Eye Dominance****UPDATE****

[Will]

Well I just want to say I appreciate everyone's comments. I have been shooting with my youngest in the yard with his pellet gun on his left side which is his dominant eye side. He is spot on! He had no problems shooting from his left side even though he's right handed. The way he began you'd think he's been shooting that way. Thanks again everyone.

Will





Question for everyone? I've never encountered this issue until my youngest began shooting and is going to start hunting. My son is fine shooting a scope however not so much open sights, mainly a shotgun. It appears he's right handed but left eye dominant. When we shoot open sight B.B. Gun I can watch him adjust. It appears he using his left eye dominant to shoot right handed but this is only after a few misses he figures it out. I'm told the reason he shoots a crossbow fine and slug gun is because of the scope. This is new to me and need some advice on how to deal with the shoutgun for Turkey. He is 11 years old and I'm wondering should I just teach him to shoot left handed considering he is so young or just scope the shotgun for Turkey season? He will be watefowling eventually when he becomes more experienced I guess when I get him shooting good at things in motion. My goal was to involve him skeet shooting this Summer. I'm just wondering has anyone ever dealt with this and if so how did you adjust?
Thanks
Will

[Happy]

I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot both compound bows and guns right handed. It took a lot of work to be able to do it with a bow. I shoot with both eyes open. My suggestion would be to teach him to shoot left handed. Scopes help a lot but when dealing with open sights or bow sights it can be pretty tricky.

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

Yes, at that age the simplest lifetime solution, given that he is just starting out, would be to teach him to shoot left handed.  It's great that you picked up on it.  My wife is cross dominant and had always shot right handed and could not adapt to shooting left handed.  Another solution for wing shooting that works very well if he insists or is only able to shoot right handed is a small blurring patch about 1 cm in diameter on the shooting glasses of the dominant eye lined up to block the bead when the gun is mounted.  These small patches are made just for this purpose and depth perception isn't effected.  That's what my wife ended up using and it works great.

[Will]

Thank you for the responses. I was seriously considering teaching him to shoot left handed considering he's so young and easier to train. I figured someone on this webiste had encountered this before and greatly appreciate the help.

[dejake]

I close my left eye

[Bowguy]

Listen to what I'm going to say cause you're gonna hear lots of things about this. I am a certified instructor that teaches lots of newbies a year. Especially kids.  We always start out w an eye dominance test. It's extremely important.
I only say so to qualify you what I'm saying has basis.
Now say you had a shotgun, arrow whatever and pointed it at target righty but aimed w the left eye. Your left eye would view the shot straight. ( try it by closing right eye, mounting and than opening. See where shot is aimed)You're righty stance places the gun to the side. Say you had a bow and sighted in at 15 yards. You actually could get the sight and arrow poi in the same place because of sights. A little further say 20 you'd be off to one side. A little closer off to another. Works that way anytime you use both eyes.
You can alleviate that by forcing dominance to the off eye. You ever see guys shoot patched? Ever see sticky markers on one side of a shooting glass? This is compromising the dominant eye by blocking it.
You've forced dominance to one eye with a scope. He's prob closing dominant eye or the magnification has the off eye showing dominant.
Why not just close one eye someone might ask? Well you lose binocular vision. This aids in depth perception, range estimation. It's also VERY unsafe to shoot a shotgun one eye closed.
Pick up a broom. Mount it like a shotgun and have say a poster or next to you. Close one eye and, quickly like you're wingshooting a bird,swing toward the poster that's on the closed eye side.
Notice you're dangerously close to the poster before you see it. If you tapped the trigger and swung through like you should you'd possibly put pellets in that poster.
Imagine your son shot that way and his little sis was standing next to him. Very dangerous.
I do not recommend shooting w a non dominant eye. Please teach him correctly.
If you need help PLEASE pm me.

[Bowguy]

I close my left eye

Dejake please read what I just wrote

[dirt road ninja]

I taught my daughter to shoot left handed. Both her and my wife are right handed left eye dominant. She does prefer a scope over iron sights. In the long run it's probably better to shoot with the dominant eye.

[Marc]

As an eye doctor, who is cross-dominant (i.e. right-handed & left eye dominant)...  Here is my advice.
First get him in for a full eye examination with an optometrist who has a good reputation with children...  Make sure they do a dilated eye examination, and check his prescription after dilation (this is called a wet or cycloplegic refraction, and is very important for children).

Make sure that any significant refractive error (i.e. need for glasses) is addressed before making a final check for eye dominance.  Eye dominance does not change, but "apparent" eye dominance can change with uncorrected vision.
And, hyperopia (or far-sightedness) is the trickiest devil here...  A child (or adult) might be significantly far-sighted and still see well at distance...

Most parents taking children in to see me know I have some shooting experience...  I would check dominance before getting into the examination and checking vision, and if there was any type of corrected refractive error, I would check dominance after being corrected...  And, I would then have the child wear the glasses for a month before checking dominance one last time.  Too many times, I have seen that dominance change after the child adjusts to his/her  glasses.
And as a shooter who has suffered at wing/clay shooting as a cross-dominant shooter, I fully intend to teach my children to shoot off their dominant eye, not their dominant hand.

