My son is left eye dominant but is right handed. What kind of problems and solutions do you guys have?

I'm not sure what the BEST solution might be , but my brother had the same problem . He taught himself to shoot lefthanded , and it has worked very well for him .

[ 03-28-2003, 17:10: Message edited by: sdgunslinger ]

I am left handed and left eye dominant but was taught to shoot right handed. It is alright with a rifle but terrible for a shotgun. When shotgunning you can draw a small (half inch) dot in the center of your left lens of your shooting glasses and force yourself to use your right eye.
If he is just learning I would teach him relative to his dominate eye, but that is just my opinion.

Defintely teach to use the dominant eye. I am left eye dominant, but right handed. Gun case is full of left hand bolts, single shots, lever actions.....all southpaw friendly.
It is easier to teach left handed shooting than to learn nondominant eye accuracy.

Ed

You can have a right handed, left wye dominant stock made for him, I'm not sure now where I waw them though.
Hope that helps.

Unless you want to get into expensive custom stocks for every gun you buy him I would teach him to shoot with his dominant eye. It is not that hard to do and will pay dividends if he takes up wing shooting. The dominant eye is the eye that the brain uses to process most of the information and lead and depth perception. This is critcal for wing shooting.

My nephew is gifted with the same cross dominant eye. Notice this is not a handycap. It is just the way he is. I tought him to shoot left handed. He bagged his first deer last year with 1 shot.

My wife is right-handed, but left eye dominant.

She shoots rifles left-handed, and pistols right-handed.

He's got to be comfortable while shooting, so a left-hand rifle would be best.

George

never mind

[ 03-28-2003, 19:21: Message edited by: Marsh Mule ]

I am going to go against the prevailing opinions here, but I taught myself to shoot right eyed, right handed. Being right handed with left eye dominant, I found it extremely ackward to try to shoot left handed. I can, but it was unnatural. It does take practice, but at the range is the only time I have an issue. When I am hunting, everything seems to come together.

I have scopes on my rifles and shoot with both eyes open.

I'm with GlennB on this one. I also am left eye dominant and right handed but I shoot Right eyed right handed with both long guns and handguns. On trick you can do, that my dad and grandpa did to me, is have him wear an eye patch over his dominant eye for an hour or two a day for a couple of days leading up to a shooting session. This taught me(or my brain) to better use/process the info from my right eye. And while shooting the left lens of my shooting glasses where covered with regular masking tape. It lets light through but prevents use of the eye. I now correctly shoot with both eyes open with all types of firearms, both open and scope sights.

[ 03-28-2003, 21:11: Message edited by: DavidReed ]

My dad taught my sister to shoot left-handed and bought her a Savage 99 in .308 Win

I am 45 and have shot right handed but am left eye dominant. I never knew it until about 10 years ago.. I think it doesnt matter with a scoped rifle....bring the gun up with both eyes open and just as you aquire the target close your left eye...the animal should be in the scope...when I used iron sights I just had to close my left eye also....I always thought I was a good shot with the shotgun and I am still very good with it hunting...but I will never be the best target shotgunner unless I change or get much much better at timing my closing of the left eye right before I bring the barrels past the target...I was alway a snap shooter, and never took those 45+ yard shots that really really need follow through...lots of thing to consider....with respect to shooting a shotgun (few if shooting scoped rifles)...will he want to become a clay target shooter? will he just hunt? are there no left handed guns in the family he could use if he trys to learn to shoot lefty...because not having the gun will prevent him from shooting at all! being able to borrow friend and family guns to shoot and hunt is something to consider....if he is the odd man out, he wont be able to borrow a gun for that different hunt that his friends do once in a while....bob

Voldamort (nice handle)

I teach hunter education, and my advice to all the students I teach is, if it's not too late, start off by shooting left handed.

Much of the advice you've gotten here is good. I cannot disagree with those who shoot rifles and handguns right handed/left eye dominant. It can be done.

