Both eyes open, offsetting the handgun to dominant eye?

Kimio · April 19, 2015, 03:41 PM

This may be something that should have been pretty obvious, but I recently tried doing this during a range session.

Before I was shifting my stance or trying to focus my right eye on the irons of my handgun without much success.

To compensate, I tried holding the gun slightly to the right so that it was more in line with my right eye (my dominant one). As silly as this may sound, this made a world of difference, I was much more consistent with my shots afterwards.

While fatigue set in a little earlier than I would have liked, it was nice to see some progress. Now if only I can learn to "shut off" my other eye and make solid follow up shots without losing where my irons are from time to time, everything would be peachy.

If anyone else has some tips, or would like to share their experiences with learning how to shoot with both eyes open, please feel free to do so. I'd love to hear how others learned to shoot like this.

g.willikers · April 19, 2015, 03:51 PM

If you shift the gun toward your dominant eye, then your natural point of aim could be off and need to be adusted.
There's always a trade off.
While I've most always shot with both eyes open, handguns and long guns, now it often causes double vision.
Slightly squinting the non dominant eye is sometimes needed to eliminate the problem.
There's always something.

Can't rightly remember when I actually started shooting with both eyes.
It might have been from trying to emulate the hip and snap shooting on all those tv Westerns.

Kimio · April 19, 2015, 05:27 PM

I'm most accurate with one eye closed, however, I'm trying to learn how to shoot with both eyes open since this is supposed to be my daily carry handgun.

**Frank Ettin** · April 19, 2015, 06:00 PM

One of the other instructors in our group is cross dominant (right hand/left eye). In his shooting stance (whether he is shooting Weaver or Isosceles) he keeps his head erect and turns it slightly to the right. That aligns his left eye with the sights. By turning the head while keeping it erect, instead of tilting it, he avoids muscle strain and fatigue.

We teach that to our cross dominant students in out NRA Basic Handgun classes. It almost always works for the student. Some few students still have difficulties (sometimes associated with weak dominance or shifting dominance). Those few students usually have to resort to closing one eye.

But overall, the technique has proven to be very effective. I've adopted it for shooting with my non-dominant hand.

Kimio · April 19, 2015, 06:10 PM

Funny enough, I was trying that as well, but I was worried that this was the wrong way to go about it.

I don't have anyone to formally train me unfortunately, so most of what I learn is through experimenting and simply watching what the pro's tend to do in videos and so on.

Skeets · April 20, 2015, 09:44 PM

I've always shot both eyes open,right-handed,left-eye dominant.On my adj.sighted guns,I simply made needed adjs.15 yrs.ago when I started shooting fixed-sighted Glocks,I ran into constantly grouping 3" left at 15 Yds.A Glock armorer set rear sight clear to right edge of slot.Solved problem for a load I'm still using.Maybe this is helpful.

**Frank Ettin** · April 21, 2015, 12:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skeets

I've always shot both eyes open,right-handed,left-eye dominant.On my adj.sighted guns,I simply made needed adjs.15 yrs.ago when I started shooting fixed-sighted Glocks,I ran into constantly grouping 3" left at 15 Yds.A Glock armorer set rear sight clear to right edge of slot.Solved problem for a load I'm still using....

In general I could not recommend offsetting the sights as a way to deal with cross-dominance. If one is using a handgun for self defense or for action pistol competition (IDPA or USPSA) he will want to be able to accurately fire the gun with either his dominant or non-dominant hand. Offsetting the sights complicates matters when shooting with the non-dominant hand.

TxWheels · April 21, 2015, 07:20 AM

Myself being naturally left handed I'm also left eye dominant. But I shoot pistols right handed. Go figure.
What I did several years ago, I would black the left lens out on a pair of shooting glasses and over time (about 2 months) trained my right eye to be dominant. I've had no trouble at all since doing that.
You've heard of ambidextrous, well I'm ambieyeballed because I still shoot rifles and shotguns left handed.

A pause for the COZ · April 21, 2015, 09:01 AM

I too am right handed, left eye dominate.
Since I have switched to the Isosceles stance instead of a weaver stance.
I have been practicing shooting with my dominate eye.

Its actually is not hard to do with the Isosceles, your dominate eye naturally comes in line.

Weaver was harder, I had to move my head farther to my strong side.

I think its a good idea to practice that. If you close one eye, your cutting off half your peripheral vision.

