Daughter right hand, left eye dominant - pistol - What to do?

[Jeffm004]

We've been to a course that suggested cranking her head over the right shoulder and use her left eye. It has proven marginally successful in subsequent trips to the range. I'm looking for some other ideas?

Tx

[mehavey]

You should get your money back from whoever taught that course.

I am (and many, many, many others are) right-handed/left-eyed.
Simply cover the left eye with a patch uder the shooting glasses
while learning to shoot long guns and the habit of instantaneously
closing the left eye/using the right eye will quickly take over even
w/o the patch.

(It'll also become so natural that fast-reaction skeet/trap are similarly
no problem).

When shooting handguns, I shoot strong/left eyed. It's the natural
state of things.




postscriptum: In fact, my lifelong strong/weak-eyed fact crossover was actually discovered at age eight, when I kept trying to crawl over the stock of my father's `03 to look through the scope w/ the wrong eye. It's never been an issue since.

[Mobuck]

My Daughter had the same problem until she has Lasik surgery. Not really a big deal with a handgun. Really big deal with a shotgun.
BTW
For more precise aiming, I have to use my left eye unless I'm wearing script glasses--don't see it as all that odd. I'm not saying it's correct but it's not a deal breaker.
If you wish to help your Daughter learn to use her right eye more, put tape on the left lens of her shooting glasses.

[kraigwy]

I see that all the time in the classes I teach. Its not a big deal in pistol/revolver shooting.................NORMALLY.

How ever in target shooting such as NRA Bullseye or ISU pistol shooting it can be. Worse in rifle and shotgun shooting.

Simple fix, she should be wearing safety glasses anyway. Assuming left eye dominant, take so target pasters or tape, and tape up the left lenses of her shooting glasses.

Problem solved, she cant see with her left eye, YET; she can still shoot with both eyes open.

IF any coach or trainer tells you to "tilt your head to see the sights" find another trainer/coach. The head needs to be straight, bring the sights (gun) to the head, not the head to the gun.

Not saying Right Handed/Left eye'd dominant is a handicapped so don't take this wrong.

But there is no handicap that can't be over come with a good coach.

Example: I taught sniper schools using M1C/Ds. If you don't know this rifle, the scope is off set to the left. The rifle has a pad of the stock that forces your check weld to the left so you're eye can line up with the scope.

I had several left handed shooters who said they couldn't shoot this rifle.

I was at a loss until I took the rifle out, played with it, until I, as a right handed shooter could shoot it successfully left handed.

Its possible. One just needs to study the problem and a solution can be found without sacrificing marksmanship fundamentals.

[jmorris]

For some reason it seems that cross dominance is more prevalent with with women. Sometimes just a smudge of something like lip balm on the outside of the shooting glasses, over the offending eye is all that's needed. Just a little smudge in the right place is all that it takes.

[Sharkbite]

Jeff,

It totally depends on the type of shooting/training you wish to do.

Im a Defensive pistol guy. Not skeet/trap/bullseye stuff.

Here is my take, based on 3 decades of teaching highend tactical pistol fighting at some of the major schools around the country. Teaching LE/Mil & Govt contract personnel.

First, you are not going to retrain eye dominance. Its a hardwired system, so we need to adapt our shooting style to our bodies NATURAL abilities.

Second, taping or patching the eye is a range only technique. No way to translate that into the real world.

So...As we bring the pistol to bear on target, the goal is to be as "neutral" as possible. For a right handed/right eye dominate shooter this is fairly easy. The gun favors the right side of centerline just a bit and everything lines up nicely.

For a right handed but LEFT eye dominate shooter, we need to cheat a little. But, only a LITTLE. Remember the eyes are NOT that far apart on humans. A cpl inches is all the difference we need to correct for, over the entire length of the arms (at extension)

Here is what i teach... As you extend the gun to tgt. Cheat the gun a little left, maybe just to centerline. As you do that TURN (dont TILT) your head slightly to the right. The difference is a TILT is ear towards shoulder, a turn is CHIN towards shoulder. You dont need much turn before the left eye is behind the sights. A few degrees is plenty.

The issue with tilting the head is it disrupts balance and thereby affects movement. Turning the head DOES NOT.

SO, gun to centerline...left eye to centerline and get to work on the trigger.

That has worked for a couple hundred cross dominant shooters ive had in my classes. All were able to quickly learn the subtle change in shooting style and were able to quickly get mtpl hits on tgtgs while on the move.

It WORKS

[Frank Ettin]

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.

[T. O'Heir]

"...suggested cranking her head over..." Stop going there. They don't know what they're talking about. When on a range, have her move her back leg over(usually to the right) to bring the sights in line with her eye. Or shoot with both eyes open. She can just move her arm over too. The leg moves works best though.
"...more prevalent with women..." Nope.

[cc-hangfire]

I weigh in with Sharkbite & FrankE - using a two-handed grip doesn't require much of a head turn to get correct sight alignment. It's the same thing the rest of us non-cross-dominant folks do automatically when shooting with our weak hand. I'm right handed & right-eye dominant; when I shoot with my left hand I still line up the sights with my right eye. If shooting one handed with my left hand I also tilt the gun slightly- about the 15 degrees, not "ganster style" - to align with my right eye. For defensive shooting, don't make it a big deal

And my wife is right handed & left eye dominant. With handguns, she just shoots. Long guns however are a bit of a problem since she's not a regular shooter.

[Jeffm004]

Thank you all. I have a few thing to try next week.

