Eye dominance

[Xman]

I shoot right handed but my dominate eye is my left. I currenly use a blinder on my left eye and an aperture on my right eye to enhance focus. Any opinion on if I should shoot cross eye dominant...right hand shoot, left eye aim?

[CR10X]

Have the same issue myself, shoot with blinder on left eye and right hand for pistol and left hand / left eye for rifle and shotgun. Did some shooting 2 gun duelist style for Cowboy black power and had a ball with a gun for each eye.

Some people do better switching hands, others with using blinder and switching eyes. Give it a try, but if you are already a righty, its kinda hard to change the hand versus just covering the eye.

Good luck.

[RandomShotz]

I think eye dominance is more important in instinctive shooting, i.e., skeet or trap. When you have both eyes open, the position of the front sight or bead shifts significantly according to which eye you are spotting with. If you are left-eye dominant and are shooting right handed, you could unconsciously let the image from your left eye line up the bead and shoot to the left of the pigeon. If you are aiming with one eye occluded, this should not be a problem. If you are getting satisfactory results (or are making satisfactory progress) shooting with your right eye, then don't worry about it.

IMHO, of course.

Roger

[mr alexander]

To Xman and CR10X,

Have no answer for you regarding eye dominance. However, noticed in each of your postings that the use of a "blinder"

was mentioned. By "blinder", I'm assuming reference is being made to an opaque, round disk that completely covers one

lens of your shooting glasses. With it in place, you are unable to see anything with 1/2 of your glasses. Read somewhere

that by doing this, BOTH of your eyes are actually being deprived of much needed light, even though only one of them is

covered over. This is not a good thing. I used to use an opaque occluder a long time ago until a fellow shooter offered a

better alternative. Go to your favorite drug, grocery or office supply store and purchase a roll of Scotch tape. Do not buy

the clear type, which would allow you to see right through it. Get a roll of matte-finished tape, which will have a "frosted"

appearance to it. Use as small of a strip of tape as needed to get the desired result. Place it onto your lens in the location

that works best for you. The area of the lens not taped over will provide you with quite a bit of direct light. You won't be

able to see anything when looking through the taped area. But, being translucent, more light will still be able to enter your

eye than compared to what's happening with a "blinder" in place.

[RandomShotz]

I assumed that by "blinder" the previous posters meant "occluder". Some shooters do use blinders, which are visual shields that hang from the earwire and block the vision from distracting movements off to the side.

As far as the translucency of the occluder is concerned, they are usually available in white or black which suggests some shooters prefer the black. Having a translucent occluder permits more light to the off eye without permitting an image per se, kind of like using the frosted Scotch tape. I believe that this causes the pupils to contract slightly more than if the off eye was receiving no light at all and this permits a slightly greater depth of field that some shooters find useful, or at least more comfortable. For myself, and I do not understand why this should be, any light at all entering my off eye reduces the clarity of the image in my shooting eye. I've recently given up on open sights and have started using a red dot sight and I still have a clearer image with my off eye completely occluded. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I had cataract surgery some years ago, but I really don't know.

The bottom line is, do what works.

Roger

[paw080]

I shoot right handed but my dominate eye is my left. I currenly use a blinder on my left eye and an aperture on my right eye to enhance focus. Any opinion on if I should shoot cross eye dominant...right hand shoot, left eye aim?

Hi Xman, do yourself a favor and just shoot cross dominate. I and hundreds(thousands) shoot left eye
and hold with my right hand. I also shoot both eyes open and I do not use a blinder, opaque or otherwise.
The only change you'll need is a slightly different stance.

Tony

[RandomShotz]

paw80 -

I can see how that would work with AP or .22. Is there a problem with offset recoil in larger calibers, like .45? Does that affect how quickly you can recover for timed or rapid fire?

Roger

[jtg6]

I agree with paw80, shoot your dominate eye. I made master back in the 90s shooting right handed left eye dominate. Its just easier than trying to fight the natural way you see. If you are worried about this Rink grips will build in 7 degrees of offset just for this reason.
http://www.formgriffe.de/u/leaflet-rink.pdf

Good luck!

[paw080]

paw80 -

I can see how that would work with AP or .22. Is there a problem with offset recoil in larger calibers, like .45? Does that affect how quickly you can recover for timed or rapid fire?

Roger

Hi Roger, No problems that I've noticed; been shooting cross-dominant since I started shooting.

I shot my first conventional pistol match(rimfire and 45acp) in 1972. When shooting Timed and Rapid

fire, I start my trigger pull as I'm dropping the pistol and returning to my aiming area. I don't know

how much the pistol deflected nor do I care, I'm just pulling the trigger and regaining sight alignment.

I do dry fire a lot, for precision, using a dotter device I made decades(eons actually); and I dry fire

starting from a random deflected position for Timed and Rapid fir training.

Tony

Tony