Kimio · April 21, 2015, 11:30 AM

I'll have to get video of me shooting some time down the line. But I stopped doing the weaver stance with handguns a long while ago. I've bee trying my best to do the same stance Jerry Miculek does in his videos.

ironox · April 21, 2015, 04:20 PM

I'm left eye dominant, right handed, but get a much better sight picture with my right eye. I squint my dominant eye to switch my vision over to my non-dominant eye. This works best for me.

FITASC · April 21, 2015, 07:34 PM

There are "fuzzy dots" you can put on your dominant off eye lens so the other eye works more and takes over. LOTS of trap shooters suffering from cross dominance do this.

Stevie-Ray · April 23, 2015, 10:00 AM

Quote:

One of the other instructors in our group is cross dominant (right hand/left eye). In his shooting stance (whether he is shooting Weaver or Isosceles) he keeps his head erect and turns it slightly to the right. That aligns his left eye with the sights. By turning the head while keeping it erect, instead of tilting it, he avoids muscle strain and fatigue.

I find this method works wonderfully for us cross-dominant folks. I'm now even managing to keep both eyes open, at times, this way, though I've had years of practice with only the left. It's coming little by little.

Strafer Gott · April 23, 2015, 04:29 PM

+1 I went thru this after a stroke. I noticed I was doing this in a draw qualification class. The head turns ever so slightly to favor the dominant eye.

FireForged · April 23, 2015, 07:04 PM

I am cross dominant as well and have settled on closing one eye at distance and accepting the minor point of impact variation at close targets due misaligned shooting stance.

sliponby · April 24, 2015, 07:56 AM

Back in 2008, when Hickok45 had maybe 25,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, I used to communicate with him occasionally. One of the topics discussed was shooting effectively being cross eye dominant, which he is.

If you notice in his videos, he cants his head to the right when shooting to get better alignment with his dominant left eye. He also told me that he closes his right eye. If you observe closely in his videos you will notice his right eye squinted. Adaptation and practice can overcome many obstacles to achieving good marksmanship.

April 19, 2015, 03:41 PM	#1
Kimio Senior Member Join Date: January 2, 2011 Location: Arizona Posts: 1,171	Both eyes open, offsetting the handgun to dominant eye? This may be something that should have been pretty obvious, but I recently tried doing this during a range session. Before I was shifting my stance or trying to focus my right eye on the irons of my handgun without much success. To compensate, I tried holding the gun slightly to the right so that it was more in line with my right eye (my dominant one). As silly as this may sound, this made a world of difference, I was much more consistent with my shots afterwards. While fatigue set in a little earlier than I would have liked, it was nice to see some progress. Now if only I can learn to "shut off" my other eye and make solid follow up shots without losing where my irons are from time to time, everything would be peachy. If anyone else has some tips, or would like to share their experiences with learning how to shoot with both eyes open, please feel free to do so. I'd love to hear how others learned to shoot like this.

April 19, 2015, 03:51 PM	#2
g.willikers Senior Member Join Date: September 28, 2008 Posts: 10,442	If you shift the gun toward your dominant eye, then your natural point of aim could be off and need to be adusted. There's always a trade off. While I've most always shot with both eyes open, handguns and long guns, now it often causes double vision. Slightly squinting the non dominant eye is sometimes needed to eliminate the problem. There's always something. Can't rightly remember when I actually started shooting with both eyes. It might have been from trying to emulate the hip and snap shooting on all those tv Westerns. __________________ Walt Kelly, alias Pogo, sez: “Don't take life so serious, son, it ain't nohow permanent.” Last edited by g.willikers; April 19, 2015 at 03:58 PM.

April 19, 2015, 06:00 PM	#4
Frank Ettin Staff Join Date: November 23, 2005 Location: California - San Francisco Posts: 9,471	One of the other instructors in our group is cross dominant (right hand/left eye). In his shooting stance (whether he is shooting Weaver or Isosceles) he keeps his head erect and turns it slightly to the right. That aligns his left eye with the sights. By turning the head while keeping it erect, instead of tilting it, he avoids muscle strain and fatigue. We teach that to our cross dominant students in out NRA Basic Handgun classes. It almost always works for the student. Some few students still have difficulties (sometimes associated with weak dominance or shifting dominance). Those few students usually have to resort to closing one eye. But overall, the technique has proven to be very effective. I've adopted it for shooting with my non-dominant hand. __________________ "It is long been a principle of ours that one is no more armed because he has possession of a firearm than he is a musician because he owns a piano. There is no point in having a gun if you are not capable of using it skillfully." -- Jeff Cooper

