Right handed, left eye dominant

[Ohioan]

I'm aware that you should keep both eyes open due to situational awareness and all that jazz....

I'm teaching my girlfriend to shoot. She's left eye dominant. She's right handed. Do I have her shoot right handed but center the gun in front of her left eye? This is what we did yesterday. You can tell a BIG difference when she was shooting with her right eye compared to her left.


She was a volunteer firefighter/EMT at one point in time. She's a nursing student now and work at a hospital. She talks about how guns make her nervous. Her job is to save lives, and the gun is designed to take lives. The power she holds in her hand scares her. I've talked to her about how cars are just as dangerous. And are capable in the wrong hands to do a lot more damage than guns. And that if carrying a gun, you're refusing not to be a victim which is your God given right. Still, they make her nervous.

But, she's a pretty good shot for being new to it all.... I was just wandering about the whole eye dominance thing...

thanks for your replies.

 

[lawson4]

I have the same problem as your GF. I shoot right-handed and hold the sights nearly in the center of my body. I turn my head slightly (and tilt it slightly) to the right so my eye lines up with the sights. It works well for me. I'm not talking about a significant tilt or turn, its fairly subtle.
Hope this helps.

lawson4

 

[Thylacine]

Using rifles, just have her shoot left handed. It is much less tiring than trying to twist and squirm around to get your left eye lined up with sights when you put a rifle to the wrong shoulder. You try shooting left handed using your right eye and see how you like it.

 

[mek42]

My wife is the same. I've suggested that she shoot left handed. I figure for someone who's never shot before handedness is training more than anything else. She doesn't have her pistol permit yet (NY) so rifle is all that we have done.

On the converse though, I am right handed / right eye dominant and when I practice pistol from the left hand I still use my right eye - I just drift the pistol over a little - with my left wrist at a slight angle to my arm rather than straight like when shooting right handed and my arm extended from the shoulder so that my left hand ends up in directly in front of my right pectoralis major muscle. However all of my pistol shooting is done from a one handed bullseye stance - I can't hit anything if I try to hold it with two hands.

Hope this helps!

 

[HKUSP45C]

I have heard/read that you can train your eye dominance to swap. I think I was told that by wearing a patch over your dominant eye for a few hours a day that your brain would gradually make the change naturally. Is there any truth to this? I have the same problem and just started shooting rifles. My lack of coordination using my left hand for anything more complex than scratching my butt makes the ability to change eye dominance desirable to me too.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has first hand experience or even "knows a guy who's barbers nephew did it."

I'd also love to hear a "well, anatomically speaking it's impossible and here's why ..." rebuttal.

 

[Ohioan]

I know if you wear an eye patch over one eye, it keeps the eye ready for night vision and increases your night vision. (See: Mythbusters, Pirate Edition).

 

[GooseGestapo]

1. Forget the eye patch. It was tried on me when I was young, it didn't work.
2. Learn to shoot with the dominant eye. It is MUCH easier to teach a new shooter to use the existing condition. It's NOT a handicap, it's actually an advantage. It makes Left handed shooting much easier for a right handed/left dominant eye person than a right eye/right handed person.

Many outstanding shooters have had this condition, notably Jeff Cooper.

I shoot a handgun equally well right or left handed, but use the left eye.
(I'm a PPC HighMaster class shooter with some minor national records)

I shoot a long gun left handed. Oddly enough I don't own a strickly left handed firearm, however my favorite ones could be described as "ambidextrous". Examples are lever action rifles, and a SxS shotgun with tang safety. I have equiped my several Remington 870's with left-handed safetys, as well as an AR type rifle.

Actually, its the safetys that cause a left handed shooter issues, with operation of a bolt on a bolt action requiring "different" operation technique.

For the bolt action, I prefer to use my right hand to operate the bolt. With a light rifle (the ones I prefer, obviously), I operate the the bolt with the rifle still shouldered. for "heavier" ones, I operate with the stock under the left shoulder,and remount the rifle for each shot. It's not as "slow" as you might think. On one occasion, I used a .22Hornet to take down 4 deer in a field with four rapid consecutive shots. On another occasion, 4 with my .257Roberts. I usually don't like doing this though,as it takes half the night to dress all the deer !!!!

