dominate eye

Status
Not open for further replies.
E

emmie

Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2003
Messages
185
Location
s/e georgia
teaching my GF to shoot. doing great at this time,however I have found out
that she is left eye dominate,shooting right hand. so far at 10' she is hitting target with her 38spl,all the time,I don't know how this will effect at longer distance. have never had this problem before.
any-all suggestions,welcomed. going to show Sat. to look for her a new Ruger SP101-357/3"barrel. shes not sacred of recoil,and handles it well.
this is for ccw-combat shooting,but want to do some target 25yrd shooting
to build confidence in her shooting.
 
I'm left handed and right eye dominant. Doesn't hurt anything in pistol, but wing shooting clays or doves is a different story.

I can't shoot with both eyes open using shot gun like your suppose to.
 
Left eye dominant, right hand isn't a problem with handguns.
Buddy shot this way and was "Master" USPSA shooter, before "Grand Master" exsisted.
No apparent problems to 50 yds., which was pretty much the limit of our shooting.
 
With a handgun it won't make much, if any, difference. I'm left handed, left eye dominant and I can shoot a handgun equally well with either hand.

Now a rifle is a different story....
 
Right handed left eye dominant

I shoot right handed but I am left eye dominant. For hand guns I have been able to make adjustments to my stance and now hold my pistol in my right hand but aim with my left eye.

With shot guns and rifles this just does not work. In a different thread a member from this forum made the suggestion below. If you are shooting right handed but are left eye dominant I have found this tip works.

When you are taking aim with your shotgun/rifle slightly squint your left eye while aiming with your right eye. For some reason barely squinting (but not closing) the left eye shifts the dominance to your right eye. This slight squint made all the difference for me in my long gun shooting. YMMV.
 
Last edited:
My daughter is left handed, right eye dominant. I taught her to shoot right handed, but I had the privilege of discovering her eye dominance while she was young and had absolutely zero gun experience.

Kind of like I am a lefty but learned to use a fishing reel on an old zebco 202. Now it feels wierd if the crank is on the left.

I say let her shoot how she is most comfortable. But, if she (you) thinks of maybe getting into rifle or shotgun down the road, now would be a good time to convert. Or she may end up really talented and shoot pistols one way and long guns another. Women are good at showing us up like that.
 
I'm right handed, but left eye dominant. As others have said, no problems with handguns. Sometimes I tend to cant the gun left a bit, but other than that you'd never tell.

My dad found my left-eye dominance when I was very young and taught me to shoot rifles lefty from 5 years old...so I can't shoot a rifle right handed (well).
 
emmie said:
teaching my GF to shoot. doing great at this time,however I have found out
that she is left eye dominate,shooting right hand. so far at 10' she is hitting target with her 38spl,all the time,I don't know how this will effect at longer distance. have never had this problem before.
any-all suggestions,welcomed. going to show Sat. to look for her a new Ruger SP101-357/3"barrel. shes not sacred of recoil,and handles it well.
this is for ccw-combat shooting,but want to do some target 25yrd shooting
to build confidence in her shooting.
Click to expand...

Have her try shooting left handed. (ya, really)

I have the same "problem". I shoot OK with my right, but I'm always surprised that I shoot better as a leftie.
 
Dominant Eye

I am right eye dominant and regularly practice shooting with both left and right eyes. When one eye is "closed," the one that your using at that moment is "dominant." We started training that way several years ago when shooting from cover (barricaded) positions on the range. If you are shooting from the right side or left side of the cover, using that eye means less of your head is exposed. I now, shoot pretty much the same with either. At first, it took some concentration. We also do strong hand/weak hand drills from covered positions.
 
I'm right handed and right eye dominant, but as I got older, I became far-sighted in my right eye, and the sights got too fuzzy to see.

However, I got near-sighted in the left eye, and the sights are needle-sharp -- but the target is very fuzzy. I began training myself to shoot with my left eye (tilting the head slightly to the right helps) and in a few thousand rounds, I developed a technique of shooting with both eyes open. The left eye has the sights in sharp focus, the right eye has the target in focus, and the brain superimposes the sights on the target.
 
