cross dominant shooting

[HispanicPanic]

I just discovered today that i'm left eye dominant (shoot right handed). I just started shooting at the age of 25. The general concensus is to shoot and adapt the right eye to be equal to or dominant, or to change shooting position. This is where it causes problems. Not only am i left eye dominant, but my left eye has 10 vision, while my right eye has 20 (20/10 vision). I feel that adapting to a right eye dominance will essentially be cheating myself of my potential. Through my left eye things are so much clearer, while through my right they seem blurred and my vision is clumsy.

So my options are learn to shoot my mosin left handed, or find a scope mount to allow my left eye to be used instead of my right. Your thoughts?

 

[roggom]

Re: cross dominant shooting

Get some prescription shooting glasses.

 

[HispanicPanic]

Re: cross dominant shooting

why? I have 20/10 vision. i don't need glasses for anything else. Unless these perscription glasses are for some other purpose i'm not familiar with

 

[PanaDP]

Re: cross dominant shooting

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: roggom</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Get some prescription shooting glasses. </div></div>

Do you actually know what eye dominance is? Glasses will not affect it at all.

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: cross dominant shooting

HP, you would be better off learning to shoot with your left hand, than trying to shoot a rifle right-handed and left-eyed. Handguns are another matter.

 

[Nachtadler]

Re: cross dominant shooting

If shooting works better for you with your left eye, I'd strongly recommend learning to shoot at least rifles left handed. I'm right handed and left eye dominant as well, and I've shot left handed for so long it is now what comes naturally and feels better for me. In my experience it is a lot easier to train your hands to do a new task than it is to train your eyes.

Pistols you can shoot right handed and left eyed, but I've never heard of someone applying cross dominance to rifle shooting.

 

[jwoolf]

Re: cross dominant shooting

When I learned... the very first thing my soon to be rifle coach of 10yrs did was an eye dominance test ( before we were allowed to even pick up a rifle ).... I myself am left eye dominant.... when it was discovered that I was left eye dominant, I became a left handed shooter.

Some may differ in their opinion but, in my own humble opinion, eye dominance is too large of a hurdle to overcome... even harder than learning to shoot left handed. It may be managed by taping your shooting glasses etc. but, it's never going to be right.

For example, try something like sporting clays or skeet where you really do need both eyes open to pick up the targets... what if you need to get off a fast shot?

So, you can manage to accomodate shooting with a non-dominate eye but, the right fix, at least in my own opinion, is to learn to shoot left handed.

I don't know what the school of thought on this is these days but, when I was taught in the 70s, we didn't have an option.... your eye dominance chose for you. I began my instruction at 10yrs old so, at 10, I just did what I was told... learned how to shoot out of a sling and only ever knew one way to do it... left handed.

I can't imagine picking up a rifle right handed anymore.... even though I wanted to at first back then.

Over the years as a jr I actually ended up doing quite well as a left hander... it didn't hold me up whatsoever.... went to the nationals at perry 6 times or so on the national jr. team.... took presidents 100 award home in 84... should have kept going but, college and, of course, I discovered girls and my shooting career came to a screeching halt for a long time.

Do what you will but, I'd strongly suggest you learn how to shoot as a lefty.

 

[HispanicPanic]

Re: cross dominant shooting

Thanks. I'll have to try shooting my mosin left handed.

Just discovered that after two weekends of heavy shooting, i've been able to train my right eye to be near the dominance level of my left eye. Seems retraining is much easier than i thought, but i still have one problem......

Clarity in my left eye is very very high. Clarity in my right eye seems blemished, like i just woke up. I can continue and train my right eye to be dominant, but i'd still be looking through my irons with inferior clarity.... so this makes hte issue of my shooting eye more pronounced.


What say you about scope mounts that allow use of the left eye with a normal cheek weld?

 

[tigerhawk]

Re: cross dominant shooting

For normal shooting, they're fine. But for long range shooting, they will cause precision issues.

 

[roggom]

Re: cross dominant shooting

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: PanaDP</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: roggom</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Get some prescription shooting glasses. </div></div>

Do you actually know what eye dominance is? Glasses will not affect it at all. </div></div>

That is where you are wrong, the issue is he has great visual acuity. At 20 feet he can see the same as a person standing at 10 feet. Since his vision is better in is left eye, his brain favors that eye. Also another issue is he is shooting iron sights.

Shooting from a scope, one has the ocular lens to focus the reticle. This is not possible with irons. Since he has different vision in both eyes a pair of prescription shooting glasses may clear things up. TacticalRx is a company that will help the shooter pick their desired focal distance, and the one in Denver will let you bring in your firearm(dont know about other parts of the country).

As for cross dominance, you can train your self to shoot with your right eye. Just takes practice. I am cross dominant and shoot rifle with my right eye, pistol with my left. The advantage to being cross dominant is, once you train to shoot with both eyes open, you get the "whole" sight picture.

 

[LWILLIAMS]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I am also left dominate but shoot rifle right eyed. I shoot with both eyes open and can shoot shotgun left or right but cannot get the feel down to shoot that well with a rifle left handed. My biggest problem is making myself shoot a pistol right eyed instead of swinging left. I can do it either way it is just more of a concience effort at this point to shoot pistol right eyed. Since you are new, you can probably train yourself to shoot left handed.

 

[Vereor]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I would strongly suggest to learn to shoot the rifle left handed. There is a reason that competition shooters shoot rifles on their dominate side.

