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Should I switch from Right to Left hand


kmaultsby

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Hello, everyone, I have a little problem and I discovered this after my first USPSA match.  I can't shoot. ?   I have put that in.  I have been shooting IDPA and shot my first USPSA match a couple of weeks ago, a lot of plates and I was all over the place.  I am left eye dominant and right-handed but I can also shoot left-handed.  I have shot in some IDPA  matches left-hand so I guess I am ambidextrous.  Of course, gun handling is a little slower left-handed. The issue is I am more accurate left-handed than right.  Should just do a lot of dry fire left-handed and make a permanent switch?  I am shooting Glock 34 XD9 and XD40 Tactical and XDM 5.25 40. I have attached two pictures.  I took four shows at each target one show represent 3yds 5yds 7yds and 10yds.  The top is the is right-handed left eye and the one on the bottom is left-hand left eye.  Note the right-hand is usually not that good.  I have also done right right-hand which turn out the same as the right-hand left eye.

right-handad.jpg

left-handad.jpg

Edited by kmaultsby
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No, dryfire more and learn to shoot with your right hand while not moving the sights. Practice trigger control and grip gun harder will generally improve accuracy. Also pay attention to where sights lift from when the shot breaks to know where the bullet will have hit the target. I'm not cross dominant, but if it bothers you that much, try that magic dot on your shooting glasses

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A past match director at our club who was also a police officer was in the exact situation you are in except he was not ambidextrous.

He taught himself to shoot left handed. He was one of the best shooters at our club. He also carried while on duty left handed.

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8 hours ago, kmaultsby said:

 gun handling is slower left-handed  BUT  I am more accurate left-handed than right. 

 

Try an El Presidente left and right handed, and count up your HF.

 

Bet you'll be better off shooting right handed …   Let me know  :) 

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I know I'm more accurate generally on weak hand only vs strong hand only. I'm also slower and more deliberate weak hand shooting. That may be the OP's case as well. As Jack said, HF wise you'll probably be better shooting with normally vs switching it up. You'll get there with practice

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I'm cross eye dominant also except I'm Left handed/right eye.  Take it from me, I tried switching also.  It was an epic fail.  Stay with your dominant hand and quit confusing your brain about wanting and trying to switch hands.  If I remember correctly Brian Enos is cross eye dominant also.  If you have a problem with your eyes, magic dots or tape will help correct that.  Just stick with one hand and train.

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For the past many years, I keep reading of left eye vs right eye dominant

and how that confuses people ...

 

I'm sorry, but I don't see the problem …    ?

 

I can shoot left or right hand with both eyes open, and

there is no confusion.

 

What am I missing here ?

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Lucas botkin from t-rex arms is cross eye dominant and has a YouTube on how he does it 

There is also a girl I shoot with that was told to shoot left handed because she was left eye dominant and she did good, but then we were messing around and had her start right handed wick is her dominant hand and had her just turn her head so the gun lined up with her dominant eye and that was it a hole new game for her. She shot better times about 30 percent faster .other then that I can't help much.

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For a right hand shooter with a dominant left eye, some have found that canting the gun/sights slightly towards their dominant left eye seems to help. It might be worth experimenting a bit with.

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I'm cross eye dominant (right hand, left eye). 

 

Just put a small piece of tape on your glasses over your dominant eye.  Make sure the tape is small enough so that it blocks the front sight, but you can see under/around it for movement and reloads. This gives you the benefit of both eyes open for movement/reloads. When the buzzer goes off, you'll never know its there.

 

Edited by gunnerBU
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Not exactly the same thing, but...

 

My fiance is a 'forced righty'. The good Sisters at the Catholic school she attended damn near beat her bloody to make her become right-handed, even though she's a natural lefty. Her handwriting is nothing short of atrocious. After a few times at the range I suggested she try left-handed shooting. Scores went up by a good margin.