I came into this world left handed. My parents correctly thought that this was / is a right handed world and changed me or taught me to use my right hand. As a small child, it caused me a few problems that I grew out of. Once a lefty always a lefty, it's programed into the brain so I predominantly use / shoot right handed, but I am definitely left eye dominant. I can and do shoot left handed with amazing accuracy. This left eye dominance has never cause me any problem with a long gun or pistol. Leave your lady friend alone unless she is having some sort of problem and then help only moderately. She and her brain will sort out the cause and effect data and make the corrections. If she wants to shoot; she will. Oh I use a modified weaver stance pistol shooting which is an automatic compensator for the right hand left eye dominant shooter, or at least it does for me but I'm also one of those that doesn't see the sights until I'm on target. I really seldomly see the sights and I can't explain that. I see them but I don't. Somebody pass me the asprin, I've given myself a headache.:eek:
 
I am left eye/right hand dominate and it doesn't matter when shooting handguns. I use my right eye when shooting rifles. I qualify expert pistol and rifle in the Navy.
 
I shoulda said earlier that I'm right handed left eye dominant. Not a problem a slight tilt of the head works is all.

It's estimated that about 20-25% of the human population is so wired. It's not a problem for brain surgeons, mechanics or baseball players. It's not a problem for shooters except on rifle where the left eye may have to squint while hunting. During long strings of fire at the range, or in match shooting of rifle, one or another blocker can be used to avoid eye fatigue.

tipoc
 
I am right handed and left eye dominant. When I shoot a pistol with fixed sights left handed, my group is centered on the target. Shooting right handed with the same pistol, my group is left of center. I have found this to be true for me with several different pistols, so I decided to shoot left handed.
 
I am left eye dominant, and right handed, and I was aware of this before I started shooting, so I just started shooting lefty.
 
I'm cross wired, too. Right handed, left eyed. I shoot a pistol with either hand roughly equally. I'm maybe a touch faster and more confident with the right, but shoot slightly better groups with the left. Either way, it's no big deal with a handgun.

If she gets into long guns, though, before doing much shooting, see whether or not she can close the left eye. Some folks can't close the dominant eye. For me, I shoot long guns right handed, but squint the left eye. Works sort of like a dimmer switch, making the right dominant temporarily, but still leaves me with binocular vision. Works for wingshooting, open sight rifles, peep sight rifles, and scoped rifles. Anyhow, back to her... If she can't do that, or something similar, then definitely start her out shooting long guns lefty. Much easier that way.
 
Left eye, right handed as well. While I was growing up, I had perfect vision in my left eye but was nearsighted in the right eye. This caused a little bit of trouble at Scout camp one summer at the rifle range. Wound up not only learning how to shoot, but learning how to shoot (and work a right-handed bolt-action .22) left-handed.

I usually shoot right-handed nowadays, but I cheat and aim a pistol with my left eye with pretty good results. She could either do that, or use a left-handed grip.
 
thanks to everyone, for their replys. she got her SP101 at the show,and at 10' putting all in 6" patteren. this should shrink with practice. 2 hand hold,rapid fire with what she carries loads.

emmie
 
With handguns it should be relatively easy to adjust one's stance (mainly the arm/hand position; the "Weaver" stance works a little better for this), tilt one's head slightly or tilt the handgun itself.
 
I shoot with one eye closed, so it does not matter.

Someone would bark at shooting that way in hostile manner, but that would be someone who does not have the whole picture.

I can make one eye open shooting working all imaginable shooting situations. But, there are number of conditions that has to be met in order for both eyes open method to work. Not all field situations meet that conditions.

I had formal training with both shotgun, rifle, and pistols.

The both eye crowd always had someone come up with problems because of their dominant eye "problem," and end up using awkward techniques to work it out.

Me? Right shoulder firing? No problem. Left shoulder firing? No problem. Shooting with either dominant eye or the other eye? No problem.
Right corner cover? Left corner cover? No problem.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

C
  • Locked
Cock-eyed
Replies
14
Views
1K
BCRider
BCRider
H
  • Locked
Poor eyesight, target acquisiton
Replies
10
Views
1K
HiWayMan
H
R
  • Locked
Double vision sight picture
2
Replies
29
Views
3K
Howland937
Howland937
M
  • Locked
Question: Eye Dominance
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
Dorian
D
B
  • Locked
Cross eye dominance
Replies
19
Views
1K
Prof
P
Back
Top