Dominant Eye Questions

15 January 2004, 14:19

Nathan W

Ok I tried the eye test tonight and found my left eye to be the dominant one. I am right handed. I shoot right handed and I ususally close left eye and use right only when shooting, both with scopes and with iron sights. Is this the wrong technique - tell me, should I shoot right handed or left and with which eyes open or closed? Thanks a bunch, Nathan

15 January 2004, 14:38

p dog shooter

As a firearms instructor We try to teach dominant eye. There are some people who can't close there dominant eye that causes them to try and hold there head across the stock. For hunting I do not see much differants in useing your strong side and weak eye. For postion target shooting the best shooter use the dominant eye to get their natural point of aim so their body is in the best postion musles,bone and eye matching up and working to gather. If you are strongly right handed and you do not want to spend the time to swicth do what works the best. Starting with young shooters I always try to get them to shoot dominant eye training there off side to handle guns. They argue and fight against it until they shoot and see that there scores are improving and it becomes more natural for them.

15 January 2004, 14:46

LongShotRX

Nathan, I am left eye dominate and right handed. I had some problems with my right eye as a child and therefore my father taught me to shoot left handed. Now as an adult I shoot both ways but prefer to shoot left handed. I learned to shoot right handed because of turkey hunting. Sometimes in a sitting position with no chance to move, it comes in very handy. I have to close my left eye when I shoot right handed but when I shoot form the left side, I never close my right eye. Just my personal experience.

Joe

16 January 2004, 06:54

Bob257

I think it would be best if you could keep both eyes open. Less strain and the ability to follow game that's moving. In shotgun shooting it's much better to shoot with both eyes open. My wife is right handed and left eyed. To correct this situation we place frosted scotch tape over the shooting glass to cover the area of her pupil. When she shoots the cloudy image will cause the weaker eye to be the eye that "sees" the target. Seems to work.

Bob257

16 January 2004, 07:14

Slingster

Quote:

Ok I tried the eye test tonight and found my left eye to be the dominant one. I am right handed. I shoot right handed and I ususally close left eye and use right only when shooting, both with scopes and with iron sights. Is this the wrong technique - tell me, should I shoot right handed or left and with which eyes open or closed? Thanks a bunch, Nathan

Nathan, I'm also right-handed and left-eye dominant, and a firearms instructor. My perspective on this question has to do with whether your eye dominance is stronger or weaker than your hand dominance. My hand dominance is much stronger than my eye dominance, so I do what you do, with a slight variation: I shoot right-handed and keep both eyes open as I mount the rifle so as to maintain the maximum peripheral vision, but as soon as my cheek hits the comb of the stock and the scope or iron sights line up, I "dim" my left eye and use the right eye to shoot.

By "dim" I mean close your eye slightly without squinting or scrunching up your face, essentially blurring that eye's vision just a bit so that your brain shifts priority over to your shooting eye. People with minimal or no eye dominance often have to do this as well in order to avoid seeing dual images.

Now if it turns out that your eye dominance is stronger than your hand dominance, then I would concur with those here who recommend shooting left-handed.

Hope this helps.

16 January 2004, 07:49

Bryan W

I do exactly the same thing with a rifle. By slightly closing my dominant eye the dominance is in effect shifted.

For shotgun shooting both eyes must be open enough to have depth perception. I probably do the same "squinting" as I do when rifle shooting.