RH, but left-eye dominant

[weweber3]

33 years old, dominant RH in everything I do... throw, golf, shoot, bowl, write, bow, etc.

Recently, I have been considering scraping the RH approach and buying a LH bow and LH rifle... and a new stock for my O/U. To "do it the correct way".

What are you thoughts? Worth the switch.... or just close my left eye and forget about it Yes, I know it will take a lot of practice (and some cash) - but seems like it could be worth it.

 

[Jamen]

I shoot with both eyes open but I could see where that may be an issue with being left eye dominant and right handed. Ever try with both open?

 

[IlliniFIre]

I am in the same boat so to speak. Though I learned at a young age I was left eye dominant. This led me to where anything that is shooting is done lefty, including pool. The only thing I struggle with is being gentle on the trigger. I lack some of the fine motor skills that would go with a dominant hand. So I sometimes find myself slapping the trigger instead of squeezing. It has improved over time as I am still a novice shooter. I will say that while shooting trap once we tried a stand with off hand. It was terribly awkward and I almost got knocked over because of how awkward it was.

 

[weweber3]

I shoot with both eyes open but I could see where that may be an issue with being left eye dominant and right handed. Ever try with both open?

I can sometimes get the right eye to take over with the bow, but rarely with a gun. I certainly couldn't do it in a hunting situation.

It results in "cross-firing" and ultimately doesn't work - I have tried both eyes open with clays several times. When you are a cross-eye dominate you end up seeing the side of the bow or side of the barrel instead of down the barrel or down the peep.

 

[maxx]

At your age with a lot of shooting under your belt I think it would be tough to switch. Shooting a rifle shouldn't be bad with a scope but shot gunning would be tough. Have you thought about putting a patch over your dominant eye?

My son is RH but left eye dominant. He started at 7 and he has taken to shooting lefty. A bow was a little tougher becasue of the strenth aspect but he has adapted fine to this also.

My boss is really screwed up. He doesn't have a dominate hand or dominate eye. He shoots lefty with a gun, righty with a bow. He writes left handed but throws and golfs right handed.

He said anything that takes strength he uses his right hand, anything that takes more finess he uses his left.

Ask him about bowling and he will tell you he used both hands depending on what pins he needs to hit, LOL.

 

[weweber3]

At your age with a lot of shooting under your belt I think it would be tough to switch. Shooting a rifle shouldn't be bad with a scope but shot gunning would be tough. Have you thought about putting a patch over your dominant eye?

My son is RH but left eye dominant. He started at 7 and he has taken to shooting lefty. A bow was a little tougher becasue of the strenth aspect but he has adapted fine to this also.

My boss is really screwed up. He doesn't have a dominate hand or dominate eye. He shoots lefty with a gun, righty with a bow. He writes left handed but throws and golfs right handed.

He said anything that takes strength he uses his right hand, anything that takes more finess he uses his left.

Ask him about bowling and he will tell you he used both hands depending on what pins he needs to hit, LOL.

I do the scotch tape over the glasses when shooting skeet, trap or sporting clays - which is fine and does work.

I figure I have 30 more years... have only been at it for 7 or so years... why not? Was hoping to hear from someone who has made the switch and if they regret it.

 

[kansasdad]

My son is as you describe....fully right handed and Left eye dominant, and depending on how tired he is trending to co-dominant. I thought he was Right dominant as am I, so we taught him to shotgun shoot as a righty. He was OK at sporting clays, and killed his share of ducks, but once we learned he was much more Left eye/co dominant and we turned him around, his clay disintergrates into fine dust, and ducks drop stone dead. It is also nice that he shotguns lefty as when we set up for turkey or waterfowl, I sit on the left side and can fully swing in my dominant direction, and he sits on the right and cover a larger area without awkwardness.

Using a scoped rifle, he shoots right handed, left eye closed as his trigger finger with fine motor control is much better right. If he takes up archery I would tell him to go southpaw.

His current shotgun has a tang safety as I didn't trust myself to reverse the safe/fire mode for him to activate with his left finger, and remember for myself that his gun was reversed if I ever operated his gun. (My dad was close friends and hunted with a PH in Kenya that insisted that all clients use the same style of gun that he used so as to avoid a deadly mishap.....(safety forward or back?!?!) with a charging Cape buffalo.

 

[npaden]

Both myself and my son are right handed and left eye dominant.

I'm 47 and I shoot right handed and close my left eye. He's 9 and we are working on figuring out the best option for him. Currently it looks like he is going to be a left hand shooter and not have to worry about closing an eye all the time.

