Right-handed but left eye dominant

T

TScull

Guest
For long distance target shooting with a scoped rifle, what approach is recommended for a right-handed shooter that is left eye dominant?

The options seem to be:
- Shoot right handed with the left eye closed
- Learn to shoot left-handed and keep both eyes open
- Shoot right handed with the scope offset for left eye use and keep both eyes open (This last one is my own thought that seems "out there" but potentially feasible.)
 
i shoot left handed(rifles and shotgun) tho i am right handed. have done this for years...we will see how it works with my soon to be 1000yd rifle....

mike in co
 
Well,......
You could try blinding yourself in the left eye and forcing your right eye into dominance and continue to shoot right handed.
Or not!
 
I used to have the same problem...

... when I was a kid. It took a lot of practice to make natural to automaticly aim with the right side. I even had to work on it some about 15 years ago when I got back into shooting a lot.

With enough attention and practice just aiming with your hand, ( no gun ), you can beat it most cases in no time.

Danny
 
German Salazar said:
I'm right-handed and left eye dominant and have shot rifles left-handed since I began as an 11 year old - no worries.

I've seen a number of different offset sight and scope mounts over the years but these are typically used by right-handed shooters who have lost the use of their right eye, typically through age related issues, and don't want to convert to shooting left-handed late in life.

As to keeping the non-aiming eye open or closed, with a scope it's not much of an issue, but with iron sights it's better to keep it open as visual acuity is greater that way. A blinder is generally used to cover the non-aiming eye which makes keeping it open much easier. The blinder is mounted on the sight, not worn as an eye patch as that would be the same as closing the eye and thus of no value.

A translucent blinder is better than an opaque one as it allows the pupil of the non-aiming eye to remain at the right dilation for the ambient light. If the blinder is opaque, the non-aiming eye's pupil will tend to open and the aiming eye's pupil will open sympathetically, this decreases visual acuity. A milk jug has enough material for a lot of blinders!
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Oh sure, if you want to do things the easy way!
Ted
 
I have an elderly friend shooting F class who has lost acuity in his dominant eye & now shoots with an outrigger scope. He has had balance issues with it & is investigating putting on a counterweight - he does have a tad of wriggle room weight wise.

If you go this route, take your time deciding how much offset you need, maybe by setting up some sort of adjustable rig at the start. It seemed to me at a first glance at my friend's rig that less than the full distance between the eyes of offset is needed. He cheeks the stock in n a particular way too & carries the left eye somewhat higher than I would have expected. I don't know how you would have your head positioned, but you might need to get somebody to help you take all these measurements.

He's taken his time recording his wind zeros at various distrances (& getting his head around the fact that they differ). That takes a bit of work & help too, particularly deciding at what distance you'll cross over from left to right on your wind scale (which distance you'll set your wind turret to zero on), as you seldom find totally readable wind all the way back to the longest distance. I suppose you could get a 100 yard zero & mathematically predict your zeros all the way out, but you still need some form of practical confirmation that you did your sums right.
 
I am right handed and left eye dominant ( contralateral eye dominance). I am also fairly handy with my left hand, and have shot left handed from the beginning. I think that if you want to learn to shoot left handed, you should use a good .22 and burn a lot of ammo shooting that way.
 
If the non-dominant eye does not have any vision problems, what is the down side of simply closing the dominant eye and aiming with the other (assuming the use of a scope)?
 
German Salazar said:
You'll miss out on all the fun of searching for left-handed rifles, paying extra for them and then being unable to sell them when you want something new. Don't underestimate how much fun this can be! :rolleyes:

For scope shooting, probably no other downside at all.
Click to expand...

lol i just spent 2 yrs looking for a rem 700 lefty in a 308 size action. picked up a 22-250 from 1990...and its just a donor action. and yes it cost!

mike in co
 
Eye dominance

Most shooting problens come with shotgun shooters.Souldn't be a problem switching eyes for rifle with scope or iron sites,with minimal practice.Keep both eyes open,but put tape on the lense of your shooting glasses to blur the dominate eye.Best way is to shoot from the same side as your dominate eye.Little harder to make the transision when older but doable.Ofset things including stocks are a hinderance,expensive,and goofy looking.
 
BTW if one is talking about from a bench, bipod, or some other support, for all of a particular rifle's use, and a factory, same side handle as port is mandated, using a RR shooting left handed, or a LL shooting right, is the best. I am fully aware that those who have not tried this will throw rocks, but having tried them all, I am pretty confident on this.
 
Right handed and left eye dominant, you lucky bugger. That would make things easier. Shoot your RH rifle left handed, then while your left hand is doing nothing more than steadying your rifle on the benchrest, your more cordinated right hand will be picking out and feeding the cases,, cycling the bolt, controling the joystick and clicking the scope while you get to look through the scope with your good eye.
 
no down side

TScull said:
If the non-dominant eye does not have any vision problems, what is the down side of simply closing the dominant eye and aiming with the other (assuming the use of a scope)?
Click to expand...
I have cross dominance, had a ball point pen in my eye at age 17, this required surgery of course. 40yrs later it required caterac surgery as well. That was 4yrs ago, I have always shot well in competition, both pistol and rifle. I just close my left eye; however, keeping it open using a paddle (as mentioned before) is a better viewing option. Thats why the eye doc does not have you close your eye during exam. Pistol is easy, I just adjust my wrist hold and shoot using my left eye. Don't sweat it; at 61 with two eye surgerys I captured both my classes at my local gun range competition, shooter -of-the -year awards. ART
 
scope mount

I saw a scope mount for an individual just like tscull describes himself. also i may be mistaken but i saw a rifle that Bob Crone won a match with several years ago and it appeared to have a similar mount on it. when the rifle is in battery the scope alignes with the left eye. if i recall correctly where i saw the mount listed was in harts catalog from nescopeck, pa.

Fred
 
Shoot with both eyes open

I've been doing it for years, slightly squint the left eye and the right
eye takes over.
 
dominate eye winking ;-)

;)I'm left eye dominate and right handed...
Up until my mid 40's I could not "wink" my (left) dominate eye either...

I shoot left handed, switched to O/U shotgun's and left handed bolt guns years ago. (My dad ripped the '06 out of my right hand when I was pretty little cause I kept looking thru the scope with my left eye.)

I think a left bolt right port will actually provide an advantage but I've not ordered a custom action yet. I just use left bolt left port guns for hunting and 1K benchrest.
 
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