Kungfurabbit Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm left eye dominant and right handed. New to the shooting sports and have been training with a friend on several different drills. Ive seen multiple postings on keeping both eyes open while shooting and have a hard time accomplishing that. I have to lean my head to the right a bit for pistol and close the left to use my scope. Anyone have any experience in overcoming this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyOne Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Some have put a piece of transparent tape over the left lense of their safety glasses. You can still "see", it's just not clear and it supposedly forces you to open your right eye...I'm the same, left eye/right hand...the tape just annoyed me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onepocket Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 I use the tape and that is what works best for me. Use chap stick first on the front of your glasses, you only need a little. (Same with the tape). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooterDrew Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 I'm also left eye dominant and right handed... I've just learned to draw and index to my left eye. I have not had much issue dealing with this. In my dry fire I've made a point to work on indexing the gun to my dominant eye and I don't really see how it's any different with either eye. Now shooting iron sights on a rifle or shotgun, which I also shoot right handed, is a little slower. But with pistol sights no big deal. If there is one small difference its probably that I have a slight bend at the wrist on my right hand allowing the gun to move over a little to index correctly, but I don't think that has any effect on anything important. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Dave Sevigny is left eye dominant. Larry Vickers is left eye dominant. Which is why he shoots rifles left handed. Keep at it, some people can't do both eyes open. The occluded eye thing is ok, but you really need to get your eyes examined and see if you have small cataract or really bad astigmatism which is making you tilt your head. It helps to have a trainer or friend shoot with you. Takes a while. You will get it. Many left eye dominant shooters shoot rifles right handed. There are only a few scopes that will allow good both eyes open shooting-Trijicon, Accupoints, (Eotechs-but I wouldn't buy one of those), and maybe some others that some people like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Weird how often this comes up. I have been left handed and right eye dominate all my life, never gave it any thought, I just shoot. Made it to GM in 1998 and again never gave it any thought. Point is...if you just press on and not concern yourself with this (non) issue you too can shoot well enough to make GM. It does not take any special effort to place pistol sights in front of the master eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebwake Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 It takes some practice, but i slightly squint my left eye. Just enough for the right to be totally dominant. I have ambi-whatever eyes. With a VERY slight left preference. When i shot trap i did the tape trick. But with uspsa i do not as i dont wear tape over my glasses at work so i dont want to force a habit when i counts. So i learned the slight squint. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kungfurabbit Posted February 22, 2016 Author Share Posted February 22, 2016 Thanks for the input fellas. I'm not sure it'll have a big impact with pistol shooting since a slight shift to the left to aim left eyed feels natural since it's how I've been shooting forever. Was more curious about the rifle shooting really. A Google search turned up several different articles with different techniques and as stated before, I'm very new to the sport. Taking most of what I find on google with a bit of skepticism, I figured the amount of experience on the forums here would be an outstanding resource to tap into. Two articles I'd read said cross dominant shooters groups tend to be larger, and high left. Which seems to be true with my groups for now as well. I've probably shot more in the last few months than in my life, but have yet to participate in a match due to work schedule. I'd seen quite a few people quote "practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent" and wanted to break any bad habits or poor technique caused by cross dominance asap. And possibly find a training technique to help reign in my groups a bit as well. I frequently train with a friend that got me interested in the sport that's helped with other aspects of my technique like grip, draw and reloads. He thinks the cross dominance is no big deal, and says really the only time to have both eyes open on the rifle is short range targets and that I wouldn't need to learn shooting left handed for that specific situation. It's something I'll have to check out next time I go to the range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aceyduce Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I use a darker lens in my glasses to push dominance to the eye I want. I'm left eye dominant right handed. Shoot handguns right handed and long guns lefty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glock26Toter Posted February 22, 2016 Share Posted February 22, 2016 I'm also cross eye dominant. For a while, I developed a head-lean as well. The best thing I did was to get rid of that and just draw up to the dominant eye and not move my head at all. Work on just drawing to the dominant eye and shooting. I personally feel it's imperative that you have both eyes open and that's the real issue here. Instead of fighting which eye you are using, the most important thing is to shoot with both eyes open. I think it's a huge component of successful transitions, and shooting fundamentals. Maybe some successful M/GM one eye shooters will prove me wrong as this is just my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nebwake Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Read this- http://pistol-training.com/articles/vision Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 One of several GM's that reduce the vision input from the non dominant eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 GM Production. