Cross-dominant Shooter

[Travelingman]

I am left eye dominant but everthing else right sided(including shooting) what would be a good course of action to improve my shooting. What I am looking for is anything in the way of classes, books etc.?

[Tindjin]

Not sure about courses/books. I'm left eye dominate but right handed in everything I do. I've pretty much broken myself from left eye dominance unless I don't shoot for a couple weeks.

What I did was practice over and over closing my left eye and getting a sight picture then opening left eye before I pulled the trigger. Lots of dry and live firing. At the begining I would be shifting back even while pulling the trigger but after a while it stops happening. After a while get a sight picture with right eye then close both and open. It takes some time, you are rewiring your head after all.

Do a goodle search for something like "change eye dominance". There are a lot of decent reading out there on how to do it. Biggest thing is patience and ALWAYS making sure you don't get lazy and cock your head to the side.

Hope that helps.

[ToddG]

For handguns, don't do anything. Just shoot.

People (including many old-school instructors) make a ridiculous deal out of being cross-dominant with a pistol. If you use a modern squared-up shooting stance, just aim the gun. It will work itself out, honestly.

I'm right-handed and right eye dominant. When I bring the gun up in front of my face, it's just a tiny bit off-center because I align the sights with my right eye.

What you're going to do -- and I know how complicated this sounds! -- is you're going to bring the gun up in front of your face, just a tiny bit off-center to align the sights with your left eye.

This is a cross-dominant shooter, but you'd never know it from a casual glance at his stance and technique:

http://9x19mm.com/photoalbum/albums/userpics/normal_TLG_4402.jpg

[Robb Jensen]

As Todd says it's not a handicap at all. That gentleman in the picture is an awesome shooter. I'm a cross dominant shooter and I never find it a problem, sometimes it's a benefit like shooting around the left side of barricades etc.

A couple of world class pistol shooters that I know are cross dominant as well are Dave Sevigny and Phil Strader.

Dave Sevigny
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v408/gotm4/5ab86427.jpg

Phil Strader
http://www.usshootingacademy.com/images/instructors/phil.jpg


Larry Vickers is also a cross dominant shooter, if ever you notice he shoots longguns left handed and handguns right handed because of it.

http://www.bradshawpistolacademy.com/images/lvickers.jpg

[RAM Engineer]

Cross dominant shooter here (Hand-RH, Eye-LH).

I shoot pistols just like Todd and GotM4 show. I've always shot shotguns lefthanded after determining which eye was dominant. I SHOT (past tense) my rifle right handed as well, because I figured the red-dot was only visible to one eye, and either was fine. However at the suggestion of several shooters with much more experience than myself, I recently switched to shooting my rifle w/ red-dot left handed as well.

My biggest question (as a cross dominant shooter), is how I transition from my LH rifle to my RH pistol while using a 2-point sling:

The sling goes up over my left shoulder and under my right armpit.
When free-hanging, the rifle wants to hang to the right hip.
Since I'm not "dropping" the rifle, but guiding it to my left side while maintaining a grip on the pistol grip, it's not a problem during my draw stroke. However, upon release of the rifle, it tends to swing back to the right side, interfering w/ my holster & spare rifle mag.

I guess it's not a huge problem, since my re-holstering will be an "administrative" type action AND the rifle hanging to the right makes my spare pistol mag(s) easy to get to. Plus, if time allows, I could cinch up the 2-point sling, getting it out of the way.

I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this issue, and how they solved it, if at all.

Thanks,

Jason

[Travelingman]

Thank you all for your feedback. On rifles I have no problem closing my dominant eye (LE) and because the dif. in my vision is very small it poses no problem. For shotguns I am wondering what would be the best idea? Learning to shoot left handed or products like "EasyHit"? On the pistol side I understand that I should move the pistol off center to the left so the sights are aligned with my dominant eye. I will give this a try and hopefully with some practice I will have good results to report.

S&F

[rathos]

If you are comfortable with it use an sob holster like a blackhawk check six. I have found these are some of the best if you have to transition from rifle to pistol or vice versa as the pistol is not hanging off your side.



Cross dominant shooter here (Hand-RH, Eye-LH).

I shoot pistols just like Todd and GotM4 show. I've always shot shotguns lefthanded after determining which eye was dominant. I SHOT (past tense) my rifle right handed as well, because I figured the red-dot was only visible to one eye, and either was fine. However at the suggestion of several shooters with much more experience than myself, I recently switched to shooting my rifle w/ red-dot left handed as well.

My biggest question (as a cross dominant shooter), is how I transition from my LH rifle to my RH pistol while using a 2-point sling:

The sling goes up over my left shoulder and under my right armpit.
When free-hanging, the rifle wants to hang to the right hip.
Since I'm not "dropping" the rifle, but guiding it to my left side while maintaining a grip on the pistol grip, it's not a problem during my draw stroke. However, upon release of the rifle, it tends to swing back to the right side, interfering w/ my holster & spare rifle mag.

I guess it's not a huge problem, since my re-holstering will be an "administrative" type action AND the rifle hanging to the right makes my spare pistol mag(s) easy to get to. Plus, if time allows, I could cinch up the 2-point sling, getting it out of the way.

I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this issue, and how they solved it, if at all.

Thanks,

Jason

[sapper36]

Both my wife and daughter were left eye dominant and right handed. A simple way to fix this if you want is to tape the left eye of your glasses for a few range visits. That will let you start shooting with both eyes open but only the right "working" untill it gets used to taking over.

[Spade]

Right handed & pretty close to blind in my right eye (I'm exagerateing a little) but I shoot pistol fine & have always shot rifle, shot gun & even bow left handed with no real inconvenience. I even shot the M240 & SAW in the Marines left hand which pretty much piseed off everyone.

[TAZ]

As has been mentioned already, it wont make much difference with pistol unless you ignore the issue and try to shoot right eyed. Bad idea to ignore nature. There are a few schools of thought on how to deal with the cross eye dominance wrt pistol shooting. One has you move the gun over to align with the left eye the other is to move your head slightly. You can see Mr. Vickers with his head slightly turned. Try either and see what works best for you.

Havent done alot of carbine work so I cant help with that much. I think it all depends on just how dominant you are to one side. I noticed that when I use a red dot type set up or even a low power optic I can still shoot right handed. I am no high speed guy though. High magnification optics dont make much difference aside from when having to stay on the glass for long times causing eye fatigue faster. Irons I have to use one eye. I can get the gun on target and before I break the shot I finalize the sight picture with one eye. Just dont have the patience to re-learn to shoot left handed.

Shotgun, same as irons. keep two eyes open getting the gun on target and finalise the sight picture with one eye closed befpre breaking the shot.