Eye dominance vs shooting hand

I have the same issue.. I think my left eye is slightly dominant over the right, they "fight" each other if I try to look through a scope with both eyes open, the sight picture keeps switching back and forth. (I shoot right handed) My eyes get tired if I close the left eye.

I black out the left side of my shooting glasses, its the simple and effective solution.

The thought came to me of getting laser eye surgery for the right eye so it could "beat" the left eye, but that would be rather extreme and expensive.
 
I am th same as you left eye dominant and shoot right handed. I learned to shoot with both eyes open, which corrected the problem. It just took practice,but it really helped shooting at running game as my dominant eye picked up the game and my shooting eye stayed focussed on the reticle
 
I don't understand the can't use right handed rifles thing. I shoot my rifles left handed, bolt action included. Unless you're using a bullpup where you cannot, it shouldn't be an issue for the most part..
 
flyinlead said:
The thought came to me of getting laser eye surgery for the right eye so it could "beat" the left eye, but that would be rather extreme and expensive.
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I had the laser surgery done. It wont "cure" eye dominance issues. I had the surgery done for personal, non-shooting related reasons. I am still left eye/right hand dominant.
 
I'm also left dominant. If I close my left I get eye strain very quickly. If I keep both open, I get a double image. The solution for me was to keep both eyes open but block the left. My buttler scope cap rotated to about the 10 o'clock position when open works perfectly.
 
I am CED.
LHD RED.
So. I have lerned to shoot right handed for shotgun events or tape over 1/16" of my center iris of my shooting glasses if I choose to shoot left handed.

Rifle with optics does not matter. Left or right is fine.

For pistol I was trained right side draw for IPSC. what is interesting to note is that it is no handicap, although it has taken me a year to become comfortable and proficient with it.
What is truly amazing is when I get to 'weak hand' stages. My pass is flawless, and shooting hand is very steady. I do have to momentarily 'blink' to engage the target (limited shooting iron sights) but I do tend to shoot close to the master class shooters when there are strong hand weak hand stages.
I do admit, freestyle for me is slower, but my speed is coming along nicely. In another year I hope to move up one class.

If I were shooting open, I still wouldnt change to a left hand draw. It would mess up my footwork too much.
 
Longshot said:
The short answer is no.Shoot the way you feel most comfortable.Im left eye dominant and shoot right handed.Never hindered me any.
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Enough with the short answer stuff! I'm sleep deprived and looking at rambling a bit....

I'm RED and shoot right handed. I suspect in theory that Longshot is actually incorrect - but in practice he is right on the money.

You're probably one of the many millions of Canadians who is actually left-handed (LED) that was compelled to become a right-handed person in kindergarten when they put a pencil in your right hand and started teaching you to write. I understand that perhaps a quarter of folks are "left-handed," but if they had been allowed to follow their eye-dominance as children, that many more folks would have ended up left handed. Perhaps close to half ...

The right handed people I know who are "left-eye dominant" all share a common trait - they are ABOMINABLE handwiters. As if their body is rejecting being right handed. Sadly, they have been right handed for so long, that teaching them to write left-handed (as originally designed) would be a losing proposition now. (Especially at our age - old dog, new tricks, etc.) This problem would apply to a shooter with 10k or more cartridges of muscle memory built up as a "righty."


I just wonder if these folks (LED, right-handed shooters) who are shooting well, or even excellent -- might have done EVEN BETTER, if they started out shooting to their dominant eye. If only their kindergarten teachers hadn't been so damn overbearing!

If you were on an army shooting team back in the days when there was a training budget, or if you were David Tubb and had nothing better to do - you might consider trying to "convert." It might take thousands of cartridges and weeks or months to do it.


My second musing is that with scopes maybe this doesn't matter a damn.
 
You can learn. As has been mentioned, it takes practice. I am RED, RHD. I can also shoot left eye, left hand. Aquiring the target, I look through the scope (either eye) looking at the target (other eye) "overlay" the crosshairs with the target, then concentrate on target in the scope. My other eye whether right or left "switches off" hard to describe it any other way. It wasn't always this way. It used to really bother me when shooting a lot, my non dominant eye which I kept closed, used to twitch or shiver at extended shooting sessions. My instructor, when I was in the Forces, gave me no end of grief about this. I started out grouping great, but over time on the line, my accuracy would start to fail.
His solution was to wear shooting glasses, with the off eye painted black. I kept both eyes open, no fatigue, steady results. After a while, I went back to regular glasses. both eyes open, but I noticed quickly I could now "turn off" the off eye at will, as someone else mentioned, like a mental blink. I could then, and still now, do this with either eye.
As to affecting accuracy? I would say correct hand and wrong eye after a while, will affect accuracy to some degree. Good news, you can train your eyes, its just another mussle to build memory in.

Sorry for the babble.
 
Actually trout bum, I am left handed. The weird thing is I write, throw and shoot a hand gun left handed, but feel most comfortable shooting a rifle right handed. I also golf, bat, shoot a hockey stick right handed.
I've been shooting for more years than I can remember, but only started taking precision shooting seriously this year, and was just wondering how much a person could improve his groupings using his dominant eye or if it was worth staying with what feels comfortable.

I guess the only way I'm going to know is to go and try it and see what happens.
Unfortunately the weather has not been cooperating, it's either been way to hot or it's raining.
 
Bear_Blade said:
You can learn. As has been mentioned, it takes practice. I am RED, RHD. I can also shoot left eye, left hand. Aquiring the target, I look through the scope (either eye) looking at the target (other eye) "overlay" the crosshairs with the target, then concentrate on target in the scope. My other eye whether right or left "switches off" hard to describe it any other way. It wasn't always this way. It used to really bother me when shooting a lot, my non dominant eye which I kept closed, used to twitch or shiver at extended shooting sessions. My instructor, when I was in the Forces, gave me no end of grief about this. I started out grouping great, but over time on the line, my accuracy would start to fail.
His solution was to wear shooting glasses, with the off eye painted black. I kept both eyes open, no fatigue, steady results. After a while, I went back to regular glasses. both eyes open, but I noticed quickly I could now "turn off" the off eye at will, as someone else mentioned, like a mental blink. I could then, and still now, do this with either eye.
As to affecting accuracy? I would say correct hand and wrong eye after a while, will affect accuracy to some degree. Good news, you can train your eyes, its just another mussle to build memory in.

Sorry for the babble.
Click to expand...


Thanks for all the insight guys. I've already have bought a patch and can't wait to try it and see how it works. The goal of this was so I can start to shoot with both eyes open.
 
Got out to do some shooting finally. Anyways, bought a eye patch and set up. Was shooting out to 296 yards and was checking some node accuracy. My eyes didn't get tire and I shot all sub moa groupings. Now if I could just learn how to get pictures up here off my iPad.

Thanks for all the help
 
I'm left eye dominant and had a problem with fatigue. I found a guy out of Yakima Washington that makes a product that fits on the scope confront of my left eye. It's really helped with my shooting and i don't look like a pirate.
Www.eyeblindllc.com $12 plus shipping
 
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