At 33 I would think it would be pretty hard to make the switch to shooting left handed, especially with a shotgun, but I've never really tried it.

 

[fishing4sanity]

Another right handed - left eye dominate here. I tried switching and it works fine with a rifle from a good rest, but for hunting and most situations I shut the left eye and shoot right handed. Sometimes shooting from barricades or positions that lend themselves to a left-handed shot, I shoot left handed and sometimes I even still pull the trigger with my right hand. Yes, it's very unorthodox, but I'm too old to learn anything correctly at this point. In a safe range environment try both and go with what feels most comfortable and works, I'm guessing it'll mean staying right-handed and shutting the left eye.

 

[skifunk2]

embrace your left eye dominance and make the switch, you'll never think twice about it. It will also be nice to have the correct setup too.. The Boy Scouts tried to force me to shoot right handed back in the day and I was hitting everythong but my own target. went lefty and love shooting more than ever, plus as many said above.... It feels comfortable. Luckily I have a son that is full left hand everything, so my collection of guns won't go to waste. ( something to think about)

 

[RobertR]

From experience don't fight the dominant eye. I tried to force myself to shoot right handed with a dominate left eye and even went as far as putting a patch over my eye. I'm all kinds of screwed up, I write left handed,shoot a bow and gun left handed and throw rocks right handed
The benefits of shooting with your dominant eye and left handed will result in better and more natural shots, don't fight it.

 

[ERMINE]

To shoot shotgun and pistol properly you need to make the crossover. I switched at age 14 after failing to shoot ducks well. I started with shotgun. I started shooting rifle and pistol with left in the military. I shoot a bolt rifle right handed now and can go either way with an automatic rifle. I actually shot one deer with the bow left handed before I gave up at that. I have battled it forever and now am set. Wish I would have gone lefty all the way from the get go. Best of luck.

 

[Kiwi]

I'm also right handed and left eye dominant. Use a right hand bow and rifle. I shoot both ok so wont be changing...and don't want to spend the money on new equipment.

 

[kenton]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter either way. If you practice enough, you can shoot great whichever eye, whichever hand. Im left eye dominant and right handed but regularly shoot both, except for bow. With rifle, im slighty better left handed. With shotgun, slightly better right handed. Pistol is about the same.

 

[1_pointer]

In my opinion, it doesn't matter either way. If you practice enough, you can shoot great whichever eye, whichever hand. Im left eye dominant and right handed but regularly shoot both, except for bow. With rifle, im slighty better left handed. With shotgun, slightly better right handed. Pistol is about the same.

I agree enough practice can overcome the hurdles. That said for my young sons switching to the dominant eye side was easy and very effective. Took just a few practice sessions to nail down the muscle memory. Now LH feels right to them. Only downside is the limited offerings but that's a fairly low hurdle to get over.

 

[Baerman]

my wife is right handed and left eye dominate. She shoots her rifle and bow RH just fine. It's shooting the shotgun RH where she has a hard time and has to focus on closing her left eye. If you are focused on a sight through one eye you are fine shooting either way but open sights with both eyes open will cause you grief.

My son is left handed and it appears he is right eye dominate. I'm going to get him set up to shoot right handed so he doesn't have the same issue as my wife.

 

[elkduds]

L handed, R eye dominant. Handguns L handed/R eye. Long guns R handed/R eye. Archery R handed. For me it was easier to train the wrong hand than aim w the wrong eye.

 

[weweber3]

Thanks all, I appreciate all the points of view.

 

[teej89]

I was in your boat also, not so much for rifles but for my bow. I show RH but was left eye dominant. I used to just close one eye but in low light conditions it'd be harder to see so I dabbled into shooting w/ both eyes open. After my eyes playing tricks on me for the first couple days I got used to it, i'd aim with my eyes open then every now and then close my left eye to make sure I was on target. After shooting with both eyes open I loved it and never went back. It definitely can be done to retrain your eye so that your right eye is the one focusing when aiming.

IMO I feel it's harder to retrain muscle memory than override which eye focuses. Plus I'd rather not have to relearn all my form that I spent years practicing and mastering.

 

[Gellar]

Every time I teach a Hunters Safety class or do Archery in the Schools we do a dominant eye test. Every time a couple of the kids will say I am Right handed, but the test says I am left eye dominant, or vise versa. Even if they have been shooting firearms or archery with the non dominant eye I ask them to try to use the dominant eye for our program. Always, by the end of the class they are shooting better then they did before with the wrong dominant eye.