Eye dominance question...

[Hamburgers]

First off I would like to say I am fairly new to shooting.

OK, so I am left handed, but anything besides writing I do with my right hand. Including shooting.

I have read that a common way to determine eye dominance is to make a hole with your hands and focus on an object that is away from you, or to point at an object.

Here is the question... when I focus on the hole in my hands I see two objects in the distance, and when I focus on the object I see two holes. (Or two fingers depending on which test I am doing)

Now say I am looking through the hole and looking at a picture. I can see the picture in one hole, and the area beside the picture in the other hole. I close my left eye and the picture remains, and then close my right and the area next to the picture remains.

Might just me making something simple more difficult than it is... but I am genuinely confused.

 

[duns]

I'm also new to shooting. I can't quite follow your description but I have eye problems when sighting a gun. My natural instinct is to close my left eye. When I do so, I can see the 3 white dots nice and crisply. If I then open my left eye, I now seem to be looking obliquely at the left side of the gun rather than straight down the sights. I am trying to train my brain to ignore the image from my left eye so that I can shoot with both eyes open. It's hard work but I think I'm making some progress.

 

[Oregun89]

Sounds like you're having trouble with your hands, and though this has little to do with shooting, im gonna tell you anyway.

take a piece of paper, poke a very small hole near the center, hold it up to the light and find the light in the hole. Close one eye, then the other (keeping one open of course). The eye which still sees the light is your dominate eye.

Now, if you cant keep the paper still enough to get an accurate test, then you've got other things to worry about.

 

[MAKster]

If you are cross eye dominant it is common to have the double image problem. I think the dominate eye is only slightly dominant so the weak eye is constantly trying to take control which leads to double images. I have that problem and have to keep my weak eye closed when shooting.

 

[scythefwd]

focus on the object. When you close your eye, if your finger is still infront of the object that is your dominant eye. If the finger is to the side of the object, than that eye is your non-dominant eye. I see two fingers as well, but I have always known which one was the true finger.

IF you use two fingers and line them up in a line when looking at them, one close one far, it becomes easier since your eyes don't have to try and focus on 2 vastly different planes.


duns - you are shooting with the wrong eye. It sounds like you might be left eye dominant. You could be cross eye dominant, aka right handed and left eye.

 

[Jumping Frog]

If you are a new shooter, it is a lot easier to retrain a trigger finger that it is to attempt retraining eye dominance. I view it as the difference between trying to swim upstream versus swim downstream.

You have used your eyes whenever you are awake, every day, for your whole life. Although some people claim they can retrain their eye dominance, I am highly skeptical. After all, as soon as you walk away from the range, you return to using your everyday eye dominance pattern that you have used since birth.

On the other hand, a trigger finger can be retrained fairly easily. It takes about 4,000 repetitions to establish new muscle memory. I know it can be done, because I had to retrain my trigger finger on the other hand as an adult after I was blinded in my dominant eye. After switching sides, I was able to qualify as an NRA Distinguished Expert in pistol and I am close to completing it in rifle.

 

[rogerjames]

This whole eye dominant stuff is only relevant if you train to shoot with both eyes open, which you should learn to do when shooting a handgun, especially for self-defense situations.

If you are shooting with both eyes open, you should use your dominant eye for sighting. I am right handed and left eye dominant and it is very easy to tilt my head and place my dominant eye in position.

With a rifle... Just close one eye and shoot with either.

 

[lions]

Make the hole with your hands like this:

Focus on an object (not on your hands) and bring your hands back to your face. Do that without losing focus on the object and whichever eye you come back to is your dominant eye.

 

[gym]

The pointing thing works quickest. It may feel funny at first but like everything else you learned it will come in time. It's best to refrain from starting out wrong and having to re learn. Keeping both eyes open has a huge advantage, especially in a real life combat situation. You want to be able to see what's around you. Don't think of it as target practice, you are training for a possible life saving scenario, "even if it dosen't feel like it now"

 

[rogerjames]

LIONS has the best technique for determining eye dominance IMO.

