Help with Right handed / left eye dominant teen shooter

[Mike Matteson]

Being nice enough to teach both left and right-hand shooters is a great thing. Teaching a left eye dominant/right-hand person to shoot left-handed is a bit of a curse. I am right eye dominant and left-handed and I shoot very well left-handed, but that does not eliminate the difficulties of finding left-hand rifles, semi-autos with ambidextrous safeties, and being able to reload double-action revolvers without switching hands to accomplish the task. Single-action revolvers are not quite as cumbersome, but this is still a right-hand world and there are too many necessities of life that are not made for left-hand people. Just sayin'. I also have astigmatism in my right eye so I am double cursed.

I am left handed to start with, and I don't have a left handed action. I have used full auto while in the army, and didn't have any problem there either. I am about as quick with a bolt action as anybody that's right handed.

 

[Dev_L]

gotta learn to shoot left handed i lost my right eye when i was younger

 

[Wild_Bill]

Hi all.
My eldest daughter is old enough to get her minors permit and shoot handgun at the range. All good till the point where she starts to shoot and only manages a few hits .
Its her first visit to the range and i'm standing behind her , so I cant see that she has both eyes open, trying to shoot right eye.
Later at home we were talking and I just asked her to close her left eye, as it turns out she cant but she can close here right .
back to the range and would you know it , Right eye closed and she has improved remarkably.

So is this OK.

I have no experience with this and would appreciate some guidance .

Hi try getting safety glasses and patch out her left eye, it can realy help.
If she is going to shoot left eye she would be best shooting left hand.
The patched out glasses have worked for years

 

[Bob Wright]

I was blessed with being ambidextrous. Left eye dominant. I can do everything with equal accuracy.
My daughter cannot close one eye at a time. So I made "blackout" safety glasses simply by taping up the non shooting eye. She adjusted well.

 

[30dirty]

Ya , I also have struggled my whole life with cross eyed dominance ! It's tough I've had professionals across the country work with me , there are thing's you can do to help !

 

[Frank Kalisz]

You just need to learn to shoot long guns on same side as your dominant eye. You'll do better that way because you'll see better. It just seems takes practice - if I can do it at my late age anybody can do it

 

[Treeslug]

I am left handed to start with, and I don't have a left handed action. I have used full auto while in the army, and didn't have any problem there either. I am about as quick with a bolt action as anybody that's right handed.

I probably take this a little too personally, but since every other Tom, Dick, and Harry get special attention for their shortcomings, I just wish I had been born right-handed. The firearms industry is what bothers me the most because I love hunting and shooting very much. I know I should be thankful that I have two arms and two eyes. I do not wish to take away from those less fortunate in this world. I know that being left-handed is not a true "handicap."

I too can shoot a 1911 .45 ACP with only a right-hand safety, but it must not be too difficult to make an ambidextrous safety because some manufactures make their guns set up that way. If a gun manufacture can build a left-hand 30-06, why can't they build a left-hand .300 Win, Mag? I still feel discriminated against. It seems that the manufactures of golf clubs figured this out a long time ago.

 

[apache309]

Hi all.
My eldest daughter is old enough to get her minors permit and shoot handgun at the range. All good till the point where she starts to shoot and only manages a few hits .
Its her first visit to the range and i'm standing behind her , so I cant see that she has both eyes open, trying to shoot right eye.
Later at home we were talking and I just asked her to close her left eye, as it turns out she cant but she can close here right .
back to the range and would you know it , Right eye closed and she has improved remarkably.

So is this OK.

I have no experience with this and would appreciate some guidance .

There are several ways to address this issue. One of the simplest is to lay your right ear on your right shoulder. This will place the left eye behind & in line with the handgun sights. Takes a few times practicing to get comfortable with this technique, but it is much quicker than learning to shoot left handed. Still a good idea to also learn to shoot left handed. Teach your daughter to shoot long guns left handed. I am a retired law enforcement firearms instructor & I used the above method after I lost my right eye. Hope this helps.

 

[2Ldude]

I grew up and started shooting 22's left handed due to left eye dominant even though everything else I did was right handed. I shot rifle's left handed with right bolt, just got used to working the actions with the right hand. Couldn't shoot a pistol worth a crap left handed so still shot those right handed but closed left eye. Later on in life (40 years) after having 5 surgeries on the left shoulder decided to start shooting righty. Took a pair of glasses and taped the left side so I couldn't see and removed the glass from the right side (far less eye fatigue in right eye vs trying to just close the left eye). Didn't take to long to get accustomed to this method. Slowed me down due to thinking thru all the fundamentals and training new muscle memories but in the end I am a much better shooter going righty and slowing things down and now don't have to wear the taped up glasses.

