TargetTalk

I'm right handed and right eye dominant. My brother Mike is left handed and left eye dominant , basically a mirror image of me when shooting.
However , my wife Amy wanted to have a go with my old FWB 300S air rifle and FWB P34 pistol.
It turns out that although she is right handed , she is left eye dominant , and although she can shoot the pistol without any problems , she found it really awkward and uncomfortable with the rifle.
Is it unusual or rare to be right handed & left eye dominant ?

Not all that as uncommon as you might think.

I have one shooter that shoots "lefty" with a rifle, and "righty" with a pistol

Not that unusual - we're seeing about 20% of those coming thru our club. (It seems a bit more unusual is left handed w right eye dominant). Either way, go with the eye dominance - usually the shooter will quickly get used to holding the rifle "lefty", especially when they can aim & hit better.

Several shooters I know are also left/right or right/left including myself. I tried shooting left-eye/right-hand for quite a while. I shoot NRA Conventional (aka Bullseye) which is one-handed only so I tried a couple of different techniques for getting everything lined up. For example, I tried holding the gun in my right hand but moving the end of that arm to the left to line up the rear sight between left eye and target and then turning my wrist right (seven degrees -- you can get grips for some guns set to that angle for this same purpose) to bring the front sight into alignment, and then practicing that arm and wrist position. But what I found was that with my wrist turned, the recoil rotated my arm rather than pushing straight back and it was decidedly harder to get back on target.
I also tried keeping my wrist straight but rolling my whole right arm left to move the sight over to the left eye. That worked also but, again, recoil was strange (left and up) and sight adjustment between 25 and 50 had both a up/down and a left/right tweak to them.
Ultimately, I added a blinder for the left eye and started shooting right-eye with right-hand. In less than a month I was shooting just as well as when I used my left (dominant) eye so I've stayed right/right with the left-eye blinder ever since. I hold the gun straight up, my wrist is straight and locked, and recoil is back and only slightly up.
I didn't try left/left but know a couple of shooters that use that even though they write with their right hands.
You might want to try the different possibilities for one month each and keep notes on how it feels, works and what problems you notice. Then, you can pick the best combination knowing what works for you.
--
Ed Skinner, ed@flat5.net, http://www.flat5.net/ (shooting notes)
and http://conventionalpistol.blogspot.com/ (shooting blog)

WRC177 wrote:Not that unusual - we're seeing about 20% of those coming thru our club. (It seems a bit more unusual is left handed w right eye dominant). Either way, go with the eye dominance - usually the shooter will quickly get used to holding the rifle "lefty", especially when they can aim & hit better.

Being right handed left eye dominant myself I totally disagree, unless you are seriously visually impaired in one eye, it's a lot harder to learn fine motor skills than use the other eye, that's what a blinder is for. I've also shot cross dominant not very comfortable as you sort of end up with a contorted position.

eskinner wrote: Ultimately, I added a blinder for the left eye and started shooting right-eye with right-hand. In less than a month I was shooting just as well as when I used my left (dominant) eye so I've stayed right/right with the left-eye blinder ever since.

I too am cross dominant and shot air pistol right hand/left eye with decent results. I started shooting Bullseye a year ago and, as you Ed, found recoil management to be an issue. I now use a blinder for the left eye & shoot right/right. I tried left hand, that just wasn't going to happen! I have a lot of respect for those shooters that are able to shoot well using either hand.

Steve

I can just speak for myself and I am left shooter with rifle, and right hand/eye with pistol.

One of my good friends is left handed and right eye dominate, he uses a crossover prisim that was custom made, but is very similar in design to the one that gehmann makes..

I'm right-handed. But I don't have a dominant eye UNTIL I start shooting, then my left eye takes dominance. This is because although neither eye is dominant, as soon as light is reduced to one eye (say by shoving a rearsight in front of it) the other eye takes over dominance. So it doesn't matter which way round I shoot, I'm never shooting with my dominant eye!

