Question for you rt handed, left eye strong shooters

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My daughter has decided that she likes to shoot a bit. She's right handed but left eye is her strongest. How can I teach her to sight in? I'm right handed, right eye so I don't know. I've got her sighting in with the rifles with glass on them with both eyes open but she can't figure it out with irons. Anybody help me out with this? I'm thinking I'm going to get an eye patch for her left eye so it makes it easier for her to learn to shoot with that eye, but I don't know if this will cause a problem later down the road for her learning curve.
 
I had this problem when I was young. I'm right eye dominant and naturally shoot left-handed. I taught myself to shoot right handed and now have a lot of trouble even attempting to shoot left-handed. My thought was that you can't shoot what you can't see. Now I shoot everything with both eyes open and right handed. It was difficult to start learning to do it, but once I grew into the guns and my own body it became easier. Shooting is mostly about sighting and muscle memory. For me it was easier to learn to shoot right handed because I could see what I wanted to shoot. (paid off in the long run too...right handed guns are a lot easier to come by)
 
I am the same re cross dominance. I simply close one eye to shoot. Shooting with both eyes open is highly overrated IMO. Read Awewrbucks comments two issues ago in SWAT on the last page on the whole both eyes open.
 
Under no circumstances should you have her shoot against her eye dominance.

Have her shoot left handed and have her shoot that way a lot. It'll be wierd for awhile, but it'll work out better in the end.
 
Definitely have her shoot long guns lefty, IMO. My father was smart enough to notice my strong left-eye dominance and had me start out from the left shoulder. I shoot long guns lefty and handguns righty... you just turn your head a bit and move the pistol over a bit. Works for me.

There are advantages to manipulating long guns with your strong hand. Loading a shotgun, clearing malfunctions, etc.
 
Well I had her shoulder it up on her left side and used the right hand for trigger. Is that what you guys mean or do you mean teach her left hand all the way/.
 
with rifles the easiest method is to shoot with the hand that coresponds to the master eye. the alternative is to cover the master eye, shoot with the master hand and weak eye. with shotguns only the first method really works. handguns are a little diferent. I usually teach cross dominant shooters to hold the gun in the master hand with the gun canted about 15 degrees in order to bring the sights in line with the master eye.
 
In case folks are wondering, I would like to clarify and see if anyone disagrees:
With both eyes open and hands at arms length straight out in front of you, form a circle with your thumbs and pointy fingers. Look at some distant object and center it in the circle formed by your hands. Now close one eye - did the image shift?. Now open both eyes again, re-center the distant object and then try closing the other eye. Did the image shift this time? Whatever open eye did not result in an image shift, that's your dominant eye.

Anyway, I am right handed, but I determined I am left eye dominant using the above described method. So I shoot handguns with my right eyed closed. It never occured to me I should shoot left handed on long guns! Reckon I'll give it a try...
 
Re: rifles - You could just train with your non-dominant eye too. I shoot with both, and believe it or not, better with my weak eye. It may be a mental focus thing because I do have to pay closer attention to achieve visual focus.
 
i am in the same situation.......

first i learned to shoot with both hands.....

then i choose which felt more comfortable

for me, that was right handed.......i simply tape my left eye....

But heres the thing....you dont tape it totally......

on your shooting glasses, take 1 strip of scotch tape....and align it slightly off set from the pupil.......this will blur your left eye, but still leave you your peripheral vision.
 
Wow, you guys rock. Thanks for all the info. I think I will try the cross training for a day. Her eyes are not that bad.

Mike1234567, go ahead and post your thoughts, she started to shoot pistols too. That's not so bad but I'll still take any info you want to throw out here.
 
Right handed, left eyed here...

Longarms get fired from the left shoulder. Left hand pulling the trigger, right hand on the fore end. Its not as hard as you would think, as the strong hand has more control over where the muzzle is pointing.

I do shoot long arms right handed a little bit, but consider it weak-side training. I squint my left eye when doing so, it disrupts my vision just enough for my right eye to take over.

Pistols are fired right handed. I'll tilt my head a little to the right, or my pistol a little to the left so that the sights align with my left eye. I cant tell you which one I do more, as its second nature.
 
Well I feel kinda dumb. My daughter has a slight mental handicap and I misunderstood her. She can see fine out of her right eye. She can't close her left eye lid, not much muscle control I guess :rolleyes: . So I'll be off to Walgreens for an eye patch and I need some extra medical supplies for my first aid kits.

I want to thank all that replied, good info.
 
She said she can see fine out of her right eye. At this point all I can do is try it and see how it goes. My eotech came in last night and I tossed it on the ar15. She had no problems at all right right sighting with that.
 
Make sure she's left-eye DOMINANT before you have her shoot lefty. Eye dominance is not the same as eye strength. Do one or more of the eye dominance tests.
 
I can see fine out of my right eye, even though i'm left eyeballed.

there are a couple ways to determine which eye is her dominant eye.

the easiest way is to hold your hands out in front of you, spread out, with the tips of the thumbs and and the tips of the forefingers touching. this should leave a hole you can look through. put the hole over a distant object. move your hands to your face, keeping the object in the hole.

whichever eye your hands end up around is your master eye.
 
someone who is cross dominant is to shoot with the hand your master eye is on, regardless of weapon.
Click to expand...

This is almost always the best answer. It is not very difficult to teach a new shooter to manipulate a firearm from their "support" side. It is almost impossible to force an eye dominance change.

You want to have her be able to grab a long-gun and mount, point, swing, and shoot that gun naturally -- with no need for taped glasses or one eye closed, etc.

Forcing her to shoot right handed is going to put her at a disadvantage. Yes, she'll be physically able to do it, but she won't be as good/natural a rifle shot -- and she'll be FAR less of a wing-shot (shotguns) than she would otherwise be able to be.

With handguns it is easy. Hold with whichever hand she's comfortable and use whichever eye is dominant. She'd probably never even notice she was crossed-up.

But when she grabs a shotgun to swing on a bird (or a rifle to track a moving deer) she needs to be bringing the gun butt up into line under whichever eye is strongest.
 
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