant so I would like to figure out what I need to do so he starts out right. Why I think this is he is right handed and when shouldering a rifle he uses his right shoulder but try's to lay his head on the stock so he can see down the sights with his left eye. He can close his left eye while keeping his right open. So do I keep working with him on keeping both eyes open? What about scope shooting, I know I can't shoot a scope with both eyes open but maybe if I started when I was 5 I could. Any help from others with this issue would be great.
 
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I am like your grandson. I just close my left eye for long arms and my right eye or pistols. I was doing this long before there was an Internet. Honestly, I think the best thing you could do for him is to get him used to shooting on both sides. Very few of us do this enough. I,think the bot eyes open is overrated as you only momentarily close the one eye.
 
It's no big deal. I just shoot left handed with rifles, but sometimes I do shoot right handed with bolt action. Being cross eye dominant is no problem with a lever action.
 
I am cross eye dominant, left handed but dominant in my right eye. I shoot pistols left hand and rifles right hand. I can't close my right eye while keeping my left eye open.

Make sure he is cross dominant: http://www.hamiltontrapclub.com/htc/DominantEye/go

It's great he has a grand dad teaching him to shoot.
 
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My grandson is the same way - right handed but left eye dominant, I just talked him into learning to shoot left handed and he fell right into it. Makes a big difference when they discover they can shoot better that way. Oh, he's 16 now, these are old photos. I couldn't believe he was hitting a 5" bullseye at 100 yards with that M1, he did better than me.

200810051650002.jpg

You can see here how he used to lay way over to the right to use his left eye.

mp501.jpg
 
I am cross dominant. Left eye dominant, but do most things right handed including shoot a pistol.

For long guns if he wants to keep both eyes open the only practical way to do this is shoot left handed. That's what I do, and it's easy to handle and shoot long guns lefty, although quickly cycling a bolt action is bit awkward.

For pistols it's a non-issue, you just simply line up the sights in front of the dominant eye and shoot, no matter which hand your shooting with.

For some reason people who are not cross dominant want to make eye dominance into some huge problem/handicap, when it's really no big deal.

Good luck, and enjoy shooting with your grandson.
 
I,think the bot eyes open is overrated as you only momentarily close the one eye.
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Both eyes open is very important for hunting, skeet, trap, combat shooting, etc, where picking up and transitioning to multiple targets is aided by the wider field of view. If you're just punching paper on a static range, you're right it's not big deal, but when it comes to moving and shooting, with multiple targets, having both eyes open is essential.
 
Sorry I flunked spelling back in the day, most days I'm lucky to spell my name.

I tried doing the dominant eye test but he's 5. He looks just like Rondog's grandson in the pic he posted so there is a good chance he is.

I will start him shooting rifles left handed instead of right and keep telling him to keep both eyes open with pistols. I am not making a big deal out of this but figure if I start now then it will feel natural to him and not be a big deal.
 
Am I the only one who looked at Rondog's M1 photo and thought "wow, that kid better watch his right thumb" when seeing his hand's proximity to the bolt?
 
As he's young, you have the chance to teach him the methods that will be most likely to bring him success without having to "un-learn" a bunch of habits.

If he's left-eye dominant, have him shoot long guns from the left shoulder. He's got to learn all the skills from the ground up anyway, and while you can easily train his hands to use the gun "lefty" you'll never really re-train his eye.

Shooting handguns is simple, and probably what he'd do naturally: Shoot "righty" (if that's what he naturally wants to do) but aim with the dominant eye. There's no problem with that at all.

Letting his dominant eye drive his shooting style will make him a better and more natural shot in the end. He can much more easily learn to shoot with both eyes open while pistol shooting, dynamic rifle shooting, wingshooting, and such, and so will have better balance, depth perception, and range of vision.
 
I'm right handed but left eye dominate. Every time I attend a pistol/rifle training they tell me that I'd have better luck shooting left handed. I believe them, but after shooting right handed for over 20 years, I don't see myself changing any time soon.