I started shooting pistol cross-dominant, because I didn't know any better, and also because I thought my right eye was really weak, and so I simply assumed I couldn't aim with it. After about 3 years of shooting, I had attained some decent results, but more and more I found the contorted position I forced myself into was causing me problems in SP duello (not to mention giving me a lot of neck pain). Shooting precision cross dominant seems okay, since you have time to fiddle with things, but in rapid fire, you simply don't have time, so the more natural your position is, the easier it is.

So, after 3 years, I finally made the switch, I tried shooting right eye/right hand, and to echo some of the comments above, in a month or two, I was shooting just as well with my right eye. FYI, I did also try shooting left eye/left hand, and yes, I could do it, but only for about 20 shots, and even then it was extremely difficult and tiring.

I think the moral of the story is, cross dominant shooting is possible (and you can even get really good, I believe Elizabeth Calahan is cross dominant), but non-cross dominant shooting is just easier, especially for rapid fire. And it is easier to teach your non-dominant eye to aim than it is to teach your non-dominant hand/arm to shoot.

So if you are cross dominant, give your other eye a try, it may not be as difficult as you think.

-trinity

I start shooting (mostly rifle) weak eye/strong hand long long ago, and after almost 20 yrs of doing that and wearing corrective lenses to equailize the vision in both eyes, my dominance has shifted to the strong hand side.

I think if a 13 year old shows up for a junior program, you can switch him to a weak-hand sided shooting, but an adult will find that difficult.

We do have one service rifle shooter in Phoenix who's strong-side eye is very weak and uncorrectable, a few years back, in his late 30's he switched to weak-side, good eye and is now shooting Master scores. so it is possible.

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

You can buy a crossover prism

http://www.gehmann.com/english_final/sp ... ttings.php

I'm sure I have seen one in Anschutz catalogue too but it will be twice the price of the Gehmann one.

I'm presuming you are shooting match rifle, if not my apogolgies.

Bill Poole wrote: I think if a 13 year old shows up for a junior program, you can switch him to a weak-hand sided shooting, but an adult will find that difficult.

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/

Hi Bill

When I took the NRA Shotgun instructor course, I shot 18 of 25 left handed, and the next 18 of 25 right handed. I'm slightly left eyed, and VERY right handed. I can shoot fine, what I CAN'T do, is carry the gun around, load it, etc.

Mike
Wichita KS

If you shoot right handed and need to put a blinder on your left ( dominant ) eye...

Dont use a black blinder... ideally a ground glass opaque blinder would be best .. as it will assist in accomodation and feel more restful over prolonged shooting sessions.

If you wear prescription specs and dont use one of those special Knobloch shooting frames... just oiling the left lens with a bit of white grease of vaseline will do the trick.

Personally I am right hand dominate and left eye dominate. I my self find it very awkward to hold a rifle of any sort "righty". From the day I started I just caught on to the left position by mirroring the other shooters. I found it odd at first now it's just a good conversation starter.

Being cross-dominant myself, I have read all I could find, tried a few things and thought about it alot. I started shooting Right / Right, then Right Hand / Left Eye for about 2 years, then went back to Right /Right about 3 years ago.

I have come up with the following rules of thumb:

1. If your weak hand is very weak and not coordinated, then shoot with your strong hand.

2. If you are ambidextrous or your weak hand is not too bad, shoot with your right hand. You will have more oportunities to shoot others guns, grips are more common and some times cheaper.

3. If the same side eye as your shooting hand can be corrected to good shooting focus, use that eye.

4. If the same side eye is really bad, has floaters, blind spots or can't be corrected sufficiently, then shoot cross dominant.

Shooting with the same side eye makes for a better position. If you have to shoot cross dominant, then you need to find a good position that works for you which may be a little strange, then train until it feels natural.

If you use your non-dominant eye, then you will probably need to put a blinder on the other eye. If you shoot with your dominant eye, then you may want to exeriment with or without a blinder.

Best of luck,
Steve Turner

"Cross-dominant" makes a whale of a difference if you're talking about Pistol versus Rifle !!

Yup, everything I said applies to pistol. Is it possible to shoot rifle cross dominant without the prism / periscope thing?

Steve