eye dominance

tombread

New member
Regarding dominant eye aiming: I am right handed but left eye dominant. I typically hold with my strong side hand and close my left (dominant) eye. I haven't practiced shooting with my left hand to any extent. (And when shooting a rifle I will necessarily continue shutting my left eye.) How important is eye dominance, especially when it doesn't match up with your strong side hold?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tombread:
Regarding dominant eye aiming: I am right handed but left eye dominant. I typically hold with my strong side hand and close my left (dominant) eye. I haven't practiced shooting with my left hand to any extent. How important is eye dominance, especially when it doesn't match up with your strong side hold?[/quote]

I'm the same way...right handed, left eye dominant.
A friend of mine suggested I try left handed shooting. It helped me immensly. I suggest you give it a try
 
I too am right handed and left eye dominant. The range owner suggested I be aware of how I brought the gun up to my line of sight. "Just a little to the left if you're left eye dominant."
 
Olympic Training Center adviseis to switch to the domance eye side. Have had very good luck training junior shooters this way.
 
I'm also right-handed/left-eyed.

When shooting handguns, I cant (lean) the pistol to the left about 10-15 degrees. Just enough to put the sights in front of my left eye. Works in either Weaver or Isoceles.

In Weaver, you can also lay your cheek onto your bicep to bring the left eye behind the sights.

When shooting longarms, I try to have an optical sight mounted on the weapon. It helps tremendously.

Hope that helps.

LawDog
 
And, I, too, am right handed and left-eye dominant. For target shooting, I use my right hand for shooting and close the right eye. For combat shooting, it is both eyes on the front sight/target aiming for center mass.
Opposite handed/eyed does have an advantage in golf at least. Jack Nicklaus is r.h & l. e.dominant. P.S.: easy way to check your eye dominance, roll a piece of paper, extend it in your hands the length of your arms viewing something in the distance; bring the roll in all the way -- it will come to your stronger eye.
 
It's nice to know other people have the same problem. Unfortunatly my left eye is so dominant that I can't close just that eye. My doctor has me doing alot of exercise's with my right eye to relieve some of the left eye's dominance. Shooting rifle's is impossible unless I have a scope.
 
Many, many thanks for the responses. Now I am anxious to try more weak-side shooting, canting the pistol to the left, and shooting with right eye closed. It seems there's no easy solution for shooting longarms, beyond the impractical installation of optical sights on everything...or learning to shoot rifles lefty, which is unlikely at my age (though I am going to give it a try).
An easy test for eye dominance is to make a small window with your two hands at arms length and bring it toward your nose; it will end up over one eye or the other. I read about this in a shooter's guide several nights ago and said "Eureka, now I know why I don't shoot better."
 
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