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 We think about this topic too much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kungfurabbit Posted February 23, 2016 Author Share Posted February 23, 2016 I don't see any of them shooting long guns... Which was what my primary concern is, as stated in my previous post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.E. Kelley Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) Long guns...you have two options...both work...pick one. Reduce the vision in the eye you don't want to use or use the commensurate shoulder and eye. I am right eyed and left handed. I shoot pistols left and long guns right If I were left eyed and right handed I would shot pistols right handed and long guns left handed (left shoulder and eye) Edited February 23, 2016 by P.E. Kelley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zoomy Posted February 23, 2016 Share Posted February 23, 2016 (edited) I don't see any of them shooting long guns... Which was what my primary concern is, as stated in my previous post. I first started shooting long guns at 7yo and naturally shot right handed. I knew back then that I was cross dominant (right handed left eye dominant). I never started shooting left handed and never had a problem. Started shooting pistol at 9yo and automatically used my left eye. This doesn't mean everyone who is cross dominant will take to it this naturally but I think shooting a rifle from your strong side is important. Edited February 23, 2016 by Zoomy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stick Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Im left handed and right eye dominant. I shoot pistol left handed, but I grew up shooting rifle right handed since everyone in my family was right handed. I just blur out the left lens so my dominant eye can see the pistol sights with both eyes open. if i dont blur out the lens, i cant focus correctly.. fortunately i only have this problem with pistol since I shoot rifle right handed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPatton Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 Right handed and left eye dominate. Figured it out at around age 5 with a BB gun and became a left handed shooter. I found out what a dominate eye was much later. Shooting is the only thing I can do left handed. Now a pistol feel weird in my right hand and a rifle on my right shoulder feels even more weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kungfurabbit Posted February 24, 2016 Author Share Posted February 24, 2016 Learning to shoot long guns left handed is going to be a chore. But something I'm definitely going to start working on. I'm sure the benefits of being an ambidextrous shooter with long guns will extend beyond the eye dominance issue. I've only shouldered a rifle to the left once or twice, any suggestions or recommendations as to how to start training this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RPatton Posted February 24, 2016 Share Posted February 24, 2016 I would start by doing EVERYTHING with the rifle as if I were left handed. Wrap some duct tape around the right hand. That will get you started. Getting a sight picture should come easily. It's the rest of you that will have to be trained. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rangerdug Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Learning to shoot long guns left handed is going to be a chore. But something I'm definitely going to start working on. I'm sure the benefits of being an ambidextrous shooter with long guns will extend beyond the eye dominance issue. I've only shouldered a rifle to the left once or twice, any suggestions or recommendations as to how to start training this? Well, you got two choices as Kelly eluded to... You can continue to be a marginal right handed rifle shooter, or you can go to work and exercise the proper fundamentals as a left handed rifle shooter. If you want a RH solution: patch your Left eye, until your brain establishes right eye dominance, either they require time. The patch by the way, is painful FYI.Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kungfurabbit Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 Yeah, I'm leaning towards learning left handed shooting. My left eye also has better vision than the right. So until I get corrective surgery, which is still a year down the road, I think learning left handed will be the better option. It's going to take time and work to make it feel natural, but as long as I'm practicing my fundamentals correctly then I should get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianKr Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Would moving to an optical sight help? Yeah, It's a tough situation, but it can be changed. I don't know if it's age or just cussedness, but I was strongly left eye dominant and a right hand shooter, far more common than one might think, and today I keep my left eye open and shoot right eyed and right handed. The new micro red dot on the handgun did help with that. I simply keep the handgun situated for my right eye and the left eye has nothing to do as far as sighting the gun. But shooting left handed might actually be a better option. Many years ago I shattered my right wrist and I was told that I would never have full use of it. I love shooting and not being able to shoot was unthinkable. So I began handling my firearms and dry firing and shooting lefty while my right hand was still in the erector set. I found one thing out during that. I'm a better shot lefty than righty. I no longer own the skill of shooting lefty, but it is possible to learn. You do have solutions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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