[Tim Williams]

I've been seriously looking at improving my shooting skills. Spending a lot more time shooting than I have ever in the past.
I've noticed lately (maybe it is because I shooting more) that my shots are not going to the point expected. Decided to test my self today. I placed a patch over my left eye while shooting my pistols. It appears that I'm right eye dominant from the point of impact difference. What do I do to correct this?

Tim

 

[Shane1911]

Can you clarify this a little more?

Make a circle with your thumb and first finger, like an "OK" sign. Stretch your arm out and look at an object across the room (light switch, etc.) through the circle you've made with your fingers. Now close one eye - is the object still visible in the circle? If so, that is your dominant eye.

Soooooooooo......what eye is your dominant one - left or right? Are you left or right handed?

How do you shoot now? I will assume that you are right handed, and hold the gun in this hand. When you bring the gun up to align the sights, do you use your right eye, or have you determined that your LEFT eye is dominant, and now you have to pull the gun to the other side of your face to aim (bringing your right arm across your body more, in order to line up the sights.)

This sounds more confusing than it is - try to give a bit more info.

It is very hard to make your weak eye the dominant one - better to keep your dominant eye as is, and change your shooting style to suit. My wife has this problem - she's right handed, but her left eye is dominant, so she pulls the gun to the other side of her face - and she kicks ass with this method.

 

[rolexman]

shane,
when you make the circle with your hand do you focus your eyes on the circle or the object...

if i focus on the object i see two circles if i place one circle on the object one eye"appears" dominant, the other circle the other eye..
when i focus on the circle, i see two objects in the distance..and same problem.. my eye sight is 20 20..so i don;t think it's that..

 

[Desert Dog]

I am a natural lefty, but my dominant eye is my right. This condition is known as being cross dominant. It is a plus for a baseball or tennis (forehand) swing, but a decided disadvantage for many other things. My solution is to shoot right handed. This is not so easy for many people, so they adopt a shooting stance like Shane's wife. I don't know of any way to change the wiring in the brain to reverse your eye dominance. :grin:

To test eye dominance, try making a triangle with the thumbs and index fingers of both hands. Focus on an object through the traingle. Close one eye while focusing and then try it with your other eye. When you close an eye and the triangle moves on you, then you are using your non-dominant eye. With your dominant eye, the triangle doesn't change positions when opening and closing the other eye.

DD

 

[Tim Williams]

I've shot a lot in the past. Never could get the accuracy I wanted and never had the time to really try. I have been shooting a lot more over the 4 months and have really started understand more and more.

I tried the circle idea. Right eye dominant I am. Right handed I shoot. I had figured right eye dominance a while back and yesterday tried the patch on the left eye to see how it might be affecting my shooting. With the left eye covered the bullets started hitting where I aimed at. That is when I did my part with proper trigger control. I guess you can say I shoot I believe its called the weaver stance. The shooting arm extended with a bend in the supporting arm.

Even thought I've shot quite a bit through the years, I've just recently became serious about improving my skills. Don't know how to correct the impact shift with closing one eye and think that extremely stupid in a tactical situation. Plan on some professional training in the fall but would like to go into these classes at least hitting exactly where I want.

Thanks,
Tim

 

[rolexman]

is it possible to not have a dominant eye...
i have always shot with my right eye, and right handed, never even considered it until the other night i was messing around with two guns (empty) and thinking how would one go about shooting with two guns at the same time (and actually aim them), would you switch between the eye's you are aiming with when you wanted to shoot the gun on that side??? that seemed inpractical but was comfortable to me..or would you jsut shoot tactically with out aiming, (point and shoot)

then dong that test today, (by the way i love this board there is so much knoweldge here) i think my right eye is dominant...but not completely.. when i do the triangle test, and close my right eye, the triangle moves (let's call it a full shift) then when i close my left eye, the triangle moves a half shift.. any insights...

 

[Shane1911]

Interesting thread, this.

I've just taken for granted that I am right handed and right eye dominant. I actually couldn't imagine any other way of shooting.

I suppose it is possible to have both eyes dominant - but very rare, I believe.

Another option is to actually close your weak eye to avoid seeing double. This is a poor solution tactically, but on the range it may help to get the groups where you want them to be. Another solution is to apply a layer or two of scotch tape to the more dominant eye lens of your shooting glasses. This way allows you to still keep both eyes open, but it forces the other eye to take on the dominant role, as the other one is slightly impaired by the tape.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Shane Kropf on 2001-05-20 18:00 ]</font>

 

[David Cosby]

To share what little I know about eye dominance...most right handed people are right eye dominant and most lefties are left eye dominant. There are widely varying degrees of dominance; some people have a strongly dominant eye while others have one eye which is barely so. To make things even more complicated, there is evidence that as we age, our dominant eye becomes less so, and in some cases control may even shift to the previously non-dominant eye.

