Right Handed, left eye dominant, my experiences.

[bulamike]

Ok, well I've always shot right handed pistol, with left eye dominance my entire life. I shoot carbine and rifle right handed as well.

I always shoot both eyes open and simply just have got use to pushin my sites over a bit to my left eye.

I dont feel my carbine or rifle has suffered from this, but recently I've noticed some issues in the last IDPA/IPSC matches.

Whenever I pull rounds it is always to the left. With both hands on the gun right hand draw, my rounds are slightly left.

My weak hand 25M bulls are almost always higher then my strong hand.

Ive tried to shoot left handed and Im very accurate, but very slow since its my weak hand, I've also pastied my left eye to use my right eye and I've become more accurate, but still slower then normal.

My questions for the forum.

Should I just stick with my right hand/left eye dom. and work it out?

Switch hands and try to shoot left handed?

Or, retrain my eyes and try to get right eye, right hand down?

[Jman]

Welcome to the forum!

I have the same "reverse" dominance. Honestly their's no one solution for this. Choose the path of least resistance. Chance's are you already have.

Stick with it.

Jim

[Pat Miles]

Welcome to the forum!

Shooting a handgun right hand and being left eye dominant shouldn't be very hard to overcome. A good friend has the same situation. He simply moves his handgun to the left a couple of inches to get it in front of his left eye.

I do have to ask, how the heck do you shoot your rifle right handed and left eye dominant? Every boy I've taught to shoot rifle (Rifle Shooting Merit Badge/ BSA) and some adults that have the same problem have been easy to spot. They try to wrap their head over the stock to get their left eye behind the sights. Please don't think I am being over critical. Just curious.

CYa,

Pat

[Duane Thomas]

I am also cross-dominant (right master hand/left master eye). Honestly, it's no big deal, and shouldn't affect your POI/POA at all. No offense, but if you're consistently pulling rounds to the left, as a right handed shooter, in overwhelming probability the case is a failure of trigger control, i.e. what's called "gorilla gripping" the gun.

[Chris iliff]

I'm right hand/left eye dominate. I just put the gun in front of my left eye. I leave both eyes open. I don't think it will ever hold me back. Some really good shooters are this way. I think that the host of this forum is one of them. I don't even give this any thought. Dryfire a lot and don't worry about it. IMHO

[JKSNIPER]

I am also cross-dominant (right master hand/left master eye). Honestly, it's no big deal, and shouldn't affect your POI/POA at all. No offense, but if you're consistently pulling rounds to the left, as a right handed shooter, in overwhelming probability the case is a failure of trigger control, i.e. what's called "gorilla gripping" the gun.

+1 to what Duane says here.

I'm also "cross eye dominant" and did not discover this untl after years of shooting.

IMHO it means squat.

Answer is the same as how you get to Carnigie hall....practice man...practice.

JK

[AlamoShooter]

I have a few years of shooting left eye right hand, I do OK , for an old guy.

If you are pulling shots left and low most likely has nothing to do with your eye. its more likely that you are shooting more and want to go faster and are not keeping your trigger finger up with your eyes.

I shoot rifle, and shot-gun right eye.

I can say That shooting left eye right hand is not the fastest way to shoot, But I allso know close what the time dif is.

I think when I am tuned up for steel I give up 0.05 seconds on the Smoke & Hope first shot. Add that up on four runs for the stage, and you end up with 0.20 seconds. Is that a bunch of time? yes and no.

Edited April 12, 2009 by AlamoShooter

[Duane Thomas]

I can say That shooting left eye right hand is not the fastest way to shoot

How do you figure?

[lugnut]

I can say That shooting left eye right hand is not the fastest way to shoot

How do you figure?

Yeah- I have a hard time figuring that out. Along with Duane and some others on this post, I'm also cross dominant. I can't see how it would matter at all. It's such a tiny adjustment of the gun to the left, no diff. Ask David Sevigny if it slows him down.

Edited April 12, 2009 by lugnut

[glock-cop]

I have the same problem, but it should affect your long gun shooting not your pistol.

[sslav]

I am a cross eye dominant who ended up shooting lefty. It is completely natural for me to handle firearms left handed and somewhat awkward to do it right handed. For most other things it is the other way around though I have developed a few other dexterity based skills that I am comfortable doing with my left hand. I am not sure that I would recommend trying it. For me it evolved that way from when I was about seven years old.

[Mistral404]

I believe TGO is left handed and shoots with his right hand--yeah it is almost no fair when he is required to shoot with his weak hand.

So if you are about 18 years of age, have 8 hours a day to practice and a million rounds to send down range, you too can shoot like Robbie.

Otherwise, adapt. Tape your glasses, close an eye, or move the gun. Those are about your only options. BE might weigh in here soon on this topic.

As for long guns, shotguns I shoot with my right eye although I can shoot skeet left handed almost as well as right handed. On iron sights rifle, I will use my left eye and left handed for distance and right handed for close stuff (like a short 3gun course). On scoped rifle, right handed. On a barricade I just switch shoulders so I do not have to lean to far.