 

[fusiachi]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I'm a cross-dominant right handed shooter. The only challenge that I've found to be insurmountable is shooting clays right handed with both eyes open. I keep both eyes open using a telescopic scope.

 

[jwoolf]

Re: cross dominant shooting

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HispanicPanic</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Thanks. I'll have to try shooting my mosin left handed.

Just discovered that after two weekends of heavy shooting, i've been able to train my right eye to be near the dominance level of my left eye. Seems retraining is much easier than i thought, but i still have one problem......

Clarity in my left eye is very very high. Clarity in my right eye seems blemished, like i just woke up. I can continue and train my right eye to be dominant, but i'd still be looking through my irons with inferior clarity.... so this makes hte issue of my shooting eye more pronounced.


What say you about scope mounts that allow use of the left eye with a normal cheek weld? </div></div>

Well, I'd say it's not something I'd try... unless you have 100% of the paralax adjusted out, your good stock weld will be much harder to maintain but, I'm probably not the right guy to ask about all of this because of my experience. I was taught to shoot left handed.

I think if I had not been taught the way I was, I wouldn't have had the discipline to do it on my own and, looking back, I know that would have been a mistake.

You may be ok shooting as a right hander, I can't say and, I'm not you.

If you do decide to do some shooting left handed, you have to make a commitment for some time to get used to the feel of picking up the rifle left handed but, at the end of the day, it will start to feel correct.

A lot of it will be the dedication you put into it that may decide. I shot a lot as a kid and was able to develop the left handed thing and being young, I just accepted it. It gets harder as you get older and, I basically wasn't allowed to shoot right handed. Your situation is not the same. You have to decide and commit then practice if you decide to shoot left handed.

My wife is coss eye dominate ( actually more than 50% of women are cross eye dominate and she's no different ) and, she fights it... tried to pick up a rifle every time right handed.. then she can't look through the scope. She HATES shooting left handed and, she hates it so much, she'd rather not try anymore.

She does fine with a pistol and I shoot pistols with her, however.

 

[cskills290ny]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I am left eye dominant and have been shooting since I was about 10 or 11. Maybe that is why I wasn't a better shot as a child...but I digress. I am right handed, and shoot primarily with my right (dominant) hand. Same goes for long arms. I use my dominant (left) eye for handguns, and my nondominant (right) eye for long arms.

In my own experience, don't try and change nature. Learn to shoot pistols with your dominant eye and enjoy people's comments at them opining on why your head is cocked to the side as you look down your handgun sights. As to rifles, I use my right, nondominant eye, and I haven't experienced any problems. Then again, I have been shooting for decades now.

 

[Gunfighting Inc]

Re: cross dominant shooting

the only reasons a cross dominant rifle shooter would be forced to shoot from their dominant eye side is if they could not close the dominant eye, or if the viion in their non-dominant eye could not be corrected to see the sights/reticle clearly. Otherwise, simply close the dominant eye and force the non-dominant eye to do the aiming.

My personal situation is I am right handed, but the vision in my right eye is flawed. The dioptor adjustment in an optic fixes it, allowing me to shoot a scoped rifle right handed, however with iron sights I have to shoot left handed so my left eye can see the sight clearly.

 

[TNT]

Re: cross dominant shooting

Is the problem clarity of the front sight, or when you are focusing on the sight/reticle, does your vision twitch (left eye trying to take over)? The former is not much an issue, the latter may be more so.

With optics or irons, there are options to get a diopter adjustment so your eye (dominant or not) can clearly make out the front site/reticle.

I may be a bit of an odd duck, or I may just have no clue, but the eye dominance "tests" can go either way with me. It just happens to be whichever eye I want to be dominant at the time is the one that gets aligned with my hands. In reality, my right eye is weaker than my left (20/50 vs. 20/20) and I am probably left eye dominant as well. Still, I shoot right handed, and my right eye is good enough for clarity of the front sight. That's all that's required.

 

[HispanicPanic]

Re: cross dominant shooting

Hmm so a diopter can kind of take the place of perscription shooting glasses and give me equal clarity as my left eye?? I just googled diopter, and i guess these accessories have some sort of lens inside of it?

 

[10ringping]

Re: cross dominant shooting

Left handed on your rifle.

 

[GHatfield]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I got a good friend into hunting a few years back and he purchased his first scoped rifle and very quickly learned he was left eye dominant and was naturally a right handed shooter. He could not see through the scope to save his life. The good news is he was able to switch his eye dominance by wearing a patch over his left eye for about 3-4 days. He has never had an issues since and his right eye is now his dominant eye.

 

[y5e06]

Re: cross dominant shooting

I am also cross eye dominant. Left eye with right hand.
For pistol it is no big deal, i shoot left eye.
For the rifle it is less than ideal. I shoot right eye and right handed. However, when sitting and plinking at the range I end up just putting tab of tape over my glasses to block the portion of my field of view covering the target. When leaning over the stock in a shooting position it ends up being a fairly small piece of tape located somewhere about the 10-12 o'clock position. When i'm not shooting i can still see straight ahead and have some decent peripheral vision to the right/left/down.
for a while I tried training shooting left hand left eye with my .22. I never got too comfortable doing that, I suppose I'm far from ambidextrous.

One thing with shooting non-dominant eye is that my eye gets fairly tired quickly. However this is significantly reduced when using the tape. I don't have to squint at all and shoot both eyes open with much less strain.

Now if you did a lot of 3-gun or some type of shooting with active movement I'm not sure how well my adjustments would work. Then again you aren't leaned over the glass for multiple hours at a time.