Right handed but left eye dominant??

Every time this comes up... the answer is to shoot wrong handed. The hand dominance would be more difficult to overcome than the eye dominance. The easy answer is to close the left eye. Regardless of eye dominance, not everyone can shoot with both eyes open, and if shooting a scope, it really doesn't matter that much. Certainly, all up to the individual but just a few things to consider before running out and buying a wrong handed rifle.

R.
 
I'm left handed, but learned to shoot right in the Army Cadets over 60 years ago. I'd learned the basics using right handed arms from the left shoulder which is awkward but do-able. When the cadet corps put me on a Bren I discovered that was virtually impossible to operate from the left, so I switched to the right shoulder and discovered my scores went up. Back then I'd never heard about 'dominant eyes', but it turned out that I am one of those who got wired cross-wise; left hand dominant but right master eye.
There were very few southpaw rifles around in the early '60s, at least where I grew up, but it ceased to be a problem after I switched to shooting conventionally.
Same thing with playing most musical instruments. When I was young manufacturers of guitars, banjos etc. wanted at least a 20% premium to build we sinister types a guitar, so again I switched and learned to play 'right'. Never regretted it in either case.
Years later as professional guitar builder I made a point of building instruments commissioned by southpaws without any price penalty. Of course for hand builders, working on very small batches, it doesn't entail much more effort. For a major manufacturer, on the other hand ( sorry about that) who has to pull a unit off an assembly line and assign someone to stick it together all wrong is a costly and time consuming matter.
KH
seamusm said:
Hello all. I have a question i was hoping you could help me with. My daughter just passed her PAL. She is right handed but discovered she is left eye dominant. She wants to shoot left handed rifles.

I'm right handed and shoot right handed, I dont have anything left handed. While we wait for her license to be processed and arrived I was thinking of picking up a CVA scout for both of us to shoot. I can shoot it right, she can try left and right handed shooting.

What do you guys think about my plan? Any advise from the leftys out there?
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Will always recommend using the dominant eye. I'm cross dom (left handed and right eyed) and almost from the beginning I've used my right side. I've taught many a cross dominant student that have had trouble passing various shooting test and the main reason was they were using the hand they were comfortable and were trying to a) twist their head so that they could use their dom eye, or b) use their non-dom but much weaker eye.

There was one lady I specifically remember because she was trying to pass the pistol test and having no luck. Her groups were atrocious and all over the tgt. Turns out, she was cross dom and using her dom hand. 5 minutes later, I had her doing palm sized groups and she passed her test no problem.
 
Rman said:
The hand dominance would be more difficult to overcome than the eye dominance.

R.
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A lot of people think this, but in my experience it couldn't be more wrong. The difference, particularly with shotgun (moving targets where i need both eyes open for my brain to compute the trajectory quickly) and iron sights (where i need to be able to line up things at multiple focal points), was monumental.

Literally day one I was breaking more clays shooting left, even though running the pump felt awkward and my safety was backwards.

Hand dominance isn't that hard to overcome. It's especially easy if there isn't built up muscle memory from starting with the wrong gun.
 
Suther said:
A lot of people think this, but in my experience it couldn't be more wrong. The difference, particularly with shotgun (moving targets where i need both eyes open for my brain to compute the trajectory quickly) and iron sights (where i need to be able to line up things at multiple focal points), was monumental.

Literally day one I was breaking more clays shooting left, even though running the pump felt awkward and my safety was backwards.

Hand dominance isn't that hard to overcome. It's especially easy if there isn't built up muscle memory from starting with the wrong gun.
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We have butted heads about this before. If hand dominance was that easy to overcome, we'd all be ambidextrous. Very few are. There are reasons for that.
It has been my experience that what you are suggesting can be quite difficult for most and is a major compromise when the simple solution is to close an eye.
If it works for you, great. That doesn't mean much for everyone else. If it works for them, that's great as well!

R.
 
seamusm said:
I have a question i was hoping you could help me with. My daughter just passed her PAL. She is right handed but discovered she is left eye dominant. She wants to shoot left handed rifles.
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The old FNC1A1 are right handed rifles but the cocking handle is on the left side.
We were told that this was an intentional design so that the shooter would never have to remove their right hand from the pistol grip.
I'm thinkin' that you daughter might really just love to have one of these... 😁

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Potashminer said:
Back in the day, my last boss had been a United States Marine Corps shooter instructor, in his younger days - from him, there was "one" correct way to do things - including shooting - and every other way was "wrong" - even if it worked. From him I learned that US Marines shot with both eyes open for the past 100 years - so I forced myself to learn how to do that - the last elk I shot, I saw the chest cave in from the bullet strike - must have been from my off side eye - I was using a Leupold 6X scope on a 338 Win Mag - I am sure the rifle would have been up in recoil when that bullet struck, so I probably did not see that bullet strike through the scope.
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Once a person gets used to it, it's so nice for hunting. I've been practicing always shooting with both eyes open for awhile now. It is weird with a scope for sure, but you get used to it, and it gets rid of the tunnel vision. Makes shooting offhand, and running game shots alot easier.
 
Rman said:
We have butted heads about this before. If hand dominance was that easy to overcome, we'd all be ambidextrous. Very few are. There are reasons for that.
It has been my experience that what you are suggesting can be quite difficult for most and is a major compromise when the simple solution is to close an eye.
If it works for you, great. That doesn't mean much for everyone else. If it works for them, that's great as well!

