wrong eye?

[gunluvr]

My daughter, who is 28, has just taken an interest in shooting. Gave her an old .22 bolt action. I've only had a couple brief opportunities to teach & shoot with her. She holds a rifle right-handed, but insists that her left eye is dominant and wants to close her right eye, and sight with her left. I've tried her way, and it just don't work for me. How should I go about teaching her the correct way, or should I just let her do it her way?

[simmered]

What about a clear pair of safety glasses with the left eye taped so you can't see through it. That way she can keep both eyes open and will force her to use the right eye.
I used a similar method to train my left eye to stay open while shooting skeet.
Might work

[Lefty-Canuck]

Teach her to shoot with both eyes open....is the rifle scoped? or open sights?

LC

[bagwan]

My wife has a dominate left eye and it was driving me nuts trying to get her shooting righty as she should. One day shes shooting a pistol and nailing the target pretty good' She was holding it and sighting with her left eye. I gave up and said shoot off your left side. She ended up bow hunting and shooting left-handed. Very well I might add. Let her shooy lefty if shes more comfy. Sounds like a TC and a few barrels that you can sneak. Worked for me.

[tool]

By no means would I consider myself an expert on shooting form, but I think this is a habit that she definitely needs to correct NOW rather than have it evelop into a permanent issue.

I find my left eye to be better as well, but I too am right handed.

When I was young I used to shoot a .22 off of a rest of some kind (corral post, tailgate, whatever was handy) and could be deadly accurate with iron sights by holding the rifle right handed and sighting with my left eye.

The problem here is, while that can work just fine with a .22 (albeit a very awkward shooting position) if she continues to want to shoot and move up from the little .22 into a cenrfire rifle with some recoil she is going to hurt herself because your face and the angle of your head is in the perfect place to end up with a "scope kiss" in my oppinion.

I also love to shoot trap but find that I have to keep my left eye closed otherwise my obstigmatism causes me to see double at close range like that, suddenly there will be 4 beads on my overunder instead of two!

I haven't found a way around that one yet, new glasses would probably help but I haven't gotten around to that either.

[emoric]

i was told, you shoot whichever side your dominant eye is, so if your left eye dominant, you best to us a LH rifle.... im no expert but its what i was told

[HunterDave]

Originally Posted by emoric

i was told, you shoot whichever side your dominant eye is, so if your left eye dominant, you best to us a LH rifle.... im no expert but its what i was told

x2 I don't know if you can do anything to change which eye is dominate. My experience in the military is that the dominate eye determines which way you'll shoot.

I'd be interested in knowing if you can train your opposite eye to be the dominate one if anyone has any info about it.

[duffy4]

Originally Posted by emoric

i was told, you shoot whichever side your dominant eye is, so if your left eye dominant, you best to us a LH rifle.... im no expert but its what i was told

That sound correct to me.

[Dick284]

Left dominant eye left hand shooting stance.

That's if you wish be any good at shooting.

Over the years I've had many opportunities to allow left eye dominant shooters try their left side much to the disdain of their no nothing shooting mentors, I've watched trap scores double, as well as seeing repeatable shooting come easier in SB silhouette, and general plinking.

[tullfan]

I am right handed and due to a right eye injury in grade 5 lost the
sight. I was shooting pellet guns and .22's with no issue right handed. One day a much older fellow was behind me and noticed how far my head was leaning over the rifle while aiming. He put the rifle in my left hand and as awkward ad it was at first, straightened out my shooting. Now for cost reasons my centerfires were right handed bolts. That is until I jammed my hand between the bolt and scope on a critical shot. Sold all the righties and bought left handed bolts. Never looked back. Teach her to shoot with the dominant eye. She'll thank you for it.
Just my .02.

Tullfan

[Lefty-Canuck]

I am azzbackwards....but most already know that.

I am right eye dominant but shoot left handed.

I acquire my target with my right eye closed and just before I shoot I open the eye....so I shoot with both eyes open.

That has been part of my shooting routine for rifle, bow, shotgun, handguns for a long time...I just trained my eyes and brain to make it work. I wouldn't say I am all that good of a shot but I do ok.

LC

[Cyclops]

That's the one advantage I have from being legally blind in my left eye. You see, I can't see where I'm looking with my left eye but it still sees peripherally quite well. The effect is that I shoot with both eyes open but only one eye is seeing what I'm aiming at. It took me a while to realize this and still I sometimes close my left eye out of force of habit although it makes no difference.

[Strange]

Get her a left-handed gun.

[H380]

Like Lefty Canuck , I'm left eye dominant , right handed.. So is my sister . I shoot with both eyes open and now have all lefthand guns , except the lever 22 . Get her shooting with the left eye , that's what come natural and don't worry about going lefty for her guns until she's sure she's gonna do that much shooting .

[rottie]

I am left dominate and shoot off my right shoulder using my right eye,I close my left eye when shooting,have since I was a kid
The attached target shows it can work with pratice

[nekred]

We are doing what we can now in archery to market bows as left or right... dropping the word hand.

In shooting dexterity is not needed like throwing a baseball, writing etc.

I am ambidextrous to a large extent in hands, feet and eyes. With lsft/right hand, feet, eye etc. it is a spectrum and some people are on the extreme ends of the spectrum and some are in the middle.

In shooting i cannot shoot with both eyes open because while I shoot right when I start getting tired suddenly without warning the left eye takes over and it is a miss.

Also in shooting since dexterity ios not neided... either hand can learn to draw or hold or in rifle shooting hold the fore-end with one hand and operate the bolt and trigger... think of it this way... if dexterity is needed so much to cycle an action... then how does a pump shotgun work so well?

In shooting go with the eye!.... I see many parents who have two kids getting into archery and kid 1 is right eye dominant and kid 2 is left eye dominant... so then the lefty is forced to shoot right because of parents needs....

It is funny I rarely see the opposite happen where a right eye dominant person is forced to shoot left!...

I am in that boat right now and I understand the wish to recycle the equipment through another kid but the reality is that I need to buy another set of equipment for kid 2.

First thing I check with a new shooter is eye dominance... before they have ingrained habits. I have people who are reluctant to switch because at first it feels more awkward.... but in a relatively short time they get used to the new way. the first time we picked up a rifle or bow we were equally as awkward regardless of which way we drew the bow, left or right!...

Because in archery/rifle shooting we aim it is so important. In hockey many right handed people shoot left and many shoot right because of preference and feel and this is entirely normal.

Short version... shoot with your dominant eye and set the equipment accordingly.

[catnthehat]

I believe that using a scope with one eye closed negates the eye dominate condition but only to a certain extent for sevral reasons, HOWEVER , if a person is shooting a shotgun or irons, keeping one eye closed is not a good thing, and learning to shoot off the dominate side is the best.

I always teach to shoot off the dominate eye side, but have run itno conflict so much these days with people telling me I'm full of B.S. that I have quit coaching for the most part.
Cat

[ganderblaster]

When I studied for my Firearms Course ( for FAC at that time) there was a section in the book on finding a shooters dominant eye. They have changed the color of the book since did they omit that part when the book changed?