Eye Dominance

Any suggestions on cross-dominance? For example right-handed shooter shooting with the left eye (dominant) or left-handed shooter shooting with the right eye.

Train to shoot with both eyes open if you want better sight definition and depth perception.
I believe it is an advantage over closing an eye.

Dear Wes,

We were talking about this topic with some of the guys at Camp Perry this week and I'm interested in your thoughts.
Are you cross dominant?
Do you shoot right handed?
Do you use a blinder?
If so do you put the blinder over the eye of the non-shooting hand?

Thanks for your input.

For my 2 cents: I am not cross dominant, and I shoot with one eye closed, no blinder--it works for me shooting irons, but I'm still shooting around 88%, so maybe it's not ideal--I would rather take the advice of the Masters and HMs.

I am cross-eye (left), wear bifocals and shoot right handed. Over the winter I shot air pistol and tried using a variable iris for my right eye.  I found that with much effort, I could train myself to shoot iron sights with my bifocals, using the iris and my scores were equal or better than shooting cross-eyed.  This took significant effort, including a lot of dryfire practice.  I have a pair of prescription shooting glasses that focus on the front sight that I plan to try using next. I don't use a blinder or side shields.

I am a right handed shooter and left eye dominant.  I use a blocker.  (I don't really need it if I shoot with a dot).

I did ok making high master indoors and master outdoors.

If you can learn on your dominant side I believe long term you will be better off and shoot with both eyes open.

ETA:  Don't force your eye closed.  Use a blocker/blinder.  Squinting will draw blood away from your shooting eye and limit the shooting eyes effectiveness.

Closing one eye adds strain and will detract from concentration.  Use a blinder on the bill of your cap.  It only needs to "blind" your ability to see the sights with that eye, so its much less distracting than blinding the whole eye with a device mounted on the glasses.

I'd use left eye right hand if I could figure how to get the gun turned far enough in my grip to work with the left eye.

I shot cross dominant (right hand, left eye) for a few years, but never liked the grip. Switched to using my weak right eye. Even after several years I have to use a blinder on my dominant left eye. If I try shooting with both eyes open I will often unconsciously switch eyes in the middle of a sustained fire string. There are times I find closing my left eye helps. I've heard the old story about it causing stress and fatigue, but have not noticed it. If I have trouble getting good focus, I try closing the other eye. Sometimes it helps.

Try it both ways, but give it long enough to really know if it works for you.

Left handed, right eye dominant. I was told to try to shoot right handed and, surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult an adjustment as I thought. In general, is this the recommended strategy?

mspingeld wrote:Left handed, right eye dominant. I was told to try to shoot right handed and, surprisingly, it wasn't as difficult an adjustment as I thought. In general, is this the recommended strategy?

In short... yes.

I've been told to train left eye dominant shooters as lefties from the beginning on my junior rifle team.  However, the shortage of left handed equipment makes this difficult.

Right handed and left eye dominant here.  I wear a blinder.  Took me 5 years to break 2600 and get distinguished.  Of course embedded in that was a mandate for team shooters to shoot double hardball until they broke 2500.  When that happened I was issued a wadcutter gun and ammo and was virtually immediately 2600 club and distinguished while still holding an expert classification.  I can shoot without a blinder when I'm not stressed or tired.  When tired and stressed my dominant eye tries to take over.  Don't really thing using the blinder is a bad thing for a straight up bullseye shooter.  If you plan to try some of the run and gun stuff the binocular vision with the sights under the dominant is definately an advantage.

I'm also cross dominate, right handed and left eye.  I learned to bring my right arm further across my body to get the sights or dot inline with my shooting eye.  It looks much more like the "traditional" position of the 50's, but it works for me.  And I also shoot with both eyes open.  If I'm tired I'll normally use a blinder on my right eye so I can keep both of them open.

I used to shoot skeet competitively, and cross dominance is a real problem for shotgunners.  One thing that many used was a translucent (frosted) mylar dot about the size of a dime stuck to the eyeglass lens of the dominant eye.  It was positioned so it only blocked vision down the barrel when the gun is mounted, and is thus less distracting than even a blinder.  My daughter used one to good effect.  The mylar dots stick to the glass by static electricity and don't leave any residue. I've never seen anyone use one for pistol, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.  They are sold commercially.

For anyone who's interested: Magic Dot . Also can try frosted Scotch tape and one guy I read about made a template by cutting a quarter sized hole from a piece of paper and used it to paint the lens of his non-shooting eye with clear-matte spray paint. (the lens on his glasses, not his eye)

I am cross dominant.  Right hand, left eye.  I shoot BE with my LH and Left Eye and for action pistol I shoot RH with my Left Eye.  For "bang and clang" and military competitions I'm working on my grip when using both hands, but with my left hand in the lead, I just can't get it down and feel confident, it feels odd to me.  My ability to quickly snatch, establish my grip and be on target is MUCH slower.  I need to practice doing holster drills, but I will get there eventually, I've been focused on BE. 

My eyes switched ocular dominance in my mid-30s so I am breaking 20+ years of habit.  It can be done, and dry fire is the solution.  I wear a blinder 100% of the time, but I'm now able to wean myself off for practice without switching, but I keep it on to be safe until I can pound it into my brain that my left eye is the only option.  Hopefully I'll be able to switch completely to my left hand as well.  I've had to purchase left hand rifles for 22 rimfire competition and and an ambi safety on my 1911 to help with the conversion and reinforce the move to left hand.  It took me about 3 months to make the shift for BE and my scores went up for it.  Not hard, you get over the awkward stage with snap caps and some dry fire if you are diligent. 

Plus, you can be wicked proficient at either hand.  I couldn't hit the 25 yard target consistently LH in day 1, now I'm putting up better scores than my previous RH work....not that they're that good