Which Is More Important?

[TMF89]

Alright guys, I'm left-handed, and it feels very awkward shooting with my right, but my right eye is dominant. Should I try to train my left eye, or my right arm?

[vister]

right arm. to speed up the training process, you could break your arm and put it in a cast, so the only good it does is rest your gun on it! just kidding.

i don't think you can switch a dominant eye, but maybe wear an eye patch over your dominant eye, so all you can use is your left.

i am right handed at everything, yes everything! but when i was learning to play pool as a kid, i had recently broken my right arm, so i had to learn to play left handed. over 20 years later, and i still play pool left handed

[Surface Tension]

What hand you write with has no bearing on what hand you'll shoot at.

Your right eye dominant then you should be shooting right handed.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Yep , what Surface T. said.. I am somewhat the total polar to you. I am right handed, but left eye dominant. Think about it. Its PERFECT!!! Your strongest hand/arm does all the aiming, and your non-dom hand only has to pull the trigger. I shot right handed till I was about 22 years old. It took a while to feel comfortable to shoot left handed.. but I have not looked back ever since.. I am a far better shot left handed than I EVER was right handed.

[gspman]

The eyes have it. If you are right eye dominant then your best bet for the long run is to shoot right handed. It'll take a lot of practice to get there but will be worth it in the end. I'd practice shouldering your gun right handed every day for 10 minutes just to get muscle memory built up.

[Big-Al]

Train yourself to shoot either handed. I shot one from either side this year, and you won't be sorry if you can teach yourself to shoot either way. If you shoot both eyes open technique it won't work, but if you close one like I do, you can train yourself to shoot either way. It really helps in the stand when you can't make the movement, just switch shoulders.

[paul pachowicz]

interesting enough topic to make me ask the wife who has been an optician for 30 years about "dominant eye". According to her most people are "right" eyed but, her question was "how do you know you are right/left dominate? Personally, I am right eyed but don't wear glasses when hunting because that upper left corner of my right lense invaribly will be dirty from moisture, sweat, dust, etc, besides I wear photo-grey which darkens the scope picture. I found that when I have a scope put on the gun I have the eye relief adjusted and fine tune it with the rear objective adjustment for a clear crisp view. I'm thinkin it's too much trouble tryin to train hourself to shoot off the opposite hand that you are.

[Surface Tension]

Which eye is dominant. Stretch you arm out and point a finger up. Both eyes open look at your finger. Now close your left eye. Do the right eye. Which every eye was open when the position of your finger didn't move is your dominant eye.

As GSPman said practice at home by bringing the gun up to build up muscle memory.

[Powerstroke]

I find it interesting that an optometrist doesn't know about eye dominance, but I guess if you've never been in shooting sports and no ones ever asked you about it....

You cannot retrain an eye, however, you can build muscles up in your other arms. That's the only that "feels funny" when you try to shoot from the other side.

It will feel awkward at first just because you've never done it, but you will much more accurate and consistent when you are using your dominant eye to shoot with.

[gspman]

The dominant eye will mess things up with both eyes open and shooting from the off side. That's why one needs to shoulder the gun on the dominant side.

If you close one eye however you can get away with it.

[Surface Tension]

gpsman, good catch, You'll have to close your dominant eye if your shooting off your weak side.

[paul pachowicz]

Powerstroke, the question was: how does one know if they are right/left dominant. This can be determined by an optometrist during an eye exam not by an optican as the wife is. Which ever eye is the strongest is the dominate. But, you are right. She doesn't know much about shooting

[kwohl]

Train your right arm and be happy you don't have to buy left handed guns!

It'll probably be awkward for a while but you'll have plenty of time before next fall and all the practice on your form and shooting will probably make you even better.

[SDbowhunter]

A sharp stick to the right eye will also solve this problem.

[TMF89]

Alright guys, thanks for all the input! I think I'll finish up this deer season left-handed, but I'll definitely start training my right arm to shoot for next season.

[Powerstroke]

I realize my note seemed critical paul. It wasn't meant that way at all. I only found it curious, but like I said, its something that is pretty unique only to shooting sports.

[2thepointsetters]

I watched a hunting show recently that interviewed a professional trap shooter and he said that alot of the pros shoot with both eyes open. He said both eyes open gives better depth perception. I have been trying to learn to shoot with both eyes open.(no luck yet)

[TMF89]

Makes sense, but I'm still not very good with one eye closed, so I'll work on that first... not to mention now I'm completely redoing my shooting arms, lol.

[gspman]

I'd do both eye's open. Once you figure it out it's the best.

[SEwalleye]

For those of you who have learned to shoot with both eyes open - did you initially have problems with your non-dominant eye taking over? For example, I am right eye dominant & shoot right-handed, but when I have tried to shoot with both eyes open, sometimes my left eye takes over and I see the side of the barrel. Is this something that I have to "train" myself not to do?