However, if your son plans to shoot shotguns at moving targets, he will have a heck of a time mastering this skill, unless he shoots one-eyed, and I don't recommend that. I say again, it CAN be done. But it takes lots more work and discipline to become proficient enough to hit moving targets.

If he plans to shotgun shoot, I'd recommend left-handed.

My 13 year old daughter is cross dominant. I started her shooting left-handed from day one. I believe it was the right choice.

Tim

I remember seeing somewhere ,research done on this subject and they found it was easier and better to use the dominant eye and train the non-dominant hand.

Voldamort
I am left eye dominant and right handed. I shoot handguns with my left eye, and rifles with my right eye. When shooting rifles or shotguns I just close the left eye as I "lineup" the sights. The only problem of any consequience I have had is when I began to shoot Palma and 1000 yard matches, which are shot with Iron sights. I could not read the number above my target. I went to one eye doctor who did not have an answer. I went to another eye doctor who was a High Power Rifle shooter. I had a set of shooting glasses made that work. I took my service rifle, my Palma rifle, and my 45 ACP. The right lens works this way, the upper part of the lens is "focused" for long distance, thus I can read the number at 1000 yards, the middle part is "focused" for the front sight, and athere is a "bifocal" in the bottom of the lens so I can see "them little bitty" numbers and white lines on the rear sight. The left lens is set up for pistol shooting. It works good and will have to do until they figure out how to switch my left eye to the right side of my head.

My son is right handed and is left eye dominant and has no problem shooting right handed using his left eye. It doesn't look right but he hits the target. He can also pitch baseball left or right handed. Fuzz

With a scope it does not matter. THe problem really comes when he tries to use a shotgun to wing shoot. Shooting right handed and being left eye dominant means the gun will not be pointing were you are looking. And in wing shooting you look your shot into the bird. Thus he will miss.

I shot competition in college and for the military and taught marksmanship in the Army for over two years. With one weeks practice you can be taught to confortably shoot left handed with your dominant eye. He will thank you for it latter.

My nephew shoots left handed so naturally he can't figure out why he tried to shoot right handed in the first place.

Like some of the others, I'm left eye dominant but didn't realize it until after I joined a trap league. I always squinted or closed my left eye and did fine but did horrible when trying to leave both eyes open per the instruction of a veteran trap shooter. The dot on the glasses cures that problem but I feel funny with a "dot" on my glasses when I'm hunting so I still use the "squint" technique and do just fine. If you use a dot on the glasses to eliminate the dominance issue, the dot should be placed on the lens in a manner that will obsure your vision when looking down the barrel of your gun. For me, that's left of center and a litte high on the lens. This keeps you from using your dominant eye while shooting but doesn't obscure your forward vision when not shooting.

I'm very glad I don't have to go through the trouble of shooting left-handed. Good luck.

If your son is young enough or not so completely left eye dominant to change, I'd encourage him to practice right handed. The world is just more accommodating from starboard.

I'm left eye dominant and kinda ambidextrous and in retrospect, I wish I'd learned to shoot right handed. My time in the Marine Corps and Catholic school surely would have been less painful!

Happily, there are many lefty-friendly rifles nowadays if he's committed to that route. Most right handed stuff can be used just fine too.

Cheers

Redial
Distinguished Wrong-Hander

This is a very timely for me. I just found out my 7 year old son in left eye dominant but is right handed. He likes to shoot his bb gun right handed but it looks very uncomfortable. I think the best thing to do is to teach him to shoot left handed.I tried to get him to shoot lefty but he claimed it felt funny. I hope to change that feel with some work. An issue that i have never even considered was the purchase of left handed guns. Can i find a lefty bolt .22 for him? Or any other beginer type rifle? If anybody has anything like this, please let me know where you found it.My boy is already a hunting maniac,i don't want to frustrate things with this eye issue.

I am RH but left eye dominant. I shoot right handed most of the time because of gun availability. That said, I wish I would have started shooting left handed, but it's too late to start now. I don't fell it hurts my rifle shooting, but I shoot just as well LH with my shotgun as RH, even though I almost never shoot left handed. Maybe I would actually be a half ass shotgunner if I shot LH all the time?

