Right handed but left eye dominant??

seamusm

seamusm

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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?
 
I had a friend like that years ago. He primarily shot right hand rifles from his left shoulder. At the bench he would cycle the bolt with his right hand still. He didn't hunt dangerous game, so being able to cycle a bolt super fast wasn't ever a concern. Worked for him.

I think your plan is good. Ambi gun to see what she is most comfortable with for general shooting. Though, the ergos from a Scout won't transfer to a bolt gun. Also food for thought, some straight pull rifles can have the bolt handle on either side so someone with a unique circumstance like your daughter can decide after buying which side is truly best for them.
 
I'm right handed but left eye dominant. Shooting left is hands down the way to go. I started right not knowing any better, but switched over the years - first with shotgun, then rifle too.

There's a million tricks to try to shoot right with a dominant left eye, and they work for some people, but it makes no sense to rely on tricks when you can just start her off left handed out the gate. The ability to hit a moving target with a shotgun, shoot with both eyes open using a scope, or simply be able to use iron sights half decently all greatly improved almost instantly upon switching for me.

As for guns, most of my guns are still RH. Bolt action rifles are the only lh guns I have. You don't NEED a lh gun to shoot lh, especially if she's just getting started. As a few examples, Mossberg 500s have a tang safety so they're lefty friendly, and Winchester Wildcat has a reversible safety and ambi mag/bolt releases, again making them lefty friendly. Plus I still have RH bolt guns that i use at the range, and I still take a RH bolt 22lr hunting sometimes because my LH bolt 22lr is a target gun in a heavy wood stock.

That said, I bought a Henry Single Shot rifle for my kids, only one of them is left eye dominant like me, and the controls on the Henry are fully ambidextrous. So it sounds like you're on the right path.
 
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I'm RH and Left Dom. but shoot RH. Most of my rifles have scopes and I use my right eye for them - scopes compensate for the R-sub. With SG and Irons I just close my left eye to sight. Been working for 60+ years. I'd suggest she try RH rifles w-scopes as well as irons as I said. JMO
 
Buck1950 said:
I'm RH and Left Dom. but shoot RH. Most of my rifles have scopes and I use my right eye for them - scopes compensate for the R-sub. With SG and Irons I just close my left eye to sight. Been working for 60+ years. I'd suggest she try RH rifles w-scopes as well as irons as I said. JMO
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I've never understood the old timers who tell people to use the wrong eye. I get it, you didn't know any better and you're too old to change now, but literally the ONLY advantage is gun availability - and there's lots of LH or reasonably ambidextrous guns available these days.

As a father who's goal is kids who can shoot good, the FIRST THING i did was figure out their dominant eyes.
 
There are many commercially available left handed bolt guns. TIKKA makes a good variety; I have three. Also managed to find an older Remington 700 in left hand. The CZ 457 also comes left handed. Just go into the EE and enter 'left' in the search window of the appropriate forum.
If you need fast cycling and want to stay in your scope; as you would for some competitions, GO LEFT.
 
solid plan,
nothing wrong with left handed people shooting right handed guns, my son was in the same pickle, had to stress trigger control little more in bolt action guns, the hand operating the bolt is not the same pressing the trigger, and its easy for new shooter to keep on holding the trigger while working the bolt

btw cross dominance is in about 5% of pop
 
I am right-handed, but left eye dominant. I shoot mainly pistols and have found that it is not a problem to just tilt my head a bit from a normal stance and use my left eye through the sights.

For rifles and shotguns, especially the Vietnam era M-16 or AR-15 series with the sight up on the carrying handle, I could actually shoot right-handed and sorta tilt my head to see the sights. But I found it best to shoot left-handed. For the relatively short period of time I actually had an M-16/A1 for my personal use, I went ahead and installed an ambidextrous fire control switch which worked out well, although I did get teased about it. The big problem I had with the M-16/A1 when trying to shoot from the right shoulder was that it did not have a brass deflector built in to the receiver in front of the forward assist. After any small amount of shooting my right cheek was pock-marked leaving me with a bit of a pizza face until the wounds healed from the brass cases coming back and hitting me, sometimes cutting into my cheek a bit. Playing around with some spare extractor/ejector springs I found that by trimming the extractor spring just a bit I could get the brass flying out straight to the right hand side instead of back into my face. This worked out rather well, and I never had any malfunctions with that rifle and I shot it quite a bit on full auto. I used it rather extensively with both 20 round and 30 round magazines and it functioned flawlessly. I took the ambi-safety off when I turned the rifle back in, but did nothing about that spring. It is not my problem anymore, but the M-16/A1 rifle remains my favorite version of the AR series, which I suppose rather dates me.

I strongly recommend that one resist the temptation to fire more powerful rifles than the M-16 series from the right shoulder using the left eye. Trying to do a mad minute of 25 aimed shots in one minute, using the Lee-Enfield Number One Mark III * that I had in Mexico, firing from the right shoulder using the left eye through the sights, I broke two teeth so bad that I had to get a bridge installed.

It's all fun and games until you break two teeth and need to get a bridge installed.
 
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I'm left eye dominate, and I've been shooting right-handed since I joined the military decades ago. They taught me the proper techniques to safely handle and shoot the FN-C1 and a SMG. I still use the same methods for shooting today.
 
While I am right handed, I do some things left handed like shooting a long gun, shooting a bow, shooting pool. Hmm, maybe I’m only left handed when shooting things ? I dunno. Anyways, I learned to shoot right handed when I got into flintlocks. Don’t like the look of a “backwards” gun and any properly made flintlock in NOT ambidextrous at all. They all come with cast. I am eye neutral so eye dominance didn’t factor in. I hunt with a Ruger #1 exclusively when not useing a flint which is ambidextrous. The nice thing about being a switch hitter when hunting is that, if an animal show up to my right, I dhoot it left handed, if it shows up to the left I shoot it right handed. Never have to contort my body or make any extra movements regardless of the angle of the shot. Just get a Ruger no 1 in your preferred calibre and go hunt. Of course, with a single shot you might want to learn how to “hunt”, otherwise, get a BAR or something of that nature if you are not serious about “hunting” and Just want to shoot something.
 
I too am cross eye dominant.
I just learned to cope with it.
In the military, you have to shoot right handed rifles...
 
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This topic has been discussed on CGN numerous times. I think the general consensus of knowledgeable shooters is to go with the eye that gives the best sight picture - that should be the shoulder to learn from - "right handed ness" or "left handed ness" usually means finger dexterity - it is part of "shooting", but "aiming" is probably more important. To "aim", you probably want to use your "best eye". There is a cadre - possibly even some militarties, that say/feel/believe that one should fire a gun from the right shoulder - I happen to know many shooters who shoot off their left shoulder with a right handed bolt action rifle - various ways that can be done.
 
calmex said:
I am right-handed, but left eye dominant. I shoot mainly pistols and have found that it is not a problem to just tilt my head a bit from a normal stance and use my left eye through the sights.
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This is a good point. I shoot my handguns right handed. It's easy to line up my left eye with the sights on a handgun regardless of which hand I'm holding it, as there is no stock or cheek weld to deal with.
 
I have been fine shooting right handed for 40 years. The only thing I can’t do is shoot with both eyes open, but it hasn’t cost me any opportunities.
 
1899 said:
I have been fine shooting right handed for 40 years. The only thing I can’t do is shoot with both eyes open, but it hasn’t cost me any opportunities.
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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.
 
A lever-action rifle should be ambidextrous, and might be a good choice for a shooter sorting out which side she wants to shoot from, being able to swap sides readily and settle where it works best.
 
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