Dominant eye? Can't figure it out!

Jolene

Jolene

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It's really weird. I shoot right handed, and my instinct is to close my right eye and shoot with the left eye. i don't have too much trouble lining up the sights... but I find eventually it gets blurry and I kinda want to try with my right eye with left closed but I struggled with that a bit.

When I look through the scope to check our my target, I use my right eye! This makes me think that I'm actually right eye dominant.

Any tips on how to figure this out, or how to train my eyes on and off the range would be much appreciated!
 
Easy. Look at a tiny object in the distance/across the room. Stretch your hands out in front of you at arms length. Slowly bring your hands together, still at arms length, until all you can see through the gap between your hands (between thumb and forefinger on each hand) is that little spot. While continuing to watch the spot through the hole between your hands, slowly bring your hands back toward your face until they touch your face. Which eye are you looking with? :)
 
Hold your thumb out in front of you at arm's length and focus both eyes on an object across the room. If you see two thumbs that's OK. Close one eye and see if your thumb "moves". Do the same with the other eye. Whichever eye makes your thumb "move" when you close it is your dominant eye.

Right handed usually goes with right eye dominant but there are exceptions to this, certainly.

You could try to train with both eyes open. I do this with open sights on pistols but close my left eye when looking through a scope.

A friend of mine used an eye patch until he was used to using the same eye.
 
With both eyes open point at something across the room, without moving close one eye, then open it and close the other, your finger will have stayed on target with the dominant eye and will have moved with the weak eye.
 
I'm right handed and shoot that way. With a rifle I'll shoot with my right eye, but with a pistol I'll shoot with my left (and keep my right eye open).

It's not that uncommon.
 
kfn said:
Sorry dorm but you have it the wrong way around. 12.6 has it right and works for me and everyone else I know. Just didn't want to confuse the OP.
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Actually if you look at it they both said the same thing, expect dorm said it in a bit of a more round about way.
 
OK great advice everyone! Thanks. I'm officially right eye dominant based on these tips -but I have a hard time closing the left and using the right eye. Need more practice - which isn't a bad thing! My PAL and RPAL should arrive any day now.
 
Jolene said:
OK great advice everyone! Thanks. I'm officially right eye dominant based on these tips -but I have a hard time closing the left and using the right eye. Need more practice - which isn't a bad thing! My PAL and RPAL should arrive any day now.
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Your wright shooting with both eyes open is a good thing.


JonnyBender
 
Most of the top performers shoot with both eyes open, although a blinder on the other eye is common.

Closing your non-dominant eye causes a few things to happen:

1. Eyes like symmetry, so your "dark" pupil wants to open, while your "bright" pupil wants to close. The open eye will win, but they are fighting each other constantly.

2. Similarly, the muscles want to work in unison, so in your case your left eye strains to close while your right eye strains to open. Any strain is bad for focus and consistency.

3. With handguns and action shooting, you need both eyes open for depth perception, movement, and secondary target tracking. You can train yourself to use only your left and peripheral eyesight to move and track with, while focusing on the current target with the right (or dominant).

I am also right eye dominant, and when shooting a rifle I don't close my left eye, but rather squint just enough to blur that side. Does the trick just fine, and still allows some peripheral vision for motion and tracking.

Get a pair of shooting glasses or even just decent quality clear safety or sun glasses (with minimal distortion), and place a few strips of tape over the left lens to blind that eye. Opaque (white frosty) tape works better to allow light to enter, and a single strip across the center retains downward vision for mobility.

point-shooting-glasses.jpg
 
Optometrist

So I went to the optometrist and I am indeed left eye dominant, even though I'm right handed. No wonder it feels wonky!
 
Jolene said:
So I went to the optometrist and I am indeed left eye dominant, even though I'm right handed. No wonder it feels wonky!
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Fairly common, I'm the same. I don't have trouble with a rifle or pistol but shooting skeet causes me problems now. Didn't when I was younger.
You don't need to blind your dominant eye, something like a small opaque plastic post-it tab in the right spot should work.
 
Jolene said:
So I went to the optometrist and I am indeed left eye dominant, even though I'm right handed. No wonder it feels wonky!
Click to expand...

You are in the same boat as me and several other shooters here, I shoot a left hand rifle and It feels natural to me to shoulder a long gun to my left side. (Even though I am right handed) Try it out, maybe you are near a lefty somewhere that could lend you his rifle?
 
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