I am left eye dominant and right handed. It was discovered early on and I learned to shoot left handed and have always been glad I did.

It feels completely natural now and I don't remember it taking very long to feel comfortable.

My big game rifle is a lefty but otherwise the only right handed guns I stay away from are semi-autos as they tend to blow particles into my eye. So, in shotguns I use side by side or pumps, and have never felt handicapped.

I started handguns with my left hand, but had better accuracy with my right and made the change (still sight with my left eye though).

My advice is to start them left handed...dvnv

I used to shoot a lot of competitve trap and I am left eye dominant and right handed. I always shot right handed. I likely did not do as well as I could if I would have started out left handed, but by the time we figured it out I had already been shooting for 2+ years. I tried left handed and couldnt hit squat. My average at 16yrds was a bit over 90, my highest run was 116 or something without a miss, so its not THAT big of a handicap if you practice a lot. I basically got used to it.

After messing with everything under the sun as far as "fix-its" Ive come to the conclusion the only way to truly alleviate the problem is with eye glasses or corrective surgey. IN MY CASE ATLEAST. I had custom RX shooting glasses made with all kinds of different colored lenses for each condition. My left eye has a SLIGHT astigmatism and its MORE powerful at longer distances, hence when shooting trap it picks up targets better, so it became the dominate eye. I am sure it happened before that due to normal living, but that was what did it to me. With the rx shooting glasses over time I was able to shoot more consistently, and with a proper fitting gun I gained a lot in my shooting and was much more confident. You may consider something similar if you want your son to be a serious shooter. My eyes are near perfect anyways, but just my left eye is a little better at range so it picked up the dominance. You can mess around with patches and shit like that but in the end you need to reverse the problem not just a temporary fix. Besides with the glasses you are not cutting out portions of visibility as with the patch. Lasik has also been known to correct eye dominance but you cannot be sure of the results, and I dont know if your son has bad enough eyes to warrant such a procedure.

So my advice would have him test out shooting both sides. If left handed feels good to him then by all means try it. It felt very weird for me and I struggled terribly. If right handed is the best feel for him try some RX shooting glasses and have him wear them a lot, not just at the range. You might even consult the doctor on making the left side a bit weaker to give an even greater advantage, but without wearing them a lot its not going to do any good.

greg p - Savage makes a lefty 22 bolt rifle. About $125

Redial

I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot handguns right handed and long guns left handed. Grew up shooting right handed shotguns and rifles. I never shot a left handed rifle until age 40. It was a revelation! Now my collection has three left handed winchester model 70's and i like the difference. If i saw the rifle of my dreams available in right hand only, it wouldn't be a problem.

Let the shooter decide. After i tried my hunting partner's left hand action, i knew it was a lot easier to cycle that bolt while the black bear was moving. The rug on the wall tells the rest of the story.

You can't go too far wrong with a Ruger #1 either.

Im left eye dominant but it depends on what Im doing as to which hand I use. I guess it is just learned behaviour because of what was available. I shoot a bow left handed, rifle and shotgun right handed, pistol either hand but get a little left shift in impact with the right hand. I throw with my left hand, write and eat with my right. I golf right handed. Guess Im just all screwed up but it works for me. Maybe not great but it works.
Oh yeah, I can also bat with either side. No switch hitting jokes please.

[ 03-29-2003, 09:01: Message edited by: Mike Smith ]

I just learned in NRA coaches school that a study done at a major university concluded that it make little difference with paper or stationary targets.Moving or wing type is a different story. I have shot this way for forty years and most people consider me to be a average shooter.I use a dot on my glasses or you can have special shooting glasses made for him for bird hunting to shift my shotgun to my right eye.

I am right handed but left eye dominant. I also must shoot long guns left handed and handguns right handed. I shoot fine; it has been a pain to find bolt guns that I want but it is getting better!

I am also right handed but Left eye dominant. I made the choice to shoot left handed 20 years ago and never looked back. It never did feel awkward to shoot this way. The choice of leftgf hand actions is geting better every year, but caliber choices are not tht great. I wish I could find an affordable LH 416 Rigby!