R.
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Are you cross dominant?

Closing an eye isn't the simple solution you claim it to be. Been there, done that. Many people struggle to close one eye for an extended period of time and even if you CAN do it, you now have no depth perception and your brain can't calculate trajectory of a moving target nearly as well. Not to mention how closing your non-scope eye means you lose awareness of what's in your immediate vicinity. It's also a great way to get mental fatigue.

By all means, I shot small groups and killed big game using my right eye/shoulder. But I'm a better shot in every way using the good eye.


As for being ambidextrous, literally everyone is to some degree. When you eat do you only use one hand? Do you only use one hand when on a computer? Or driving? We use our non-dominant hand all day every day. We don't focus through our non-dominant eye unless there's a specific reason to though.
 
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seamusm said:
Hello all. I have a question i was hoping you could help me with. My daughter just passed her PAL. She is right handed but discovered she is left eye dominant. She wants to shoot left handed rifles.

I'm right handed and shoot right handed, I dont have anything left handed. While we wait for her license to be processed and arrived I was thinking of picking up a CVA scout for both of us to shoot. I can shoot it right, she can try left and right handed shooting.

What do you guys think about my plan? Any advise from the leftys out there?
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Im the same.
I shoot all long guns left and pistols right and my head crooked a little more using my left eye on the irons or dot for the pistols

Left or right handed long guns …..

Nothings bothered me at all. Theres even some advantages to this all esp semi automatics( except maybe some bull pups like tavors that the brass comes out uncomfortable close to a lefty , but i think they can go left or right , not that it matters - banned )

Not much advice to give except ….. just keep plinking just keep plinking. The pieces will fit for her. Everyone’s different
 
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in the army they forced to use frf1 and frf2 with the right hand so i used the left hand to use the trigger and you can see how faster it was, the famas was authotized for training in left hand but my unit prohibited the use for real ops in case someone else needed to use it, but for a newbie go with your dominant eye and go from there. remington 870 even in rh is really lh friendly but not as good as the bps nor a full left hand semi auto and bolt left hand as well.
 
Lots of good info here, thank you. I'll stick with a CVA scout or similar for now and let her experiment. Sounds like she'll do a lot better shooting left handed.
 
Late to the party but here is my 2 cents. Learned aiming with both eyes open and cross dominant eye is no longer a problem.
 
Rman said:
We have butted heads about this before. If hand dominance was that easy to overcome, we'd all be ambidextrous. Very few are. There are reasons for that.
It has been my experience that what you are suggesting can be quite difficult for most and is a major compromise when the simple solution is to close an eye.
If it works for you, great. That doesn't mean much for everyone else. If it works for them, that's great as well!

R.
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You're not really "overcoming" hand dominance when you choose to shoot with your weaker hand but stronger eye. You're just training your weaker hand to do more things. Also, it's not that it's easy to train the weaker hand, it's just easier than trying to train your non-dom eye. the whole "just close the other eye" solution doesn't help if, like many people, your non-dom eye is also weaker and worse than your dom eye.
 
GrimRX said:
You're not really "overcoming" hand dominance when you choose to shoot with your weaker hand but stronger eye. You're just training your weaker hand to do more things. Also, it's not that it's easy to train the weaker hand, it's just easier than trying to train your non-dom eye. the whole "just close the other eye" solution doesn't help if, like many people, your non-dom eye is also weaker and worse than your dom eye.
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No, you are attempting to overcome hand dominance. Give a righty a wrong handed stick and see how it goes. Why is a rifle any different?
Have not found most of these comments or suggestions to be true across multiple people. As you mentioned, it would have a lot to do with the difference in eye strength, available coordination, etc.
For most encumbered with this issue, the easiest was to close the eye. It isn’t like the non-dominant eye doesn’t work. It certainly is the most practical, the least effort, and can still achieve results at the highest levels.
There is little value forcing someone to shoot wrong handed when a simple wink will solve the problem more times than it won’t.
Watched a fellow at the range attempting to do this with his kid as a direct result of forum “advice” Dad went out and purchased a left handed rifle for the kid, who was right handed left eye dominant. Kid would have been about 14. The whole show looked like a monkey humping a football. It was starting to get a bit heated. Asked a few questions. Dad had the same condition, but figured it was too late for him, and wanted the kid to do it as he had read about. Kid did everything right handed. Ask Dad if the kid could wink. Turns out he could! (Have never met anyone than can’t in under a minute). Kid shot better right than he did left, with the eye closed. Dad tried lefty as well and couldn’t get it to work.
This is one example of many. Multiple forums show the same results as above. They also show results where it worked or was “better”.

Again, if it works for you, great. That doesn’t mean it’s going to work for everyone else.

When the easiest thing to try is closing one eye, that should probably be the first step?

R.
 
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Rman said:
When the easiest thing to try is closing one eye, that should probably be the first step?

R.
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See there's the problem. You keep making the assumption that closing one eye is easier than starting left handed out the gate. Those of us who have actually gone through this tend to disagree with that though.
 
Suther said:
See there's the problem. You keep making the assumption that closing one eye is easier than starting left handed out the gate. Those of us who have actually gone through this tend to disagree with that though.
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What assumption? It’s been done, plenty of times. Did you even read what was written?Again, give a righty a wrong handed anything and watch what happens.
What can be easier to try than winking?

R.
 
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