He'll do fine regardless of which eye he uses. As long as he has good training, I think the left eye dominate thing won't affect his shooting or...more importantly...the fun he'll be having with his dad.
 
I am left handed and right eye dominant, but I didn't know about eye dominance growing up so I hunted with rifle and shotgun left handed and had no problems. When I went to basic training in 1973 we did the eye dominance drill and when I was determined to be right eye dominant the DS took my rifle from my left shoulder put it to my right shoulder and said that was the way I would shoot from then on, end of story. I didn't take long to get used to shooting right handed. I don't remember any difference in my scores either way but I do remember being much more comfortable shooting right handed than shooting left handed. Since that time I have shot long guns and bows right handed and pistols left handed with my right eye.
 
He may be like me and you all just dont know it yet: Im right handed but i can barely see out of my right eye (just peripherals pretty much), so im having to learn to shoot rifles left handed. Have his eyes checked. They tell me mine could have been corrected if we would have caught it early. (eye patch over the strong eye)
 
I didnt notice but it looks like RonDog got to it before me-teach him to shoot lefty
 
Muddydogs said:
Why I think this is he is right handed and when shouldering a rifle he uses his right shoulder but try's to lay his head on the stock so he can see down the sights with his left eye.
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That is the first time that I have read or heard someone other than me detail that.

When my dad started teaching me to shoot (I was 5 or 6 years old) with the old single-shoot bolt .22 (I still have it) he noticed me doing exactly that. He quietly explained to me what I was doing wrong ... and I grew up shooting 100% right-handed on long guns.

In the latter half of the '50s was cross-eye-dominance a widely recognized condition? ... or even a recognized condition?

Anyway ... I was comfortable with it and was always considered to be (by both myself and others) an excellent shot ... well, before the presbyopia started creeping in when I reached my mid-40s, that is.

I think it was in the '90s that I read about the easy test to determine eye-dominance and discovered that I am left-eye-dominant. Hmmmm. Following that thought, I realized to my surprise that while always using a right-hand grip on pistols, I have always been using my left eye for aiming (eyes open method).

FWIW, given the choice, I would not change a thing since [1] all of the long guns that I have encountered in my life have been designed for right-hand use and [2] the fact that it apparently never impaired my shooting ability or comfort level.
 
FWIW, given the choice, I would not change a thing since [1] all of the long guns that I have encountered in my life have been designed for right-hand use and [2] the fact that it apparently never impaired my shooting ability or comfort level.
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Certainly. Now you've developed such ingrained habits that changing will probably take you a great deal of effort, and the increase in absolute skill might never materialize.

But with a youngster, with skills still unformed and a lifetime left to take advantage of best practices, we owe it to them to teach them the BEST way.
 
I'm cross-dominant as are two of my kids. I'm teaching my youngest daughter to shoot left-handed and she's doing extremely well.

I've been shooting right-handed my entire life but I'm trying to teach myself to shoot on my dominant side, at least with a shotgun. I still have to think about it too much to make much of a difference, but there have been a couple of times that I've been able to relax and just let things happen and I shoot trap much better left handed than right handed during those times. Then I start thinking to much again.

I say teach them to shoot with their dominant eye, but then teach them to shoot wrong-handed (or eyed) after that.

Matt
 
Muddy,
I PM'ed you. Please read. Get your grandsons vision tested at an early age, i speak from experience.
 
I am left eye dominant but right handed and shoot right handed. If your grandson is ever going to shoot long guns with both eyes open he will have to shoot left-handed. Starting from such a young age he won't have any trouble learning to shoot left-handed.

I am considering trying to switch to left-handed shooting with a shotgun.
 
Yup. My right handed sons' scores improved when he started shooting pistols lefty. He's as right handed as it gets but left eye dominant. So now he's a left handed shooter and shoots VERY well with his "wrong" hand
 
so, what are we saying the best way is?
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Use your dominant eye, and adjust how you hold your guns accordingly. If cross-dominant, shoot long guns from the dominant EYE's shoulder.
 
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