Re: Young shooter advice needed
My wife is left eye dominate and, I've had hell trying to get her to shoot left handed but, when I was a kid, before I was allowed to pick up a rifle, my eye dominance was tested.... only after that was I allowed to shoot smallbore.
I'm left eye dominate and I was trying to pick the rifle up right handed too. I can't imagine picking one up right handed now.
You may be able to get someone to shoot with their non-dominate eye, however, it's not ideal and, need an eye patch etc. etc. etc.
Since this is a jr. shooter, teach him how to not fight the rifle and sound fundamentals.
Shooting a rifle is beneficial to be able to shoot with both eyes open and, it's VERY VERY hard to do if you are shooting left handed and right eye dominate and, what if, for example, he wants to shoot something like skeet when he gets older when you're almost required to shoot with both eyes open. ( to be any good anyway )
He's young, it's HARD to fight eye dominance... so hard in fact, that you're better off teaching him right handed if he's right eye dominate, IMHO.
Teach him how to shoot in a sling and how bone support is what holds the rifle up. Once you're into a sound shooting position, shooting and not fighting eye dominance will make a lot of sense to him, IMHO. ( or, at least it did to me when I was probably his age )
If you are in a sound shooting position, there is NO WAY you can look through the wrong eye and see anything close to a sight picture.... it's impossible. It starts to make sense really quickly why eye dominance determines which shoulder to put the rifle into.
It may not feel natural for him to shoulder right handed at first but, he will thank you later and, believe it or not, it will become natural for him.
When I started shooting pistol, of course, I struggled with picking that up with my right hand too since it's easy to get a sight picture with a cross dominate eye but, I fought that off and, I shoot pretty damn well left handed and, my weak hand is WAY better than most other guys. LOL
I really think that you should put him into a military web sling and teach him to shoot prone from a sling right handed and see the lights turn on in his head. That way, he is forced to hold the rifle in a proper way and it forces his head to take the proper position on the rifle... from that position, he will use his dominate eye like he's supposed to do.... from that right handed position, ask him if he can get his head to where he can use the other eye.
Or, strap him in left handed just to make the same point.
If you're not forced into a proper shooting position, a kid can do all sorts of gyrations to try to get the wrong eye to work for him.
Of course, everyone enters into shooting differently but, IMHO, kids ( and adults ) should all learn prone, sitting, kneeling, and offhand the proper way.
Of course, my own opinion is my own and, I was lucky enough to be able to learn that way from an early age and I, see the advantages since I was taught that way.
We had a rifle club in my parish/county when I was a kid and hunter's safety was taught and every saturday morning we'd go shoot and qualify for all the nra smallbore awards. During the classes before we were allowed to even go to the range, we were all given an eye dominance test to determine which shoulder we were going to put the rifle into. Believe it or not, this rifle club was sponsored by the parish sheriff and the classes were offered to 6th graders in public school but, since I went to a different school and, my father knew the guy that ran the program, he got me in at 10yrs old. LOL I just had to get there at 3:10pm prompt for the class until the classroom was over with and then we went out every Saturday morning till I was no longer a jr. shooter.
