Split Hand/Eye Dominance Issues

[LoneStarSoldier]

Hey all, I have a quick question. Maybe it's been covered before and I've been told various ways of dealing with this issue but here it is: I am right-handed but left-eye dominant. When firing right-handed obviously you have to aim down the sights with your right eye, but for me I can see a lot better with my left eye, so much so in-fact that it has started to affect how I do at zeroing targets. My eye sight isn't horrible but I'm farsighted and have a stigmatism so it's not perfect either. I've been told just to learn to learn to shoot right and left handed, to shoot right-handed but aim with my right eye (which I don't see how that can work), to maybe consider LASIK eye surgery or some other corrective means for my vision and just to learn to live with it. Does anyone else suffer from this? What have you done to rectify this? Thanks!

 

[Elbe]

I am right handed, left eye dominant as well. I am trying to train myself to use my right eye with a rifle. I don't care so much with a handgun and just use my left eye. My goal is to be good shot with both eyes open because if threatened, the survival instinct will force the body to open both eyes. Perhaps put a patch or tape on the left lense of your eye pro to force you to keep the right eye open. It is not worth elective surgery IMO, too many risks go with surgery.

It is a frustrating issue.

 

[AKM]

It cant hurt to shoot with either hand. I shoot pistol with both hands just cant it to aim with right eye when shooting left handed. Still trying to get my left eye were I can shoot rifle left hand decent. I shoot both eyes open also.

Just cant the pistol so you can use your dominant eye. Like I said thats what I do shooting left handed.

 

[LoneStarSoldier]

I used to be able to shoot with both eyes open and simply force my brain to focus on what I was seeing with my right eye while remaining aware of what was going on from the point of view of my left eye. I can't seem to do that as easily lately, and what's worse I have the unfortunate pleasure of having bad vision in my right eye (hence the left-eye dominance I think). In terms of the pistol, I have seen that before and sighting down a little revolver I have it seems it would work with a fair amount of practice. As for rifles and long guns however, I feel I may just have to deal with the cross-dominance issue and use the eye that corresponds with my shooting shoulder. It probably would be possible for me to learn to shoot with the left shoulder but it might take too long and, unfortunate as it is for the lefties out there, it's still largely a right-handed world. I was able to zero and qualify fine during military training though, so I feel it's doable.

 

[txinvestigator]

both eyes open because if threatened, the survival instinct will force the body to open both eyes.

Depends on your training.

 

[matefrio]

I'm right handed; left eye dominate. I have good vision in both eyes. I tend to squint my left eye a bit when aiming just enough to blurr my vision from that eye. I do it naturally now.

IF my better vision was in my left eye, I'd teach myself to shoot left handed with a rifle. Handguns don't matter you just bring it over.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

I am left-handed, right eye dominant, but I shoot rifles right-handed (don't know why), so that works out well for me.
Pistols are a whole nother story, but I have pretty much gotten used to just tilting my head a bit.

 

[orbitup]

I'm right hand/left eye and I don't even think about it. My head naturally turns a little when shooting a pistol and I don't have any problems using my right eye with a rifle.

 

[Nullrejector]

I'm surprised how often this topic comes up on this forum.

 

[itchin]

Same deal here. I am left handed and left eye dominate. But I shoot right handed. I have learned to squint my left eye just a tiny bit, and my right will become dominate for a split second. I cannot write with my right hand, and cannot shoot worth a darn with my left. I do practice weak side drills with my ar15, but i am far from being an ambi shooter.

 

[shortround]

Right handed, Left Eye dominant here, too.

It might look silly, but once I figured it out, I simply cocked my head to the right and sighted with my left eye. The right eye went "blind" and no squinting was required.

As long as you can connect the line of sight through the rear and front sight and the target, you will hit the target.

As for hearing loss, that's another issue altogether!

 

[LoneStarSoldier]

^Did you try this with a pistol or rifle? With a handgun I can see it as plausible/doable but not so much with a rifle/shotgun

 

[SIG_Fiend]

For handgun: Simple, get an eye inline with the sights! Typically most people want to use their dominant eye, and that's fine. If cross dominant, you have a few options.

• You can simply rotate your head about 2-3" (distance between both pupils) while keeping your head upright (do NOT cant your head to the side) and now your dominant eye is inline with the sights.
• If you use a very aggressive thumbs forward grip with the support wrist locked out and support arm nearly straight (sometimes known as reverse chapman or reverse weaver, but still isosceles in nature), this can have the effect of bringing the gun over almost inline with your dominant eye and requires very little to no head rotation.
• Shooting both eyes open? Try the "flicker" technique I've detailed in the long gun section below.

For long guns: There is no realistic way to shoot from your non-dominant side and using your dominant eye. There's a few choices.

• You could start learning to shoot from your dominant side.
• Also, if shooting from the non-dominant side and dealing with visual issues shooting both eyes open, try flickering your dominant eye. What I mean by that is, as you're bringing the sights up and aligning them, flicker your dominant eye closed several times (say ~3-5 times, or whatever it takes to accomplish the following). What this does is momentarily allow you to see only with your non-dominant eye, see what it looks like with both eyes, ultimately allowing you to see only what you need to see. What happens with most people having difficulty shooting both eyes open is pretty much visual confusion. You have blurred target/sight images, aren't sure what's real and what isn't, and it's just entirely too much going on. Try the "flicker" and you get before, during, after images and will have a better idea of what you need to see to make the shot.

