Help. Wife is left eye dominant.....
- Thread starter bizyjp
- Start date
Mediumbore
Member
If you told me she was going into Bulls-eye competition I would suggest you teach her to shoot with the same hand as her dominant eye. For combat/self-defense shooting with closer distances and harsher trigger actions, shooting strong-handed and moving the gun over slightly to line up with the eye works fine. She may benefit from the Isoceles stance vs. Weaver, but I find it a better choice for most novice shooters anyway.
Most simple solution I have found is to take up a proper right handed stance then just turn her head slightly to the right. This will bring her left eye into proper alignment while shielding her right eye with her nose.
straightshooter1
US Veteran
I have been teaching folks to shoot, both police and civilians, since 1969 or '70. With handguns, it really seems to make no difference, the person seems to compensate for it just fine.
With long guns, of course, it's a big problem and, we find, most women and lots of men are right handed but left eye dominate.
My wife just closes her left eye, shooting right handed in Trap and is getting pretty darn good.
I shoot with both eyes open in Trap, but in Bullseye and IPSC, I found that I needed to just slightly squint my left eye. I still had depth perception (and in a SD situation, could see to my left). Don't know why, but it just worked out that way for me.
Bob
Bob
With long guns, of course, it's a big problem and, we find, most women and lots of men are right handed but left eye dominate.
My wife just closes her left eye, shooting right handed in Trap and is getting pretty darn good.
I shoot with both eyes open in Trap, but in Bullseye and IPSC, I found that I needed to just slightly squint my left eye. I still had depth perception (and in a SD situation, could see to my left). Don't know why, but it just worked out that way for me.
Bob
Bob
badge 851
US Veteran
<span class="ev_code_BLUE">I am right handed and left eye dominant. I NATURALLY shoot a handgun right handed. Conversely I MUST shoot a rifle or shotgun left handed. I feel your wife WILL NOT have to work through this situation. Just have her do what feels best & right for her.</span>
Pioneer461
US Veteran
It doesn't have to be complicted. As I age, my vision has changed. I'm right handed, right eye dominant, but I can focus better on the front sight using my left eye. I simply tilt my head a bit to the right, use my left eye and put 'em in the ten ring.
ncy54
Member
Both the wife and I are cross-dominant (her RH,LE & me LH,RE).
First me:
Shooting rifle for me is no issue at all, since as kids we ALL held our Daisy air rifles right-handed and it just feels natural. Pistols are shot lefty with a slight tilt to the head to get proper sight alignment with the right eye. I tried both eyes open, but occluding the non-dominant eye, or closing it works best for me. Also some windage adjustment of the rear sight to achieve proper alignment has helped. As I shoot competitive Bullseye, I've needed to find how best to deal with this and for that I've always used a dot sight, where there is no issue with use of either eye. For the two-handed, iron sight stuff, it's head tilt, adjusted sights, and occlude or close the eye.
Now her:
She's a very casual, occasional shooter, but success didn't come until she adjusted to the cross-dominance issue. Shooting with a dot was immediately successful, but irons led to some experimentation, which included switching to LH hold (some success, but not comfortable), occluding/closing the dominant eye (some success, but again not comfortable), and the tilted head, closed eye, adjusted sight method (most success and comfort, and, IMO, the best real-world solution if she had to use a firearm under stress for protection.
This is why my latest acquisition was a SW637 with CT laser grips. Best solution for the occasional shooter in a self defense situation (again IMO). She's never tried rifle, so we'll see about that another time.
First me:
Shooting rifle for me is no issue at all, since as kids we ALL held our Daisy air rifles right-handed and it just feels natural. Pistols are shot lefty with a slight tilt to the head to get proper sight alignment with the right eye. I tried both eyes open, but occluding the non-dominant eye, or closing it works best for me. Also some windage adjustment of the rear sight to achieve proper alignment has helped. As I shoot competitive Bullseye, I've needed to find how best to deal with this and for that I've always used a dot sight, where there is no issue with use of either eye. For the two-handed, iron sight stuff, it's head tilt, adjusted sights, and occlude or close the eye.
Now her:
She's a very casual, occasional shooter, but success didn't come until she adjusted to the cross-dominance issue. Shooting with a dot was immediately successful, but irons led to some experimentation, which included switching to LH hold (some success, but not comfortable), occluding/closing the dominant eye (some success, but again not comfortable), and the tilted head, closed eye, adjusted sight method (most success and comfort, and, IMO, the best real-world solution if she had to use a firearm under stress for protection.
This is why my latest acquisition was a SW637 with CT laser grips. Best solution for the occasional shooter in a self defense situation (again IMO). She's never tried rifle, so we'll see about that another time.
I'm in complete agreement with Badge 851. I'm strongly left eye dominant but right handed.
This is not a particular problem with a handgun... for what it's worth, I'm a natural point shooter with my ccw guns anyway. Long arms are tougher however. I do not shoot rifles left handed yet, but will probably start soon.
This is not a particular problem with a handgun... for what it's worth, I'm a natural point shooter with my ccw guns anyway. Long arms are tougher however. I do not shoot rifles left handed yet, but will probably start soon.
Crazy K38
Member
geet a box or 10 of rounds send her to the range with silouette targets and let her do her own thing because if you try to train her anyother way than hers she won't feel as confident shooting should something happen and she need to versus her own method she developed
speedshooter
Member
There you go! I shoot right handed and right eye dominant...shoot with both eyes open. scoped unscoped rifles, handguns and archery both eyes open.
