Dominant eye Q

[eighteenninetytwo]

Found out this weekend when teaching my 8 year to shoot a .22 for the first time that he is Left eye dominant. he is not masisvley into shooting at all at this point and given our family and how much (little) I get to shoot it is unlikely he'll ever be more than a plinker / occasional target shooter like me. I hsoudl add that I am left eye dominant also and shoot right handed. Given that is it worth the inconvenience / posisble cost down the line of trying to teach him to shoot left handed with right handed rifles? opinions please?

[QXSOUP]

i am just the opposite... lefty but right eye dominant. It is much easier to shoot rifles right handed.

[Thanatos2203]

Found out this weekend when teaching my 8 year to shoot a .22 for the first time that he is Left eye dominant. he is not masisvley into shooting at all at this point and given our family and how much (little) I get to shoot it is unlikely he'll ever be more than a plinker / occasional target shooter like me. I should add that I am left eye dominant also and shoot right handed. Given that is it worth the inconvenience / posisble cost down the line of trying to teach him to shoot left handed with right handed rifles? opinions please?

I see a lot of assumptions here based on only small bits of fact. Sure he's only eight now and you don't shoot much but what about when he turns 18 or 25? In ten years he may have discovered a love for shooting that neither you nor he could have anticipated. My dad never owned a gun and yet I have a collection. I also don't remember what I did or did not like when I was eight except maybe Trix yogurt, and believe me, my tastes have changed. Teach him how to shoot properly with the right habits now (LH/LE) so that he doesn't have a training scar if he decides to get more involved later. Then he can decide if the costs are worth it when he is mature enough to do so.

[eighteenninetytwo]

Does being left eye dominant mean you have to use your left eye neccessarily? As I said, I have shot for years and only found it out this weekend too that I am Left dominant. Accuracy has never been an issue for me and my left eye is no better than my right in terms of my ability to SEE they target.

[Thanatos2203]

Does being left eye dominant mean you have to use your left eye neccessarily? As I said, I have shot for years and only found it out this weekend too that I am Left dominant. Accuracy has never been an issue for me and my left eye is no better than my right in terms of my ability to SEE they target.

Only if you want to shoot with both eyes open. Due to the distance between the eyes (interpupillary distance), your eyes tilt inward and it is this parallax which helps you perceive depth. Your dominant eye is the one your brain prefers to receive information from and your normal two eyed vision is primarily what you see out of it. Your recessive eye then tilts towards it and your brain has fun trying to put the two images together. Because of this, what you see out of just your recessive eye is actually quite different that what you see with both eyes open. So trying to hit a target or look through sights with your recessive eye is fine, but only if you eliminate the dominate role of your primary eye by covering it or closing it. Then your brain can actually perceive what your recessive eye is viewing without interference.

For the casual shooter, other than an obnoxious cheek weld this is just fine. Personally I always shoot with both eyes open, whether its handgun sights, a red dot, or scope. This is partially personal comfort, and partially how I was taught. This also allows for the greatest field of view which is important in hunting and self defense scenarios as well as safety when it comes to situational awareness at the range or other shooting environment.

[Catch]

I shoot right hand left eye, but don't own any high powered scopes. I think it makes a bigger difference in archery.

[SunsetIE]

If you're left eye dominant, it's best to shoot w/your left hand.

People who are left eye dominant and shoot w/their right hand, say they shoot just fine but they have to make certain adjustments in order to do that. I started shooting right handed (I'm ambidextrous) but later discovered that I was left eye dominant. Switched to shooting left handed and my shooting accuracy improved greatly.

Since your son is so young, I would encourage him to shoot left handed to match his eye. If he objects, he'll need to adopt certain techniques to allow him to shoot accurately. For example, tilting his head so that his left eye lines up w/the sights.

I agree with the above statements.

This is the same issue I have, a friend of mines father picked up on it one day when we were trap shooting as early teens. I switched hands and started crushing the clays! I eventually would like a left handed bolt gun, but all of my right handed gas guns pose no issues.

If you can get him to shoot lefty now as opposed to fighting it later its probably better!

[NorCalFocus]

I switched my 7yo soon to be 8, to shoot left handed because of his left eye dominance. He's shooting my RH Savage MKII. He was shooting RH, but then would lean his head over to use his left eye. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn that way. Kids are amazing in what they'll pick up. Is it prefect technique of operating the bolt? No, but he shoots way better because of it. Confidence is key to keeping kids interested in anything.



The guys in the range house gave him a free candy bar for hitting the bulls eye. That was the highlight of my fathers day.

[jrpowell3]

In pistol shooting being right handed and left eye dominant is not so much an issue as you can just pull the pistol to whatever eye you wanna use. However, with a rifle, you want to encourage him to shoot on the same side as his dominant eye. More advanced training will have him shoot off-hand and thus with his non-dominant eye.

[kevinj0101]

All nonsense about best to shoot left handed. I'm left eye dominant and all it took was taking a pair of saftey glasses and taping up the left eye with black tape and shooting for 3 or 4 sessions. In my oppinion it's easier to retrain your eyes than it is to try and force your self to shoot left handed when your not left handed.

[NorCalFocus]

All nonsense about best to shoot left handed. I'm left eye dominant and all it took was taking a pair of saftey glasses and taping up the left eye with black tape and shooting for 3 or 4 sessions. In my oppinion it's easier to retrain your eyes than it is to try and force your self to shoot left handed when your not left handed.

If your 25+ years old, sure. But if you have a kid like I or the OP do, its easier to train them to use their left hand.

Plus at the young age of 8, some kids still do not have all their motor functions with the eye's developed yet. So trying to train and eye that the mind isn't able to control is double hard.

[beardog308]

I'm ambi, but mostly a righty with a dominant left eye. I shoot rifles from the left and have bolt actions in left and right. I shoot pistols from the right as well as shoot trap from the right.

[kevinj0101]

I was 6 when I did this, my shooting instructor is the one who blessed me with the solution. My dad took the left handed shooting rout as he is left eye dominant as well.

[NATEWA]

I'm not sure what the "correct" thing to do is. My father in law shoots right handed but is left eye dominant. We tried masking tape and he didn't like that. He simply shuts his left eye a little to force his right eye to take over. We duck hunt together. I spoke to a shotgun instructor and he recommended he switch to shooting left handed.

If it was my kid, I'd ask him to shoulder and shoot a long gun both ways and find our what is comfortable/natural to him. After that, I'd give him instructions and make accommodations if possible (left handed gun, ambi safety, etc).

[toby]

Weird things happen, I shoot rifles with my right eye and pistols with my left eye.