Preferred Target Engagement Order

[SteveZ]

I'm curious as to peoples preferred target engagement order. They say that right handed shooters like to engage left to right....and left handed shooters like to engage right to left. For sake of simplicity I'm going to use "right eye dominant" rather then right handed and "left eye dominant" rather then left handed...I realize there are some shooters that are cross dominant (right handed, left dominant....God help them for being cursed!) but I want to keep this simple.

Ok...I'll start this off:

I'm Right handed, Right eye Dominant and engage Right to Left Order...with both eyes open.

[B.J. Norris]

Unless there is a large advantage of engaging right-left (I.E. coming around the right side of a barricade, etc) I will always engage targets left-right. Sice we read left-right, the brain will tend to process the infomation that its receiving faster and more fully if we follow that. It's the same for alot of southpaws I've seen, there are some people who can shoot just as good, if not better going right-left, but I've only seen a few. Also remember that you have to do what works for you. So if you are just as good going both ways, look at the stage and find the faster order of enagement.

[vluc]

I used to go l-r on every array of targets. Would pass an open target to start l-r. now I let the stage dictate what I do - otherwise, I go l-r.

[BerettaRacer]

All other things being equal I'll generally shoot left to right, but as mentioned earlier, many stage layouts shoot better right to left due to barricades, ports etc. and I'm beginning to handle those better these days.

[rhino]

I don't have a dominant eye (tough to use binoculars and impossible to use binocular microscopes!), but I purposely taught myself to shoot with my left eye because my vision is signicantly more acute on that side. I am right handed . . . hehehe . . . so it was an interesting choice.

I prefer to shoot right to left. It just feels better to me. I will shoot left to right if it's weak hand only, though (in this case, my left). Don't know why, just do it.

[John Dunn]

I think the El Pres has conditioned me to shoot l-r. I am r handed, turn into the gun, got to shoot l-r or cross over targets.

[eerw]

If its a static stage..el pres, etc..I usually engage left to right...

if its an array in a stage..the stage will dictate how I shoot..depending on movers, activators, movement..

I usually train in both directions..so I am comfortable and as proficient either direction.

[TDean]

Right eye dom/ right-to-left engage.

I feel that I can transition better to the left because being right eye dominant, the gun is on the right side of my stereoscopic vision. My left eye being less blocked by the profile of the gun can then more easily pick up new targets.

I think I would like a third eye, and then be middle eye dominant please, thanks.

[SteveZ]

Right eye dom/ right-to-left engage.

I feel that I can transition better to the left because being right eye dominant, the gun is on the right side of my stereoscopic vision.  My left eye being less blocked by the profile of the gun can then more easily pick up new targets.

I think I would like a third eye, and then be middle eye dominant please, thanks.

I agree with everything Tom said (except for the third eye! ) I've found that my target-to-target transition is quicker given the opportunity to shoot the targets "freestyle". When transitioning to the right, my "ghost" image crosses the next target....when transitioning to the left, the view seems wide open.

[shred]

[benos]

I'm one of the hopeless ones - left eye dominant but shoot right handed, and voted L to R...

be

[kimel]

Shooting man-on-man steel this last June I kind of figured that I would have problems from the right hand box where shooting right-to-left seemed to be the way to go because the stop-plate was the left-most position.

Oddly enough, I won/lost the same from both boxes. I did find that I had to concentrate more from the right-hand box.

[ErikW]

I've always preferred L to R but lately I'm beginning to think going the other way, on steel at least, keeps me from going out of control.

[j1b]

I voted left to right - but I don't know that that is accurate. At my match this weekend I engaged one array right to left, the next stage, for no obvious reason, I shot right to left. I made sure as I was developing not to gain a preference, because I knew at some point it would cause some type of conflict at a match.

I rememeber an Area match I was shooting where you had two strings of the exact same drill. I shot it left to right once, right to left the other. Matt Burkett was there and was kind of shaking his head - he was like "we never get the chance to duplicate something twice in a match, you are given one chance to do that and you didn't" I don't know - I guess I just go with what feels good. I ended up winning that area match - so it couldn't have mattered that much.

I would guess intuitively we all have a preference - but it reminds me of the old scenario where you have 4 targets, two on top of two, and you spend the night trying to figure out what the best way to shoot it is. In the end - who cares - don't screw it up and you'll be ok. Think about it too long and it becomes that 3 foot putt for $1,000,000. Should be easy but it ain't because we made it hard.

JB

[wide45]

I could not vote, 'cause it don't matter.

In my early days, I shot mostly at a man on man steel event. The racks were built so the targets would fall better if you shot the left rack, left to right. The right hand rack was best shot right to left.

[mcoliver]

Jeez, one of the things I haven't really measured yet. However (and thread drifting a bit), I do prefer moving L-R while shooting.

[LPatterson]

I am so new at this that that I don't have a preferred order so I didn't vote. I usually shoot the closest target first on the gun side. As a Limited 10 shooter the reload is easier for me going right to left but target location dictates my shooting order. An example of that is a COF with a 12 target array with 1 round per target in 2 strings of 6 shots freestyle, mandatory reload, 6 shots strong hand Virginia Count. 2nd string shots freestyle, mandatory reload, 6 shots weak hand but starting on the side you finished the first string. After discovering that the stage description order was not being adheard to I shot the right side freestyle left to right & the left side weak hand left to right. On the 2nd string shooting freestlye I went right to left picking up a miss from the weak hand string then shot the strong hand side left to right. The extra shot was an Alpha so gaming sometimes pays off.

[n2299]

I'm one of the hopeless ones - left eye dominant but shoot right handed, and voted L to R...

Oh no... I didn't realized it was "hopeless" for me.

I too am left eye dominant, shoot right handed and I also vetoed L-R.

FWIW I found I can shift my right eye a split sec faster for target transition because I'm not using it to aim and/or concentrating on either front sight or target. Whereas when I go R-L, it takes just that little bit longer to shift forcus with my left eye.

[2tap45]

I tend to favor left to right. Although, it seems that right to left is better when shooting strong hand only. It may be because I have to tilt the gun slightly to the left when shooting strong hand.