The key is developing technique and......practice, practice, practice.

 

[HKUSP45C]

I saw that episode, frankly, it was fascinating. My problem is with guns and eye dominance though. Navigating a friggate's store and stabbing bad pirates ... not so much

 

[Linda]

My wife is the same. I've suggested that she shoot left handed.

Rifle shooting, sure. But we are still talking pistol shooting here I believe? Please don't suggest to her to shoot left handed pistol.

I am right handed, left eye dominate. After a couple minutes of instruction from a pistol expert who has the same "problem", it made a world of difference for me.

Weaver stance, right leg back, which comes very naturally to me, chin pointed in the direction of your right shoulder. This centers the gun to your body. This way I am eye balling the sights with my left eye while having the gun centered.

I have found while instructing my CCW classes, that there are far more women who are right handed/left eye dominate than men.

 

[mek42]

Rifle shooting, sure. But we are still talking pistol shooting here I believe? Please don't suggest to her to shoot left handed pistol.

In all seriousness, what would be the harm in training left handed pistol usage? For a new shooter, trigger control is going to be a completely new form of motor control - wouldn't it be equally difficult to learn for either hand?

I've also noticed that I shoot more or less equally from a bullseye stance at 50' with either hand (and I can't hit the broadside of a large barn at the same range if I attempt to use a traditional two handed grip*). This experience has reinforced my idea that the fundamentals of trigger control and breathing are more important than which hand you use. Though I would definitely agree that one hand should be chosen until progress with the basic fundamentals of shooting is made before training with both hands.

I'm not trying to be argumentative here. I am wondering if I am somehow either ignorant of something or misunderstanding something.

I will also wholeheartedly admit that I have no place trying to teach someone a two handed shooting style since I cannot do it myself.

Thank you!

* For some reason, using my non-shooting hand to grasp my shooting arm between wrist and elbow like the Alliance agent does in the first Firefly episode actually does help my shooting, but any attempt to place both hands on the frame of a pistol completely destroys my ability to place lead on target.

 

[F4GIB]

I'm right-handed with left-eye dominance.

I shoot handguns left-eyed, right-handed, and long guns left-eyed, left-handed. I'm very accurate with both. It's just a matter of practice.

 

[Darthbauer]

Right handed and also left eye dominant. With pistols i shoot right handed with my left eye. With rifles im alot better with a left handed rifle and using my left eye. The only problem is finding a good left handed rifle.

 

[BADUNAME13]

I am Right handed and left eyed.

Pistols just go to the left about 2 inches more than 'normal' and I shoot rifles Left handed.

 

[10-Ring]

I'm the same (left eye dominant, right handed) and keep both eyes open...it makes target acquisition & follow up shots faster...I don't know exactly why, but it just makes shooting easier

 

[Tom609]

Pistols right-handed and rifle left-handed. It doesn't take long to adapt, and easy when just starting out.

 

[4D5]

Cross dominance is more common in women

I found that cross dominance is quite common in women. Having shot a lot of shotgun it was quite evident when teaching someone. The gunsmith I use also said it was quite common.

With sighted guns (pistol/rifle) it's pretty easy to adjust. I'd also recommend shooting pistol with the dominant hand and domiant eye, eventhough having to kind of "cross over" when sighting.

However, with shotguns (no rear sight) the eye is the rear sight, and it being a pointing kind of shooting, it is imperative that the dominant eye be used. If not, the person will be "cross firing" and will never hit anything with a shotgun. With shotgunning it's just to hard to remember to close dominant eye, plus it tires a person to constantly be squinting/closing the non-dominant eye.

Previous GF had this problem, but fortunately before she had done much shotgunning, I taught her to shoot left handed. Suprisingly she did quite well and handled the shotgun well left handed.

 

[rocinante]

I went to an introductory skeet shooting class Saturday and one of the ladies determined she was rightie left eye dominant. Don't know if she followed instructions but for a first time shooter she did really well.

 

[Broke]

I'm another right-handed left-eye dominant person.... in central Ohio

I shoot handguns right handed, sighting with my left eye.

