Some people, I swear.

[GutWrench]

Took my buddy and his oldlady to the range yesterday evening and it was a nightmare to say the least. I knew that my buddy was pretty green when it comes to shooting but hes always done well when I have taken him duck hunting. As to his wife I have never shot with her but have known her for years and and she always talked about how she was tomboy when she was young and was a big hunter and shooter, blah blah blah... Well she obviously had never been tought anything about gun safety and even shot her gun right handed with her left eye!!! I tried to coach but they would have none of it. She insisted that, thats the way she shoots and that she had killed thousands of bird and such. My buddy was no help and he had a problem with keeping his gun pointed down range when he wasnt shooting. I finally told them I thought I left my stove on and had to leave, I just couldnt take it anymore...


Have you guys ever experienced anything like this?



Thanks,
D.

 

[Dave McCracken]

Yes, more common among males.

American males for some reason think they automatically are great drivers, shooters and lovers. Can't say much about the last, but considering the average guys driving and shooting, no wonder the divorce rate is so high.

 

[pauli]

...and even shot her gun right handed with her left eye!!!

so... she's cross dominant. what's the problem here?

 

[stellarpod]

I too, am right-handed, but left eye dominant. I have always shot handguns right handed, crossing over with my left eye. It's not as rare as you might think.

Now shotguns on the other hand (literally), I have always shouldered to the left side.

stellarpod

 

[GutWrench]

Cross eye dominant people shoot that way???

I have never heard of such a thing... I can't even line the sights up unless the gun is held at abut a 22.5 degree angle. Not to mention she looked like a freaking retard with her head smashed into the stock trying to sight down the barrel.

 

[pauli]

well, some clarification was in order. was she shooting cross dominant with handguns or long guns?

personally, i shoot left handed and right eyed with handguns, but i figure i'm going to have to learn how to shoot right handed when i get myself a rifle. a shotgun... we'll see.

 

[GutWrench]

Stellerpod, I too shoot handguns righthanded with my left eye. But not long guns, I shoot them left handed.

I have a gun right here and I cannot line the bead up. Thats probably why she couldn't even hit a paper plate at 15 yards.



D

 

[pauli]

ok. that's a bit stranger.

 

[Preacherman]

Dave, that must be the reason for premature acceleration and lane changes without prior warning...

 

[Dave McCracken]

(Wiping coffee off monitor)....

Preacher, that was a classic. You may be right.

Observed on a bumper sticker: "If Jesus was driving your car, I bet He'd be using His turn signals"....

Back on topic.....

Mixed dominance is common. Maybe 40% of women, 15% of men have it.

More common is stubborness. Tied in with this, most folks hate getting help. It's like stopping and asking for directions.

Best thing for cross dominance, IMO, is to shoot from the other side and match up the hand to the eye. Easier to train the hands than eye...

 

[bakert]

Seems like I remember Jeff Cooper saying he shot with a dominant left eye for years but changed when teaching.

 

[GutWrench]

More common is stubborness. Tied in with this, most folks hate getting help.

Indeed, it is and thats exactly what I was dealing with the other day.

Once they refused to see the danger in pointing weapons at each other and myself, I just gave up and said I had to leave.

A safe shooting range is a happy shooting range.



Thanks,
D.

 

[armoredman]

Having worked both indoor and outdoor ranges, I have seen the most unsafe practices I could ever imagine, and some of them were police - one FBI agent! Always watch the guy shooting next to you....did he just buy a Smith 500 mag after shooting 10 rounds from a 22 five years ago? Whoops...duck.
As for crosseye dominant, I am left eye dominant, and shoot everything right handed. My instructor in the academy insisted I shoot the shotgun left handed - I told him I'd been shotting right handed longer than he'd been in the Dept and I would show him a perfect score. I did. This year I qualified distinguished expert, shooting left eye/right hand.

 

[Father Knows Best]

I'm cross dominant, also. I'm in the process of relearning how to shoot a shotgun from my left side. I can shoot from the right reasonably well, but only if I keep my left eye closed. That handicaps me a little in skeet, and LOT in sporting clays, where I find it very hard to pick up crossers from the left. Even though my mount and swing aren't as smooth on the left side, I find I'm hitting the tougher birds more often thanks to the better peripheral vision and better range/speed estimation that comes from using two eyes instead of one.

