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Thread: Dominant Eye issues, not shooting well

  1. #1
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    Dominant Eye issues, not shooting well

    I took my nephew shooting this past weekend. I have taken him rifle shooting and he does well for his experince level. He shot my AR15 just fine.

    He is left handed and right eye dominant. He was hitting way low and off to the side. I think low and to the right? I mean 16 inches off from 10 feet- off! I had him try both eyes open, he could not do it. I had him try closing the left then the right ......he couldnt shoot it in the ocean.

    He is a great athelete. Good hand eye control. Shoots skeet well, hit the 100 plate with an Aimpoint M4 red dot off hand, no problem time and time again.

    Help me help him! What can I try?

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    Have him shoot right handed if he's right eye dominant. The level of dominance varies in people. I'm left eye dominant and and primarily shoot handguns and long guns right handed. Only when I get really tired shooting does my right eye start to strain while using RDS optics. When shooting with highly magnified optics I shoot left handed because my right eye will strain very quickly.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pappabear View Post
    I took my nephew shooting this past weekend. I have taken him rifle shooting and he does well for his experince level. He shot my AR15 just fine.

    He is left handed and right eye dominant. He was hitting way low and off to the side. I think low and to the right? I mean 16 inches off from 10 feet- off! I had him try both eyes open, he could not do it. I had him try closing the left then the right ......he couldnt shoot it in the ocean.

    He is a great athelete. Good hand eye control. Shoots skeet well, hit the 100 plate with an Aimpoint M4 red dot off hand, no problem time and time again.

    Help me help him! What can I try?
    I'm going to assume that since he's hitting with the AR and does skeet well that trigger control is not an issue. (Though shots low and to the left for righties/low and to the right for lefties usually indicates this) Even with sights misaligned, you can get much closer than 16 inches at 10 feet. I remember beginning to shoot handguns a few years ago, I was literally 3 feet off the target as close as 20 feet because of poor trigger discipline, but I had shot my .22 rifle well until that point.

    If you can ensure its not trigger control issues, let him modify his stance slightly. I'm right handed/ left eye dominant, and I have no issues shooting pistols, I simply bring the gun in line with my left eye, its a very minor difference. As for both eyes open, let him do what's comfortable for now. You're building the fundamentals, and quite frankly, two eyes open is a lot easier to learn AFTER you're familiar with the sight picture and the way the gun points, etc. I spent years shooting one eye open, and two eyes open can be learned very quickly, especially after he is able to bring the gun up to his dominant eye quickly and is familiar with getting sights on target.
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    I'm guessing this is trigger issues. a way to check this is to have him hold and aim the pistol with his finger out of the trigger guard. then you put put your finger in the guard and slowly press the trigger. if the shot lands where it's supposed to, his sight is fine.
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    ambidextrous

    My Father was also cross eye Dominant and I have a step-brother who is truly Ambidextrous.
    While this can be a tough problem to overcome...use this as a training oppurtunity to teach the boy to shoot Ambidextrous.
    He will develop a stronger side but will also retain the ability to shoot with either hand.
    My weak hand pistol shooting needs work..but I shoot a rifle nearly equally well with my left hand side.
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    I am right handed and left eye dom, If I hold right handed with a rifle I can not hit the broad side of a barn at 10 yards. I have tried, but I just can not make a right handed hold and forced right eye to work. Let him try left and right hand holds and see if one falls naturally into place. I get shit all the time for the south-paw hold... but it is what works. For pistols, I can hold right handed and still use the left eye and have no negative effect. So I am lefty with long guns, righty with pistols, lefty with bow. Wierd huh?
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    Thank you and keep it coming. I will try these ideas for sure. Also, I will have him shoot the .22 Ruger target pistol to make sure its not trigger control.

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    Best Advice

    Quote Originally Posted by Pappabear View Post
    Thank you and keep it coming. I will try these ideas for sure. Also, I will have him shoot the .22 Ruger target pistol to make sure its not trigger control.
    Thats probably the best advice anyone will ever give you...just let him get in the trigger time. If he has a true interest in shooting...he won't let something as trivial as being cross eye dominant stop him and he will work out the problem himself.
    The real tough part is keeping him from getting discouraged in the beginning.
    Try some reactive/fun targets like the metal spinners. Or shooting Hi Ho crackers....there is something addicting about seeing those things blow apart when hit...plus when your done the birds have something left to eat.
    "Get yourself a Glock, Lose that Nickle plated sissy pistol." Sam Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones)

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    Eye dominance is a preference toward one eye, it is often likened to right or left handedness... but this is not really an accurate comparison. The eyes are both controlled by both hemispheres of the brain... but each hemisphere takes control of part of the field of vision -- and there is a preference, a "strong side" to vision. The separate images from our binocular vision, is combined in a perspective that is called the cyclopean eye, or the "mind's eye"... in this point of view the image appears to be uniocular and to be located slightly behind our real eyes, the cyclopean eye will favor one side... this is the dominant side.

    There are degrees of dominance, just as with handedness... and there are people that are "ambidextrous" in that they have no dominant eye. Studies in sports and athletics research into cross-eye dominance have lead to new theories in both sports and gun fighting, especially with handguns... but there is a lot of research that indicates that eye dominance switches without any fuss, depending on the angle of attack -- as little as a few degrees is believed to cause the switch, test show that it is the apparent image size that triggers eye dominance in these cases (when an object is off to one side, the eye on that side will have a slightly larger apparent image, because that eye is really closer to the object).

    This belief is interesting when one looks at some of the more effective (but not well known) styles of gun fighters that tend to favor an eye forward method of fighting...
    Last edited by K.L. Davis; 07-07-09 at 11:44.
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    Running the risk of sounding dumb in public, I have always had a hard time shooting two eyes open, so I've been a 'pirate' shooter, almost unknowingly keeping my left eye closed. With two eyes open to me, when focused on the target, there are two ghosted guns of about equal intensity. If I focus on the front site, there are two equal targets. Depending on point of focus, I shoot with the gun on the left and at the right target both eyes open, trying not to shoot one eye closed. I wear glasses, but my left eye is stronger than my dominant right eye, which might explain why neither seems overly dominant.

    Been practicing since I took a class and realized how much I was one eyeing it. Static shooting and the Steel and bowling pins I've shot I haven't missed the binocular vision. Been doing a lot of draws and sight picture aquisition practicing. I think that is the only answer, I think. My brain is starting to ignore the other images it sees.
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