I am seriously left eye dominant and I’ve read before that a RDS will be fine for my situation.
My question though is… what about BUS? That’s going to be my weak eye only right?
Man. I feel for you.
I have a south-pawed-right eye dominant wife and it is such a pain in the ass hahaha.
I couldnt imagine having that.
Youre correct on it being your weak eye. Unless you switch support/firing hands…
On the bright side, thats why they call it a “Back up” sight.
If I were you, I would practice practice practice with irons!!
Get good with them and LEARN to use your weak eye/hand when shooting
Thanks.
I was wondering if those new 45deg sights might work for me. If I canted them off the left side
I’m left eye dominant and right handed also…with an Aimpoint I really dont notice any dominance issues. If i transition to irons though I find that I need to consciously squint my left eye in order to force my right eye to take over. After I have my right eye in control I can usually relax the left and drive on as usual. You might also find that when you transition the carbine to your left you can maybe shoot both eyes open easy-peasy.
Except on pistol when shooting right hand only I find if I open my left eye back up I get all bobbly-fucked and shit starts going way to the right from my left eye trying to take over a game that I don’t want it in.
Kinda on the same subject of eye dominance, one of my training goals for this next year is to try and learn to run the carbine full time on my left side, and continue to run pistol from the right.
FWIW, I shoot the “wrong” way and I seem to do fine.
However, I guess everyone’s eyes are different, but being RE dominant and left handed has never really been a problem for me.
I’ve taken some baby steps to try to shoot with the right shoulder, but guns don’t feel as natural…
Try this one on for size fellas.
Due to back injuries / surgeries, I am unable to take recoil off the right shoulder, but can from the left. So I shoot a rifle left handed and my pistol right handed. Due to this, which ever finger is pulling the trigger that side’s eye will be dominant. I recent tried shooting the rifle then going to the pistol for immediate follow up shot on closer targets. I never skipped a beat, but my instructors (I am shooting with three seperate people to learn technique. Two are LEO’s and one is a CHL and former military precision shooting coach) hates it.
MikeT
M&P15 MOE OR
Sig Sauer SP2022
Even though I’m left-handed, left eye dominant, I’ve always shot rifles, shotguns, right handed using my right eye… always seemed more natural.For some reason that I can’t explain, I shot handguns for years, using my right hand, and left for support,and lining up the sights with my left eye… groups would be slightly to the left, as well.I’ve recently started to break myself of this and use my right eye to line up the sights with, so far it’s working out… groups seem to be centering up as well.
My wife has to do the SAME exact thing.
She cant just close one eye, and both of them end up squinting really bad.
It sucks cause her 9 year old does the same thing, hes at the age where Im teaching him how to shoot.
I found that “Blacking” out one lens on a pair of old glasses helps, she can keep BOTH eyes open and hit the target
You “almost” have it right according to Larry Vickers. At a recent class, he said that when he was training Delta, they would have those guys who were “cross-eye dominant” (who had been shooting for years as a “righty” at that point) switch their carbine over to their left shoulder as a permanent solution…whether they liked it or not.
Pistol, however, would be kept in the right hand since, according to Mr. Vickers, it’s “already hard enough to shoot as it is”. To pick up the sights on your pistol in that case, all you have to do is turn your head to the point that your nose is basically blocking your right eye, while your dominant left eye picks up the sights.
What you choose to do is up to you, but being at the “level” that he is/was, there just might be something to it.
A trick I learned during trapshooting is to put a peice of scotch tape over the left lens on a persons shooting glasses. Have them shoot with it and wear it around the house.
I am left eye right hand dominate and I can now shoot right handed and “pick” which eye is dominate. It does take a lot of time use, though. It was a learning curve.
I have also tried to shoot left handed, and that is an option too. I consider my left side next to worthless and I would never have the same dexterity or hand eye coordination I do with my left.
I would also check out prescription shooting glasses. It can be beneficial to have an optomotretist who knows what they are doing, and work out a prescription with a place like like Decot ( http://www.sportglasses.com/ ). In my case I have an astigmatism in my left eye which causes it to be the dominant eye. With the prescription shooting lenses they make my right eye the more powerful one.
Theres no magical cure to this.
ETA:
Would try the tape over the left lens. You want to position it so its directly centered over your eyeball when in a shooting position. About a 1" long peice of scotch tape works. Nothing colored but the scotch tape is “opaque”.
Try shooting from the left side, and you actually do have to develop some muscles and hand/eye coordination. Im not sure a naturally right handed person would ever develop the same coordination they they have on the opposite side. I can tell you right off the bat, at least for me, it would be no small feat.
Only once in a while for me do I get my left eye taking over looking through a scope. Then I have to close my eyes an ‘tell’ my right eye to get its act under control. It will never be 100% natural but I don’t think learning to shoot from my “weak” side would be, either.
No idea how “laser” surgery would affect this either. Even with cross domination Ive always tested 20/20 or better.
I would strongly agree with this. I tried this several years ago based on Mr. Vickers’ tips, and it works well. It took about a year to get the carbine to “feel right” on the left shoulder, but it does work.
One advantage, is that it makes transitioning the carbine to your other shoulder, or to your pistol very easy.
That is precisely what Pat McNamara told us as well (not surprising given they came from the same unit).
One thing you might try is an eye patch. I am left eye dominant and right handed. I shot rifle competitively in high school and the coach figured out something had to be done. He had me wear an eye patch on my left eye every time we shot. These were peep sight, 22LR Olympic style rifles. After a couple seasons of this, I was able to shoot without the patch.
I can now shoot long guns right handed, with my right eye (works for iron sights, red dots, scopes, etc.) and keep both eyes open. I keep both eyes open for handgun shooting, but the left eye still takes over.
The other option involves a periscope and ladies underwear… (that joke will only make sense if you saw Tommy Lee Jones and Nic Cage in the movie “Firebirds”.) lol!
I’m right handed and left eye dominant. For handgun I just shift the gun over and line up the sights with my dominant eye. This allows me to keep both eyes open and my head upright and pointed forward. Carbine with red dot doesn’t seem to be an issue at all nor does precision rifle. Irons are a PITA as I pretty much have to close one eye. Same goes for shotgun. In those instances I pretty much body index the weapon in target and before I break the shot I do a wink and get a final sight picture.
If you’re learning to shoot, or teaching someone new to shoot it shouldn’t be an issue at all. Identify the strong eye and tech/learn to shoot that side.
have you tried utilizing and eye patch on your dominant eye? as in, place an eye patch on your left eye, and therefore you have to utilize just you weak eye (right)… I would think doing this pretty frequently could help with using your weak eye… mainly because you aren’t stuck squinting, you can leave both eyes open but only utilize the right one… I’ve heard this helps a lot with distance shooting… reduces eye fatigue from squinting, also helps with parallax issues
I am a both eyes open proponent. It is a far superior way to shoot efficiently and effectively. I also instruct everyone I teach to shoot a long gun from the same side as their dominant eye. You can teach weapon manipulation much easier and effectively than trying to change or adapt eye dominance. If you are a target shooter or competitive shooter then taping your glasses or whatever will work but it is not an acceptable option for combat or LE work.
Matt