 

[corsair4360]

I really wish this question didn't come up every month so we don't have to repeatedly suffer all of the ignorant advice given here. First off, if anyone has general weapons handling questions, especially with weapons that aren't for long range hunting, head over to the Brian Enos forums and ask people that focus more on multiple weapons systems and a few thousand rounds a month.

I grew up cross-eye dominant and I was fortunate to build a foundation shooting long guns left handed. The only time a pistol is in my left hand is when the situation or stage description requires it. Using the dominant eye is important and a long gun should be on that side when able. It doesn't matter with a handgun. In 23 years of competition shooting nobody has ever noticed that I use my left eye for pistol. Bottom line: there is never a reason to primarily shoot handguns in your non-dominant hand for the sake of eye dominance.

I've competed in USPSA, 3-Gun and PRS as well as taught 3 levels of pistol/carbine for my last 5 years in the military. I'm not claiming to be an expert but if anyone has specific questions about cross-eye dominance, support-side shooting, or the nuances of each weapon platform for a cross-dominant shooter, feel free to hit me up. I'll give any information I have and if it's something I'm not familiar with, I know plenty of people that have seen far more.

Thanks for your post. As one who is like you left eye dominant but right handed I immediately starting shooting better using my left eye when using long guns. Pistols I have shot right handed left eyed without thinking about it. Mine is in part due to extreme astigmatism in my right eye called kerataconus. Old age does not make that easier.

 

[Doc's Forge]

My 17 year old stepson is the same way. Pistol is easy and he shoots right handed but crosses over and aims with his left eye. Rifle and archery he settled on shooting complete south paw. Its individual to the shooter whether its easier to train the eye to shoot right handed or the body mechanics to shoot left handed. Have her do both and see what she settles on

 

[5gauss]

Good catch!
Pistols: get her an airsoft & LH holster and have practice/practice/practice solely LH handling around the house. Muzzle discipline and all safety rules still apply.
If you belong to a club with shooting disciplines, have her do action rifle or 3-gun.
Rifle: shoot everything LH now.

While her eye already is natural at it, takes a while for agility to catch up and develop muscle memory.

practice and more practice is key....soon it will be second nature...

 

[Mike Matteson]

I probably take this a little too personally, but since every other Tom, Dick, and Harry get special attention for their shortcomings, I just wish I had been born right-handed. The firearms industry is what bothers me the most because I love hunting and shooting very much. I know I should be thankful that I have two arms and two eyes. I do not wish to take away from those less fortunate in this world. I know that being left-handed is not a true "handicap."

I too can shoot a 1911 .45 ACP with only a right-hand safety, but it must not be too difficult to make an ambidextrous safety because some manufactures make their guns set up that way. If a gun manufacture can build a left-hand 30-06, why can't they build a left-hand .300 Win, Mag? I still feel discriminated against. It seems that the manufactures of golf clubs figured this out a long time ago.

I carried a .45 ACP in Vietnam and a Car-15 too. I never had much in training with the .45 Auto. I learned on my own, and got very good with it over there. When sitting around waiting for convoys were going by. I sat on a ACP for hours dry firing that .45 at targets driving by. If I wanted a stock to fit me, I had to build one. I was shown how to let the action into the stock, and bed it too. They do build left handed bolt action, but never got one. I wouldn't know how to use it. I have an 1911 .45 and it's my go to pistol. I have 10 or so rifles and they are all right handed actions. My shotguns are most 870's pumps, I do have some Browning BPS too. Never bother me to shot any of them. I start out with a Mossberg .410 gauge bolt action for hunting dove. Got very quick in getting a 2nd and even 3rd shot off at age 11. I presently having a high dollar rifle built for me in a 6mm-06 with top of the line items. Guess what it will be right handed.

 

[Gone Ballistic]

I started my wife shooting trap almost 45 years ago, not thinking about the possibility that she could be left eye dominant until a month of struggling with her to break more than 3 out of 25 16yd singles targets. Immediately, I set her up left handed and she brought 14 out of 25. By the next month she consistently was breaking the low 20's with a 25 once in awhile. After teaching new shooters how to shoot for close to 50 years I always check which eye is dominant before shooting anything. If you haven't shot much before it is a very easy transition to change to either right or left handed shooting if your eye is dominant on the opposite side you write. Change her, she will love it or leave it but if you don't change her over she will definitely quit!