left or right hand?

[gabby]

Hi guys: I thought I would stop by and pose this question. My granddaughter is seven years old and has been shooting a pellet rifle with me. She is right handed but left eye dominint. I plan to buy her a 22 lr ( aCrickett or a Chipmunck ) for Chrismas. Should I get her a left handed rifle and teach her to shoot that way, or should I get a right handed rifle and try to get her to use her right eye?
Thanks Mike

 

[sambo3006]

If she is left eye dominant I would suggest teaching her to shoot left handed. Especially at her young age it will be far easier to teach her to shoot from the left side than to have her shoot right handed and try to overcome her left eye dominance. Just my two cents.

 

[gohring3006]

I am the opposite I'm left handed and right eye dominate. But I don't think I was always that way my dad was right handed and he taught me how to shoot I remember struggling for a long time but finally I trained my right eye to be dominate. And I'm sure glad I did. My cousin is left handed and he has a hard time shooting my guns and he can forget about using someone's back up bow if his is down plus finding used left handed guns are rare around here. Bottom line is if you have the time and patients to teach her to shoot right handed its much easier for her to get guns and bows to fit her.

 

[BountyHunter]

Go with the left hand no questions.

The non dominant eye can be trained But it is normally not easy. Much easier to train youngsters to use the other hand.

 

[gohring3006]

It must have been easier to train the eye. My dad tried to get me to write with my right hand and that didn't happen but I shoot bows, pool, and guns right handed. Its not that hard to train the eye. I started by getting my dominate eye to wink or close on demand and keeping it closed while aiming heck a cute little pink camo eye patch may even help her but I doubt she will need it I bet she can be right eye dominate in as little as a month with a little work

 

[NWmissouriman]

I would strongly suggest left handed. IF she has to wear glasses to correct her vision, I wouldn't even consider trying to change her eye dominance. I wear glasses and my left eye is considerably better than my right. There's no doubt that I'm right handed, but I tried for a long time when I was younger to shoot right handed and it just wouldn't work. Maybe if her vision is good enough that she doesn't need glasses it could be done, but if she does have to wear them and tries to use her non-dominant eye, shooting well will probably be a long uphill battle. Just my .02

 

[Outlaw6.0]

I actually find myself with the same question. I started working with a 9yr old just a couple weekends ago. I didn't catch the eye dominance issue working with a pistol but it became very apparent when I put him on my AR-15 (single loaded of course). He kept trying to crawl over the stock to use his dominant eye & was having a terrible time.

I switched the rifle to the other shoulder & presto, no more issues there. He didn't seem to mind & it was much easier to acquire the target thru the 1.5x optic.



t

 

[NWmissouriman]

I actually find myself with the same question. I started working with a 9yr old just a couple weekends ago. I didn't catch the eye dominance issue working with a pistol but it became very apparent when I put him on my AR-15 (single loaded of course). He kept trying to crawl over the stock to use his dominant eye & was having a terrible time.

I switched the rifle to the other shoulder & presto, no more issues there. He didn't seem to mind & it was much easier to acquire the target thru the 1.5x optic.



t

Truth be told, if he's anything like me he will always shoot a pistol right handed but look down the sights with his left eye. Trying to shoot a rifle right handed though just won't work (or wouldn't for me).

 

[Outlaw6.0]

Truth be told, if he's anything like me he will always shoot a pistol right handed but look down the sights with his left eye. Trying to shoot a rifle right handed though just won't work (or wouldn't for me).

This was very apparent as soon as I put him on the rifle. He is 180* from you though, Left hand dominant/ Right Eye dominant. He did MUCH better shooting the rifle right handed & did well shooting the pistol left handed. I figure, let him decide which is more comfortable.... now I know why he had so much trouble shooting his BB gun left handed.


t

 

[Wyofax]

My daughter is also right handed and left eye dominate. I put a rifle in her and and made her shoulder it both sides. One looked very natural and one did not. I went with the natural mount. For her it is left and she is a very good shooter left handed. Sure we struggle with equipment some but the comfort she has is shouldering the gun easily overcomes the gun selection process we go through. She harvested her 6 point bull elk at 850 yards last year shooting a right handed rem 700 from the left side. It works for us.

 

[gabby]

Thanks guys for all the input .Tonight I pulled out an old Winchester 22 lr pump ( it's the shortest stocked rifle I have) and let my granddaughter shoulder it. It seems the left handed side was more comfortable. I think I'll go left ( but not in poltics! )

Thanks Mike

 

[Unofficial Gun Addict (UGA)]

I would strongly suggest left handed. IF she has to wear glasses to correct her vision, I wouldn't even consider trying to change her eye dominance.

I concur with Missouriman. If she has a prescription for glasses, I'd just stick with the dominant eye. If her eyesight is good, then it's up to you. Thus particular dilemma is going to require some amount of training no matter what you do, however, I do think it's more difficult to train arm, fingers, and shoulder than the eye, if she has good eyesight in the nondominant eye.

Put some tape, even matte scotch tape on the dominant eyes shooting glasses lense. Have her shoot as much as you can afford, and even dry fire practice with a pretend gun and scope using this method should train the eye to do what it needs to do, much faster than trying to train all the other moving parts of her body by having her shoot using her nondominant hand.

All this goes without saying... That is if she isn't ambidextrous!

 

[dkhunt14]

I am left handed and they tried to teach me to do things right handed. It didn't work. They couldn't even teach me how to tie my shoes because right handers go the opposite direction with their loops. I can shoot a gun right handed but it is awkward. Matt

 

[Buttermilk]

I would suggest going left handed with left eye dominance.

Easy to train to shoot left handed, but much harder to overcome left eye dominance.

I used to shoot a bow right handed (sports related, I'm right handed), but switched to left hand bow due to being left eye dominant. I got tired of missing the target if I forgot to close my left eye while shooting right handed. Switch was relatively easy for me as I write left handed.

Now, I can shoot both eyes open, and this really helps with depth perception and target acquisition. Simply makes shooting better for me by switching. I now shoot everything left handed. Bows, rifles, handguns. Nice to know that I can also switch for an occasional shot if needed too.


Regard,
Rog