Here's a pic to give you an idea of what I do from a grip/upper body stance standpoint with pistol. It's sometimes known as "reverse chapman", "reverse weaver", etc. but I try not to think of it as relegated to a specific "stance". It's simply the subconscious evolution my body decided to take over the course of the last 2 or 3 years without me even thinking about it as it improved my performance as a cross-dominant shooter. Everyone is different. This is not the way, just simply a way that might work for some other people:

 

[Mexican_Hippie]

For handgun: Simple, get an eye inline with the sights! Typically most people want to use their dominant eye, and that's fine. If cross dominant, you have a few options.

• You can simply rotate your head about 2-3" (distance between both pupils) while keeping your head upright (do NOT cant your head to the side) and now your dominant eye is inline with the sights.
• If you use a very aggressive thumbs forward grip with the support wrist locked out and support arm nearly straight (sometimes known as reverse chapman or reverse weaver, but still isosceles in nature), this can have the effect of bringing the gun over almost inline with your dominant eye and requires very little to no head rotation.
• Shooting both eyes open? Try the "flicker" technique I've detailed in the long gun section below.

For long guns: There is no realistic way to shoot from your non-dominant side and using your dominant eye. There's a few choices.

• You could start learning to shoot from your dominant side.
• Also, if shooting from the non-dominant side and dealing with visual issues shooting both eyes open, try flickering your dominant eye. What I mean by that is, as you're bringing the sights up and aligning them, flicker your dominant eye closed several times (say ~3-5 times, or whatever it takes to accomplish the following). What this does is momentarily allow you to see only with your non-dominant eye, see what it looks like with both eyes, ultimately allowing you to see only what you need to see. What happens with most people having difficulty shooting both eyes open is pretty much visual confusion. You have blurred target/sight images, aren't sure what's real and what isn't, and it's just entirely too much going on. Try the "flicker" and you get before, during, after images and will have a better idea of what you need to see to make the shot.

This will also exercise your brain and make you smarter!

 

[Vaquero]

This issue came up for me at an early age. My first Daisy bb gun had me struggling to align the sights and target. After a few frustrating days I began shooting left handed. The issue arose again when I bought my first pistol. Being right handed it felt natural to shoot a handgun with my right. Obtaining a sight picture was no problem but I had no trigger experience. After a lot of practice I became adept at handgun shooting with my right hand while still shooting long guns left handed. While having 2 trigger fingers has mostly been an advantage, some semi auto shoulder fired arms are off my list.

 

[alamogeorge]

I'm a little different. I'm right handed and right eye dominant but I shoot left handed. It is more natural for me to close my right eye plus the rifle feels more natural being held left handed. Maybe I mirrored the cowboys on TV too much when I was a kid or something.

 

[tx_transplantess]

Ok, I'm glad this topic has come up. My case is a bit different. I'm still a beginner at shooting. I've been a right handed/right eye dominant. About six - eight weeks ago, I had a detached retina on my right eye requiring surgery twice now. I have gone to the range 2x since. I've tried shooting left handed however it is a bit difficult. I am in a sticky situation here and I'm glad this was brought up and I can see what others do.

 

[Vaquero]

Detached retina. Well, first off I'd avoid recoil for a long while. Let everything heal properly. After the doc releases you, hopefully go back to as you were.
Good luck.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Sorry to hear that Gloria. The best advice I can give on the matter is this:

All you need is 1 eye inline with the sights. That simple! Sight alignment, by definition, is just one eye inline with the rear sight, front sight, and the desired POI (Point Of Impact) on target. If it's your left eye and you're shooting right handed (or vice versa), the easiest way is to simply rotate your chin to the right only 2-3" and now your left eye is inline with the sights. I like to say it this way to simplify it, because it is very simple. People get ridiculously in depth and complicated on this subject, and really make it harder than it needs to be. You just need to get an eye inline with the sights, no big deal.

The above is primarily just for handguns. Rifles, like I mentioned before, since you need to get a cheek weld it prevents being able to rotate your head. In that case, shooting with your other side is probably the best solution.

 

[coboblack]

Yup, I am right handed and left eye dominate.

For me personally, what I did to improve my right eye so I could shoot my handgun with both eyes open is to teach my brain to focus with my right eye with drills. I unload my gun and take the magazine out and then I would aim with just my right eye open. When I opened both eyes, I would see two images of sights, the correct one I had been staring at...and then the new one that popped up from opening my left eye.

I would close my eye and then open and got used to seeing which was which. I would then lower gun and raise it up and aim with both eyes open, trying to use the correct image. I would then close my left eye and double check I was focusing on the correct image. Eventually, my brain knew which image to focus on when shooting right handed.

At the range, I would and still do, practice with the gun lowered at my chest...raise it up and aim with both eyes open, focusing on using the correct image and then shooting. It will begin to get easier and feel natural after awhile. I am also learning to shoot left handed, which feels less comfortable, but aiming is instant without thought.

Anyway, I'm still working on it, and there are times...especially when I first pull my gun up and aim, the very first time..I have to concentrate for a second. But then it clicks and I focus correctly from then on. Its just a matter of muscle memory and teaching the brain.

Anyway, since you seem to have a literal vision problem now, Lasik wouldn't be a bad idea probably. Its only going to get worse and if SHTF it isn't going to be available anymore. I've thought about it, my vision is only 20/50 so its not horrible but its like everyone else sees the world in High Def and I gotta watch it on standard. =D