I would recommend and eye examination for all school-aged children...  There are many benefits that parents do not think of (such as lens protection from blue screens and electronics, far-sighted issues which are usually hidden but can dramatically affect reading/learning issues, and more obvious issues that the child simply does not complain about due to not knowing better).

[MK M GOBL]

Listen to what I'm going to say cause you're gonna hear lots of things about this. I am a certified instructor that teaches lots of newbies a year. Especially kids.  We always start out w an eye dominance test. It's extremely important.
I only say so to qualify you what I'm saying has basis.
Now say you had a shotgun, arrow whatever and pointed it at target righty but aimed w the left eye. Your left eye would view the shot straight. ( try it by closing right eye, mounting and than opening. See where shot is aimed)You're righty stance places the gun to the side. Say you had a bow and sighted in at 15 yards. You actually could get the sight and arrow poi in the same place because of sights. A little further say 20 you'd be off to one side. A little closer off to another. Works that way anytime you use both eyes.
You can alleviate that by forcing dominance to the off eye. You ever see guys shoot patched? Ever see sticky markers on one side of a shooting glass? This is compromising the dominant eye by blocking it.
You've forced dominance to one eye with a scope. He's prob closing dominant eye or the magnification has the off eye showing dominant.
Why not just close one eye someone might ask? Well you lose binocular vision. This aids in depth perception, range estimation. It's also VERY unsafe to shoot a shotgun one eye closed.
Pick up a broom. Mount it like a shotgun and have say a poster or next to you. Close one eye and, quickly like you're wingshooting a bird,swing toward the poster that's on the closed eye side.
Notice you're dangerously close to the poster before you see it. If you tapped the trigger and swung through like you should you'd possibly put pellets in that poster.
Imagine your son shot that way and his little sis was standing next to him. Very dangerous.
I do not recommend shooting w a non dominant eye. Please teach him correctly.
If you need help PLEASE pm me.

This is the right way to do this, I have mentored and have done Hunter Education Classes for many and the first step to shooting is always "dominant eye" identification. For some it is a hard change as adults and if you have the opportunity with a youth or new hunter is to take the step and to follow eye dominance.

MK M GOBL

[Will]

Great stuff guys and a huge thank you. I've had Jesse to the eye doctors numerous times because he wears glasses. The topic of eye dominance has never occurred to me while he has undergone an exam, until now. I will follow up with the doctor but you all have definatley educated me on the topic. My oldest and me never had this issue. This first came about this past year shooting a shotgun during hunter education class. They shrugged it off and said he's probably cross eyed dominant. Needless to say he walked away disappointed because he couldn't hit the milk jug with the shotgun. Watching him shoot a cross bow and scoped slug gun I noticed him adjusting. He's spent enough time behind a B.B. gun to that I should have caught it. He hasn't been shooting for long so I'm happy to get on top of this now.

[Bigeclipse]

Question for everyone? I've never encountered this issue until my youngest began shooting and is going to start hunting. My son is fine shooting a scope however not so much open sights, mainly a shotgun. It appears he's right handed but left eye dominant. When we shoot open sight B.B. Gun I can watch him adjust. It appears he using his left eye dominant to shoot right handed but this is only after a few misses he figures it out. I'm told the reason he shoots a crossbow fine and slug gun is because of the scope. This is new to me and need some advice on how to deal with the shoutgun for Turkey. He is 11 years old and I'm wondering should I just teach him to shoot left handed considering he is so young or just scope the shotgun for Turkey season? He will be watefowling eventually when he becomes more experienced I guess when I get him shooting good at things in motion. My goal was to involve him skeet shooting this Summer. I'm just wondering has anyone ever dealt with this and if so how did you adjust?
Thanks
Will

if competition or self defense is the case, then maybe teach him to shoot left handed but if not then simply tell him to close his left eye. I am right handed and left eye dominant. I trap shoot, shoot my bow, and open sights all right handed. I keep my left eye open as I'm watching the target and then close my left eye as I get on target and shoot. Has not ever really been a problem for me...

[silvestris]

Shoot from the eye-dominant shoulder and don't look back.  It will be a little uncomfortable for a while and then everything clicks.

[Mbhyman88]

Shoot from the eye-dominant shoulder and don't look back.  It will be a little uncomfortable for a while and then everything clicks.

Yep, I'm left handed but my right eye is dominant.  My dad picked up on this when I was little and taught me to shoot right handed.  I could shoot left handed now if I absolutely had too but it feels strange and I wouldn't do well shooting clays or wing shooting. 

[Swather]

A friend is cross dominant and was talking at a DU function years ago.  The way that he and his counterpart showed to test for dominance was to point at an object like a light switch across the room with both eyes open.  Maintain the point, and cycle through a closed right eye and then a closed left eye.  The point will be precise with the dominant eye and "off target" with the inferior eye.

My older friend with the cross dominance used a highly bent stock to address it.  A lot of people use tape on shooting glasses over the cross dominant eye.

There is a lot of materials out there in gun publications and youtube.  A session or two with an instructor that knows gun fitting and cross dominance issue will be a lot of help for your son.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7QEUKslIvU