[Boats]

I used to be right eye dominant and am right handed. Gradually as my eyes aged my left eye aged less and became left eye dominant. Noticed it shooting Iron sight Small bore prone and went to a left eye blinder on my rifles rear sight. Followed through with my Silhouette scoped rifles, have a blinder that slips over the scope tube. From offhand rifle experience I can't recommend closing the left eye. It gives you mono instead of Binocular vision and hinders dept perception. Also causes some very slight equilibrium issues that affect steady hold.

Just before turning 60 had cataract surgery. Doctor said he would make my eyes focus different, Right for distance left for close. Worked great stopped using reading glasses and threw away the prescription sunglasses. Pistol shooting it gave me some trouble though. The clear close focused left wanted to pull shots, so went to a piece of scotch tape inside my left shooting glass lens. This cured the problem but still gives me a fuzzy front sight picture. fine for close and fast but not so good for longer distance. In particular on Stage III of the IDPA classifier I was dropping too many shots, not hitting the center.

Now I shoot stage I & II and the low close barricade on III right eye, same in most matches tape cures the problem. But long shots were precision is required tip my head back a bit and aim with my left eye looking under the scotch tape. Much improved precision on difficult targets. IDPA classifier there are 15 of those shots. This is a bit complicated and not recommending it to anybody. however slowing down and paying attention to sight picture on long shots is a good thing, who knows shifting eyes may even help me mentally, Triggering that this shot is different.

Boats

Edited April 12, 2009 by Boats

[bulamike]

Thanks to all for the welcome and for the insight (Literally I guess)

Ive been trolling this site for a year or so and think its time to post up.

Someone asked how I shoot rifle, as a left eye dominant shooter.

Answer is: I just use my right eye.

My carbines: either with Eotech 551/Elcan 1/4X/ACOG/ Doctor sights...Ive never had an issue with using my right eye in any situation (El Pres, Comp. etc)

My long guns same deal..in Glass (leupold, Schmidt and Benders) any glass, never had an issue with eyes.

Pistol, the only thing Ive noticed is that my 25M bulls are always better weak hand (left) with left eye dominance.

Might be all and all like some said, an issue of grip, or trigger control, because I have noticed that shooting left handed, is like shooting for the first time, and I resort back to core fundamentals, so that could account for the better bulls Im pulling.

Glad to hear Im not the only one.

Appreciate the input, and look forward to more.

Thanks

[AlamoShooter]

I can say That shooting left eye right hand is not the fastest way to shoot

How do you figure?

Dang. this is a rough crowd

I didn't say it was a lot faster, 'The way I figure', the first shot is about 0.05 slower traveling to the left eye from the right side. Shooting steel will give you an opportunity to test may things. If I bring the gun to my right eye I can get a faster shot on a stage like Smoke & Hope.

I don't much care for that trick though.

My point was that it can be measured, but it is a very small measurement in the over all schema

you pick one statement and used it out of context

And yes Dave Sevigny he has said its a bit slower for the first shot.

Competing at Sporting Clays and shooting right hand right eye, the left fast moving targets I had to shoot just a bit slower in order to "wait" for the target to cross my dominate eye my and get picked up by my right eye. Not a big deal unless the left target had to be shot before the next target and the next target disappeared quick.

The cure was to tape the left eye, and I just did not enjoy shooting with tape on my glasses.

Edited April 13, 2009 by AlamoShooter

[Duane Thomas]

you pick one statement and used it out of context

No, I picked one statement and asked you what you meant by it.

And yes Dave Sevigny he has said its a bit slower for the first shot.

Where did you hear that? Not saying it's not true that Dave said that, or even that the idea a cross-dominant draw is slower is not true (though I am a bit amazed this is the first I've heard of it, if it's true). I'm just wondering if this is something Dave said to you personally, or something you've read that he wrote, or if it's however-many-times-removed "Dave Sevigny said this" sort of information.

Well, you've given me an idea for an article. Like I did an article on how to grip a handgun in which I interviewed Brian Enos and Dave Sevigny, the idea is to now do the same sort of article on how to draw a handgun. It'll give me the opportunity to ask Dave about this whole "cross-dominant is slower on the draw" thing.

[MartinLei]

I'm a new shooter having the same problem being right handed & left eye dominant. At my age I also need to wear bi-focal glasses to see far & closer distances. My solution is to use monovision bifocal contact lenses (or glasses). I have my right lens focus at the front sight distance and left lens at distance. It has worked for me in the last few months.

Edited April 14, 2009 by 1911HiPower

[bulamike]

I have the same problem, but it should affect your long gun shooting not your pistol.

Just wondering why you said it would affect my long gun shooting.

I have 20/20 vision, and when Im on my long gun looking through glass it seems that there wouldnt be a change. Iron sites either.

Just curious?

