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Different dominant eye from my dominant hand.

2058 Views 21 Replies 20 Participants Last post by  Hopyard
So like the title says I have a different dominant hand and dominant eye.

My left eye is my dominant eye and im right handed.

It isn't an issue with most scoped long guns because I can just close my left eye and concentrate on using my right. My AR has an aimpoint so both eyes are open anyways.

My concern is with pistol shooting. How can this issue be minimized? Anyone else have any experience with this and have some pointers?
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Yes, I am the same as you.

I watched Paul Gomez (RIP) youtube videos where he demonstrates how to bring the pistol up into your sight picture under your dominant eye. I had to first teach myself how to aim/shoot with both eyes open, then I practiced bringing the pistol up under my left eye. I've gotten really used to it now, and feel pretty decent at it.
This is cross dominance. There's been a lot of threads on the topic over the years.

http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum.../43993-cross-dominance-how-do-you-deal-w.html

http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/reference-how-forum/88461-cross-domination-eyesights.html

http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum...aining/124887-shooting-training-question.html

http://www.defensivecarry.com/forum/defensive-carry-tactical-training/14160-shooting-1-eye-2-a.html


What I've found to work best for me is to slightly turn my head to the right to better get my left eye behind the sights. I index my chin on my right bicep during my draw stroke and it works out pretty well for me. It took a lot of practice to ingrain in into "muscle memory"

The other method I favor is to just slide your hands slightly to the left of center.


This is from another post of mine on a different forum:

JD said:
Cross dominant shooting is a funny thing, I'm left eye dominant and right handed and I've noticed the following:

With pistols, I shoot more accurately using my left eye, but I've always been center when shooting with my right eye only, I just shoot tighter groups closing my left eye.

With pistols, I can get good two eyes open sight picture by indexing my chin on my right shoulder and score good quick hits and maintain more peripheral vision than shooting with one eye open and one eye closed. Some like to cant the gun to the left at around a 45 degree angle (plus or minus) and have good results, but I didn't like the way the gun handled during recoil in that position.

With rifles I've always shot right eyed only and managed to qualify mid to high expert multiple times while in the Marines, that's shooting with iron sights out to 500 yards and scoring hits on man size targets, shooting at 300 yards and 200 yards. It's not that big a deal being cross dominant with rifles if you're using iron sights. Some issues start up when you being using 1X optics, I can NOT get a good sight picture (proper sight alignment applied to the target) with an Aimpoint or EOTECH unless I close my left eye. Again canting the firearm will probably help, but I haven't really tried it with an optic equipped rifle. So with rifles I will shoot right eye only.

As a cross dominant shooter, if you are going to shoot trap or skeet using your strong hand, you're screwed. You need to shoot the shotgun with whatever hand matches to your eye. You can probably learn to do it with the other hand, but it's going to be a pain in the rear.

Back to pistols as this is the HANDGUN forum...

There are many different schools of thought on cross dominance, I've been looking into this for a couple years and reading what others have to say on this matter and I've seen the following arguments.

1: You should shoot with both eyes open for the improved peripheral vision.

That only works if you can actually see your sights with both eyes open, unless your point shooting you need to see your sights to make hits. Not to mention that in times of mass adrenaline, we have the tenancy to go into tunnel vision and that improved vision of having two eyes open may not matter at all.

2: You should shoot with whatever hand corresponds to your dominant eye.

I don't know about everyone else, but my left hand is damn near useless. But here are two more points, one for and one against the above statement.

A: Using your off hand that corresponds to your dominant eye will leave your strong hand available for negotiating obstacles and your mag changes may be faster.

B: If you've been shooting with your hand that doesn't match your dominant eye, it's going to take a lot of practice getting used to drawing, aiming, and firing with the same precision* that you get with your dominant hand.

3: You should cant the gun closer to your dominant eye.

As noted above, guns are meant to recoil on a vertical plane, that's usually means that the gun is going to go with the front sight and travel at an arc. Canting the gun to get better sight picture is aligning the gun to hit you in the face and take your sights further off target while firing.

So here's the real deal from what I've tried and what I've learned from other instructors.

Use whatever method works for you and improve that method.

If you find that you get better hits and better performance using your right eye only, stick with it. If your left eye is dominant but you close it, your right eye is now dominant by lack of options.

If you want to shoot with two eyes open, adjust your head laterally until you find the right sight picture and practice alot with it until that position is where you naturally end up after drawing and presenting the gun on target. It's taken me almost two years but the practice is finally paying off and I'm getting that "instinctual muscle memory" sometimes I lapse and find myself closing my right eye but for the most part I'm doing OK.

If canting the gun works for you, use it.

You don't have to shoot the same for every ocassion. If I'm shooting a rimfire bulls eye competition where I'm not over working my left hand, I'll shoot left handed as that's where I get my most accuracy. If I'm shooting close up defensive stlye I use both eyes open, if the target is a little further out and smaller, I will close my right eye for the most accuracy while using my dominant hand as it gives my best overall performance under prolonged use.

