Eye dominance

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Ok I have a question. It has always been my belief that your trigger hand is also the same side as your dominant eye. So if your right eye dominant then you pull the trigger with the same side. It is how I have done it my whole life and works very well for me. So today my Sister and I went out shooting as she just bought her first pistol, a Ruger 38 special. Very nice gun as far as I am concerned. She is right eye dominant but left handed as am I. But my trigger hand is right as my right eye is dominant. She tried shooting right handed with right eye and kept shooting 12" low at 25 ft. She switched to left hand hold right eye open and was knocking the shit out of the bulls eye. Any ideas?
 
cross eye dominate is nothing out of the norm.... you have 2 choices as to how to shoot. each of you is doing 1. right hand/eye world, southpaws usually find something that works.
 
Her right hand is probably weaker and she was compensating for the shot.

If someone is concentrating on aiming a pistol down the site, like at a range, eye dominance doesnt much matter. With both eyes open and you're not actually using the sights to aim. Like in a high stress situation. You instinctually want to aim with your dominant eye. If your holding the gun on the wrong side it doesnt work well. Wing shooting it's a problem too. Using a shotgun eye dominance is way more important I'd say. I'm left eye dominant and it's a real pain. I should just leave out my left contact lens for a couple weeks and fix it haha...
 
Whatt, thanks for your input. I always thought right eye dominant right hand hold, left eye dominant left hand hold. But I was happy anyways because once she found out what worked, it worked well. She just got her LTC and this is her first firearm. I was impressed with the little Ruger 38 it held pretty tight at 20 yards. Now that's 4 more family members I got involved in shooting sports, cant wait to see who's next.
 
Jason, I can shoot either with right eye open or both eyes open. But if I try to shoot with my left eye I need a shotgun with a 12" barrel on it. Could never figure out why. recently I have had to retrain myself to shoot pistol from the way I have been shooting for years. Due to a severe left shoulder injure I can not extend my left arm all the way. So a guy at the range today suggested that I try to start shooting a style that is used by Israeli Mossad, with my left (supporting arm) tucked in tight to my rib cage for support. Which I will start trying next week. Another excuse to get to the range more.
 
"tucked in for support" is used a good amount when doing strong/weak hand only. esp in practical shooting matches(idpa,ipsc,uspsa). so ya got some good advice at the range. myself, i try to shoot 2-3 mags just strong hand, just weak hand and 2hand weak supported by strong, feels weird at first, but if ya ever need it, not having to think about it never hurts.
 
Cross eye dominance is normal, I hope. I'm cross dominant. I'm equally comfortable shooting with my left or right hand, but I favor the right because the controls on my gun are right-handed.

However, when it comes to rifles, I have to shoot left eye, left hand.
 
I'm cross dominant as well. L eye, R hand.

I think the problems are overrated, as is our way on the internet. It's more of an inconvenience, IMO.

As said above, the biggest problem is threat-focused shooting. But a threat-focused shooting will likely happen at close distances and unless you've trained extensively on getting a "flash site picture", you're going to be aiming instinctively anyway.

At the range or in competitions, either put a small piece of scotch tape on your shooting glasses over your dominant eye or just close the dominant eye when aiming. I use the tape method and it works great.

I've heard you can switch dominance by wearing a patch or something similar for a while. I suspect this will only work if you have similar eyesight in each eye. I'm going to ask my eye doctor about it next time I'm there. My hope is that using the tape method will eventually help with the switch.

I've also heard you can train yourself to use your non-dominant eye. I've had more luck with this although it takes a lot of concentration. I still have to use tape if I doing some kind of rapid fire competition.
 
Thanks for all the information. Much appreciated. Looks like I have some new things to try at the range this week.
 
The practice will reinforce the muscle memory of pointing straight with the LH and lining up the gun to her left eye. However she will instinctively be trying to aim with her right eye. She'll be using her R eye to aim looking at the side of the gun. She'll be shooting right. The muscle memory from training eye/hand just wont work together, so you'll never get that instinctual natural point and shoot. Shooting is always going to be a conscious exercise of working against your existing muscle memory.

I'm Left eye, right hand and its a royal pain. If i was just starting out i'd shoot left handed no question. It feels much more natural instinctually for me to shoot LH, but at the same time it feels odd trying to work a pistol with my LH. Shotgun i shoot LH. Rifle i shoot RH since i close one eye anyways.
 
I am a right handed person with a dominate left eye. When it comes to shooting handguns, it does not matter which hand I use to pull the trigger. For rifles and shotguns, I am definately a better shot when shooting left handed though.
 
10% of men are cross dominate, 50% of women are. It's very important in clay target shooting. I always teach new shooters to shoot on the side of the dominate eye. Converting older shooters doesn't often work and tape dots work wonders.
 
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