left eye/handright eye/hand dominance

I use to be left hand, right eye dominant but with some practice I managed to retrain the eyes so now I'm left eye dominant

When I used to teach shotgun shooting for the NWTF Women In the Outdoors program I found that there seems to be a whole bunch of women out there who have Right hand Left eye dominance. Many of them were really frustrated by their efforts to learn to shoot. (No doubt frustrating many well intentioned husbands and boyfriends too.) As I recall it didn't seem at all uncommon for about 6 out of 10 women to have this trait. After we got things sorted out and tried shooting off the other shoulder their first trap shooting efforts, over a locked down straight away trap, never ceased to amaze them as they broke more than they missed. RD

I am right hand left eye but it is due to an eye injury when I was a teenager. Makeing the switch to shooting lefty was tough but now it is natural except for shotgun. I just can't quite get the mechanics down for that but then I don't really shoot shotgun much. I actually prefer right handed rifles stocked with lefty stocks though. Just easier for me to load and unload righty. 

Interesting thoughts Murf.  "...switching hands was easier for me than trying to retrain my eyesight. Eye dominance is inherent while manual dexterity is learned."

I agree, and so did the nuns that taught me in grade school.  No left handed kids writing then.  Certainly "modern educators" have yet to figure this out; so kids "do it their individually styled way".  My daughter when in 4 grade told me "dad, in school they taught me there is no 'right-way".  to this day she still believes that.

I've suggested to parents switching some young kids.  they go ballistic. (pun)

I also noticed when I switched to left handed shooting, my trigger pull on my left hand was bad.  It took lots of practice to get it anywhere near my right-hand (55 years of dominance) trigger pull.  Now, I'm really screwed.  I got laser surgery on my right eye, so I have some vision there.  On good eye days I can shoot right eyed.  On bad days I have to shoot left-eyed.  Since most of my rifles are right handed, I prefer to shoot right handed.  But my left eye is now dominant.  Scopes force me to use the correct eye.  But shotgun, fast game shooting...I often miss because I'm shooting right handed left eyed (bad).

Just got a device that makes me use the right (non-dominant eye).  Haven't shot it yet, I'll report after turkey season.

BEAR

I'm now both dexter and sinister!

Wing;

I don't know, only way for you to tell is to try it & see what you think.  But, I do think different people have different levels of dominance.  It then follows that different people will have various levels of adaptation time & trouble.  However, I also know from my daughter's experience that if you don't work at changing, for some variable length of time, that you can't get a fair test of the proposition.

What you might try doing though, is set up a bench session.  Use a .22 rimfire & preferably a semi-auto.  Shoot 5 consecutive groups right eyed & then switch.  Perhaps you'll see a noticable improvement in accuracy, or ease in obtaining accuracy, when you use the naturally dominant eye.  I'm suggesting a semi-gun because then operating issues kinda go out the window.  The object is to test accuracy, nothing else.

900F

 I've only seen it with one person , my wife. Her first time up to camp and her first time shooting . Luckily my Dad was watching

She , being right handed was shooting RH , Dad noticed she was missing , but consistantly .

He had her stick her thumb up at arms length and told her to cover a spot with her thumb with both eyes open , then close one eye and then the other to see which one was dominate.  Switched her to shooting south paw and she started turning beer cans into swiss cheese almost instantly  

 I never would have thought of it  and glad Dad was there to get her off on the "left foot " so she didn't have to relearn all over again.

 

Thanks Dad

If you are cross dominate eye/hand you might want to try the EASYHit shotgun 'sight'.  It is the one that Tom Knapp uses and sells.

Basically if you don't see the bright red spot, you are using the wrong eye.  Sells for about $30.  I now have them on all my shotguns, great.

 

WWW.easyhitusa.com

My husband's the same way, right-handed but had some damage to his right eye, so he's left eye dominant. He's big into trap shooting and closes his left eye to force the right to work. He says it's a big handicap for him, but he's so dominantly right-handed that he can't switch the hands.

Me, I'm left-handed but not excessively so, and right-eyed. I shoot right-handed usually, but am almost as good with my left.