There is no right or wrong way to shoot if the results you get with a given method work for you.


* Accuracy vs. Precision: Accuracy is doing somehting correctly, precision is doing something accurately a number of times in a row and acheiving the same result at the end of an action. I can shoot more accurately left handed, but as time goes on, my left arm wears out faster than my right and my accuracy is effected as a result of "the shakes". While shooting right handed, I acheive an acceptable level of accuracy and due to the greater strength of my right side, I get more precision, that is to say I can acheive the desired result (a good hit) more often while shooting right handed.
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I used to be right-handed and left-eye dominant until it was pointed out to me that I am really a left-handed person forced into right-handedness at a young age. Once I began shooting left-handed, my scores immediately improved 30% to 40%. Now, shooting left-handed is natural.
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So like the title says I have a different dominant hand and dominant eye.

My left eye is my dominant eye and im right handed.

It isn't an issue with most scoped long guns because I can just close my left eye and concentrate on using my right. My AR has an aimpoint so both eyes are open anyways.

My concern is with pistol shooting. How can this issue be minimized? Anyone else have any experience with this and have some pointers?
My daughter is legally blind in her right eye, but is right-handed and right-eye dominant. When I taught her how to shoot handguns, the key I found was in how she brought the gun up and over to the left to line up with her line-of-sight. I taught her to simply keep her right eye shut and to smoothly bring the gun up in an isoscles stance. In the end, the Weaver ended up being more advantageous to her as she is able to better turn her body to align her sight up with the sights on the firearm.

JD
I am too. Shift the pistol over 2" in your stance so it lines up with your left eye. It's that easy.

Don't take that as condescending. It's not. I posted the same thread when I started CCing.
As noted above, cross dominance is pretty common. I've been that way all my life and it's no big deal. Don't worry about it, or try to minimize it, just learn to shoot that way. Use an Isosceles stance and just adjust your hold to bring the gun into the plane of sight of your left, or dominant, eye. The other considerations you will find are in using cover from that side, such as shooting around a wall or doorway. You tend to expose more of your head than you might want to, but everything is a trade-off.

Having this situation doesn't mean you cannot shoot, it just means some flexibility. Besides, you'll be able to shoot in more ways than some others....that could be a good thing!
cant you just train with those special glasses that block out your left eye and force you to use your right eye more. this would train you to shoot with your right eye and right hand.

When Your Dominant Hand and Eye Don't Match, Which Do You Choose? | Field & Stream
If any of you watch Hickok45 on YouTube you would see that he is right handed and left eye dominant. He's a target shooter (excellent one at that) and not a bullseye shooter. So I think it's a matter of going with what feels natural.
I have much better far-vision in my left eye, so when I started shooting handguns regularly, my left eye just "took over" the job of getting a site picture...
I shoot with both eyes open. You using one eye and closing one??
+1 on JD's response - I have the same cross dominance and turn my head slightly to the right help align my left eye. I still keep both eyes open, but the tilt helps me focus a little better.
I also turn my head slightly to the right to compensate. My situation is even worse because I wear progressive bi-focals. I am sure I look weird at the range because I not only turn my head right but tilt it back and face the ceiling to get the sight in focus.
just rotate your gun slightly. I don't mean hold it gangsta style just a little bit.
Except for the shell casings that land on your head. :rolleyes:
Once upon a time, i was heavily into photography. Thou your looking into a lens (The old reflex Nikon F system, not a digital camera). I had to train to keep both eyes open. So i could see the what was occurring around besides what was in the camera. Though i am right handed My strong eye then was my left eye. Now at 62 there is a visual difference in eyes that make my right eye more efficient. But i need to train gain to become accustomed to keeping both eyes open. A good friend who taught me to shoot, his problem is he is right handed but has a sight deterioration in his right eye. so now he is learning to be left handed.
Thanks for the links this will be very helpful to me.
So like the title says I have a different dominant hand and dominant eye.

My left eye is my dominant eye and im right handed.

It isn't an issue with most scoped long guns because I can just close my left eye and concentrate on using my right. My AR has an aimpoint so both eyes are open anyways.

My concern is with pistol shooting. How can this issue be minimized? Anyone else have any experience with this and have some pointers?
Like you I am right handed but left eye dominant. I shoot a handgun right handed; long guns OTOH, I shoot left handed. It's the only way that works for me.
You need to watch the movie fire birds..... womens panties and a blindfold with toilet paper tubes will fix this..... :rolleyes: BTW..... as an apache helicopter crewchief for six years, I revile this movie and all that it gets wrong.
I am cross eye dominate when shooting handguns. I always shoot with both eyes open and concentrate on my strong eye. Takes a little practice, but in the long run it's a more comfortable way to shoot. You might want to look at some Hickok45 youtube videos. He is cross eye dominate. Watch his handgun shooting style. good luck
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