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Eye Cross Dominance - Best Answer?


Ian_

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Reasonably new to pistol shooting, have been shotgunning my whole life (25+ yrs). I am left eye dominate, right handed. With my shotgun, I simple put a blur patch on my shooting glasses and shoot with two eyes open, works great! I recently discovered that with the present state of my vision and the different sighting requirements of the handgun, I need to wear my reading glasses to shoot the pistol well. As you may have guessed, my reading glasses do not have a blur patch on them, nor are they safety glass or of a good size to fully protect my eyes. I plan on ordering some new lenses for my shooting glasses with a prescription in them, so that solves part of the problem, is a blur patch the best option with a pistol? I find with my reading glasses I have to close my left eye.

Thoughts? beyond the obvious of learning to shoot left handed..

Very best,

Ian

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you dont need to shoot left handed, just bring the gun up in front of your left eye instead if your right.

it involved about a 1/4 inch twist of the wrists. if you dont already it helps to have you shoulders square on to the target.

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If you were a new shooter, I'd do everything within my power to make you a left-handed pistol shooter, based on some research done by Bill Rogers on reactive shooting. I think that we all agree that shooting is a visual activity, so a lot of our decision making should be based on that, not which hand you sign checks with.

The left eye (right hemisphere of the brain) and left hand (also right brain) will work together better and develop faster in tandem, rather than having the right hemisphere picking up visual cues and then having the left brain command execution based on those visual cues.

It's really not that off-putting, if you look at it. TGO is a natural lefty, but shoots right-handed. He's right-eye dominant (and it didn't hurt that he really only had access to right-handed holsters as a young man).

As far as glasses go, I found a company (www.speert.com) that specializes in reading glasses (down to +0.50 diopter; up to +6.00). Depending on the style, they offer good coverage and the lenses are all polycarbonate. They even have some big sizes for big-headed folks like me. The Model 753XL is what I got, but the plain 753 would be appropriate for normal folks. For $11.99 each, you can put all the Scotch MagicTape on them that you want.

A blur patch is a usable option, as long as you keep the blur in the upper portion of the lens (it covers the view when your head is slightly forward while shooting, but you can look under it when loading magazines or talking to people). It also should be highly-translucent. You want a lot of light going through it, just diffused. That's why I always recommend Scotch MagicTape. If the tape is too dark, that eye will receive less light than the other. One pupil will want to dilate as the other is wanting to constrict. That's an express ticket for degraded vision in the un-occluded eye or, in worst-case scenarios, a migraine....

Edited by Braxton1
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Thanks for the comments all, next trip out to the range, I'll try the obvious (that I missed) and simple try using my left eye.

Braxton, sounds like we both have very average head sizes (wink), I have Decots right now, wide frame and can get them in any prescription I want, even bifocals and upside down bifocals (they recommend for some pistol shooting situations, but I'm not there yet). I can then play with and without the blur patches and figure things out...I do then of course remove excuses for poor performance..

Very best,

Ian

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If you were a new shooter, I'd do everything within my power to make you a left-handed pistol shooter,

I had an experienced shooter try to do this to me and it was a total waste of effort for me. Putting a blurry dot on your off eye worked fine and if you are not inclined already to be ambidextrous, much easier and faster IMO. I use a sandblaster to lightly blast the spot I need a blinder on for my left eye.

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+1 on shooting left handed. I got to Master shooting right handed and weak eye. Now I can see (no pun intended) that I will probably have to switch to south paw if I want to make GM. Only now it will be even harder with all the right handed shooting experience. In retrospect, I wish I had just sucked it up and started shootin left handed from the beginning. Now I have a difficult journey ahead of me to switch.

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+1 on shooting left handed. I got to Master shooting right handed and weak eye. Now I can see (no pun intended) that I will probably have to switch to south paw if I want to make GM. Only now it will be even harder with all the right handed shooting experience. In retrospect, I wish I had just sucked it up and started shootin left handed from the beginning. Now I have a difficult journey ahead of me to switch.

Why don't you just tilt your head to your strong eye? I can shoot either eye right handed and do not notice a difference on which one I use, but both eye see ok. I made GM shooting with the whole left lens taped over with black tape.

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I shoot right handed, but am also left eye dominant. I simply use my left eye to shoot pistols. I try not to move my head, but instead position my body so the pistol is in front of my left eye. With a target straight in front of me, I tend to use a modified weaver stance instead of isosceles, with my right elbow locked. This shifts the pistol to my left eye, and I have no issues getting 'confused' with which eye I should be using.

I didn't want to force myself to shoot left handed, because while I do a lot of things left handed, (batting, golfing, hockey), I was already used to shooting right handed.

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I won't have range time till the weekend where I plan to try the left eye focus and see. New lenses are being made so that will help too...

Regret we all have it...I was partially ambedextrious when I was younger, could hit and swing both ways and can still do stuff left handed that most one handed folks can't, but I find I have ingrained muscle memory that is getting harder and harder all the time to change, guess that's part of getting old? I know switching for Shotgun and rifle just isn't going to happen. I will experiment with the handgun though. Luckily I stumbled on a great teacher here and so help is around if I need it.

