eye dominance optic mounting help!!

Cerendrad

Cerendrad

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Hi All,

I have just bought my first AR and an Aimpoint is in the mail. I am Left Eye dominant and grew up shooting rifle right handed (left eye closed). With pistols I do the triangle thing and turn my head slightly to the right with no problems.

I read somewhere that people like me tend to mount their optic more forward on the rail than a R/R dominant shooter would but now that it's time to do it I can't find much information. Anyone have any experience with cross-dominant, both eyes open, red dot sight, optic mounting advice?

Or should I just bite it and learn to shoot the AR lefthanded? Anyone do this with a right hand ejected gun exclusively?

Thanks,
 
IMHO, the AR platform is the most left-hand user friendly as it is.
As long as there is a brass deflector, I would say shoot it left-handed, As Long As you feel most comfortable doing this.
Myself I am right handed/left eye dominant. I shoot pistol/bow right handed, but rifles/shotguns left handed. In the past I tried aiming left eye, with long gun on the right shoulder. I found this very un-natural and caused headaches and uncomfortable neck strain. With the design of some rifle cheekpieces, I could not even get close enough to align the iron sights. Your experience may differ from mine though. Everyone is different in thier personal needs.
 
I do close my dominant eye when I shoot scoped rifles or iron sights (that's how I learned to shoot when I was a kid and didn't know about eye dominance).

The problem is with the AR I want to shoot with both eyes open for situational awareness (mostly for 3 gun matches).

Thanks again,
 
Cerendrad said:
I do close my dominant eye when I shoot scoped rifles or iron sights (that's how I learned to shoot when I was a kid and didn't know about eye dominance).

The problem is with the AR I want to shoot with both eyes open for situational awareness (mostly for 3 gun matches).

Thanks again,
Click to expand...

I am left eye dominant and with my EoTech I have no problem shooting from either side and don't close my eyes.

I say wait to get your hardware and try it out...
 
Matt_mg said:
I am left eye dominant and with my EoTech I have no problem shooting from either side and don't close my eyes.

I say wait to get your hardware and try it out...
Click to expand...
Wether it's my Acog or my red dot up on top I to have never noticed a problem shooting and I shoot with my right hand and my left eye is dominant. This only effects me when shooting iron sight or pistol. So I close my left eye and shoot with my right.
 
Cerendrad said:
I do close my dominant eye when I shoot scoped rifles or iron sights (that's how I learned to shoot when I was a kid and didn't know about eye dominance).

The problem is with the AR I want to shoot with both eyes open for situational awareness (mostly for 3 gun matches).

Thanks again,
Click to expand...

I do all things lefty, except shoot. I have an AR with an Aimpoint, mounted at the front of the receiver, so that the front lense hangs over the barrel nut.

Shooting both eyes open won't be an issue. You will be focussing on the target with both eyes, as you would normally. The optic has zero magnification, so there will be no distortions or double images, as there would be if looking through a magnified optic with both eyes open. The red dot will be superimposed over the target seamlessly. You will notice a double image of the optic tube with both eyes open, but it's easily ignored.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks all for the input,

flying_scotsman said:
I do all things lefty, except shoot. I have an AR with an Aimpoint, mounted at the front of the receiver, so that the front lense hangs over the barrel nut.
Click to expand...

So mounting the optic in a more forward position helps in some way with L E Dominance? or is it just a preference thing?
 
I'm right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot pistol just like you do. With my Aimpoint or my EOTech I shoot right hand, both eyes open (using my right eye) with no issues.

IMHO mounting the optic forward is a better way to go regardless of what eye you use. The optic takes up less of your sight picture that way.
 
Cerendrad said:
Thanks all for the input,



So mounting the optic in a more forward position helps in some way with L E Dominance? or is it just a preference thing?
Click to expand...

NaOH sums it up well. Forward mounting also permits mounting a magnifier, a BUIS, and/or whatever else one wants to bolt on an AR.

I hadn't heard about forward mounting a zero magnification optic to address LE dominance prior to this thread. For me, (and likely most others) it just isn't a factor. I haven't found any LE dominance issues with Aimpoints or Eotechs, as they are zero magnification.

Look across the room at an object through a tiolet paper tube with both eyes open, as though it were your Aimpoint. both eyes focus on the object, just as if the tube wasn't there. Now picture a red dot hovering in front of that object. both eyes are still open, you see one clear image through both eyes, and one clear red dot. That is what you will see when you get your optic.

Only as optic magnification increases past a certain point, would it become an issue, and there are better-qualified members here than me who can expand on that.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks again for all the feedback,

I got the red dot today. I have yet to mount it but just holding it and aiming at stuff in the backyard relieves many of my concerns. It seems like whichever eye gets the dot first tends to keep it. Of course my left wants it more but if I'm careful to pick it up with my right first I can look around and target with the dot no problem and still be aware of my surroundings. Once mounted on my LMT it should be natural to pick up the dot with my right eye (as leaning my head further to the right to line up my left eye would be awkward).

I will take your advice and mount it further forward for a better environment viewing and for the option of adding a magnifier later, without changing what I'm used to.

This Comp M4 is awesome I can wait to try it on the range!

Thanks again.
 
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