Left Eye, Right Hand Dominant

[jlander]

Hello, ...new here. I tried searching but it either didn't work or the info is not here. I don't believe that, so if someone could point me to it I'd really appreciate it.

I have a DPMS Panthera with a rifle length JP free floating handguard. I just purchased Yankee Hill Machine flip sights. I am right handed, but left eye dominant. I shoot my sidearm with both eyes open, but can't get my left eye to line up with the sights. To shoot with my right eye, I have to close my left.

I've been looking for a dot sight and have pretty much decided on an Aimpoint T-1.

My agency requires backup iron sights that are usable with any optics mounted. I've read about the Larue mount for the T-1 that aligns the iron sights in the bottom 1/3, but it doesn't look like that is high enough for me to use my left eye to shoot.

What are my alternatives? This has got to be a common problem that has solutions.

[militarymoron]

i'm left handed, right eye dominant. i have to close, or almost close my right eye when using irons, but can keep both eyes open with a dot.
you might not have any good options, other than train/practice more with your right eye. shooting righty and using the left eye is going to be pretty awkward, and no cheek weld. no mount that allows the irons to co-witness (even lower 1/3) will be high enough. a RDS on top an ACOG will, but the offset combined with the necessary canting can be problematic.
if i were in your situation, i'd start putting transparent tape on the left lens of my shooting glasses and practice more using the right eye when shooting a rifle.

[Drummer]

Some of the best shooters are left eye dominant and right handed. Are you shooting the rifle off the right or left shoulder? If shooting off the right shoulder, spend the time and effort to learn to shoot long guns off the left shoulder. Shooting with the dominant eye is more important than shooting from the dominant hand/shoulder.

I don't know anything about the Yankee Hill sights, but the design and size the rear sight determine how much light is let through which affects how easy you can focus on the front sight. You may want to try different style rear BUIS and aperture sizes.

[K.L. Davis]

Most often it is not a problem...

http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=33893

http://m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=17840

[Buck]

Im right handed and left eye dominat... It seems to work well...

B

[DMR]

I have a DPMS Panthera with a rifle length JP free floating handguard. I just purchased Yankee Hill Machine flip sights. I am right handed, but left eye dominant. I shoot my sidearm with both eyes open, but can't get my left eye to line up with the sights. To shoot with my right eye, I have to close my left.

I've been looking for a dot sight and have pretty much decided on an Aimpoint T-1.

My agency requires backup iron sights that are usable with any optics mounted. I've read about the Larue mount for the T-1 that aligns the iron sights in the bottom 1/3, but it doesn't look like that is high enough for me to use my left eye to shoot.

What are my alternatives? This has got to be a common problem that has solutions.

I am strongly cross dominate ie right hand left eye. I have seen ally of "odd" solutions over time to this problem. Todd G in the referanced thread about summed it up best. For pistol present the sights to your dominate eye. This means at the end of my draw strok the pistol is in front of my left eye. For long guns I shoot left handed. On the carbine I use a T-1 standard front sight tower and a MaTech rear. My DMRs have MagPul MBUS sights and various optics .

The transition is the hard part, but once you get it down it's better then any of the "work arounds" to shoot right eyed.

My two cents

[Gramps]

FWIW, I had a neighbor that I saw wearing his shooting glasses at home and he had his left eye side with a piece of paper/plastic on the inside blocking his vision. Of course I had to ask WTF? He said it was to train his right eye to be dominant with his left eye open. I guess it worked for him, because he went quite a ways in his class, but I moved away and never saw him after that.

It might be worth a try, and let every one know if/how it works.

[jlander]

Thanks everyone. It has been a long time since I've done any real shooting with a rifle. I'd like to be able to shoot the iron sights with both eyes open. I tried sighting while holding my rifle left handed and it felt very awkward. I don't know that I could shoot this way if my life depended on it. The best thing for me to do is practice.

I'm going to the range today and I'll give left hand shooting a chance. I wonder how long it would take to feel natural?

[RAM Engineer]

Right-handed, Left-eyed person here. Like was said above, I shoot handguns right handed and shotguns/rifles left handed. Both with BOTH EYES OPEN. My cross dominance was discovered when I was in middle school and learning to shoot skeet. It didn't take me long with a Browning Citori to get used to left handed shooting. It just feels natural now (granted, I'm 34 years old).

[IMSHAKN]

I just learned to shoot both ways. For precision work I shoot left handed, but if I am on the move with my ACOG I can work much more effectively shooting as a right handed person as I have more coordination and am much more steady. Plus the ACOG allows me to function with both eyes and I think it lends itself very well to use of this optic as my left eye can concentrate on my surroundings and getting on target quickly while my right eye is observing things through the ACOG.

[UVvis]

I'm strongly left eye dominant, and right handed.

I've found that the muscle memory to do things with a long gun left or right handed is far easier to train than trying to adjust my brain/vision issues. For some it feels awkward at first to shoot a long gun left handed. Having my dominant hand available to do many tasks while keeping a firing grip on the long gun is useful.

[Jwjones]

Are you able to close your left eye? It's easy to make adjustments when shooting a handgun, just turn your head and look through the sights using your dominant eye. With a long arm, if you can close your left eye, simply use your weak eye. It will take some getting used to but unless your vision is really bad out of your weak eye, you can teach yourself to shoot with your weak eye very effectively. Normally, the difference in vision between your strong and weak eye is minimal. If you can't close your left eye, or if it "flutters", theres not much you can do other than teach yourself to shoot from your left shoulder.

[rainman]

I'm right handed / left-eye dominant...my left eye is very dominant (right eye is used for light-gathering, but not much more).

I shot pistol right handed (as stated previously, it's just a matter of "presenting the pistol sights to the dominant eye") for many years but did not try rifle/shotgun until much later.

I had difficulty at first shooting a rifle wrong-handed...everything felt awkward. Then I switched back to right handed, got into a comfortable standing position, and looked at where my feet were oriented. I turned that around 180-degrees and shouldered the rifle left-handed...felt much better, and it only improved the more I practiced.

Seriously, it sounds too simple, but changing the position of my feet made it all click for me.

Good luck! :p


-Rainman

[ballistic]

I'm left handed and right eye dominant. I shoot both pistol and rifle right handed. Being left handed has help as I've become a bit more ambidextrous than most right handed people. As others have suggested, learn how to shoot a rifle on your dominant eye side by shooting left handed.

[grunz]

I'm left eye dominant and right handed. I shoot right handed.

With pistol I just present the sights to my left eye. Both eyes open. Isocoles stance makes this easy.

With rifle I trained myself to favor the right eye somehow and now can keep both eyes open with rifle too with Red Dot.

I also practice left handed shooting sometimes to improve my clumsy left side.



Bottom line is I found that my right hand dexterity is more important than my left eye dominance.