Eye-Dominance and Iron Sights

[dak0ta]

Hi,

I'm lefthanded and I usually look down the iron sights with my left eye, although I just realized that I'm right-eyed dominant. Does this have a huge impact on the accuracy of my shooting? Should I start to shoot right handed now?

 

[General Geoff]

You should probably try shooting right-handed to see if you do better or worse. I think this largely depends on how right-eye-dominant you are. I myself am slightly left eye dominent, and usually use my left eye when shooting pistol, but since I'm right handed, I shoot with my right eye when using a rifle or shotgun, and I am in fact more accurate that way as opposed to shooting a long gun left-handed.

 

[ArmedBear]

I retrained myself with a target .22 pistol and a few bricks of ammo. I had to do it, for clay and bird shooting. My body wouldn't work the other way, so I had to retrain my eyes instead.

Many rifle shooters undervalue the body. But if you're really using your whole body, you can acquire targets better and faster with any long gun, not just a shotgun. So, simply being able to awkwardly hold a rifle on the uncomfortable side isn't a solution, IMO.

I shoot with both eyes open, generally. Since my left eye is naturally dominant, but I've trained to shoot with my right eye, I have a better idea of what's going on around me than if I closed my eye or simply used the eye that's looking through the sights -- even if I'm using a scope.

It's fun to play with this stuff.

 

[dak0ta]

With shotguns, I watched a military video and said that you have to use both eyes when shooting a moving target or else using one eye causes it to drag and is very slow for target acquisition. Plus you get more field of view obviously.

Is it possible to aim with iron sights using both eyes open on a rifle? And how important is it? Will the point of impact be huge?

 

[Quilbilly]

I was told that the time put into retraining yourself to shoot with your dominant eye is well worth it. Plus, at the end of the whole thing you will be able to shoot right AND left handed pretty well.

 

[jhco]

Try it both ways and see which one works better for you.
I am right handed and right eyed but for a while I had an itch to try using the lefty approach, it didn't work so I'm back to the old way.
Its not a bad idea to still practice using both eyes and both hands for real world scenarios.

 

[rcmodel]

Is it possible to aim with iron sights using both eyes open on a rifle?

Yes, it is possible.

But not shooting left handed with a right dominate eye.

All you will be seeing is the side of the barrel.

You will have to switch and shoot right handed, or close your dominate eye.

rc

 

[P.B.Walsh]

I'm left-eyed, and shoot right handed, but can also shoot left handed if a derr comes out on that side.