Cross Eye Dominate

[cookchs]

When I bought my first bow I had it set up lefty as that is my dominate eye albeit I am right handed. However, when it comes to guns I have always shot right handed, mainly because I learned to shoot a flintlock my father built for me as a kid (and most other guns eject to the right).

As I am now looking to get into more shooting sports, does anyone have any pointers? Should I simply teach myself to shoot pistols out of my left hand or shoot cross-eyed?

 

[Birds Away]

I have the same issue. I shoot pistols right handed and rifles left handed. That's what works the best for me.

 

[Indy Wing Chun]

I have no problems being cross-eye dominant. I am a righty with a left eye dominance. With pistols, I just "tuck" my head at the end of a draw stroke so that I am able to keep both eyes open and with my rifle, I use a red dot so I actually use my right eye for the optic since they are designed for both eyes open shooting.

My biggest snag is using irons on a rifle. I still have to close my left eye to use irons on a rifle.

 

[TaunTaun]

I just switch eye dominance for the occasion if needed...

 

[downrange72]

No....if you shoot right handed stay that way.

I am left eyed right handed. I shoot left handed...but I have always shot left handed. Bows, guns, and even pool

 

[the1kidd03]

I posted a couple comments about it here: https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/tactics_and_training/250191-pistol_accuracy_question.html

I am far more limited in dealing with cross eye dominance than some others. I am not cross eye dominant so my knowledge is not based in actual experience per say. My wife is and must work with her quite a bit.

I've known people to try various methods. Typically, the most effective/recommended that I've come across is utilizing a slight rotation of your head to align your dominant eye. This is one of those issues where I wished I had it personally, so that I could speak from experience rather than simply relying on trying to help others with it.

 

[Coach]

When shooting pistols shoot the with the gun in your dominant hand, and the eye does not matter at all. Shoot with both eyes open if possible. Bring the gun up to the eye as much as possible, keep your shoullders down in their sockets and don't hunch them, but if you have to move or tilt your head no worries just do it.

Get some training so you have some feedback and don't build bad habits. I know a guy....

www.brightfirearmstraining.com

 

[Coach]

No....if you shoot right handed stay that way.

I am left eyed right handed. I shoot left handed...but I have always shot left handed. Bows, guns, and even pool

 

[spencer rifle]

I have no problems being cross-eye dominant. I am a righty with a left eye dominance. With pistols, I just "tuck" my head at the end of a draw stroke so that I am able to keep both eyes open and with my rifle, I use a red dot so I actually use my right eye for the optic since they are designed for both eyes open shooting.

My biggest snag is using irons on a rifle. I still have to close my left eye to use irons on a rifle.

This^. Being right handed and left eyed, I use a modified sideways stance that presents a smaller target and gets the handgun in front of my left eye. Basic Pistol class tried to get me to shoot right eyed, but it just doesn't work for me. I end up using left eye automatically or just get confused and take too long. With rifle I have to do the same - close my left eye.

 

[T4rdV4rk]

No....if you shoot right handed stay that way.

I am left eyed right handed. I shoot left handed...but I have always shot left handed. Bows, guns, and even pool

I shoot pool left handed but shoot everything righty. Just close your left eye. Light travels in a straight line (unless you want to get into some weird stuff).

 

[Grelber]

Brian Enos has the same issue and he seems to do ok. He talks about how he deals with it in his book "Practical Shooting beyond fundamentals". In my opinion it is a really good book for anyone looking to get into handgun shooting sports.

 

[gungirl65]

I am left eye dominate and right handed too. I can't shoot with both eyes open, nor can I close my left eye and use my right eye. It feels too unnatural trying to keep the right eye open and closing the left eye.

Even though I can't write with my left hand, I do a lot of other things with it. I am considering trying to shoot left handed. The gun feels natural in my left hand and I have tried it on occasion but I haven't put much practice into it.

My left eye dominance isn't much of a problem with shooting pistols but it's a nightmare shooting rifles. My arms aren't long enough to make it work well.

I think training my left hand to shoot will be easier than training my right eye to stay open. Glad to know I am not the only one who has this issue. Even gladder to know that it's not just because I'm a wimpy girl.

 

[Mackey]

I am left eye dominate and right handed too. I can't shoot with both eyes open, nor can I close my left eye and use my right eye. It feels too unnatural trying to keep the right eye open and closing the left eye.

Even though I can't write with my left hand, I do a lot of other things with it. I am considering trying to shoot left handed. The gun feels natural in my left hand and I have tried it on occasion but I haven't put much practice into it.

