Dominant Eye

E

erehwesle

New member
OK, this is driving me nuts, and I don't at the moment have a shooting coach to resolve it, please help.

How do you determine your dominant eye when shooting and how best to use it?

I can get good accuracy by screwing shut either eye and aiming. Aside from wearing a pirate patch, I can't see how this helps.

I'm right handed, but with a straight right arm, line up shots best with the left eye, when both eyes are open.

I'm slightly astimagtic, and use glasses, but I feel like I should be having an eaiser time with my sight pictures.

I know this is a newbie question, but please do help.

erehwesle.
 
Here's a trick my dad taught me: hold your hands in front of you at arms length with your palms facing away from you and fingers pointing up, cross one hand over the other until you have a small triangle of open space made up by the webs of your thumbs (about 1 inch wide), now pick a spot on the wall thats not very far away and look through the triangle at that spot, now close one eye and then the other, whichever eye has the spot centered in the triangle is your dominant eye.

Not very scientific, but it works unless you think too much about what you are doing. Here's something to confuse you, :confused: my left eye is dominant, Im left handed, I shoot and throw right handed, my right foot is dominant, and I use kitchen utensils right handed. Talk about messed up...but besides all that I'm still a good shot, go figure. ;)
 
I was taught the same as Low Key. You may be left eye dominate but right handed, it's not all that unusual.

Wayne
 
Help Me Too!

This is a VERY good topic because I was sondering the same thing and have been trying to shoot with one or or the other, I can't shot well with both eyes open. Anyway, I just tried theeeee"hands out" trick and I'm right handed but left eye dominant. So, just to make sure I have this right, I should be shooting with my left eye?
 
You would probably get better accuracy by using your dominant eye to sight with. Personally, I've always used my left eye when sighting a pistol. It's a more natural position for me. You should sight with whichever eye feels the most natural to you. If you're trying to hold sights on target for more than a few seconds and start to strain to hold a particular position, your sights come off the target and you start to shake and then the shot hits over yonder somewhere.

Rifles are a different story altogether. I've had to train myself to sight a rifle with my right eye. It was uncomfortable for me at first and I couldn't hit the groud at close range, but after a few hundred rounds downrange my accuracy improved and I learned to shoot with both eyes open. I tried the eyepatch thing, but that was somewhat uncomfortable and aggravating so I just toughed it out until I got used to eyes open. Another excuse for target practice... :D :D
 
I helped a friend with the same problem

I think that one of the problems is how old you are. If your some what over 40 like he and I am the teachers when we were little and if they were right handed diddnt know how to teach children that were left handed, how to write,,,, so by gosh! there going to learn right handed no mater what there strong hand it.
That was true in his case and it turned him in to a right handed person, but his eyes remaind left eye dominant.
The easy way I was shown to find out which eye dominent you are is to hold your index finger of one hand up and align it to somthing in the distance with both eyes open.
With out moving your hand or your head close one eye at a time. The one that stays in line is your dominant eye.
 
:) Low Key's method is the quickest and easiest to use. You can reinforce it by moving your hands to your face while continuing to look at that, 'spot on the wall'. The same thing can be done with any tube held in front of your face, too.

It's not the end of the world if you should discover that you're right-handed and left-eye dominant. As things turn out, the right side of the brain has more, 'natural aiming ability' than the left side. If you're able to overcome the uncomfortable feeling of holding a pistol in your left-hand, you might be surprised to discover that you actually shoot better this way than shifting your head or forcing yourself to blink and use your right-eye.

A shotgun really should be mounted on the same shoulder as your dominant eye. Rifles too, except a bolt can be tough to operate; so you might want to use another type of action. :cool:
 
Hi, Erehwesle. Relax. It's not the end of the world. Glasses on, relax and shoot. Sounds like you're getting all worked up for no good reason. Focus on the front sight, look through the rear sight, even a 'U' or 'V' shaped rear sight and sit the black on top of the front sight. Concentrate on nothing else.
"...I can get good accuracy..." That's what matters. How you do it doesn't. Relax and follow rule Number One. If it works, don't fix it. Relax and shoot the way that works for you. Shooting is not an exact science. It's supposed to be fun.
 
I'm a "right-handed" person who is left eye dominant. Like the post above, I probably should have been a left-hander, but the teacher put the pencil in my right hand and that was that (I have terrible penmanship by the way). I figured out early on (Cub Scouts) that I was a left-handed shot. Therefore, I have always fired rifles and shotguns from my left shoulder and I now carry handguns on my left side. It is actually not such a bad thing. Since I'm used to shooting left-handed, that feels the most comfortable. However, if I have to shoot with my right hand, I'm decently accurate also (probably since I still write with my right hand). Maybe I should get matching 1911's and carry bilaterally :D
 
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