Daughter right hand, left eye dominant - pistol - What to do?
- Thread starter Jeffm004
- Start date
I didn't answer completely because I had some household duties to attend to.
This opinion doesn't take into account glasses, or bi-focals, those add a twist but not an unsolvable one.
With long guns, keep in mind that as with handguns there are different uses for the guns. Different sports or uses allow for different options.
For hunting, for sighting in a rifle or two at the range, and other situations whether with scope or iron sights it works to simply close the dominant eye and focus with the non dominant. Think of strong right hand and strong left eye, the rifle comes to the right shoulder. Close the dominant eye and look through the sights or scope with the weak. I know and have known members of SWAT teams (in Del Norte Co. and San Mateo Co. who use this method, one a police sniper.) It's older than dirt and works.
For extended sessions with rifle, as in bench rest competition or competitive accuracy matches, the "close the eye" method tires the eye too much and produces strain. A blinder on the shooting glasses or patch over the dominant eye works very well.
This is also possible in skeet.
It's difficult to stalk game through woods, or compete in 3 gun competition while wearing a patch or having the eye covered.
When a person who is right handed and right eye dominant shoulders a carbine with iron sights or scope and keeps both eyes open, their brain simply ignores the information coming from their non dominant eye. You can only focus through sights or scope with one eye. Stereoscopic vision plays no role when peering through a scope. The information processing from the other eye falls into the background, becomes irrelevant. This is the norm. The exception will be in combat, snipers excluded.
Some individuals learn to simply ignore the information coming from the dominant eye while using a scope or iron sights. It can be done but not everyone can do it. It's handy but not needed.
In target competitive shooting, with handgun or long gun it's not unusual to see some shooters, even those not cross dominant, put a patch over the eye that's not using the scope to reduce eyestrain and enhance the focus.
This is what I mean by adapt.
Others have already gone over the turn the head slightly method with pistols. it's what I do for defensive shooting, along with point shooting at close range.
tipoc
Absolutely! That is exactly why my dad and I learned to shoot long guns left handed. The alternative would have been an extremely awkward and uncomfortable hold of the long gun to put the left eye in line with the sights - or learning to shoot as accurately with the right eye. I vaguely remember right-hand stocks made for left-eye dominant shooters - the stocks had a an obvious curve in the butt stock to allow the shooter to use the left eye rather than the right. They looked bizarre and were not a good substitute for shooting left handed (if the shooter could.)
I am not suggesting all shooters must shoot from the side that matches their dominant eye. I suspect it really depends upon the degree of dominance and the ability of the shooter to accommodate that dominance. (I am not any eye doctor - or any kind of medical doctor.)
Last edited:
You bring the rifle butt to the left shoulder?
Sometimes it seems left handed folks have a greater challenge than cross dominant eye folks. Not many revolvers are made for lefties...so you adapt.
I knew two bench rest shooters who would wear shooting glasses both painted over the left lens of the glasses to black them out. This reduced eye strain and allowed for more intense focus with the right eye. Both were right handed. One was left eye dominant and the other right eye dominant.
I agree with the guys in posts 6,7, and 16.
tipoc
ammo.crafter
New member
dominate eye
After 50+ years of shooting all kinds of firearms, my dominate eye changed from right (strong hand) to left. What royal pain in the butt!
As kraigwy and many others have said, there are things she can do.
I still compete in PPC and consistently finish in the top 3 places.
I use red dot sights on all handguns and use my left eye. Merely a slight turn of the head to the right cures that problem.
For rifle shooting, a scope or red dot is a must.
My shotgun shooting is another story completely. Most frustrating, indeed.
She will have to learn to shoot from her strong shoulder unless you want to spend a considerable amount to have her stock bent.
Good luck to her!
After 50+ years of shooting all kinds of firearms, my dominate eye changed from right (strong hand) to left. What royal pain in the butt!
As kraigwy and many others have said, there are things she can do.
I still compete in PPC and consistently finish in the top 3 places.
I use red dot sights on all handguns and use my left eye. Merely a slight turn of the head to the right cures that problem.
For rifle shooting, a scope or red dot is a must.
My shotgun shooting is another story completely. Most frustrating, indeed.
She will have to learn to shoot from her strong shoulder unless you want to spend a considerable amount to have her stock bent.
Good luck to her!
I believe I read from a source many years ago: That cambering a iron sighted pistol up to 45 degrees, will not affect accuracy too much up to 25 yards --- And shooting a cambered pistol is almost necessary to use while shooting one-handed in a modern isosceles stance, because that will keep your wrist from becoming unlocked, and still allow the pistol to be aligned straight in the web of your hand and forearm.
Last edited:
With a RH rifle, after shooting, I lower the gun while holding it at the wrist with my dominant LH and work the bolt with the RH, then remount on my LH shoulder and fire (talking 99.9% either hunting or off a bench rest sighting in for hunting)
Hope that answers your question.
Siding with Sharkbite and Frank Ettin. She should do what is natural to her. Some societies were/are teaching lefties to write right handed at school. As you can guess, it's not a good idea.
In a defense situation, have her tell the burglar to hold on while she looks for her shooting glasses with tape on it. Also not a good idea.
Myself I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I bring the handgun to the left a bit and turn my head to the right a bit. I shoot rifle with my right eye no problem.
Can't shoot a shotgun. Maybe if I close my left eye?
In a defense situation, have her tell the burglar to hold on while she looks for her shooting glasses with tape on it. Also not a good idea.
Myself I'm right handed/left eye dominant. I bring the handgun to the left a bit and turn my head to the right a bit. I shoot rifle with my right eye no problem.