 

And more importantly, she wasn't twisting her head around to get her dominant right eye on the sights. Her stance and shooting platform flattened out and became much more comfortable. Slower at first, yes it was. But much more natural.

=================

 

All that said, try both. But if you decide right-handed is the way you want to go, keep your head straight UP. Do not bend you head to the sights. Bring the gun to your dominant eye. I learned to shoot both ways (sounds like a cross-dresser, huh?) in an instructors class, and made sure I kept my head in the same position for both methods.  I'm slower left-handed, but I can do it.

 

**That's probably what was in those videos but I didn't take time to watch them. 

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16 hours ago, DKnoch said:

I know I'm more accurate generally on weak hand only vs strong hand only. I'm also slower and more deliberate weak hand shooting. That may be the OP's case as well. As Jack said, HF wise you'll probably be better shooting with normally vs switching it up. You'll get there with practice

I was shooting from a holster.  I think part of my post got missed.  I have shot lefthanded only in IDPA matches.  I have both lefthanded and righthanded holsters.

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15 hours ago, stick said:

I'm cross eye dominant also except I'm Left handed/right eye.  Take it from me, I tried switching also.  It was an epic fail.  Stay with your dominant hand and quit confusing your brain about wanting and trying to switch hands.  If I remember correctly Brian Enos is cross eye dominant also.  If you have a problem with your eyes, magic dots or tape will help correct that.  Just stick with one hand and train.

I read his book he quotes that he covers his left eye with tape but if he had to do it all over again we just would use his dominant eye which is his left eye.

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14 hours ago, Hi-Power Jack said:

For the past many years, I keep reading of left eye vs right eye dominant

and how that confuses people ...

 

I'm sorry, but I don't see the problem …    ?

 

I can shoot left or right hand with both eyes open, and

there is no confusion.

 

What am I missing here ?

You will see double with both eyes open.  You will have trouble when you transition from one target to another.

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14 minutes ago, kmaultsby said:

You will see double with both eyes open.  You will have trouble when you transition from one target to another.

 

You have to practice a lot to prevent it from happening. I shoot with both eyes open using either left or right hand but I don’t see double targets even when transitioning from target to target. 

 

My only problem is my vision. I’m far sighted. Other than that, I have always shot with both eyes open.

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13 hours ago, gunnerBU said:

I'm cross eye dominant (right hand, left eye). 

 

Just put a small piece of tape on your glasses over your dominant eye.  Make sure the tape is small enough so that it blocks the front sight, but you can see under/around it for movement and reloads. This gives you the benefit of both eyes open for movement/reloads. When the buzzer goes off, you'll never know its there.

 

 

What was the result of doing this? Was your vision faster for transitions? Easier to see recoil arc? 

 

I’m righty with left eye dominance but I don’t know of any issues it causes for me. No double vision or anything. So should I try the tape? 

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35 minutes ago, Paulie said:

 

What was the result of doing this? Was your vision faster for transitions? Easier to see recoil arc? 

 

I’m righty with left eye dominance but I don’t know of any issues it causes for me. No double vision or anything. So should I try the tape? 

 

Without the tape over my dominant eye, I have double vision of the front sight. The tape gets rid of the “second” sight effortlessly. I don’t have to squint or move my head. So, I would say that it makes my transitions and follow-up shots faster because I can pick up the front sight quicker with the tape than I can without it.

 

Had I used my dominant eye when I started shooting, it may be a different story. But, I’ve never thought that the tape affected my progress or performance.

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I am a cross eye dominant shooter right handed left eye dominant. I shoot IDPA and USPSA. I hold the pistol slightly to the left and tilt my head slightly to the right. Both eyes open. Long guns are another story. I have started shooting shotguns left handed. Rifles I shoot mostly left handed although with an EoTech on an AR the window is big enough I can leave both eyes open right handed assuming I'm shooting targets less than 75 yards out.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm strongly left handed, but right eye dominant.  First time I ever shot a pistol it was barely on paper and a quite embarrassing performance.  After I figured out that cross eye dominance was the problem I just dry fired until the right hand felt natural.  It also helps that my holster selection got dramatically easier.