 

[gym]

Just point at something with your eyes open, now close one at a time . It's going to align with one eye better than the other. That's the dominent eye. That's How I was taught by a DI way back when.

 

[Millwright]

Kid,

My recently deceased son had a similar problem. He was dyslexic. But he was also one hell of a shot as well !! I can't describe his "adjustments" because he couldn't !! Jake excelled at "point shooting" from an early age. Just as he excelled at formal pistol/rifle shooting. He shot "right handed", and in most of his activities he exhiited a definite "right-handedness", but his "eye dominance" tended to his left eye.

Jake shot pistol in the Weaver/Isocoles stance, and I suspect Jake's "take" on all of this was those positions provided the best binural sight picture for him. Alas, We'll never know..... >MW

 

[FenderTK421]

I was born right eye dominant and right handed. I lost my right eye when I was 7; my step-dad took me out and re-educated me w/ air-rifle and bow as soon as I had recovered. I will never forget him telling me that if I overcame it at that age I would never have a handicap. It feels very awkward for me to shoulder a rifle right handed now, and I practice left and right handed w/ the pistols. I still tend to shoot the pistols better right handed. Practice good, proven techniques that work for YOU and you can overcome just about anything, no matter what it is that you have to re-train.

 

[rm23]

I'm right-handed and left eye dominant. The thing for me that really, really sucks is that my right eye has astigmatism; it was 20/400 before I had LASIK done on it. Now, I'm down to 20/25 and I still have a hard time focusing with iron sights.

I'd love to have my eyes swapped, lol.

 

[mgh]

I'm also right handed, left eye dominant. Shooting handguns, I just turn my head a little and sight with my left eye. It didn't take long to get used to it, so that I don't have to think about it.

I also started to practice point shooting, with both eyes on the target. Without considering the other pros and cons of point shooting, it does make the eye dominance problem go away. For me, anyway.

When I shoot a rifle I use right eye, and close my left eye. I did practice shooting left handed - it wasn't that hard after a little practice - but there were other issues, the same ones left handers have shoot a bolt action made for righties', or a lever gun that ejects to the right.

 

[duns]

If you are cross eye dominant it is common to have the double image problem. I think the dominate eye is only slightly dominant so the weak eye is constantly trying to take control which leads to double images. I have that problem and have to keep my weak eye closed when shooting.

I think this is what may be what is happening to me. I.e., it's a battle for control between the two eyes. If I close my left eye, I get a crisp view of the sights. If I open my left eye, sometimes my view is unchanged apart from getting a bit fuzzier (sometimes double images), but other times my sight picture changes totally and I think this is because my left eye has told my brain that my right eye is no longer in charge. So my eyes are flip flopping as to which is in charge. When my sight picture changes in this way, I cannot hit the target. I seem to have two choices: (1) close my left eye or (2) train my brain to ignore my left eye.

 

[d2wing]

A third solution is to wear shooting glasses with a smudge or tape on the left lens that blocks your view of the sights. This is a common problem. Eye dominance is more of a problem with hunting, or combat shooting, especially when you are shooting a shotgun.

 

[lions]

A third solution is to wear shooting glasses with a smudge or tape on the left lens that blocks your view of the sights.

Good advice. I'm right handed right eye dominant but I used to shoot handguns with my left eye closed. As I was transitioning to both eyes open I initially put opaque tape on my left lens, after a while I put translucent scotch tape on my left lens. I was eventually able to remove the tape all together.

 

[SHV]

i have the same problem as you do... and I suspect that you also have the same congenital eye muscle imbalance that I do.

Go to a good optometrist... check to see if you need new or different prisms in your lenses.

Unfortunately, for me that still doesn't help the close pistol sight distances... so I shoot one eye open, and mount a laser for the SD times. No issues focusing on a more distant target with the laser, just the close handgun sight range. Long barrels help some, but not much.

One time I got the opportunity to shoot a firearms simulator (FATS), using both eyes and reacting like I would in a real situation. Got the laser REAL quick after that....