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A little background: I write with my left hand and eat with a spoon/fork in my left hand. EVERYTHING ELSE i do with my right hand, i mean hockey, baseball, etc etc. infact my right arm is significantly stronger.
With all this being said I feel I can shoot a gun equally as bad with both hands. I know i am left eye dominate, does this mean i should shoot lefted handed or does that really have nothing to do with it?
Check out the following thread:
http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulle...ad.php?t=35190
I asked a very similar question to yours, so the replies I got will likely help you out.
I still haven't decided which way I'm going to go myself, otherwise I'd give you my own take on it as well... :smile:
Oh boy, where to begin....
I'm kind of in the same boat.
I'm right handed, left eye dominant, I shoot slightly better left haded, however on a defensive standpoint it would be a bad idea for ME to start carrying and shooting left handed, as after this many years, it is reflex to draw with my right hand as my gun lives on my right side.
If I'm shooting longer than half an hour with my left, I start getting shaky, so for all intensive purposes I stick to shooting righty.
I continue to practice left handed and am trying to beef my my "weak" side.
Now there are a couple of schools of thought as for your eyes.
1: You try to "correct" eye dominance to match your dominant hand.
2: Your left eye is closed, that makes your right eye dominant. :biggrin2:
3: You should shoot with both eyes open for better peripheral vision.
I had a heck of a time dealing with my issues.
I started shooting when I was 4, that's 24 years ago, I had been doing it all along using my right eye open left closed, and I shot fine, even when in the service, I shot expert darn near every time.
Then I started trying to "train" myself to shoot with both eyes open and had a ton of issues getting correct sight picture, that's when I did an eye dominance test and figured out that I was left eye dominant, and that I shot better as a lefty with a pistol, haven't tried rifle yet.
Anyway, I asked around here and got a ton of different suggestions on what I should do, I tried a bunch of them and was actually leaning toward shooting and carrying as a lefty, but as I stated above, my reflexes are biased toward right side carry, not to mention that LH holsters are a pain to find.
So back in September when Lima and I went to a training course, I asked about the whole "Eye dominance / both eye open thing" and got some pretty good feed back.
I'll try and sum up what the instructor said:
:doh: Why didn't I think of that.Quote:
Unless your shooting, keep both eyes open, when you shoot, close your left eye then open when your done.
The reason is this. Those of us that have been in gunfights/combat know about tunnel vision, when it comes time to shoot, I'm probably going to be in tunnel mode and not seeing what's on the sides anyway, up until then I can still have both eyes open using my peripheral vision to scan for additional threats, but as soon as I decide to shoot, close the left eye, I'm getting to the point that after every string of fire (doubles and triples), my left eye opens back up and I acquire other targets, when I go to shoot again, my left eye closes and I get my nice perfect sight picture (proper sight alignment applied to my target) and my shots are good.
Now in between a year ago and now, I got pretty good at the two eye thing, good enough for point shooting, but for sighted fire I still need to keep my left eye closed for optimal results, unless I'm shooting lefty, in which case I close my right.
This is probably a Little more than you requested as your worrying mainly about your hand usage.
I would suggest sticking with your right hand as that's probably what your reflexed want you to do. If your still new to shooting you can try to switch to your left without much change, that's ultimately up for you to decide.
What I did like about possibly switching to lefty was that my strong hand would be available to use defensively and to negotiate obstacles, and I'd have better coordination with my mag changes.
Seeing as how you write with your left hand you may want to shoot lefty, as for me my left hand is virtually useless as far as dexterity is concerned.
If you have the dexterity to do it and you can guarantee that in a stressful situation that your left hand will reach for your gun on your left side, instead of your right hand looking for a gun that isn't there, I'd suggest shooting primarily with your left.
Well I don't think I actually answered your question, but I definitely gave you some things to think about.
Edited to add, one good thing about my issues, if I ever do have to shoot with my off hand, I've got no worries. :3a:
I use to have your same problem. Being predominanty right handed but being left eyed dominant.Quote:
Originally Posted by SilenceDoGood
I fixed the problem by learning to shoot Left handed. I have found personally that shooting hand to strong side eye i am much more accurate, and once you get passed a certain point your abilities will come more natural than that of a cross dominant shooter.