 

So, I'd vote for working on the gun handling so your left hand gets stronger until that feels natural to you.

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On 7/11/2018 at 4:47 PM, kmaultsby said:

Hello, everyone, I have a little problem and I discovered this after my first USPSA match.  I can't shoot. ?   I have put that in.  I have been shooting IDPA and shot my first USPSA match a couple of weeks ago, a lot of plates and I was all over the place.  I am left eye dominant and right-handed but I can also shoot left-handed.  I have shot in some IDPA  matches left-hand so I guess I am ambidextrous. 

 

 

I suggest you dry fire left handed including manipulations until it feels natural. Welcome to the left side ;) 

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I'm struggling with the same issue (right handed and left eye very dominant). I find that shooting with both hands and left on trigger (using iTarget dry firing), I'm more accurate most of the time. If I shoot left hand only, it is not as accurate as right hand only.

 

I'm seeing a few things. Clearly my right grip is better than my left and when I shoot with left on trigger, my right does a much better job holding the gun on target, than if my left is my support. I've been working on my grip on my left to see if I can improve the accuracy and it is starting to show signs of improvement in dry fire practice.

 

With my left, I am really slow drawing, and have a hard getting a smooth draw without the gun bouncing around, especially when going faster. I have way more dexterity with my right.

 

I haven't done much of shooting with my left only or with both hands, using my right as the support hand. I'm not sure how well I'll handle recoil with left only shooting.

 

I've been dry-fire practicing with both eyes, but as soon as I try to competitively shoot, I can't seem to acquire the target fast and have troubles with double images when moving from target to target, so I close my right now for now.

 

I did try to do some manipulations with the gun, as a lefty. I found it really hard to manipulate the slide lock with my left (my gun has the lever on both sides). Also, with another gun, I have a really hard time moving the thumb safety on (up) with my left thumb.

 

Luck has it, I torn a tendon on my right elbow, and for the past two months have been dry firing with my left only. It is really slow, and again, hard to keep the gun steady, especially over time. So I'm trying it out a bit.

 

I'm still up in the air on what to do, but I'm thinking of staying righty, and just working on lots of strength exercises for my left, hoping I can improve accuracy.

 

Maybe I'll try closing my left (or taping) some time. Although, not only is my left eye dominant, but I'm near sighted (contacts) and because of age, even my near vision is getting worse (I wear readers for close up work). The sights are a little hard to see, especially if lighting is not greeat.

 

Always a challenge, but I'm still working through it.  Interesting ideas folks!

 

Regards,

 

PCM

 

 

 

 

 

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I’m right handed and left eye dominant. 

 

Maybe I’d be better if I was right eye dominant but I’ve never even once considered switching hands.

 

Have no problem with double vision or seeing recoil so I just assume it’s not a substantial disadvantage. 

 

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I'm right handed and right eye, so maybe I can't understand the struggle. But it seems if you learn how to shoot with both eyes open (to where you no longer see doubles of sights) that eye dominance wouldn't be much if any of a factor, since both eyes are open anyways. It's not like I cheat my gun towards my right eye, I draw it and hold it centered with my face. My personal belief is eye dominance is more of a perceived problem than an actual problem. But again, that may be my biased speaking from my own experiences

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5 minutes ago, DKnoch said:

... It's not like I cheat my gun towards my right eye, I draw it and hold it centered with my face. My personal belief is eye dominance is more of a perceived problem than an actual problem. But again, that may be my biased speaking from my own experiences

 

Interesting. I keep both eyes open. However, if I were to close my right eye (I am a lefty), the sights would be aligned. If I close my left eye the sights are off. So, I am still using my dominant left eye, but the right eye is along for the ride rather than splitting the difference with both eyes.

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