Left Eye Dominant And Right-Handed

My epiphany came after many years of shooting when I decided to shoot tournament archery and had to use a scope on the bow. All of a sudden my world changed. I'd never realized that I was shooting anything any differently than anyone else. Suddenly I was faced with the reality of having to buy a left handed bow and build up all that muscle in my left arm. Fortunately, target bows are much lighter poundage than the 72 pound hunting bow I'd started out with.

I have no problem shooting bolt action and pumps, but I'm about to purchase an AR. After many weeks of constant research I decided to go with the Stag left handed model 5 in the 6.8 SPC. I don't think I want THAT much brass flying across my face to the right side.
 
Try this

HALF squint your left eye and shoot with your right eye and right handed

This will force your right eye to take the dominant position and also
give you a bit of needed depth perception for your sight picture
(Lacking from the FULL squint)

I couldnt shoot skeet at all
Click to expand...
You're absolutely right, dean, this works well. But for some of us it doesn't come "automatically," that is you have to work at it. I've tried it, it works, but it doesn't come quickly. My right eye will close if a pistol is snatched up quickly. It would probably take many years of range time for this to be second nature for things like competition or, Heaven forbid, real trouble.

Do you still have to work at it, or does it come automatically for you?
 
A lot of conventional pistol shooters have found training themselves to shoot left-handed is a good exercise just because you don't have flinches or other bad habits drilled into the weak side. I am not cross-dominant, but I find my left finger is easier to isolate from other minor muscle and tendon movements in the palm, so this is another advantage.

One tool that should be mentioned in more detail is the pistol shooter's hat. This is a baseball style hat with a very long bill and flaps that dangle from either side of the bill. The flaps have Velcro strategically placed so you can position the flaps to form a tunnel for an eye to look through if you choose to.

The best batters in baseball are often cross-dominant. Dominant hand behind the bat, dominant eye on the pitcher. There seem to be enough of you on this board to get at least a softball league started.
 
I find that enough practice with this becomes habitual. Just like holding your breath before shooting a rifle-same concept-I actually took a day to refresh my rifle skills and noticed I didn't need to force myself to hold my breath, as it came completely natural because of much practice.

The same applies to cross dominant shooter; I have the same issue-left handed and right eye dominant-and I overcome this by just closing my right eye when shooting pistols or rifles. Works well for me.
 
I had to deal with this problem for years until one day I had enough. I decided that I either had to learn to shoot primarily off handed or close one eye. No matter what all the tactical dudes say about closing one eye, I decided to do that. I shoot left handed but have a right dominant eye. I began to close the right eye and force the left eye to do its job. My shooting was leaps and bounds better the first try.

Later I discovered I could shoot at close range with both eyes open (using the right eye). It does cause a slightly head tilt/arm angled shooting style but its fine at close ranges. At longer ranges (beyond) 10yards, I would need to close the dominant eye and use a traditional shooting stance.

I do not use the cowboy looking stance.( feet spread side by side and legs slightly bent)

I use more of the weak side foot forward, strong side foot slightly back pointed at a 45deg angle away from body, leaning only slightly forward.
 
cross dominant

Being cross-dominant is not a big problem in shooting, but it is hard for anyone who is NOT cross-dominant to understand, since there is no practical way to duplicate the phenomenon.

I am right handed and have a left master eye. I shoot handguns with the right hand and long guns off the right shoulder. With handguns, I use the left eye to sight with. (Out to 10 or 12 yards I have trained myself to shoot with both eyes open -- farther out than that and I have to close the weak eye.)

I use a Chapman stance (modified Weaver) that better brings the front sight of the handgun into alignment with my left master eye. I slightly shift my head to line my left eye up with the sights.

When shooting long guns, I close the left eye. This does cut down on peripheral vision to some extent, but I find it works a lot better for me than trying to shoot off the left shoulder, although I do practice bilateral shooting out to about 25 yards with both handguns and long guns because one never knows the precise nature of any situation one might find themselves in.

I do know some shooters with a cross dominant master eye who have learned to switch hands successfully.

I've taught police recruits at the local regional police academy off and on since 1988 and I have observecd that it was fairly common to have a left handed shooter who had a right master eye who also shot right handed, even though they used the left hand to write with. I suspect that circumstance forces left handed people to develop a greater degree of ambidextrous skills, simply because almost all firearms and many other implements are designed for use by right handed operators.

With my particular vision circumstance, I cannot use occluded eye gunsights with both eyes open.

I have found a number of people who cannot close a single eye independently. This condition pretty much requires that all weapons be fired using the hand/shoulder that corresponds to their dominant eye, regardless of which hand has greater dexterity.

Being cross dominant is not a big problem in most circumstances, but everybody's vision and level of physical skill varies. Experimentation will usually find the best option to select.
 
Not much to add as there was lots of good info in the posts.

I do want to mention that I am legally blind in my right eye (20/200) but shoot all my handguns right handed. Using my left eye, of course. I've had no problem at all shooting fast & tight groups.

On the other hand, I shoot all my long arms left handed. And I prefer right handed models instead of left hand specific models. I just grew up shooting bolt actions by using my right hand to work the action while my left hand stayed on the grip / trigger area. I tried shooting a left handed model a few times and it was a really odd feeling!
 
I'm the same way. When I bring the gun up from low ready to aiming, I instinctively turn my head a little to the right and line up the sights with my left eye. I don't close my right eye, but I don't focus with it. I guess I've always been this way.
 
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