Thanks for all the help!

Ian

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I am left eye dominate, and it never cost me a placement drop at any shooting event other than Sporting clays.

I could pick up 2% in clays with the tape ...But I did not find any joy in using tape on my glasses.

Go with your left eye right hand. I get beat at most every event but not too many shooters get more joy from the shooting than I do.

JF

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I'd say, go the tape route. I've shot trap for a long time and the tape is just more comfortable for me.

2% is way too much to give up in trap shooting :)

BTW, my dominant eye has changed as I aged and I hear it's a common occurrence :)

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Back from a morning at the range....

Tried some of the ideas mentioned....

IMG_0478.jpg

First off I did a series of dot torture using my reading glasses, left eye closed, right eye open. I don't want to play the tape games on my reading glasses as I wear them all day long. I'm typically low and left (G34) with this only being the third time I've done the dot torture...obviously lots of learning ahead of me!

Then I played around with using only my left eye, tried it both eyes open, right eye closed. I found trying both eyes open difficult, basically the sight picture seemed to move around. Could be a practice thing? I seemed to settle into right eye closed, head turned to the side and I shot fine, didn't feel too unnatural, but I did have issues with a 10 yard steel target. 5 yards fine, and 3 yard dot torture O.K,

So for comparison, here is a dot torture I did after 200 rounds, left eye only, right eye closed...

IMG_0479.jpg

And to really give me an idea I shot for group at 3yrds..the target top is where the staple is, so low and left with 2 jerked shots...yes I'm still learning the glock trigger..well still learning...

IMG_0480.jpg

So the questions I'm left with are....

1. Is learning the left eye both eyes open "the way to go"?

2. Should I stay with what I know and just tape the left eye?

3. Should I tape the right eye to get a clearer sight picture from my dominate eye?

4. Will all this be moot in a pressure/stress situation and haunt me?

Thoughts?

Very best,

Ian

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Maybe the glock is the problem and not your eyes... :roflol:

My cross dominance was really bad when I was young, I could not even close my left eye and keep my right open. Now my eye dominance has almost equaled out. I shoot with both eyes open and only squint my left eye just a little on difficult shots. So I do beleive that you shoot right handed without contorting your head and neck but it will take lots of practice both on and off the range.

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I am also right handed and left eye domaniant,I canot close my left eye and hold open my right.I also wear perscription reading glasses,I had a very difficult time shooting a pistol right handed until I found an optometrist who made two pairs of shooting glasses for me.One of the glasses has the perscription in the uper right corner of the left lens,the bottom part of the left lens and the whole other right lens has my distance vision perscription in it.When Iam walking around I look thru the bottom of the lens,when I go to shoot I drop my head so my left eye looks thru the perscription and I see the sights clearly and out of my right eye I see the target clearly.The other pair of glasses has my perscription in the whole part of the left lens and the far away vision in the whole right lens so Iam able to see the target with the right eye and the sights with my left,it takes some geting use too but it works and keeps me shooting right handed.Redhog

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  • 1 month later...

Reasonably new to pistol shooting, have been shotgunning my whole life (25+ yrs). I am left eye dominate, right handed. With my shotgun, I simple put a blur patch on my shooting glasses and shoot with two eyes open, works great! I recently discovered that with the present state of my vision and the different sighting requirements of the handgun, I need to wear my reading glasses to shoot the pistol well. As you may have guessed, my reading glasses do not have a blur patch on them, nor are they safety glass or of a good size to fully protect my eyes. I plan on ordering some new lenses for my shooting glasses with a prescription in them, so that solves part of the problem, is a blur patch the best option with a pistol? I find with my reading glasses I have to close my left eye.

Thoughts? beyond the obvious of learning to shoot left handed..

Very best,

Ian

I have cross eye dominance that I struggled a lot with as a young Marine. I tried shooting left handed with a rifle to compensate but I ended up going back to shooting right handed. Shooting with both eyes open makes a big difference in acquiring targets. It just took some time but after a decade I still shoot rifle, pistol shotgun right handed, both eyes open.

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This was my answer to the problem. Shoot Right handed/Right eyed and practice lots.

I grew up closing my left eye while shooting and it wasn't until two years ago where I opened it up. It was hard at first but no problem now. I think that I just built in a natural point of aim over time over my right eye so now there isn't any confusion. I never tried the "tape" thing. I too find myself squinting my left eye on very long shots, say 4yardsds.

I really don't know how "bad" my cross dominance was? I do golf and bat left handed but write with my right. I imagine swinging left handed had something to do with the Cross Dominance? I don't know.

Maybe the glock is the problem and not your eyes... :roflol:

My cross dominance was really bad when I was young, I could not even close my left eye and keep my right open. Now my eye dominance has almost equaled out. I shoot with both eyes open and only squint my left eye just a little on difficult shots. So I do beleive that you shoot right handed without contorting your head and neck but it will take lots of practice both on and off the range.

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