I have just always closed my left eye to avoid this problem & at one time I had a small patch on my shooting glasses to help, but it was easier to just close the left eye when ready to shoot as the patch some-what impaired my ability to pick-up targets.

One last thought/question. For those of you who have dealt with this same problem, anyone (who wears contacts/glasses) ever try a just slightly weaker prescription in their non-doninant eye?

Sorry this is so long, but shooting with both eyes open has perplexed me for some time.

[Surface Tension]

Big reason for keeping both eyes open is because your field of view that much more. I've forced myself to keep both eyes open at least till the final squeeze of the trigger. While shooting at flushing birds having both eyes on the target and surroundings is beneficial. At least then when the rifle or shotgun is shouldered your able to get the sight picture faster. Shooting off your weak side you'll be forced to close one eye sooner, if not your sight picture is way off till that eye is closed. So if your just starting out you should start out shooting off the side of your dominant eye.

Left hand, Right hand. The muscle memory isn't to build muscle its to get the motion of firearm to your shoulder in a fluid motion automatically with correct posture. The exercise of shouldering your gun repeatedly into a proper position in time becomes second nature. Once you have it mastered you won't be doing any final adjustments, the firearm will come up and hit the shoulder, head, neck, shoulders, waist all moving together at once into proper position.

Depending on your vision, you might be getting conflicting info off your weak eye. Seeing double or blurred for example. Your fine to close it but I would get used to doing that at the last second. Again that would come automatically in the muscle memory exercise.

[Eric Wettschreck]

I've been shooting various things for upwards of 40 years and can honestly say, I'm a fairly good shot.

Right hand, left hand, dominant eye.......I don't know. I'm no expert. However, I'll take what ST said juuuuust a bit farther about proper and fluid shouldering the weapon.

For a long long time I would shoot trap, skeet, sporting clays, rifle targets, and some very long range targets all summer long. For me this was not only fun, but an excellent confidence builder for proper shot placement. Hey, when you powder a clay pigeon you know it would have been a good kill shot on a duck. I would start with my gun not at my shoulder, but holding it near my waist, much like we always are while hunting. Off the pigeon would go, I'd see it, shoulder the weapon, and fire. This was great. Then hunting season came around and I'd miss the easy shots. What the heck??????

It took a while and I often wondered what I was doing wrong, including wondering if I had a dominant eye thing going on. Then one day a good friend of mine who I often hunt with, who never misses a shot (it seems like) bipped me in the back of the head and told me I'm not shouldering my shotgun right. "What?!?!?!?" I've been doing this for years, how can I not be shouldering the weapon properly???? It's simple, yet overlooked by me. All summer long, while shooting pigeons, all I have on is a T-shirt. Duck hunting comes along and I'm wearing a sweatshirt, another sweatshirt, a jacket, and my bib waders. With all this stuff on, my arms work different, my shoulders feel different, things are more bulky, etc. The combo of all these different things makes the weapon placement different. For me, that was the key. It's kind of like training a dog or raising a kid, consistancy is the key. Bringing the weapon to your shoulder should be fluid and natural. It should feel the same all the time, every time.

Now, when I'm in the back yard with friends and the kids shooting clays, yeah it's hot, but I'll wear at least a sweatshirt. This may sound dumb, but it has helped me A LOT with my shot placement on ducks and pheasants. When target shooting with the rifle I do the same and now my confidence at a 250 yard shot at a yote is 100%. For me, it's all about confidence in the shot.

I realize this has nothing to do with the dominant eye topic. However, there are a lot of variables involved in proper shot placement, and we all know that proper placement of the shot is what it's all about. I guess what I'm trying to say is when you are out practicing, do your best to simulate the actual hunting experience as much as possible. From the clothing you wear, to the choke in your gun, to the shot size and type you are using. You will only get laughed at until the moment of truth comes and your game bag is a bit fuller than your buddies.

[Tom7227]

My wife has the same problem with the left eye dominant and being right handed. The issue for her was the lack of coordination in operating a gun if she shot left handed. It just took her forever to jack the round and get going again because she would switch the gun around. She even had trouble with an O/U. A shooting coach suggested putting a dot of tape on her left glass lens or to put a little vaseline on it, just enough to make that eye not function well. I think he was of the opinion that after a bit of time your right eye would somehow adjust to being the dominant eye and things would work out for her. She gave up on the shooting sports shortly afterward so I don't know how well this process would work.

[BLACKJACK]

I'm right handed but left eye dominant, and I shoot right handed. At the age of 50 I'm not going to try and retrain, I've shot literally tons of ducks and pheasants over the years, why mess with what works? I'm not a great shot but I get the job done. Until last week I could honestly say that I had yet to miss a pheasant in 2008, and I go pheasant hunting 2-3 times a week.