Right hand, left eye dominant

[funnybookz]

I'm still pretty new to shooting, but I've noticed that I'm left eye dominant. Its easier for me to close my right eye than it is my left eye, but I get more blurred vision when closing my right eye and my left eyelid twitches like crazy when I close it alone.

I've tried shooting lefty, but its feels awkward and uncomfortable. I don't seem to have much of a problem with this when shooting pistols, mainly just shooting rifles.

I haven't had a chance to use any optics, just iron sights. Do you think optics would help? What do you guys suggest? (Other than more shooting and practice, that's kind of a given.)

[North Bay Guy]

Here's a simple test to know for sure which eye is your dominant eye. Make a small circle with both hand, hold your arms straight out in front of you, put a object that's across the room from you in the middle of the circle you've made with both hand, look through the circle at the object across the room with both eyes open, while keeping the object in the middle of your two hand circle slowly bring the circle closer to your face until you touch your face, keep the object across the room in the middle of the circle the whole, again until you touch your face, if done correctly and you keep the object in the middle of your circle until your hands touch your face your hand circle will be closer to your dominant eye.

I know other test just this one is the easiest IMO.

I have a right handed friend who is left eye dominant, he shoots pistols very very well both with his right hand and left hand pulling the trigger, always aiming with his left eye. He shoots rifles exclusive left handed-left eye, even though he is right handed. Took a lot of practice but you can become accustomed to shoot with your weak hand. Never try to change which eye you aim with always uses your dormant eye. For example like my friend he is right handed, left eye dominant, he shoulders the rifle against his left shoulder and squeezes the trigger with his left hand, while aiming with his left eye. The opposite for lefties with a dominant right eye.

Hope that helps if you're unsure which eye is dominant. Also when or if you know which eye is dominant, try putting a patch over your non dominant eye. A patch or tape some black paper over your shooting glasses and cover your non dominant eye. Personally I always leave my weak eye open just a hair, which helps judge depth perception and allows for greater peripheral vision. I find this particularly true when using a optic on a rifle.

[funnybookz]

Thanks. Gave it a shot. Seems like I am in fact left eye dominant. I do need to get my eyes examined. Maybe that'll help, I think I'm farsighted, too.

[North Bay Guy]

Though I'd add I'm right eye dominant but it feels easier for me to close my right eye.

[kylednf]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant as well and so is my father. When he first took me shooing as a child with his 10/22 I couldn't hit squat. He later had me shooting left handed and I was much better. Handguns seem to not be a problem and I haven't had issues shooting my AR or shotgun right handed. Haven't done any precision shooting though. I'd like to know as well.

[Paper Boy]

GF is left eye dominant, she could not hit any clays with a shotgun on a normal day. We put painters tape on the inside of her glasses over the left eye forcing her to shoot with the right and there was an immediate difference. Now she shoots really well and we just leave those glasses in the shotgun case for her.

Might be worth a shot since its a cheap experiment.

[Tripper]

Regular scotch tape works too
It's anything that inhibits the vision of the eye.
Take a pair of sunglasses and pop out the right lense, that makes your right eye become dominant because it has no inhibitions, if you wear glasses, either put a piece of scotch tape on the left lense, or get those fold over sunglasses things and remove the right one, making only the left one fold over, this forcing your right eye to become dominant, or of course you can reverse the method and force your left eye to become dominant, good for anyone that wants to practice with their support side too
My daughter is right-handed left dominant and we figured it out young and she chose to shoot lefty, so it's not uncomfortable for her
Women ate more likely to be cross-eye dominant than men

[North86]

Left eye righty here too.

I used a primary arms red dot last week for the first time. I grew up using peep sights.

I shoot lefty, but with the PA Red Dot, I was shooting with both eyes open, hitting consistently at 100yds. I had never shot with both eyes open. Was a very comfortable. YMMV

[Doghouse_Riley]

I'm also a left eyed righty. For handguns I turn my head so that my chin is pretty much buried into my right shoulder. This way I can leave both eyes open. My left eye can sight with no double image. The right eye is blocked from seeing the sights and target by my nose.

For rifle I'm shooting righty using peep sights and I squint the left eye enough to get rid of the double image. I'm getting a cheap Eotech style red dot to see if that works for me as others have said it helps them. I'm also thinking about working on shooting the long arms left handed.

[Dantedamean]

Here's a simple test to know for sure which eye is your dominant eye. Make a small circle with both hand, hold your arms straight out in front of you, put a object that's across the room from you in the middle of the circle you've made with both hand, look through the circle at the object across the room with both eyes open, while keeping the object in the middle of your two hand circle slowly bring the circle closer to your face until you touch your face, keep the object across the room in the middle of the circle the whole, again until you touch your face, if done correctly and you keep the object in the middle of your circle until your hands touch your face your hand circle will be closer to your dominant eye.

I know other test just this one is the easiest IMO.

I have a right handed friend who is left eye dominant, he shoots pistols very very well both with his right hand and left hand pulling the trigger, always aiming with his left eye. He shoots rifles exclusive left handed-left eye, even though he is right handed. Took a lot of practice but you can become accustomed to shoot with your weak hand. Never try to change which eye you aim with always uses your dormant eye. For example like my friend he is right handed, left eye dominant, he shoulders the rifle against his left shoulder and squeezes the trigger with his left hand, while aiming with his left eye. The opposite for lefties with a dominant right eye.

Hope that helps if you're unsure which eye is dominant. Also when or if you know which eye is dominant, try putting a patch over your non dominant eye. A patch or tape some black paper over your shooting glasses and cover your non dominant eye. Personally I always leave my weak eye open just a hair, which helps judge depth perception and allows for greater peripheral vision. I find this particularly true when using a optic on a rifle.

That test actually seems a bit harder than this one:

Stare at a far away object so that your eyes are focused on it.

Move your thumb over the object, but stay focused on the object, Your thumb should be transparent.

Now close one eye, if your thumb doesn't move then the open eye is your dominant eye. If your thumb does move then the closed eye is your dominant eye.

I have a friend like that, he doesn't shoot much, but he still seems to do ok when I take him. I would take a few classes and get some professional advice.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

I am right handed and left eye dominant, and when I was a young kid, I squinted. After I grew up I found I could usually shoot with both eyes open with no issues. Sometimes when I have trouble switching to my right eye mentally, I briefly close my left eye to "force" it, and then can open it again without throwing off my aim.

Where I found left-eye dominance to be a major problem was pool. Without sites to reference, I found it difficult to shoot straight. I could compete with the casual weekend players, but against someone with real skill the only way I could win is if the other guy screwed up. Sometimes I would ask this pool shark I played with on long shots, "Does this look straight to you?" I think maybe I could have mentally corrected for that after a while, but just didn't care enough to make the effort.

[KLD83]

I'm right handed, but shoot lefty, left eye dominant. My left arms and fingers are also much stronger. This mattered in choosing if I was going force myself to learn right handed. I can shoot right handed, but not well. I also dribbled lefty, open jars, golf, move laundry, etc....everything really except, eat and write. What freaks we are!

[Ryououki]

I am left eye dominant and prefer shooting right handed. However, my instructors say I do shoot pistols better left handed and the groupings are better left handed. It just feels awkward shooting left handed for me, so i usually shoot right handed. I wonder if it's because I write left handed. However I do pretty much everything else right handed.

[OneAvgWhiteGuy]

I'm left eye dominant as well. When shooting with my right hand I simply shift my head slightly to the right so I'm looking down the sights with my left eye. Took a while to get used to but I don't even think about it anymore.

[DPC]

I had this problem as well once, I just trained myself to use either eye with what ever side I am shooting from.