Left Eye Dominant

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Woolrat

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Might not be the right spot to post but sighting is the topic.

Anyone have suggestions for a new shooter? My daughter loves shooting, then I discovered she is left eye dominant. It will not be a problem with pistols or anything tactical as I'm teaching her to shoot both eyes open. But she does like shooting long range with rifles too.

As she is a right handed shooter should I attempt to transition her to a lefty shooter with all or just try to get her comfortable shooting rifles lefty. I'm not sure she it would be best to let her continue trying to cheek weld so hard to get he left eye into the scope while shooting right handed.

Thoughts from experience?

Woolrat
 
Make her shoot left. I'm also right handed but left eye dominant, I started right handed but switched to left over time and I wish I did it sooner. My daughter who is the same is learning to shoot from both sides but the focus will be on left handed shooting.

Many people will tell you there are tricks you can use, but none of them are as good as just learning with the good eye.

As for shooting tactically, pistols aren't a big deal. I shoot my pistol right handed but just bring it up to my left eye. For rifle or shotgun she will want to shoot lefty though. You can only line up one eye with your sights regardless of how many eyes are open, so you are going to want to line up the good eye.

Shooting a scoped rifle I can focus my right eye, but iron sights are very hard to use with my right eye. Shotgun is where I started my journey to lefty shooting, and I was busting more clays then before on the first day I switched.
 
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I agree with Suther.

I am exactly the same right handed but left eye dominant. I started archery right handed but all my rifles and shotguns have been left handed (Started with bows) I then transitions to left handed bows as well.

Makes like a hell of allot easier then trying to switch later on. Its not difficult to find left handed gear so just get her started left hand and she wont have to switch down the line.

B
 
I will add that I shoot a lot of right handed guns. Lefty 22s (other than Savage bolt actions) are not super common. Some guns are better than others for this; anything with a crossbolt safety is a pain for instance, unless it's like the Winchester Wildcat that has a reversible safety (most don't). Not a big deal at the bench but can be in the field. Tang safeties are much better, but less common.

Depending how big your daughter is, a Savage rascal or mk2 is a great starting point as they're both available in lefty and quite affordable. Personally I don't really like the 10-22, I like a last round hold open on my semi autos, so I'd recommend a Wildcat for a semi auto plinker, it's right handed but the safety is easily reversible and I haven't had any issues with cases ejecting into my face. I sometimes feel hot cases or powder hitting my support arm but it's no big deal.
 
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WOW, Thanks for the feed back so fast. We have only hit the range once so far, but have been shooting recurve for a few years :( Right handed. Now I going to have to help set her up left for that too. I'll get her while she is young.
 
Woolrat said:
WOW, Thanks for the feed back so fast. We have only hit the range once so far, but have been shooting recurve for a few years :( Right handed. Now I going to have to help set her up left for that too. I'll get her while she is young.
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For a kid its not a big deal. Now that she has spent some time with right handed, there is a reasonable chance she'll be proficient both ways (that is my goal with my kids; my sons are right and my daughter is left, but I am going to train all of them on both over time.)

When it becomes a big deal is when they have decades of muscle memory built up, and THEN they switch due to eye dominance. I've been shooting shotgun lefty for like 5 years now, and rifle for about 3. I STILL find myself carrying my guns like a right handed gun sometimes, it just happens without me thinking about it. And shooting rifle left handed still feels weird, especially when I haven't shot in a while.
 
My youngest son was found early on to be left eye dominant but right handed. Once I ruled out ocular pathology/ strabismus, and made sure he had equal visual acuity in each eye, I patched his left eye for an hour a day for detailed visual tasks. I started at age 5 (kindergarten) and sometime around age 6 he became right eye dominant. I continued to patch the left eye to reinforce the right eye dominance for another year. He is now 11 and still right eye dominant, and he shoots right.

Something like this isn’t for everyone, and it should be done under the guidance of an optometrist. It also has to be done before age 8/9 — the earlier the better — during the period of maximum neuronal plasticity in the visual cortex, i.e. where that part of the brain is still labile enough for it to work.
 
I'm the same right handed left eye dominant. I learned to shoot left handed. I have all right handed bolt rifles . Off the bench or prone off bipod or rest I actually prefer the right bolt right port when shooting lefty as I'm not reaching over the rifle to feed . Now off hand it can be a little awkward unless using a left handed rifle.
 
I guess I am the odd ball. I am right handed and left eye dominant and I shoot everything right handed. I have much better control with my right trigger finger and I never wanted to deal with all the expensive left-handed guns. I mostly shoot pistols and red dots so it is a non-issue but when it comes to a rifle with a scope I just close my left die and I’m good to go.
 
BCOD said:
I guess I am the odd ball. I am right handed and left eye dominant and I shoot everything right handed. I have much better control with my right trigger finger and I never wanted to deal with all the expensive left-handed guns. I mostly shoot pistols and red dots so it is a non-issue but when it comes to a rifle with a scope I just close my left die and I’m good to go.
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For me the big thing was shotgun. I decided to try shooting left while out busting hand-thrown clays with the guys one day, and the results spoke for themselves. I held off on switching to lefty with my rifles at first, because like you I didn't want to deal with getting left-handed guns (although used hunting rifles in left-hand are often quite affordable). Eventually, I decided I would be better off just switching to left with my rifles too, partly for the muscle memory, and partly because I want to get better with iron sights and the difference between left and right eyes with those is huge for me.
 
Woolrat said:
Might not be the right spot to post but sighting is the topic.

Anyone have suggestions for a new shooter? My daughter loves shooting, then I discovered she is left eye dominant. It will not be a problem with pistols or anything tactical as I'm teaching her to shoot both eyes open. But she does like shooting long range with rifles too.

As she is a right handed shooter should I attempt to transition her to a lefty shooter with all or just try to get her comfortable shooting rifles lefty. I'm not sure she it would be best to let her continue trying to cheek weld so hard to get he left eye into the scope while shooting right handed.

Thoughts from experience?

Woolrat
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It can be a problem with pistols too... make sure she understands this left eye dominance. It will be much easier for her if she shoots long guns as a lefty... train her that way.

You can always tape the right lens on her shooting glasses to assist the left eye dominance as well.
 
I was in my late 20s before I knew about 'eye-dominance', after about 15 years of shooting well with RH-LD 'syndrome' ;-) Never tried to change and still shoot fine. Rifle and shotgun with irons for targets I'll close Left eye, but pistols both eyes open. Scopes I use Right eye and all Right-hand guns. And I shoot pool Very well Right handed using Left eye to aim - is this more 'odd-ball' than BCOD ?
 
I shoot wrong eyed and after time you get used to it. My good eye doesn't try to take over if I have both eyes open. Let her shoot how she wants
 
I found I was cross dominant last year when I started shooting compound and so on the recommendation of the Pro shop just started learning leftie. I am so happy I did. I shoot pistols right handed and am practicing with shotgun and rifle to more confident shooting left. I wish I had started out from the beginning shooting left.
 
My wife is right handed but left eye dominant. She wears an eye patch to ensure she completely disengages her left eye while shooting with an optic.

I have a buddy that is also right handed but left eye dominant. He shoots a lefty rifle and has learned to use the left hand for his trigger. For shotgun he uses a right handed gun and keeps both eyes open. It works for him.
 
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