Can't shoot a shotgun. Maybe if I close my left eye?
Last edited:
Being left eye dominant, right handed and having double vision from birth I think I've found what works best for me and has given me a bit more understanding of how it all works than most people.
Handgun- I shoot right handed using my left eye with both eyes open
Rifle- I shoot right handed using my right eye and if the left eye image causes any problems I then close my left eye. (I found early on that shooting a rifle right handed using the left eye just wasn't a good idea and I didn't like shooting one left handed.)
Doing the above I shoot pretty well using both handguns and my varmint rifles.
I endured a childhood of patches, prisms and opaque lenses over the left eye to make the right eye stronger. It didn't work. Also had three eye surgeries to try to align the two "images". These improved the image alignment but the double vision persists.
Over the years I've learned to control which eye I use (I can switch eye "images" easily) and I use whichever eye image I need for shooting in different situations.
However, I can tell you from 63 years of experience (over 44 shooting) that when using your non dominant eye you will never have the same spacial perception (or balance?) or (for lack of another description) focal perspective as when you use your dominant eye.
The "you have to do it this way because it's right" theory doesn't apply to everyone.
Your brain chose the dominant eye. It's natural, instinctive and it likes to use it and as much as you can learn to use the non dominant eye, it will never serve you as well as your dominant eye.
When shooting a handgun (which could possibly be used in a SD situation) wouldn't you want to use the best aiming tool you were born with?
Besides, why make it harder on a newbie than it has to be. That's a great way to turn them off shooting.
Handgun- I shoot right handed using my left eye with both eyes open
Rifle- I shoot right handed using my right eye and if the left eye image causes any problems I then close my left eye. (I found early on that shooting a rifle right handed using the left eye just wasn't a good idea and I didn't like shooting one left handed.)
Doing the above I shoot pretty well using both handguns and my varmint rifles.
I endured a childhood of patches, prisms and opaque lenses over the left eye to make the right eye stronger. It didn't work. Also had three eye surgeries to try to align the two "images". These improved the image alignment but the double vision persists.
Over the years I've learned to control which eye I use (I can switch eye "images" easily) and I use whichever eye image I need for shooting in different situations.
However, I can tell you from 63 years of experience (over 44 shooting) that when using your non dominant eye you will never have the same spacial perception (or balance?) or (for lack of another description) focal perspective as when you use your dominant eye.
The "you have to do it this way because it's right" theory doesn't apply to everyone.
Your brain chose the dominant eye. It's natural, instinctive and it likes to use it and as much as you can learn to use the non dominant eye, it will never serve you as well as your dominant eye.
When shooting a handgun (which could possibly be used in a SD situation) wouldn't you want to use the best aiming tool you were born with?
Besides, why make it harder on a newbie than it has to be. That's a great way to turn them off shooting.
Yeah being left handed and left eye dominant isn't the subject of this thread. Same as being right handed and right eye dominant isn't the subject. Most consider those situations "normal". The subject here has been cross dominance.
xcc_rider and others have said it well, it ain't a problem, just adapt.
tipoc
Actually the OP raised the subject of cross dominance shooting a handgun. The thread quickly included the subject of cross dominance using long guns, scopes and iron sights. Obviously, cross dominance is relatively minor issue with respect to handguns. I am left eye dominant but I am right handed as I stated previously.
Last edited:
It is your opinion that cross dominance is a relatively minor issue with long guns. My opinion is the opposite based on my experience. I am left eye dominant and my first shots left-handed with a single shot bolt action .22 were dramatically better than shots taken just minutes earlier shooting right-handed. A cover over the dominant eye may be fine for shooting paper targets but not when hunting with a shotgun or rifle.
I explained, as did others, exactly how cross dominant shooters can and do shoot long guns and shotguns with no real problems. Please explain why we are wrong, or specifically if you want, why what I said was wrong.
Seems you did not read what was said earlier. OK, so you are saying that you can shoot a rifle well even though you have a dominant left eye and a strong right hand. So you have no issue with it. What's the problem?
tipoc
Seems you did not read what was said earlier. OK, so you are saying that you can shoot a rifle well even though you have a dominant left eye and a strong right hand. So you have no issue with it. What's the problem?
tipoc
Last edited:
I have carefully read what you have written in this thread. I wrote that I had the opposite opinion based on my own actual experience beginning over 60 years ago. I also believe hunting with a long gun and a patch over the dominant eye would be a serious handicap. I have also stated that the degree of dominance is an important factor, i.e., very minor cross dominance may not even affect the shooter's accuracy with long guns. In short, the issue is a matter of opinion based on the facts about the shooter.
Not to drag this out but I said earlier that hunting with one eye covered is not a good idea. I very clearly said that.I never advised it.
Earlier I said:
I also pointed out that when your looking through a rifle scope or iron sights over a rifle stereoscopic vision does not come into play.
So I'm still not sure what we disagree on except that my experience and the experience of others is that cross dominance is far from an unsolvable dilemma or a serious handicap to a shooter. Whether with handguns or long guns. We can adapt to it or adapt the gun to our needs. Left hand bolt actions as one form of that. I don't think of it as an "issue", maybe less trouble than a person being left handed. Maybe that's where we differ.
tipoc
Sorry - my mistake about the patch over the dominant eye when hunting. I agree the difference in our opinions may be much less than it has appeared. I can't do anything left-handed except shooting long guns and compound bows. I tried a right-handed bow before I bought my first. It didn't work so I shot a left-handed bow and bought it and four more over the years.