I still shoot rifles and handguns right handed, though. Once I master the shotgun from the left, I'll start working on the other firearms.

 

[pax]

If you took them to the range with you to have fun, and they didn't ask for your help, then you were rude to criticize the way either of them held their guns or anything else that wasn't directly related to safety.

If you want to be able to be safe on the range with your friends, but nitpick everything they are doing wrong, they will neither hear you nor accept what you say when you voice a legitimate safety issue.

On the other hand, if they asked for help learning to shoot, the first thing you cover is safety (before getting out the guns). And every time you say something after that, you make it very, very clear what is related to safety and what is just related to shooting well.

pax

People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die. -- Jim Davidson

 

[Falcontech]

I had the same experience (with safety). I went trap shooting at a public range with some guys I know and no sooner had the guy running the show say to keep it down range then some meathead turns around and has the shotty pointing right at the guy doing the instructing. Not Good.....

 

[GutWrench]

Dear Pax,

I was never rude and never nit picked anything they did...I just tried to suggest that she try holding the gun correctly. the answer was "I tried shooting left handed and I couldn't hit anything". I thought to myself you can't hit anything shooting the wrong way either. Told her that she might do better if she tried. I repetedly had to tell them not to point there guns at each other, and especially me. The response I got everytime was "its not loaded it can't hurt you" and "you are paranoid" Like Dave said, these people were just stubborn and thought they knew it all.

Maybe its just me, but I want to have fun also, not baby sit. Most of all get home alive and with all my body parts.




Thanks,
D.

 

[bakert]

As I have gotten older I find myelf being very picky about who I go shooting or hunting with. Fact is a few still ask me "when are we going shooting again". I try to be nice and give some excuse but the truth is one time with some of these careless clowns many (but not all) who are older and consider themselves "experts" is enough. Doesn't make any difference whether they have perfect form or for that matter do everything the accepted way as long as they obey common sense safety rules. Then maybe we'll go again sometime.

 

[MoeMentum]

I keep an eye on everybody at ranges. self preservation.

 

[Spotted Owl]

I see this all the time at the ranges I frequent. Most often it's a young guy with his girlfriend (and her friends) who has never touched a gun. No muzzle discipline at all...they sweep the whole line with loaded guns, handle guns during cease fires, etc. You name it, if it's unsafe, I've seen them do it.

Another thing I see all the time is a guy handing his girlfriend a .44 magnum (or similar) handgun and then laughing when she nearly knocks herself out shooting it.

 

[Scoupe]

I tell anyone that wants to go shooting with me that I am a stickler for safety at the range and then recite the four main safety rules: Treat all guns as though they're loaded - even when you KNOW they're not, keep the muzzle pointed in a safe direction, keep your finger off the durn trigger until you're ready to shoot, and know what you're shooting at and what lays beyond it. Then I volunteer that if I see the muzzle of their firearm, I WILL say something about it and I expect them to do the same to me. Getting shot turns a fun afternoon into something else entirely.

I tell them all that info right up front, especially to "shooters" that I haven't shot with before. Newbies are glad to hear I'm nuts about safety, and all but one "veteran shooter" I said this to appreciated it as well. The one exception opted to not go with me because I "wasn't any fun". His loss, my safety ensured for another range session.

Gotta agree with Pax's take on the unsolicited coaching though. Keep it to yourself, even if it's tearing you up. As long as it's safe and they're having fun, let it be.

 

[TMM]

i'm quite anal about that kind of stuff too. if she didn't even bother to try "my way" [read:right way] i'd get ticked ( i have to have things right)( i also hate the people who think thier way is *obviously* correct, etc...) ... BUT if they are not observing the 4 rules, even if they KNOW it's unloaded, they are not going shooting with me or handling my guns until they observe the rules. period.

i'd have done what you'd have done...but i might have been more straight with them when i said why i was leaving.

~TMM