Skip to main content
Help Center Community Shop

Aiming with dominant eye

slipgate
My accuracy has just increased a lot. Some guy at the range asked me why I was shooting right handed but sighting with my left eye. I suffered an eye injury when I was young and it made my left eye the dominant one. I never realized that I was doing this!

So I forced myself to use my right eye and it made a big difference (noticeably more accurate)! But it is quite a different experience! I see a little blurred in that eye at that distance and their is a difference in color perception. But I can see well enough to site in! Does anyone else have this problem?
0

Comments

15 comments

Date Votes
  • mschexna
    I am also left eye dominant, I have tried using my right eye and my accuracy dropped off.....so now I just shoot left handed...it took me a little while to get use to this since I am right handed but its more comfortable and now I dont have to have so much of my cheek and face on the gun tring to get things sited in.

    Mike
    0
  • David Nunn
    Sounds like you have more than a dominant eye issue. Sounds like one eye has better vision than the other.

    The only time eye dominance becomes an issue in shooting, is when shooting with both eyes open. If you close or patch one eye, the remaining eye becomes the dominant eye.
    0
  • spryor
    I've always been predominantly right handed, but shot everything left handed. Not everything, but pool, and rifles. I don't know if it's a dominant eye thing, or because i had an older brother that was a south paw.
    0
  • 11b6r
    First thing we would do with new shooters was detrmine dominant eye. It IS right for most right handers, and left for most lefties- but not always. Strong indicator was the youngster trying to roll his cheek all the way across the stock. Wrong eye.
    0
  • BT3
    To check which is dominate I held my thumb out on a spot at arms length and focused with both eyes. Then close one eye at a time and if your thumb appears to move then the other eye is more than likely dominate. When you close the other eye, your thumb should stay on the spot. [8D]
    0
  • watrulookinat
    quote:So I forced myself to use my right eye and it made a big difference (noticeably more accurate)! But it is quite a different experience! I see a little blurred in that eye at that distance and their is a difference in color perception. But I can see well enough to site in! Does anyone else have this problem?


    No but...I do have a dominate nostril. I seem to be able to breath better with my right nostril. My left nostril seems to be clogged up some. When this happens I simply shove a cotton ball up the clogged nosrtil which then in return cut's off the ruff vibrations going thru the nostril due to it being clogged. Now your breathing should be more controlled and relaxed with no vibrations. Which in return, will give you more accuracy when shooting. Hope this helps[:D]
    0
  • select-fire
    Ah.. dominate non dominate issue. Well guys I have just one good eye. Couldn't shoot left eye if I wanted to. But, here is one for y'all , never knew the difference of two eye shooting.. So, I shoot just fine with one eye. In fact, at the last MG shoot a local Police Officer watched me shoot my HP competition at 100 yd.. busting clay birds with it. He was amazed. He shot it and did the same. Try a 100 yd pistol shot sometime off a powerpole. Officer said his glock wouldn't do it..
    0
  • Sith Lord
    I shoot pistol with my right hand and my left eye. I keep both eyes open and just look down the sights with my left eye....my head is tilted slightly to the right. This may sounds strange, but this has become comfortable to me and works. When I shoot a rifle, I close my left eye making my right eye dominant. To each his own....[;)]
    0
  • RUGERGUNZ
    I am right-handed and left-eye dominant.

    I have been trying for a long time to use my right eye and find that it is slowly working. When I bring a shotgun up, I no longer have to think about which eye to use but can naturally use my right eye.

    But now I have to lower all my scopes. All my scopes are extra high so that I could use my left eye, now using the right eye they need to be lowered.
    0
  • andersk
    I, too, am right-handed and left-eye dominant. So when I was just starting out shooting at a pretty young age, my dad taught me to shoot left handed.

    At first it seemed a tad strange. Now I am VERY happy that he did thing the way he did. (If I had continued shooting right handed, I'm sure I would have gotten out of shooting and hunting because I am positive I would have trouble hitting anything beyond 20 yards!) I may still be a bit shaky beyond 100 yards, but when you hunt in the woods, it is not big deal!
    0
  • divebomb
    I keep both eyes open at all times...
    0
  • LesWVa
    Divebomb
    Caught hell for that in Boot Camp.
    Explained that I had been shooting like that ever since I started.
    Just need to know the difference between the real and ghost image. Plus it allows me to see movement within and beyond the target area. DRILL SARGENT.

    Still do it with both eyes open be when shooting pistol, rifle scoped or not and with shotguns.
    0
  • LKB3rd
    I am right handed, but left eye dominant so i shoot lefty.
    0
  • shooter4
    The nra pistol course teaches that you should shoot with you dominant eye, period.

    In bullseye, you hold with one hand only, so you have to use only one eye, its impossible to use both.

    My bullseye coach is right handed, left eye dominant. He holds a couple of National Records and shoots with his right eye. He says that he trained his right eye to become dominant while shooting. He also uses an occluder over his left eye in competition.

    To determine dominance, take a piece of paper around 8x10 or so and put a hole about the size of a dime in the middle or so.

    Hold the paper with both hands, low in front of you and use both eyes to stare at a small dot/nail/whatever out in front of you more than 10 feet away.

    Keep staring at the dot with both eyes, raise the paper until you see the dot in the hole in the paper (make sure both eyes were open all the time).

    Slowly bring the paper back to your face, keeping the dot in the hole.

    It will come back to your dominant eye.
    0
  • 1911a1-fan
    it actually is very simple

    aim the gun with both hands with your right eye, do not move your head, move the gun over just a few inches in front of your left eye

    or the long drawn out frustrating way of putting a piece of opaque tape over your dominate side of your glasses
    0

Please sign in to leave a comment.

Recent Activity