Cross-Dominant Shooting

S

SparklelyGirl

New member
EE Expired
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Location
Saskatchewan
Looking for insight regarding Cross-Dominant Shooting.

When I first looked through a scope I had a hard time seeing anything but black. It was weird and being so new to shooting I didn't have the vocabulary to articulate what I was experiencing so anyone I asked had no idea how to help me. I just found a site after googling and I was happy to know I can now describe what is happening and there are a few things I can try to correct my vision when looking through a scope.

If you are a Cross-Dominant Shooter, what helped you overcome or be a better shooter?

Thanks for your time! Have an AMAZING rest of your day!
 
Squinting (not shutting) my dominant eye, momentarily, while attaining the sight picture through the scope helped. Your dilemma sounds more like an eye relief problem though, you could be either too close or to far (or left, right) from the optic.
 
I also shoot cross dominate. I shoot right but have left dominate eye. I will say that i find it easier to shoot with a low powered scope or rds, as opposed to iron sights. Pistol i just cross over and use my dominant eye. Do whatever works for you and keep practicing ��
As for the seeing black when looking through a scope: you may need to find a scope with greater eye relief. Try a scout mounted scope if possible.
 
J.Hancock said:
Squinting (not shutting) my dominant eye, momentarily, while attaining the sight picture through the scope helped. Your dilemma sounds more like an eye relief problem though, you could be either too close or to far (or left, right) from the optic.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your suggestion. I did fix my eye relief and experienced pretty much the same effect. It's like my left dominan eye is looking at the outside of the scope and my right eye through the scope. I am going to try tape on my glasses the next time I go shooting and see how that goes for me.
 
Well hello there Sparklely!

Eyes are hard to change over from one side to the other. I shoot with both eyes open and have had to consciously ignore the left one. Holding one closed is harder to do than most people think. A lot of shooters will attach some sort of blinder that blocks across the line of vision. I don't seem to need one.

If those fail, there are more technical methods to put the sight in front of the dominant eye. I met a German 300-metre ISU shooter who had a horizontal plate on her precision rifle that displaced the front sight sideways 3-4 inches to the left. The European rifle receivers have grooved tops, so there was a similar fixture under the rear sight. She did all right, so obviously it was something she trained to compensate for.

When I did a Goofle Search for offset rifle sights, I only come up with tacticool 45-deg rifle sights for ARs for the bearded operator crowd who can't hang enough crap on their rifles. Go to page 70 of this catalogue link - https://static.mec-shot.de/fileadmin/mec/Content/Katalog/MEC_Produktkatalog_III_UK_2_kunden_web.pdf
 
Learn to shoot left so the rifle is lined up with the dominant eye. Probably easier for a kid or someone new to shooting.

More practical and what I've see a few people really successful with is an eye patch. A clip on one or painted lens on the shooting glasses or anything that disrupts the vision of the dominant eye forcing the other one to become the primary.
If the weaker eye is very weak or has other vision issues this might not be great but if it's just a matter of getting the brain to be happy using it this can be the simplest way to go.
 
maple_leaf_eh said:
Well hello there Sparklely!

Eyes are hard to change over from one side to the other. I shoot with both eyes open and have had to consciously ignore the left one. Holding one closed is harder to do than most people think. A lot of shooters will attach some sort of blinder that blocks across the line of vision. I don't seem to need one.

If those fail, there are more technical methods to put the sight in front of the dominant eye. I met a German 300-metre ISU shooter who had a horizontal plate on her precision rifle that displaced the front sight sideways 3-4 inches to the left. The European rifle receivers have grooved tops, so there was a similar fixture under the rear sight. She did all right, so obviously it was something she trained to compensate for.

When I did a Goofle Search for offset rifle sights, I only come up with tacticool 45-deg rifle sights for ARs for the bearded operator crowd who can't hang enough crap on their rifles. Go to page 70 of this catalogue link - https://static.mec-shot.de/fileadmin/mec/Content/Katalog/MEC_Produktkatalog_III_UK_2_kunden_web.pdf
Click to expand...

Thank you!
 
I wondered if you had tried left hand?
I had my eyes done a few years back, before I had laser for cataract, I used a adjustable iris that clipped on my glasses , it changed the focal point of my good eye, Made a lot of difference with handguns, don't think I ever tried it with a scope
 
Make the switch to shooting left handed. It has a learning curve, particularly with the muscle memory in your arms, but with time and practice you'll be better left handed than you ever were right.

I am left eye dominant, right handed. Started shooting right handed because I didn't know better. I switched to shooting left handed for shotgun first, I can focus my right eye though an optic but iron sights or shotgunning was always difficult. This past year I also decided to switch to left with rifle. I wanted to get proficient with iron sights and that just wasn't happening with my wrong eye.

The way I see it, You can work around the problem, or eliminate it entirely.
 
I have had serious problems shooting with both eyes open because my left takes over and I lose the scope reticle with my right eye. Recently I’ve been doing a LOT of scope shooting 22 and now I find keeping both open and seeing what I want, whether scope cant level with my left or reticle with my right is getting a lot easier.
 
