Non-dominant eye/ambiocular drills?

[FadingSwordsman]

I was discussing ambidextrous training a couple days ago with my father, and we came to the topic of dominant eyes and which eye to use when shooting with either hand.

His recommendation was to use the same eye as hand, and he claims to have gotten fairly good at it. I've been trying to get better at using either eye to form a quick sight picture with the same hand, but have been having problems with it. I can feel that my offhand (left hand) grip is more comfortable and I feel that the handgun is better lined up with my forearm when sighting with the same eye. So far, I've just been dry firing with one eye covered, and I can finally "choose" somewhat which eye to shoot through, but I still have problems getting the picture quickly. It's also still very uncomfortable to line up the left eye when both are open, as well.

Does anyone have any range or dry fire drills for training towards "ambi" ocularism? (Being able to get a quick and consistent sight picture with either eye) And is weak eye shooting important to get better at shooting off-hand for a non-shotgun?

Any input is much appreciated.

 

[Loosedhorse]

His recommendation was to use the same eye as hand

This is valuable when going around corners; switching to a left-hand, left-eye method when "slicing" around a right-side barrier minimizes your profile. Otherwise, same eye/hand may have no value, other than as a wounded-shooter drill.

As to method: close the dominant eye when lining up the shot, then open it.

 

[Al Thompson]

Are you are closing one eye? That's pretty unsound. No reason to voluntarily give up half your sight in a bad situation.

If I'm engaging with my weak hand, I simply cant my handgun inboard slightly to get lined up with my dominant eye. There is no good reason to use the weak hand unless the strong hand is disabled.

 

[Loosedhorse]

Are you are closing one eye? That's pretty unsound.

Unsound? Unsound is getting into a gunfight in the first place; after that, unsound is being confused about where I'm aiming just so my tombstone can read "Well, at least he kept both eyes open!"

If you're saying that in the (what?) one second it takes me to line up a nondominant-eye shot, someone might sneak up in that missing 30 degrees of peripheral vision and kill me--all the while I'm suffering from stress-induced tunnel vision anyway--well, you've got a point. I'll take that chance, rather than get confused under stress about where my sights are pointing.

YMMV--I know what works for me, not what works for you.

Around a barrier is the key time for me: leading with the left-hand/left-eye around a right-sided barricade means you're only using one eye to see past the barricade anyway. If you get confused about your front sight around that barrier, either the round will impact the barrier, or you will expose more of your head than you needed to.

Both unsound.

 

[wisconsin]

I too have been stuck with the left eye, right handed curse. the best advice i can give is practice practice practice practice. after years of shooting like that its gotten to the point that when i draw my pistol i can line it up with the bullseye and the sights arent in line with either eye. perfect? far from it. but its quick and under 25 yards pretty accurate

 

[Al Thompson]

Cirillo covered this pretty well in his book. I don't have my book handy, but essentially you take a normal two handed grip and lean your body to the left so that the handgun "tilts" past the left edge of the cover. I find running it dry, the handgun ends up at about 45 or 50 degrees. The concept is that you retain your normal firing grip and "tilt" just enough to place aimed fire on the target.

Another technique South Narc teaches and uses is:

Actually if you go SHO and blade into an old school Camp Perry you can utilize weak side cover even more effectively. I do this in AMIS all the time and make shots on people without being seen when playing the who sees who first game.

As a civilian, IME, the loss of situational awareness (by closing one eye) is much more of an issue than practicing switching hands and eyes for a weak side barricade shot.

YMMV -

 

[Al Thompson]

the left eye, right handed curse

Cross dominance is a slightly different issue. I run into that a lot. With a handgun, a simple tilting of the head usually fixes that. With a long gun, far simpler to either switch shoulders or close that dominant eye.

 

[Loosedhorse]

the loss of situational awareness (by closing one eye) is much more of an issue...

YMMV

Loss of situational awareness, from closing one eye for perhaps a second?

What I have been taught is that, in a gunfight, you expect to lose your peripheral awareness as you concentrate on the attacker (probably coning down even further, just on the attacker's weapon). And that the method of countering this expected loss is to scan (with the eyes) and search (with head movements) for other threats. You are not supposed to depend on your peripheral vision.

Delivering the first accurate shot really helps your chances of surviving your gunfight. If I can do that fastest and with most confidence by shutting one eye for that second, then I'm required to take that fact into account in my tactics.

Oh, by the way: I do plan on opening that eye when I scan and search!

you can utilize weak side cover even more effectively.

Weak-side cover is best handled by your usual (strong-side) grip. Strong-side cover is when switching to the support hand and the same-side eye can help you present the lowest profile.

lean your body to the left

Any tilting of your head while going around a barrier means that your forehead will be visible to a threat before you are able to see the threat.

Don't know about anyone else, but I like my forehead.

 

[Mr.454]

Leaning, or "rolling" around cover is the way to go. It exposes less of your body than poking your whole side around the corner. Try it, stand a foot from a doorway point your pistol at the edge then tilt your upper body until just the barrel and one eye clear the edge. Much better than giving an attacker your chest, shoulder, and head to shoot at. As for the OP practice shooting with both eyes open with the gun in front of the preferred eye, it takes time but you will get it.

 

[Loosedhorse]

Cut to the chase, for anyone who's serious about this:

Set up a mirror so you can watch yourself come around a barrier (door frame). If the first thing you see above your gun-sights is an eye, a barrel below it, part of a hand, and as little of the forehead as possible, then you're doing it right. If you see an elbow, shoulder, forehead, etc. first, then try to adjust your technique. If you see an eye but no gun, you're using the wrong eye to line up the sights.

Try it from one side, and then the other. Hint: if I'm a bad guy, and I see your toe first, I'm shooting your toe.

 

[killchain]

Unsound? Unsound is getting into a gunfight in the first place; after that, unsound is being confused about where I'm aiming just so my tombstone can read "Well, at least he kept both eyes open!"

If you're saying that in the (what?) one second it takes me to line up a nondominant-eye shot, someone might sneak up in that missing 30 degrees of peripheral vision and kill me--all the while I'm suffering from stress-induced tunnel vision anyway--well, you've got a point. I'll take that chance, rather than get confused under stress about where my sights are pointing.

YMMV--I know what works for me, not what works for you.

Around a barrier is the key time for me: leading with the left-hand/left-eye around a right-sided barricade means you're only using one eye to see past the barricade anyway. If you get confused about your front sight around that barrier, either the round will impact the barrier, or you will expose more of your head than you needed to.

Both unsound.

You've never engaged multiple targets, have you?

 

[Loosedhorse]

You've never engaged multiple targets, have you?

Nope. I've always engaged them one at a time. I guess your gun works different, huh?


Or perhaps you meant engaging multiple targets like this:

Yep, gonna need both eyes open for that: one for each sight picture!