Then there are the exceptions to the rule, cross dominant people like DD (insert obligatory snide remark correlating cross dominance with cross dressing here :grin And yes, there are those who exhibit no real dominance as mentioned above. When fitting shotgun stocks, we referred to this as central vision. The point has already been made that if a shooter is cross dominant and shoots with both eyes open, he will miss the mark by a greater or lesser distance, depending on the range. In this situation, the sufferer must either learn to shoot with the non dominant hand, force the non dominant eye to take over by using tape or Vaseline on the dominant eye lens of the shooting glasses, or by simply closing one eye.

There are some very real advantages to shooting with both eyes open. It increase our peripheral vision substantially, and without binocular vision we have no depth perception, which is necessary to estimate range.

I won't presume to address the tactical pros and cons of closing one eye when in a tactical situation (overused phrase, I know, but it seems to fit here). Tom Givens devotes a section to it in "Fighting Smarter" that makes some interesting points and is weelworth reading. Tom is one of the moderators here; perhaps he will comment.


_________________
David

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: David Cosby on 2001-05-20 17:02 ]</font>

 

[Desert Dog]

Then there are the exceptions to the rule, cross dominant people like DD (insert obligatory snide remark correlating cross dominance with cross dressing here )

-David Cosby

Hey David, that wasn't a skirt you saw me in -- it was a KILT! Honest! :grin:

DD

 

[David Cosby]

Aye, laddie, whatever ye say! Which handgun do you find carries best in a sporran? :lol:

 

[Desert Dog]

I always pack a full size pistol. This oft times prompts a blushing young lass to ask, "Laddie, would that be a pistol in your sporran, or are you gist glad to see me?" :lol:

DD

 

[David Cosby]

A bonnie plan! Now I know why Dane has been pestering me about a source for a howdah pistol. :lol:

 

[Mark Garrity]

Shane and DD,
I've tried both eye dominance tests you've mentioned when teaching police academy students. Both work, but the method I prefer to use is forming a circle or diamond with your outstretched hands, looking at an object through the "window" created, then slowly drawing your hand(s) back to your face. Your hand will automatically go to your dominant eye, even if you try to fight it.
It seems in every class, 10-15% of the shooters are cross eye dominant. This does not cause any problem with a handgun if they can adopt a stance like Shane's wife. The problem arises with a shotgun or rifle. A cross-eye dominant shooter must either learn to focus with their non-dominant eye or shoulder the firearm on their weak side and shoot weak handed when firing a long gun.
Leaning one's face across the top of a 12 guage's stock to pick up the sights is a mistake most will only make once! Placing masking tape or anything else over the shooting glasses is out of the question in any type of tactical training. If you can't incorporate it on the street in a split second reactionary situation, then don't use it on the range. Train the way you will fight and you will fight the way you trained.

Safe shooting,
Mark Garrity

 

[rolexman]

Mark,
thanks for that method...
worked great,
right handed, right eye dominant..

You're the man...

 

[Shane1911]

On 2001-05-22 11:16, rolexman wrote:
Mark,
thanks for that method...
worked great,
right handed, right eye dominant..

You're the man...

Well then, I guess you're "normal" after all ! :wink:

 

[gyp_c2]

...so

What's the quick answer...If you can't really "train" yourself to use both effectively. I'd think you're still better off to at least hit the target you've identified, you'd just better be moving more!!!!

 

[Tim Williams]

On 2001-05-23 13:44, gyp_c2 wrote:
...so

What's the quick answer...If you can't really "train" yourself to use both effectively. I'd think you're still better off to at least hit the target you've identified, you'd just better be moving more!!!!

Good one! :lol:

Tim

 

[KJA]

I am new to this forum so forgive my late reply to this topic. I am definitely left eye dominant and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shooting stances for left eye dominant people.

 

[Shane1911]

On 2001-06-12 13:40, KJA wrote:
I am new to this forum so forgive my late reply to this topic. I am definitely left eye dominant and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on shooting stances for left eye dominant people.

Welcome to the forum!

As mentioned on page 1 of this thread, assuming you are right handed, you can pull the gun over to the other side of your face and use your left eye. :smile:

 

[Shane1911]

Welcome to the forum!

As mentioned on page 1 of this thread, assuming you are right handed, you can pull the gun over to the other side of your face and use your left eye to align the sights.