I have plenty of weirdness looking out my Right Eye, I'm probably slightly Left Dominant, but my eye's don't actually focus in exactly the same place anyway, so I'm use to doing things to compensate. How this effects my shooting is if I take too long to squeeze the Trigger my focus starts to wash out. As another member mentioned, squinting can help, you can see the effect by looking through an AR-15 A2 Rear Sight, look through the 0-200 Aperture, and the the 300-600, it's much easier to maintain a sharp view of the Front Post with the small Aperture. If your eyes are like mine, that's fine for Irons, but I have some problems with Optics too, how I deal with that is just close my eyes monetarily or look away, basically forcing my eyes to re-focus...now if I could do something about the random twitch.
 
Right handed here and left eye dominant.
I shoot archery compound and recurve right handed.
When I shoot bullseye handgun one handed its left handed shooting. Same for shotguns and rifles.
I also discovered that shooting with both eyes open is less tiring. Especially if you plan on a long day of target shooting.
 
I've helped thousands of people take their first shots and a certain percentage are cross dominant.

Assuming you are right handed and left eye dominant, your options are mostly:

Close your left eye
Shoot left handed
Cover your left eye

A large amount of left eye dominant people cannot close their left eye independently. I'm not sure why this is but I've seen it hundreds of times.

I do think it is harder to train your eyes than train your hands.
 
Last edited:
redshooter said:
I have plenty of weirdness looking out my Right Eye, I'm probably slightly Left Dominant, but my eye's don't actually focus in exactly the same place anyway, so I'm use to doing things to compensate. How this effects my shooting is if I take too long to squeeze the Trigger my focus starts to wash out. As another member mentioned, squinting can help, you can see the effect by looking through an AR-15 A2 Rear Sight, look through the 0-200 Aperture, and the the 300-600, it's much easier to maintain a sharp view of the Front Post with the small Aperture. If your eyes are like mine, that's fine for Irons, but I have some problems with Optics too, how I deal with that is just close my eyes monetarily or look away, basically forcing my eyes to re-focus...now if I could do something about the random twitch.
Click to expand...

Thank you redshooter! This is what happens to me too. I find it's taking me far too long to pull the trigger as I lose sight. I have been closing my eyes momentarily to try to regain the proper focus. I get it will take practice. I'm frustrated that I am not able to get more shots off as I have to have both my eyes open or I am off on my target. Thanks again for your insight!
 
Gatehouse said:
I've helped thousands of people take their first shots and a certain percentage are cross dominant.

Assuming you are right handed and left eye dominant, your options are mostly:

Close your left eye
Shoot left handed
Cover your left eye

A large amount of left eye dominant people cannot close their left eye independently. I'm not sure why this is but I've seen it hundreds of times.

I do think it is harder to train your hands than train your eyes.
Click to expand...

Thank you Gatehouse! I agree, it's harder to train a life time of doing all kinds of sports right-handed to think it's easy to just switch over to left.
 
emerson said:
I have had serious problems shooting with both eyes open because my left takes over and I lose the scope reticle with my right eye. Recently I’ve been doing a LOT of scope shooting 22 and now I find keeping both open and seeing what I want, whether scope cant level with my left or reticle with my right is getting a lot easier.
Click to expand...

Thank you emerson! This is what happens for me too - my left takes over and I lose the scope reticle with my right eye. I have to have both my eyes open to shoot so hence my ask for help from people with the same scenario. I will get there! Thank you for your insight!
 
if you are new to the sport, i would suggest to just try learning to shoot everything left handed.

I had the same issue, and it felt very awkward at first, but after it just becomes natural
 
SparklelyGirl said:
Thank you Gatehouse! I agree, it's harder to train a life time of doing all kinds of sports right-handed to think it's easy to just switch over to left.
Click to expand...

Sorry I had that backwards. training your hands is relatively easy compared to training your eyes. Hand movement is voluntary, eye dominance is not.
 
SparklelyGirl said:
Thank you Gatehouse! I agree, it's harder to train a life time of doing all kinds of sports right-handed to think it's easy to just switch over to left.
Click to expand...

How long have you been shooting?

I see a lot of people who completely disregard the idea of switching to left handed, but its not as hard as you might think. The same day I switched to shooting shotgun left I was busting more clays. I am right handed, grew up shooting paintball guns, bb guns, etc right handed. Didn't get into real guns until I was in my 20s, and spent the first 5+ years shooting rifle right handed. I resisted switching to left handed for rifles until last year, and honestly I kick myself for not doing it sooner - I can actually SEE iron sights and I don't get nearly as fatigued from a long day at the range (I used to find that over time my ability to focus through a scope with my right eye would diminish, not an issue with my left though).

Not having to fight with my left eye has made shooting even more enjoyable!

The part that I find awkward now is carrying a gun - I still find myself carrying it like I would a right handed gun sometimes.


SparklelyGirl said:
Thank you emerson! This is what happens for me too - my left takes over and I lose the scope reticle with my right eye. I have to have both my eyes open to shoot so hence my ask for help from people with the same scenario. I will get there! Thank you for your insight!
Click to expand...

I spent years trying all the tricks in the book to overcome my eye dominance issue. At the end of it all, the only thing that truly solved the problem for me was switching to left handed.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom