Right handed left eye dominant question.

[Bazoo]

I was checking out this thread https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/left-handed-shooter-question.933587/ and, so as to not hijack that thread, I figured I'd ask separately.

Why do those that are left eye dominate prefer to learn to shoot left handed instead of just closing the dominate eye?

I am both right handed and right eye dominate. But I think I'd much rather close an eye than switch hands.

 

[entropy]

Because you should shoot off the shoulder your dominant eye is on. I grew up in an era where you shot off the right shoulder and that was that. I learned to close my left eye when shooting. I learned to shoot off my left shoulder as an adult for deer hunting, and duck and pheasant, but still mostly shoot right handed.

 

[MEHavey]

Why do those that are left eye dominate prefer to learn to shoot
left handed instead of just closing the dominate eye?

I'm right-handed/left-eyed.

- Rifles right handed/right eye
- Pistols right handed/left eye
- Shotgun right handed/both eyes (but left eye dominates)

I never even considered shooting left-handed -- not then, not now.
You both handle & shoot strong side if you want to stay alive in high-stress situations.

. . . and still made the USAF pistol team (back when I was a real person)

 

[Johnm1]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. Back when I only hunted I shot a rifle and shotgun right handed/eyed but shot a pistol right handed but moved the pistol in front of my left eye. Not correct but it worked for the light shooting I did at the time.

It was only when I started competing in service rifle I learned that my right eye would fatigue during the course of a match trying to focus on targets up to 600 yards. The switch wasn't difficult.

 

[entropy]

I'm right-handed/left-eyed.

- Rifles right handed/right eye
- Pistols right handed/left eye
- Shotgun right handed/both eyes (but left eye dominates)

I never even considered shooting left-handed -- not then, not now.
You both handle & shoot strong side if you want to stay alive in high-stress situations.

. . . and still made the USAF pistol team (back when I was a real person)

How do you avoid crossfire with a shotgun?

 

[MEHavey]

avoid crossfire with a shotgun?

I shoot both skeet & trap sighting along the tube itself -- not the ramp/sights/beads.
Works fine for both elevation and lead. Sight picture accommodates the offset req'd.
If slugs... then aim like a rifle/right eye (even though non-dominant)

 

[armoredman]

I was checking out this thread https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/left-handed-shooter-question.933587/ and, so as to not hijack that thread, I figured I'd ask separately.

Why do those that are left eye dominate prefer to learn to shoot left handed instead of just closing the dominate eye?

I am both right handed and right eye dominate. But I think I'd much rather close an eye than switch hands.

Right hand/left eye. When I started shooting nobody knew what an eye dominance test was. When I went through Boot camp, nobody had heard of that either. When I went through the Academy, my class Sgt did the eye dominance test, and I came back left eye dominant. He told me I would be shooting left hand, and I told him no, I will shoot right hand and I will score top in the class. I did and I did. I also shoot right eye with rifles as well, and don't have many problems. I just trained myself to shoot that way for a few hundred thousand rounds or so.

 

[wayneinFL]

You lose peripheral vision when you close an eye.

I've always been really awkward trying to shoot left handed. I couldn't change now.

I have put scotch tape on my glasses- just a little piece. Or squint instead of close my left eye.

 

[Rlafever]

I'm right handed but left eye dominant , I can't actually close my left eye selectively . my right eye can only be corrected to 20/30 vision , my left eye can be corrected to 20/20

 

[hso]

Why do those that are left eye dominate prefer to learn to shoot left handed instead of just closing the dominate eye?

Please be more specific. Do you mean handgun or rifle?

 

[Laphroaig]

I'm left eyed but was taught to shoot right handed. I've found ways to make that work with rifles, have shot pistols with both hands.

Shotgun right handed/both eyes (but left eye dominates)

I can't shoot a shotgun for beans. I squint but I think that binocular vision is important when wing shooting. Maybe I should give that a try. I've often thought about trying lefty but never do.

 

[12Bravo20]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. I learned how to shoot rifles and shotguns left hand as a young child. My youngest son is the same way as me. We always checked new soldiers eye dominance in basic training and had the shoot with their dominant eye. I shoot handguns with my right hand and left eye.

Yes it takes time to get use to shooting with your weak side when yo are cross dominant if you have been using your weak eye for a long time. It is worth the effort to try shooting with your dominant eye.

Closing your dominant eye can actually be a handicap in hunting situations or in tactical situations where you need to use your peripheral vision.

 

[jmr40]

I'm right handed and right eye dominate, but my brother is left eye dominant and is right handed. We caught the problem when he was still in his teens. He started shooting left handed and at first it was a challenge. But it didn't take long before he was shooting much better lefty than he had ever done trying to shoot right handed.

It is best to shoot with BOTH eyes open. That is especially true with wing shooting or clays. When you close one eye you no longer have depth perception. It makes judging distance and angles much more difficult.

A handgun is normally held in the center and I don't think it matters as much.

With rifles you can get by target shooting with one eye closed. In fact many guys wear special glasses that cover one eye to help even if they are right handed and right eye dominate. But when hunting with a rifle I still shoot with both eyes open 99% of the time. Once you start using scopes with high magnification it can be difficult to see through them with both eyes open.