[No Luck]

I too have hand-eye dominance problem….coupled with some pretty bad near-sightedness. I started off as left eye dominate. Never was a problem. Just brought the gun up and shifted a little to the left. After a lot of dry fire drills it was second nature. No loss of speed or accuracy. Then I took a sabbatical from USPSA to shoot trap with my oldest son who was shooting on his Jr. High trap and skeet team. I was terrible. An instructor that was giving my son lessons suggested a piece of tape on my shooting glasses. Worked like a charm. Shot trap and skeet for about 3 years until he wanted to shoot USPSA. After a very brief victory dance (I didn’t really enjoy the shotgun sports) I dusted off the pistol shooting bag and went to the range.

Tried to shoot with the tape but had muscle memory bringing the sights in-line with the tape and right to left transitions absolutely sucked. So I took off the tape and discovered that I no longer have a consistent, dominate eye. If I try to focus on anything less then about three feet and there are multiple objects near each other (like a front and rear sight), it’s a coin toss as to which eye will actually do the focusing.

I’m working through it by blinking my right eye when it’s time to focus on the front sight. It’s not a great solution because it is costing me time and I have to spend time thinking about blinking instead of shooting the stage. That is the short term solutions. Long term is I’m looking at going to Open. I have shot several red dots since coming back to USPSA and discovered they really work for my eye dominance/near-sightedness problem.

[benos]

I can say That shooting left eye right hand is not the fastest way to shoot

How do you figure?

Yeah- I have a hard time figuring that out. Along with Duane and some others on this post, I'm also cross dominant. I can't see how it would matter at all. It's such a tiny adjustment of the gun to the left, no diff. Ask David Sevigny if it slows him down.

I shot right-handed / left-eyed for quite a few years, and can't say that it had any adverse affect on any aspect of my pistol shooting.

Once you have trained in whatever way you are going to shoot long enough to have your technique down, "errors" (shots not going where you think they should) are almost always the result of inconsistent trigger control. Or in other words, it's easy to squeeze the whole pistol with your grip instead of pulling the trigger with just enough force to release the hammer, for every shot.

be

[Duane Thomas]

I shot right-handed / left-eyed for quite a few years, and can't say that it had any adverse affect on any aspect of my pistol shooting.

I remember watching one of the Lenny Magill tapes on the Steel Challenge, and they had footage of one of your real, in-the-match draws to a steel plate. The time to the first shot (and hit) was, if I remember correctly, .83 second. That whole cross-dominant thing didn't seem to be slowing you down too much!

[AlamoShooter]

Duane

I squadded with Dave S. in 2000 steel challenge. I think he would remember my face but not my name. very polite guy. I had used the left eye dominance as an excuse for a poor performance. Dave was very polite and tactfully said something to the effect of "It may be slightly slower for the first shot but after that it makes no difference"

He was encouraging and helped me see the folly in my thinking, that I had a handicap

My hope is telling the new shooter that the years have showed me that "If " it is slower it is not any slower than 1/2 of one tenth of a second. for me and I am not that fast. so for a fast guy it is most likely less than that.

Max M. told me in a class that left eye right hand is not in his opinion the best way ,but its not a flaw.

A few years ago in an over thinking / over training spree with a mirror. I could see that the gun in the right hand and wrist points straiter when under the right eye. as the gun moves under the left eye the right wrist has to bend just a bit more than if the gun in under the right eye.

Over Training can mess with your head, so on smoke and hope I move my eye / head just a bit to the right to mount the gun. That is just a trick to shut off my brain.

I think if someone with real talent and skill trained as hard as I do for Steel Challenge they would make the top 10 easy. I say this because the only reason I do as good as I do is that I train harder than more talented shooters

Edited April 15, 2009 by AlamoShooter

[ironb]

yeah, I'm cross dom too. i was trying to shoot with my right eye and right hand for a while, but found out it was giving me a headache. i stopped fighting it and went with the left eye and right hand and it seems to have improved my shooting drastically. however, when i shoot a rifle w/ a scope for a few shots, it seems to be okay with the right eye. i've considered shooting left hand and left eye because i've always believed i should have been a lefty (i could hit lefty at baseball and i could hit a volleyball left-handed pretty darn well). Im not sure if it makes sense to try shooting lefty as well...maybe i'll give it a try at the range and see what happens.

[benos]

Jamie,

For me, there was absolutely no time difference on the first shot, no matter which eye I aimed with.

For example, if you will aim with your left eye (and are right handed), your head should already be positioned for a perfect sight alignment before the draw even begins. So nothing about the draw or acquiring your index changes no matter which eye you aim with.

be

[Duane Thomas]

I have always centered the gun relative to my body while drawing, not the commonly recommended "just move the gun a little to the left," that's never made any sense to me. I've heard some folks say you should leave the head centered, not turn it to align the left eye with the sights, if cross-dominant, but that's never made any sense to me either. I've rather have a good index with the gun centered, and just turn my head to the perfect position that places my left eye right behind the sights. Just last night, out of curiosity sponsored by this thread, I checked in the mirror, and I leave my head straight up-and-down but turn it a whopping two inches to the right. I've done this for so long that I don't even think about it anymore, it just happens well before I even begin the draw. Since I'm drawing the gun to the exact same spot, with the exact same body/arm position as if I was using right hand/right eye, how can right hand/left eye be any slower?