April 20, 2015, 09:44 PM	#6
Skeets Member in memoriam Join Date: April 6, 2015 Location: Indiana Posts: 583	I've always shot both eyes open,right-handed,left-eye dominant.On my adj.sighted guns,I simply made needed adjs.15 yrs.ago when I started shooting fixed-sighted Glocks,I ran into constantly grouping 3" left at 15 Yds.A Glock armorer set rear sight clear to right edge of slot.Solved problem for a load I'm still using.Maybe this is helpful. __________________ Skeets "Over Kill Never Fails"

April 21, 2015, 07:20 AM	#8
TxWheels Member Join Date: April 13, 2015 Location: North Texas Posts: 34	Myself being naturally left handed I'm also left eye dominant. But I shoot pistols right handed. Go figure. What I did several years ago, I would black the left lens out on a pair of shooting glasses and over time (about 2 months) trained my right eye to be dominant. I've had no trouble at all since doing that. You've heard of ambidextrous, well I'm ambieyeballed because I still shoot rifles and shotguns left handed. __________________ If I don't answer the phone, I'm probably in the Senate taking a POTUS and wiping my Congress.

April 19, 2015, 05:27 PM	#3
Kimio Senior Member Join Date: January 2, 2011 Location: Arizona Posts: 1,171	I'm most accurate with one eye closed, however, I'm trying to learn how to shoot with both eyes open since this is supposed to be my daily carry handgun.

April 19, 2015, 06:10 PM	#5
Kimio Senior Member Join Date: January 2, 2011 Location: Arizona Posts: 1,171	Funny enough, I was trying that as well, but I was worried that this was the wrong way to go about it. I don't have anyone to formally train me unfortunately, so most of what I learn is through experimenting and simply watching what the pro's tend to do in videos and so on.

April 21, 2015, 09:01 AM	#9
A pause for the COZ Senior Member Join Date: October 11, 2012 Location: Braham, Minnesota Posts: 1,314	I too am right handed, left eye dominate. Since I have switched to the Isosceles stance instead of a weaver stance. I have been practicing shooting with my dominate eye. Its actually is not hard to do with the Isosceles, your dominate eye naturally comes in line. Weaver was harder, I had to move my head farther to my strong side. I think its a good idea to practice that. If you close one eye, your cutting off half your peripheral vision.

April 21, 2015, 11:30 AM	#10
Kimio Senior Member Join Date: January 2, 2011 Location: Arizona Posts: 1,171	I'll have to get video of me shooting some time down the line. But I stopped doing the weaver stance with handguns a long while ago. I've bee trying my best to do the same stance Jerry Miculek does in his videos.

April 21, 2015, 04:20 PM	#11
ironox Member Join Date: May 12, 2013 Posts: 50	tweaked I'm left eye dominant, right handed, but get a much better sight picture with my right eye. I squint my dominant eye to switch my vision over to my non-dominant eye. This works best for me.

April 21, 2015, 07:34 PM	#12
FITASC Senior Member Join Date: December 6, 2014 Posts: 6,446	There are "fuzzy dots" you can put on your dominant off eye lens so the other eye works more and takes over. LOTS of trap shooters suffering from cross dominance do this. __________________ "I believe that people have a right to decide their own destinies; people own themselves. I also believe that, in a democracy, government exists because (and only so long as) individual citizens give it a 'temporary license to exist'—in exchange for a promise that it will behave itself. In a democracy, you own the government—it doesn't own you."- Frank Zappa

April 23, 2015, 04:29 PM	#14
Strafer Gott Senior Member Join Date: May 12, 2011 Location: New Mexico Posts: 1,315	+1 I went thru this after a stroke. I noticed I was doing this in a draw qualification class. The head turns ever so slightly to favor the dominant eye.

April 23, 2015, 07:04 PM	#15
FireForged Senior Member Join Date: November 4, 1999 Location: Rebel South USA Posts: 2,074	I am cross dominant as well and have settled on closing one eye at distance and accepting the minor point of impact variation at close targets due misaligned shooting stance. __________________ Life is a web woven by necessity and chance...

April 24, 2015, 07:56 AM	#16
sliponby Senior Member Join Date: March 11, 2010 Location: Alabama Posts: 187	Back in 2008, when Hickok45 had maybe 25,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, I used to communicate with him occasionally. One of the topics discussed was shooting effectively being cross eye dominant, which he is. If you notice in his videos, he cants his head to the right when shooting to get better alignment with his dominant left eye. He also told me that he closes his right eye. If you observe closely in his videos you will notice his right eye squinted. Adaptation and practice can overcome many obstacles to achieving good marksmanship. __________________ No one prays harder for peace than the soldier. *"We Dare Defend Our Rights",* Alabama State Motto...