Cross dominant shooting safety

I have this same issue. Right hand dominant, born mostly blind in my right eye, and I figured out pretty young I needed to shoot left handed.y first gun was a left handed bolt and so thats what I learned on. Although I have hunted with levers, right hand bolts and semi autos over the years, I have gone to almost exclusively left handed guns.

When I was 18, I was shooting a Ruger 10/22 using CCI Stingers. The gun had a known issue of double feeding, but this time, it double fed with enough force to crimp the end of the bullet in the chamber. I pulled the trigger, counted to 30, went to go cycle the bolt when it went off. Thanks to proper PPE of shooting glasses and ear plugs, I only dealt with missing eyebrows, and burns and shrapnel in my right hand. Without glasses, I might not have any vision left! Since then, I still own a 10/22 variant and shoot it a lot, but I don't ever fire it without glasses on and treat any failure to fires as if a full hang fire and wait a couple 2 minutes before doing anything.

Since then though, any auto loading shotgun I have bought or use has been left handed, any bolts were also left handed or a lever with an ambidextrous safety. If you are dead set on a right handed rifle, something with a tang safety or a reversible cross bolt safety is the easiest and safest way to do it.
 
The picks are somewhat confusing because the ks is the only left bolt and the extractor looks on the same side but the bolt rotates the other way
 
I'm Right-handed-Left-eye dom and never was told what that was about until I was in my 40s. Learned on iron sight rifle and handguns, just closed left eye for a scope. With both eyes open with a pistol my vision just 'naturally' focuses with the left eye - I don't give it any thought. I feel 'forcing' a shooter to 'follow the eye-dom' for shouldering is equivalent to forcing a lefty to 'function' as a righty.
 
Buck1950 said:
I'm Right-handed-Left-eye dom and never was told what that was about until I was in my 40s. Learned on iron sight rifle and handguns, just closed left eye for a scope. With both eyes open with a pistol my vision just 'naturally' focuses with the left eye - I don't give it any thought. I feel 'forcing' a shooter to 'follow the eye-dom' for shouldering is equivalent to forcing a lefty to 'function' as a righty.
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Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. "I didn't know better and I'm too old to change now" is a pretty ridiculous reason for others to follow your lead though.
 
Tossing out 60+ years of training and experience is what would be "ridiculous".
As is digging up a 6-month old issue to b---- about.
JMO, you do you!
 
I shoot left although I am right handed. I am also right eye dominant although my right eye is much more nearsighted than my left eye, which is why I was forced to shoot left as a young person before I wore glasses. I don't know if eye dominance is more or less difficult than handedness to deal with, as I shoot wrong on both. I know handedness is a problem that is more difficult for me because I can't switch back.
 
pathfinder76 said:
My daughter is left eye dominant and right handed. When she first picked up a rifle she wanted to hold the rifle right hand and sight with her left eye. That obviously doesn’t work and it was easier for her to shoot left handed. My brother is the exact opposite and he shoots right handed like any other right handed shooter would. I know I’ll get blasted for this, but it’s not just a matter of closing one eye. You aim where you naturally look. Your dominant eye leads you to that location.

Obviously this is much easier for a younger person to adapt to. But I have a cousin who lost the vision in his right eye earlier this year and is now shooting left handed like it’s how he has always done it.
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I totally agree. And when it comes to shotguns, it is even more important to use the dominant eye.
 
I am very slightly right eye dominant. I shot right handed until I was 25, at which time I had to switch over. I have always shot right handed rifles, though some have left hand stocks. I don't know why I never bought left hand rifles; I just didn't. So, I'm still right handed but shoot lefty out of necessity. I trained my eyes to where they are essentially equal but am still slightly right eye dominant. The more I shoot, the more assertive my left eye becomes.
 
Buck1950 said:
Tossing out 60+ years of training and experience is what would be "ridiculous".
As is digging up a 6-month old issue to b---- about.
JMO, you do you!
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Its not that hard to retrain your muscle memory. It is much harder to adapt your eyes than your hands/arms. But by all means, do what works for you.

Personally I think everyone should be shooting from both shoulders to at least have a modicum of comfort from their off shoulder, the ability to shoot wrong-handed can be really handy in some situations.
 
I am another right-handed, left-eye dominant shooter. I have found that I am pretty miserable shooting right-handed with shotguns (so I have trained myself to be able to shoot left), but with rifles it is quite easy to shoot well right-handed with both eyes open. I attribute this largely to the fact that shotgunning is a lot more of natural point were I am never really lining my eyes down any sort of sighting system. Once you need to start looking through a scope, peep, or irons it is pretty natural to aim with the eye that is in-line with the sights/scope (e.g., if you shoulder on your right side and you look through the scope with your right eye but keep your left eye open, it is still very natural to line up the cross hairs that you see with your right eye rather than the side of the scope in your left eye. I have never shot driven game so maybe the shotgunning point rather than aiming comes into play in that situation but for most hunting I would rather plan to shoot right handed since the left-handed selection is always limited compared to right-handed rifles and the "left-hand tax" on rifles is always a little irritating.
 
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