I shoot long guns both ways, right handed with my bad eye, or left handed with my good eye.

I'm a poor shot, so it doesn't matter either way to me

Broke

 

[Leitmotif]

Also RHLE cross-dominant. I shoot Weaver with my head canted a little. Works for me. Bonus is I'm equally accurate with both hands one-handed, but I have trouble using left hand dominant in a two-handed grip. Left hand is a little slower on sight reset than right as well.

OT: anyone here ever shoot dual handguns?

 

[karz10]

Where's PAX??? I don't have her site on this computer!!!

Oh well, I know she had a take on things like this on her site. Maybe she can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe she has a whole series on various stances, and how one's eye dominance may come into play.

I finally got my wife to the range yesterday, after building up to it for a few weeks. Bought our first HG a little over a month ago, Glock 19. She has become more nervous about things in general sinc having a child, heights, driving, damn near anything that moves, and while she's shot guns before, a brother in law of ours (before we met) took her shooting several years ago, she said she didn't have a problem then, but now gets butterflies around the gun, despite my methodical approach to researching, purchasing, and safely handling and practicing with the weapon, she's still been a little gun shy so to speak...

At any rate, she did go to the range, and would shoot a few rounds, then take a break, shoot a few more rounds, etc. Before we started, I discussed safety rules, parts of the gun, had her practice racking the slide empty, dry firing, loading the magazine, loading the gun, racking the slide to load, and all the general stuff I could think of... I asked her to hold the gun empty, like she was going to shoot, and helped her w/ her grip a little, and that's when it came up that she said she wanted to see the sights w/ her left eye, despite being right handed.

Then from memory the three stances that I could remember, the weaver, the chapman (which works best for me), and the isosceles, which I *think* pax suggested on her site that many women liked, due to the extended arms helping absorb recoil (compared to weaver where some women lacked the strength to keep it steady for the shot, or to potentially absorb recoil), and also mentioned that the isosceles was ideal for left eye dominant people, because the gun is basically out in front of you, making it easy for a cross dominant eye.

Again, I'm not stating a fact, just what I remember reading. It seemed to make her feel comforable enough to shoot. I did notice that she was still aiming left prior to shooting. She ended up shooting right where she was aiming, which was a little high and to the left. She wasn't jerking it, and she knew to pull the long trigger til it was at the firing point, but if she did line up well, she would drift left before firing. I worked with her to dry fire some more, and she admitted that she was anticipating the bang, and said despite the hearing protection, thought it was too loud. (Note we were wearing identical hearing protection, I tested them before taking her w/ me, I had no problem) So I said next time we'll take plugs and muffs, maybe that will help.

She did a little better aiming (from what I could tell) dry firing. She was still hitting the target at 7 yds, but in the targets right shoulder. Not bad for first time out in years, and w/ a 9 MM, I suppose.

So, I guess my post is three-fold.

* Offer info/reiterate what I thought I remembered reading about the isosceles being good for women, and for cross dominant eyes...

* Hope that PAX or someone w/ a link to her site can chime in on that subject

* Hope someone relates to what I've tried so far w/ the wife, and has additional suggestions to help w/ her current results (although I'm sure some additional practice will do wonders in and of itself)

* Oh, and lastly to thank the forum, and places like PAX's site for giving me enough to go on, to at least get my wife started. If I hadn't read so much, I don't know what I would have said to her to get her started, certainly nothing as intelligent as I was able to muster up from all the info I've absorbed in the last month or so

Regards,

Karz

PS, this is all in preperation for her to take a CCW class next weekend. We got a couple deal on the class, and wanted her to be able to transport safely back and forth over state lines (we live on a border w/ very different laws, unless you have CCW, which simplifies things) so we can switch cars w/out issue. Although I hope she'll carry one day, for the time being, I want her to pass that class, and I'm sure she'll get some more training in that class too, which is another reason to take it.

 

[Damien45]

When you shoot off hand, how do you do it? I have a tendancy to tilt the sights to my eye, instead of my head. So while I am lined straight, the gun is at a somewhat 45 degree angle (might be exagerating the angle a little) to where the sites fall into my site picture. You could try that.