Dave McCracken
Moderator In Memoriam
Lots of us older shooters that learned to shoot without the enormous benefits of good instruction learned any which way. And lots of us close one eye when we do. There's a couple reasons for this.
We didn't know any better.
We shot rifles too.
We had cross dominance problems.
This last has some relevance to me. The nuns at St Agnes didn't want me writing lefthanded, so they tied my left hand to the desk and MADE me write with my right. To this day I have horrible handwriting and problems with authority.
A quick check for cross dominance, which is when your master eye and hand are on opposite sides....
Look up at the corner of the room most diagonal to you, the one where the ceiling and walls come together. Point to it with your firing hand. Close the eye on that side.If your finger moves away from that corner, fine. If it stays where it was,you're cross dominant.
Rifle and handgun shooters have two sights on their tools, and the cross dominance problem is not as severe an issue as it is when shotguns enter the picture. We know the eye is the rear sight on the shotgun. If that eye is an inch or so over off the top line of the shotgun, we 'll shoot very badly.I did.
There's a couple remedies for this, though nothing's perfect.
One, shoot from the other side. For tyros, this is the preferred fix.
Two, close the other eye. This will MAKE you use the proper eye, but stereoscopic vision is lost, and there may something happening over to the blind side you need to know about. That could be a straggler quail or The Republican Guard.
Three, switch the eye over. A lot of folks are not strongly dominant with either eye, and focussing on using the proper eye will train you into better habits. This is what I did,though it took decades. Now I shoot with both eyes open, and I'm shooting better than ever.
Hope this helps, sing out if there's questions....
We didn't know any better.
We shot rifles too.
We had cross dominance problems.
This last has some relevance to me. The nuns at St Agnes didn't want me writing lefthanded, so they tied my left hand to the desk and MADE me write with my right. To this day I have horrible handwriting and problems with authority.
A quick check for cross dominance, which is when your master eye and hand are on opposite sides....
Look up at the corner of the room most diagonal to you, the one where the ceiling and walls come together. Point to it with your firing hand. Close the eye on that side.If your finger moves away from that corner, fine. If it stays where it was,you're cross dominant.
Rifle and handgun shooters have two sights on their tools, and the cross dominance problem is not as severe an issue as it is when shotguns enter the picture. We know the eye is the rear sight on the shotgun. If that eye is an inch or so over off the top line of the shotgun, we 'll shoot very badly.I did.
There's a couple remedies for this, though nothing's perfect.
One, shoot from the other side. For tyros, this is the preferred fix.
Two, close the other eye. This will MAKE you use the proper eye, but stereoscopic vision is lost, and there may something happening over to the blind side you need to know about. That could be a straggler quail or The Republican Guard.
Three, switch the eye over. A lot of folks are not strongly dominant with either eye, and focussing on using the proper eye will train you into better habits. This is what I did,though it took decades. Now I shoot with both eyes open, and I'm shooting better than ever.
Hope this helps, sing out if there's questions....