 

[entropy]

All youz guys saying you lose depth perception by closing one eye- yes and no. The mind will actually fill in 'depth' in a tromp l'oiel fashion if you have recently viewed the scene you are looking at with one eye, with both eyes. Many top clays game shooters shoot with one eye. Some because it works better for them, some because they have to- i.e., because they only have one good eye. So it is not necessary to use both eyes, though for those who don't have a physiological limitation, it can be learned, and certainly worth doing so. Even I, having a physiological limitation (anisometropia, my eyes differ in correction by more than 2 diopters) partially use my left eye in clays and hunting. For clays, I partially squint the left eye, as I get near the clay, I shut it. For live birds, I start with both eye open, the squint the left shut as I get on the bird, just as with clays.

 

[rabid wombat]

Depends… born left / left. In reality, I am stronger right handed - thanks ‘right handed world’. With a pistol, I am probably better right handed because of training / practice out of both sides (still stink). I can surprise people when challenged to shoot ‘weak hand’. With a rifle ambi, if I can bed down (though stronger left handed on the fly). The world is in danger if I try a shotgun right handed (Next time shooting clays, shoot ‘wrong handed’… I have done this several times with friends trying to mix the game up…)….

YMMV

 

[Elkins45]

I'm left eye dominant. I shoot long guns left handed but handguns right handed in front of my left eye. I shoot that way because that's what I naturally did when I picked up a gun the first time.

 

[entropy]

Depends… born left / left. In reality, I am stronger right handed - thanks ‘right handed world’. With a pistol, I am probably better right handed because of training / practice out of both sides (still stink). I can surprise people when challenged to shoot ‘weak hand’. With a rifle ambi, if I can bed down (though stronger left handed on the fly). The world is in danger if I try a shotgun right handed (Next time shooting clays, shoot ‘wrong handed’… I have done this several times with friends trying to mix the game up…)….

YMMV

Did that once when one of the HS Trap kids chose that I had to shoot left handed while she could shoot right handed when it was down to us two in an Annie Oakley. She called for the bird, missed it, and I smokeballed it. I practice enough left handed to ' keep my hand in' , pun intended.

 

[MarshallDodge]

I am right/right but I was playing with monovision for a while using contact lenses. If I put a contact in my left eye only, it would become dominant.

Most of the time I shoot both eyes open when shooting a pistol, and changing eye dominance did not affect my accuracy or point of impact.

 

[armoredman]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. I learned how to shoot rifles and shotguns left hand as a young child. My youngest son is the same way as me. We always checked new soldiers eye dominance in basic training and had the shoot with their dominant eye. I shoot handguns with my right hand and left eye.

Yes it takes time to get use to shooting with your weak side when yo are cross dominant if you have been using your weak eye for a long time. It is worth the effort to try shooting with your dominant eye.

Closing your dominant eye can actually be a handicap in hunting situations or in tactical situations where you need to use your peripheral vision.

With handgun it isn't a problem.

I have qualified Expert or Distinguished Expert with Dept issued Glocks for 22 years - I'm good.
Rifle, like I said, I trained myself.

It seems to have worked OK.

Now my son, he's just left of center all the way around, so I had to find him a left handed rifle!

 

[Hugger-4641]

I am left eye dominant and right handed. I shoot right handed with both eyes open. With scopes it actually helps my sight picture and allows to see impacts with my left eye. With iron sights on rifles or pistols I do sometimes get two sight pictures. I've trained myself to focus with the one on the right.

 

[1KPerDay]

Strong left eye dominance and a weak right eye here. I shoot handguns righty using my left eye (like Hickok45 incidentally). Long guns from left shoulder left eye. If I try to close my left eye I get about 30% of the visual information due to my weird right eye. It’s like a partially exposed piece of film. I need both eyes open.

 

[Varminterror]

Parents and instructors who force new shooters to shoot to their handedness instead of their eye dominance are no better than 1950's teachers who forced obviously left-handed students to learn to write right handed.

Handedness in various tasks is a learned neuromuscular development. Eye dominance is a hard-wired neural pathway.

Anecdotes of shooters learning to compensate for their handicap elicited through poor instruction isn't evidence of superiority. Yes, there have been NCAA champion wrestlers with only one, or even no legs, but nobody should recommend a young wrestler should cut off their viable limbs to perform better on the mat.

 

[12Bravo20]

Handedness in various tasks is a learned neuromuscular development. Eye dominance is a hard-wired neural pathway.

That is why we tested every new soldier for eye dominance. It is fairly easy to teach someone to shoot using their dominant eye and weak side.

 

[entropy]

Actually, depending on its degree, eye dominance can be immutable, or very fluid. Girls and young women in particular tend towards fluid eye dominance, though it is possible with people of any age, and either sex.
There  are a host of causes for fixed eye dominance, from only having one working eye, or amblyopia in a state where the brain just "shuts out" input for one eye, to various refractive errors like my aforementioned anisometropia. But there are many people with fluid eye dominance, and most don't even realize it.

 

[Corpral_Agarn]

Strong left eye dominance and a weak right eye here. I shoot handguns righty using my left eye (like Hickok45 incidentally). Long guns from left shoulder left eye. If I try to close my left eye I get about 30% of the visual information due to my weird right eye. It’s like a partially exposed piece of film. I need both eyes open.

This.

Handguns, it doesn't matter which hand/eye. I shoot right hand, left eye. The only difference is a slight turning of the head to line up the eye.

Long guns should match the dominant eye to that shoulder. For me that's left handed for left eye.