My grandson is 9, and I sometimes take him to the range to shoot. Like most kids, he wants to blaze away with something semi-auto. So the rule is that he has to get a certain score with the little break-action .22LR before he can try anything else. By and large, it is a pretty good balance between fun and discipline.

Here's the problem: He's right handed, but left eyed. Today he was all over the place with his shots, apparently because he was trying to use is dominant left eye while shooting right handed.

Anybody had any experience teaching kids with crossed dominance how to shoot?

I taught myself to shoot lefty when I was 13. i'm right handed, left eye dominate.

Agree with previous posts; probably best to teach the grandson to shoot same side as dominant eye. My wife is left handed and has been blind in her left eye since birth. Taught her to shoot right handed with the rifle without any problems with both semi-auto and bolt action rifles.

Having shot right handed for over half a century, would hate to try to learn to shoot left handed, but have seen quite a few older shooters switch when severe eye problems develop.

Good luck with the grandson, "ain't" it fun to work with the grandkids?

Regards,
hm

Sounds like three out of three in favor of retraining the hands rather than the eye. So we'll give that a try! Thanks, everyone for your comments.

Yes, it is great working with grandkids. We have a really good range, and the range officers all help to bring him along. It's something he can do that is a lot of fun, but which requires discipline and practice. It's a good growth experience for him, and I enjoy it.

One of my best friends and my sister are both left-eye, right handed. They shoot rifles lefty and pistols right-handed.

An interesting question is that neither one has tried a left-handed rifle. My friend shoots a right-handed rifle and my dad bought my sister a Savage 99 in .308. I wonder how they'd do with a left-handed rifle?

My daughter is left handed and right eyed. She shoots right handed, as that is the way we taught her to shoot. At first she had some issues with instinctively picking up the rifle left handed, but that quickly went away. She nows shoots quite well, when she wants to! judy

Now that I am middle-aged and need reading glasses I have noticed that my left eye sees a bit clearer than my right eye but I am right handed. I just always learned to shoot right handed with my left eye closed. I know that you are supposedly to shoot with both eyes open but I always had a bit of trouble with that. Maybe I know why now.

I too am left eye dominate, and have had trouble shooting conventional firmearms in my life time.

Answer: Teach him to shoot left handed. I'ts my belief, that he will never be able to shoot to his potential with his "weak eye".

If you give him the rifle. Does he naturally shoulder the firearm on his left side??
Probably so. I do.

It's a real crappy deal that gun makers dont do more to enable "lefty-rightys". My term. LOL
ie: Sako, my favorite gun maker. And many others.

Probably a canidate for a custom rifle in the near future.

Cudo's to you my friend, for taking time to teach the young man the art we here, so dearly love. ..sakofan..

[ 09-21-2003, 19:21: Message edited by: sakofan ]

I am right handed and left eyed and understand the delimma described. I learned to shoot right handed and by closing or squinting with my left eye to concentrate on the iron sights became a fair to decent rifle shot, just not as quick as some of my chidhood squirrel hunting friends. I graduated to a scope and soon was shooting better than my buddies because I had learned to concentrate and paid more attention to trigger control and breathing techniques. As hell would have it I had an accident 3 years ago at age 56 and lost 90/95% clear vision in my left eye because I put my GOOD Eye at risk doing something stupid and paid the price for it. I will tell you that the best and largest cornea transplant medical practice is in Dallas and I credit them and my Emgy Care Doc with saving my eye at all. I expect to recover 100% vision at 20/30 or 20/40 uncorrected when the Fed Gvt allows some of the current test programs to be released to the general public.
Several of the little tricks I used in learning to shoot was to wear glasses - even before I really needed them in prescrition strengths - and covered the left lense with see thru scoth tape that made it difficult to see clearly (pretty prophetic!). Shotgun accuracy will be the devil to teach as lead and swing thru from the wrong side is hard but practice with a trap machine will definitely help. I became more of a "spot" shooter on some angles and learned to pick my shots for a higher percentage of hits. I also learned to shoot a pistol simply using the same techniques as I learned as a beginnner at 11- 12 years old. Now without a functioning left eye but limited vison for motion and color I have learned to compensate by using a little more conservative range estimation effort than in the past. My Doc sez the brain will learn to compensate but it has to be taught before anything will become "normal". I also pay closer attention to known "guesstimated" distances. Bottom line is practice and concentratiion is the key no matter which side the young man learns from. My Bro in law is ambidexterous, handed and eyed -so he sez- and suffers accuracy problems because of it...and is totally confused sometimes which side to shoot from since they both look good to him ! LOL! Good Luck.
Ron

Some other things to consider when choosing which side to teach him to use a gun from ...and these may sound dumb but my youngest son was this way to some degree as a baby and we "programmed" him to be right handed as he was ambidextrerous. Which hand does he write with, feed himself with, handle tools best with...hammering a nail straight or using a screw driver to place a screw properly, lay a line of glue or caulk straight with yadda yadda(aforementioned B-i-l was welding with either hand at 12 and laying the bead correctly with either hand, )which foot is his dominent side...kick a ball with? Shows which foot he uses for balance more than the other one... ie probably is the "front foot" when shooting offhand. Can he catch house flys with either hand or just one ...shows natural preferential eye to hand coordination. My attoreney's oldest son won a 4 year scholarship at Notre Dame playing soccer as the goalkeeper but had shown this attribute of being able to catch houseflys with either hand at 6 years old in the Lil Tyke leagues! and is righthanded and left eyed and could not pass the eye exam for the Air Force Academy to qualify as a fighter pilot. Practice is the key, and go from there.
Sight picture on weapon can be taught just like range estimation, and lead and all of that are learned responses to the visual stimula. Good on you for the effort...and keep it fun.
Ron