Due to a eye injury my daughter has to use her left eye to shoot with. She is right handed shoots rifle and shot gun left pistol right handed. I started her off her left shoulder and she shoots very well. Being a rifle pistol insrtuctor I try to get my students to use the master eye. Most find that they shoot better when doing so. The older the shooter is when trying to change the harder it is for them.
---------- I have a glass for 4Her's coming up next week that one young fellow is a cross shooter and he only 8. I am going to convince him to try both ways and become amberdexterious. Then he can decide what works best for him.

I shoot left handed with both rifle and handgun.

There is nothing wrong with being left eye dominant or left handed. Or right side dominant for that matter. I can tell you that as a Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor for over 20 years, I would let him learn to shoot left handed, even if you have started to teach him right handed or if he does everything else right handed. You will not notice this so much with a scope, however, with a shotgun and pistol it will be a world of difference.

Let me explain what my experience has been. The first person I switched was a 23 year veteran and was very left eye dominant and shot right handed and wrote etc. right handed. We started simple draw and aim practice 2 or three minutes and take a 5 minute break and gradually worked up to firing and more and longer drills. You see he not only had to learn but forget/overcome years of muscle memory developed using his right hand/arm as primary. Suffice to say in two weeks working every other day he felt comfortable enough to switch for duty carry and fired a qualification score 5 points off of possible 245 of 250. By far the best he had ever done and shot faster.

What occurres is your dominant eye, the more dominant you are the more obvious this is, SUBCONSCIOUSLY, gives your brain messages as to sight alignment and even grip and trigger control. Your dominant eye will do "work" that you otherwise have to subconsciously do MANUALLY as opposed to your eye/brain working in concert to do this AUTOMATICALLY.

Essentially, what your master eye is doing is eleminating a type of paralax. In that shooting right handed and closing your dominant eye you point the shotgun in one place and look in another. Although some people do learn to shoot this way the farther away from the target they get the more critical and obvious this becomes. In todays dynamic type law enforcement firearms training this is not noticable at the 3/5/7 yardlines in a frontal combat stance. Move back to 15 yards and it is noticable, @25 yards it is something you have to compensate for and at 50 yards you may well be missing the entire target!

Yes, there are verying degrees of dominance and the amount of dominance will determine how critical these factors will manifest themselves.

My suggestion, and it may be against popular opinion, and usually is until I prove this, my suggestion, based upon my experience is teach him to shoot left handed. Let nature take it's course, so to speak.

Good Hunting/Shooting, "Z"

Talk to a eye doctor and see if a patch over his left eye while shooting will help him remain a right handed shooter. I have seen bow hunters use an eye patch who are right handed but left eye dominate.

My wife has this problem, among others.

When we go deer hunting, she closes her left eye when using a rifle with a scope. She has gotten a moving deer with a neck shot at 80 yards through timber.

This is easiest solution for a rifleperson but not so good for shooting on the wing.

I am right handed, left eye dominent. I shoot rifles pretty well by closing my left eye without even thinking about it.shot gunning is a differnt story.I wing shoot with both eyes open, some people call it instinctive shooting, and do ok. With lots of practice I can shoot a recurve bow instinctive style really well. Some of the so called experts said that can not be done. I shoot pistols by closing my right eye and sight with my dominent left eye. This all sounds kind of complicated but it something I never really think about much, a person just adapts.

I lived with a left dominance until at age 51 it became clear that with failing site I should try to change. What a mess, two years and my wing shooting is still screwed up big time. It may be difficult but it will be worth the time now when he's young and not carrying 40 years of right hand shooting.

Good day
Like others I am right handed but left eye dominant. I taught myself to shoot because my dad was not a hunter nor a shooter. I shoot my rifles and shotguns left handed, bow left handed and my handguns right handed. It seems to work great for me, I've done it this way for so long I wouldn't consider any other way. Not that other ways are wrong it just wouldn't be comfortable for me.
Mike