My left eye dominance isn't much of a problem with shooting pistols but it's a nightmare shooting rifles. My arms aren't long enough to make it work well.

I think training my left hand to shoot will be easier than training my right eye to stay open. Glad to know I am not the only one who has this issue. Even gladder to know that it's not just because I'm a wimpy girl.

I'm the same way. My wife calls me a "closet lefty." I've done alot of house painting (interior) and can cut a line as good or better with my left hand.

I have a kind of tilt to my head when shooting pistols with my right hand, but it gets the job done.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwp_uj9NQBI&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[SolubleSpork]

For me personally, I am right handed and have an astigmatism in my right eye and so sight picture is a little blurry when I shoot a rifle. When I shoot a hand gun I just cross over to using my left eye to see due to how much clearer my sight picture is. I have tried to utilize my better sight picture of the left eye and shoot my rifle left handed, but it feels so much more awkward to me and I just cant get used to it. Luckily I have an eye appointment soon and will hopefully be getting lasik soon to correct it. At that point I will be pretty excited to go shooting cause from the results my brother had, I got a feeling I will have an even better sight picture and have it be on my dominant shooting side.

 

[eldirector]

I'm in the same boat as all of you: right-handed and left-eyed. Lately, I've just started to ignore it, an let my eyes figure it out. Lots of dry-firing and I've noticed I can more naturally point with both eyes open. It just comes up aligned to my left eye (head cocked a tad). Seems to work OK at 7 yards. It all lands on paper, anyway. "Good enough" for defensive purposes.

Rifles are a pain, still. Need more range time to get in a groove. Right now I just force my right eye.

 

[Coach]

I'm the same way. My wife calls me a "closet lefty." I've done alot of house painting (interior) and can cut a line as good or better with my left hand.

I have a kind of tilt to my head when shooting pistols with my right hand, but it gets the job done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwp_uj9NQBI&feature=player_embedded

Your stance and position don't look to be a problem from and eye dominance standpoint. I would change many other things such as stance, and grip and it would make some improvements. You do not have much chance of moving from you shooting stance, and you might as well be shooting one handed all the time due to how you grip the gun with the WH. Do you practice shooting Strong Hand and Weak Hand only? Sometimes in the pictures or the video the gun looks as though it needs to be held higher and brought to the eye. Difficult to tell without being there with you.

Range looks very scenic. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Expat]

Right handed, left eyed. I shoot long guns left handed and pistols right handed.

I would never teach myself to close one of my eyes when shooting. If you get in a real shooting situation you don't want to cut your field of vision in half.

 

[Coach]

My thoughts on closing the eye. Wide open is better if you can. Not everyone can make that happen,and I know that for a fact. Squinting is better than closing. Closing the eye is not the best but it does not cut my vision by one half. Plus a proper sight focus is going to create tunnel vision if the threat does not create the tunnel vision anyway. Do what you have to do to focus on the front sight and surprise yourself with the trigger press and that is all you can be doing at one time anyway.

I spent a long time trying to train my eyes so that I could keep them both wide open. Then one night I saw a Jerry Micleuck (sp?) interview and he talked about squinting or closing one eye. So I quit worrying about it and moved on to other things.

 

[SERVED_USMC]

Im right handed and left eye dominant. To me, it has more pros than cons. I can shoot both eyes open, unless I do some left to right hand rifle transitions I have to close the left eye. If I dont, while using a red dot, my POI will be slightly shifted. Pistol is simple. I still draw from the right and reload from the left. All I do is keep my head in the same position and shift the pistol to my left. 1st person example below. The camera is on the right muff, so it is pretty obvious how I have to shift the gun over.

[ame]http://youtu.be/mEr_gBnaxes[/ame]

The only tricky part that I have found is with gear/pouch position while on the belt. Pistol mags are on the right and arent a problem. I run into issues when putting rifle pouches on. I try and run 2 rifle mags (for "tactical" classes/1st line belt) and pistol holster on the right. If I have both pouches in front of the holster they seem to far forward. If I run them behind the holster it makes it awkward to retain the mags back in the pouches without feeling like I have to rotate my upper body 180 degrees to look and see what Im doing.

All in all it can make stages easier to setup in 3 gun. I.E. just how I am able to set up my guns for the stage.

 

[justknapping]

I am in the right hand left eye dominant crowd as well and find that i just bring the handgun up a little and cock my head down slightly. It seems to work for me but as with every thing practice practice.