Jeff

[Snyper]

The correct answer is to do what feels most natural for her.
Just shifting the gun slightly to the left while turning her head a little should line things up well enough.

[849ACSO]

. If shooting one handed with my left hand I also tilt the gun slightly- about the 15 degrees, not "ganster style" - to align with my right eye. For defensive shooting, don't make it a big deal

^^^^^^^^^ This^^^^^^^^^^^^

I have found, through about 10 years as a handgun/shotgun instructor (LEO level), the easiest way is have the head remain straight, both arms out straight in a shooting grip, and rotate the pistol inboard about 45 degrees, or until the sights are rotated into the line of the vision of the dominant eye.

You can show her by shooting with your non dominant hand, using your dominant eye (provided the two are not the same). It's actually pretty natural to most shooters once you tell them to stop turning/leaning their head to meet the gun, and to make the gun do the moving to meet their head.

[FITASC]

A smear of vaseline, a piece of scotch tape or even the "dots" they make for shooting glasses will help obscure her dominant eye from taking over as she shoots from her offhand side. It is more of an issue with shotgun as mentioned.

[JERRYS.]

I don't know about the taping up the left lens jazz, but the slight turn of the head to the right lines up the left eye just fine for the folks that I know have this issue.

[mehavey]

For RIFLE, patch the left eye until natural right-eye habit is learned.
Handgun, just shoot left eye as feels comfortable/natural.

[armoredman]

Hogwash. You do not need to force train someone to do something unnatural when unnecessary.



Left eye dominant, right handed. I shoot with my LEFT eye on the sights.





Been doing this for 40 years. I qualify Expert or Distinguished Expert in my Dept yearly. I was told in the Acadamy I was going to shoot left handed by my class Sergeant. I told him I was NOT going to shoot left handed and I would score expert. I graduated top in my class both academics and firearms.

RIFLE is different as everyone else has said, and I just shoot both eyes open, preferably with a nice red dot. I'll never make anyone at camp Perry nervous about their rankings, but I can hit minute of felon pretty darn reliably, and used to regularly ring my long lost steel target at 100 yards with iron sights on my 527M carbine.



So I say again - hog wash, and I am living proof thereof. Let her shoot her pistol how it's comfortable for her. Rifle, shotgun, try her shooting left handed if you want, or teach both eyes open, and let her find what system works best for her.

[b.thomas]

not with a handgun but a shotgun .................I used a half inch piece of scotch tape on my son shooting glasses, where he couldn't see the bead with the gun mounted.
Should work with handgun too I would think??

[bamaranger]

The 'boy, (now taller than me) has that issues, as did his Grandad. Boy shoots right handed, presents the pistol square and level, and simple turns his head a tad to the right so that his dominant eye can run things, not a big deal at all, and the kid (well, not really anymore) can shoot.

The long gun is more trouble, and I started him on his left shoulder as a tot. That presents some issues with a bolt rifle, but in the long run I feel is the best path. Shooting quickly, as in 3-gun, there is no struggle to get on target and change targets quickly. He has proven adaptable enough that running a longun trigger with his "off" hand has not been a problem.

[briandg]

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that it would be easier to teach her to adapt to shooting with right eye than adapt to using left eye. If target shooting, it's fine, and she can learn point shooting for combat.

I once saw a trap shotgun made for a left eyed shooter. Yes, the barrel was sort of offset to the left so that the sight plane was about two inches heft of the stock plane

Made my head hurt to look at it.

[str8tshot]

I don't have the years of experience training LEOs, but I do have 2 sons with opposite problems. My oldest son (now 11B in Army) is left handed and right eye dominant. He shoots both pistol and rifle right handed most of the time. He can shoot left handed with equal success, but is a bit slower on site alignment shooting left.
My middle son, now 12 started shooting 2 gun with me a year or so ago. He is right handed and left eye dominant, so he shoots the rifle left handed and pistol right handed (sort of like Larry Vickers). It only took a few days for him to figure out how to use the right handed controls on an AR with his left hand. Any other rifle is no problem shooting as a lefty.
My recommendation is to teach her to shoot from her dominant eye with a rifle, and use what sharkbite said for pistol.


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[lefteye]

With handguns I do exactly what Sharkbite recommends. With long guns I shoot left-handed (left-handed bolt action rifles and right-handed pump shotguns.) Rotating my head enough to shoot a handgun with a dominant left eye and both eyes open is extremely easy. Tilting my head to the left is a pain in the neck (and elsewhere).

[RAfiringline]

With pistols, self defense shooting is best done w/ both eyes open - max peripheral vision.

Have her shoot groups using left as dominant hand, then right as dominant and see how she groups, and which way she is most comfortable.

[jbarbourtrim]

I don't see the issue. I'm right handed/left eye dominant. The sight always goes to my left eye.. what's the issue? I shoot with both eyes open at close ranges and close my right eye when I'm trying to reach out past 20 yds.

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[FireForged]

for close shots I simply drift my left hand over toward my right eye (both eyes open) and sort of lean my head to meet it in the middle. For anything beyond 15 yards, I close my right eye and for my left eye to do the work.

[ammo.crafter]

After 50+ years of shooting, eye surgery and the aging process, my eye dominance changed from right to left (I'm right handed).

I still shoot competitively with handguns and use red dots on all comp guns. My scores remain at the top; no problem, have her tilt her head and change her stance slightly.

Rifles, use scopes and can get by at times with a peep rear sight.

The frustrating weapon is the shotgun. Extremely frustrating!

Good luck.