After a little practice drawing in front of a mirror (2 weeks) on my free time I've learned how to draw with my left very well. I have no problem drawing a gun from concealment shooting controlled pairs and one to the head on a piece of typing paper 8x11in, at 21 feet in a pretty speedy amount of time. I've also been practicing from concealment 1 shot one second 21 feet on a piece of white typing paper using turning targets. Most of the time I'm generally on the mark.
I fully believe that somebody can switch carry sides based on cross dominant issues, its a commitment issue. However I also believe that a lot of people don't want to because they have done everything in their lives strong hands only not strong eyes. I dont' see this as a negative, but I think for the majority of people your abilities will peak faster than somebody whos using dominant eye to whatever the hand.
You can always build speed with your hands by working out and building muscle; however, you may not be able to permantly switch eye dominance.
Cross-eye dominance is no big deal, shooting-wise. My horseback evaluation is that at least 10% of shooters, probably more, are cross-eye dominant.Quote:
Originally Posted by SilenceDoGood
The key insight is to see the gun as part of a larger combatives whole. If you have to draw and shoot from retention, which side do you prefer to do that from? How easy is it to reload and clear malfunctions from the weak side? What reflexive fighting stance do you take: left or right foot forward?
You're signing up to do a lot more than just pull the trigger when carrying weak handed.
if you shoot equality well with the left or the right hand.
then who cares?
If you shoot well with both hands, I would pick the hand that is more natural to draw from. I can shoot with both hands as well and am left eye dominant, but my right hand side is where I carry and shoot pistol from. I shoot all long guns from my left side. It just works that way for me.
Assuming no handicap with either hand, it is very important you sue the hand with the dominant eye as primary and the other as secondary.
In a hurry up situaion, your dominant eye is going to take over and you will want to be practicing as though that condition exists.
Don't forget to practice with you other hand as well.
I too am in the same situation as you, but chose my right side as the carry side. There are some advantages to this as my left arm is the more poweful side for knive, defensive blows or retention.
okay here is the other part, the part you guys probally won't get, b/c frankly i don't get it... Its natural for me to pick up the gun with my left hand and rack the slide using my right hand (simple you're left handed!) and then transfer the weapon to my right hand and bring up to sight. I feel naturally comfortable drawing from my left. I think the benifit with my situation if I stick to left handed, like JD mentioned, is i can negotiate obstacles with my right arm. My accuracey was garbage in both hands, but i beleive that was the gun (used OLD OLD sigma) and my HORRRIBLE grip.
I shoot both. Right is better since it's stronger.
Go with what's natural, better to make changes now before you get to wrapped up in shooting righty, habits are hard to break.Quote:
Originally Posted by SilenceDoGood
Start shooting lefty and refine your abilities. :yup:
Racking the pistol can easly be learned with either hand/ also should be learned.
Your dominant eye side should be the selection process to make your descision. You will go through hell trying to get your other eye to be dominant.
I stronglly recommend for you R eye/R hand. You are fortunate to have such a strong left side as it can serve other support purposes or actually shoot if necessary.
If you others disagree, please speak out as I speak only from my own experience and training a few other shooters in this condition. They worked with their natural eye dominance and progressed quickly.
man a lot of people with that issue. i always just stuck with shoting right handed tried shooting with my dominant eye a little in basice but it always seemed weird and i couldn't get used to it. im gonna try again just in case because i got a little damage to my right eye because of an incident with a moron and a PEQ2 on high power. nothing major i just feel i should be ready to shoot both ways if the problem ever worsens.
I, like the rest of you, am in the same boat. I grew up shooting rifles, shotguns, etc. right-handed but am left eye dominant. When I came of age and decided to carry concealed I faced the same problem. I tried going left handed for a while(I write and eat with it) but ended up going right handed because I shot a little better with it and I found WAY more holsters for the right hand. I'm left eye dominant but learned to shoot a pistol right handed like many of you did.
I am in the same boat; eating, writing and shooting are the only things that I do left handed. I grew up hunting and shooting left handed, since I am left eye dominant. When in the military I was trained to draw from a right handed holster, thats all they had. Since then I have trained myself to draw left handed, that switching hands thing never really worked for me. I would go with what works best for you. I like having my stronger hand free to do other things; open doors, hold flashlights, etc.