Weak hand shooting-do you keep using the dominant eye or switch to weak hand side eye

R

Rickster66

Regular
Rating - 100%
51   0   0
Location
Montreal, Quebec
Question for you experienced pistol shooters. I'm planning to get into IPSC and IDPA this year and wanted to hear what people are doing when shooting weak hand side. Do you align sights using your usual dominant eye or do you switch to the weak hand eye? Does it matter? In my quick, not very scientific, experiment I shot better when I switched. It wasn't natural and took a little time to try and use the weak side eye but POA/POI was more consistent.

What has been your experience? Recommendations? Do I just need to practice more with weak hand/dominant eye or should I switch? In a practical way, shooting weak side hand/eye behind cover would reduce exposure.

Thanks.
 
Shoot the way most effective for you.

when you shoot week had, you turn your body away from the target, and you turn your head toward the target. Its how you aquire the target better.
 
It's faster for me to use my dominant eye (RH) when shooting weak hand. Otherwise i have to close my right eye and find my sights and line up the target.
A while ago i did this automatically and realized it after. It worked fine. I shot just as accurately.
I suppose if i practised using my left eye it would get easier.
 
I am left handed and legally blind in my right eye so I don't have much choice...I always use my dominant eye...cuz it's the only one I have that works...The tendency (for me at least) is to move my neck over towards the right side...but I found if I actually adjust my stance / shoulders to move the sights to my dominant eye and keep my head straight, I get faster target acquisition and better accuracy...still suck, but not as much.
 
Right handed and right eye dominant, when I shoot with just my left hand, I'll cant my pistol slightly towards my right eye, but just not "homeboy style" angles.
 
Right handed/right eye dominant. Shoot both strong and support hand with right eye. Both supported and unsupported. When shooting one-handed, I often shoot a better group with the support hand - probably because I am concentrating more.
 
I am right handed and always have both eyes open, when shooting weak hand I cant the gun about 10 deg to the right and still use my dominant eye. Then again i'm crap weak handed...
 
An easier way to shoot on your weak hand side, is to use this old combat shooting technique: Learn to shoot with both eyes open. It usually doesn't take long to master the skill. Then, when shooting weak hand side, draw the firearm as you would normally and pin the front sight on the target. No need to cant the firearm. Your brain automatically makes the slight correction, and your dominant eye and front sight will seem to align automatically. As you practice the technique, it will become easier.
 
+1 with both eyes. I learnt to do it by "shooting" vases off the TV until I got it right. look down your sights with both eyes until you have a sight picture, then close your undominant eye, if the sights are still a hit you're doing it right. After that gets easy I like to shoot people on tv. That way you quickly aquire targets and it helps speed you up.

Having both eyes open keeps your field of view open so acquiring targets and movement will be easier as you are aware of more of your surroundings.
 
thatmikeguy said:
It's faster for me to use my dominant eye (RH) when shooting weak hand. Otherwise i have to close my right eye and find my sights and line up the target.
A while ago i did this automatically and realized it after. It worked fine. I shot just as accurately.
I suppose if i practised using my left eye it would get easier.
Click to expand...

I agree with this plus I use shooting glasses which are tuned to my dominant eye. If I was shooting weak hand for pure accuracy then I would set up to use my weak eye. I find using the dominant eye does put a bit more bend in the wrist which is not good for accuracy. I shoot cowboy action so am shooting fast but with weak loads and I am after good enough accuracy. If you were shooting full power loads it might be more of an issue.
 
Shoot the way you can hit the target (i;e: find it through practice). Don't listen to everybody's method that works for them, they're not you.
 
Last edited:
Couldn't help but think of this picture when I saw the title of the thread. I shoot with strong eye all the time, both eyes open usually


523e2436e691b257b97d928c_736.jpg
 
For PPC we do a lot of left then right hand shooting, so keeping things the same makes it faster. I learned that way to look at my sights the same way, but find my aim point is slightly higher and a little left when shooting 1 or 2 handed left handed. For IPSC it doesn't matter since 99% of the time the entire stage will be all weak handed.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom