Helping new shooter

JayMcB

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I have a neighbor who just got his LTC.

He's experiencing a hard time figuring out which is his dominant eye, and when he 'closes one eye', his groups are all far to the right. The group isn't bad, but it's way off to the right

He has been shown sight picture, has a pretty good (Cloverleaf per Stu) grip, etc but he is a hot mess with a pistol at even 15 feet. It isn't the gun (G19) because I'm mediocre with a pistol and I can put rounds in the black with it. Same gun, same mag, same box of ammo, same lane, etc,

Are there any tips or a pistol primer I can show him? New shooter, want to keep him in the fold.

As an FYI, once I went over Appleseed basics, he's perfectly OK on target when shooting a rifle (AR or 10-22) with a scope or irons.
 
To figure out eye dominance, with both eyes open cover a distant object with the finger tip of your outstretched arm. Then close one eye at a time. The image will not shift with your dominant eye open.

Is he a righty or lefty? Show him a pistol troubleshooting target. It might help narrow down what's going on.
 
To figure out eye dominance, with both eyes open cover a distant object with the finger tip of your outstretched arm. Then close one eye at a time. The image will not shift with your dominant eye open.

Is he a righty or lefty? Show him a pistol troubleshooting target. It might help narrow down what's going on.

Lefty. Will try the distant object test.
 
The other way you can sort dominance is to make a little peephole with both hands with arms outstretched, and look at an object. Slowly draw hands back with both eyes open, and make sure that you NEVER lose sight of object. When you get all the way back your hands will have peephole over dominant eye.
 
yeah, usually it's pretty easy to figure out which is the dominant eye. Good advice on that above. The real PITA is when one of your kids is cross eye dominant. And you as the dad keeps forgetting which kid it is...lmao... "No daddy, she's the one that's screwed up not me...." what can you do... I'll have to put a green sticker on one of them....lol
 
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I will say that I don't typically find eye dominance to be a HUGE issue with pistol. There is usually something else going on. Obviously, it's a little more complicated with rifle.


The Army forced me to shoot left handed because I am left eye dominant and ambidextrous. I have since found it more convenient and comfortable to shoot right handed. For me, training the non-dominant eye was easier starting with pistol then reinforced with rifle. I started by taping my shooting glasses on the lens for my left eye bc I would get headaches trying to force it with both eyes open. I can now shoot with a red dot both eyes open if I maintain focus on the target but the slightest distraction will shift focus to my dominant eye. I have found that eye training is just another part of the whole package and just as important as trigger control for me. On long strings of rifle shooting I often lose focus and need to reset because my dominant eye just naturally takes over. It is a constant struggle to train my eyes but it does get easier with time and practice.

Bottom line is if they can train their eyes while they learn to shoot, things will be much easier down the line. Whatever you do, don't suggest shooting like Hickock45: Cross-eye, cross-hand Weaver.
 
Why would eye dominance matter if he's shooting with one eye open? With one eye open he's either lining up the sights or he's not... right?
 
Why would eye dominance matter if he's shooting with one eye open? With one eye open he's either lining up the sights or he's not... right?

This is the problem. OK with an AR with a Red dot, and a 10-22 with a Rimfire scope.

Pistol is shooting left handed, G19, groups all to the right (barely on paper). I can take the same Glock and be fine.
 
This is the problem. OK with an AR with a Red dot, and a 10-22 with a Rimfire scope.

Pistol is shooting left handed, G19, groups all to the right (barely on paper). I can take the same Glock and be fine.

shooting to the right shooting left handed.....sounds like hes death gripping the gun before he breaks the shot...
try it take your pistol hold it up then death grip it....it will tend to dip low and to the right shooting lefty.
 
I'd take a look at grip, watch him dry fire, then snapcaps randomly loaded in a mag to see whats going on.
PistolChartL1t.jpg
 
I recall having a conversation with a firearms instructor that has way more experience than me teaching and shooting, and he said those charts were designed for shooting one handed. I did some digging, and Todd Green wrote a pretty good article about it.

http://pistol-training.com/archives/292

I don't use these charts when I teach personally.
 
I recall having a conversation with a firearms instructor that has way more experience than me teaching and shooting, and he said those charts were designed for shooting one handed. I did some digging, and Todd Green wrote a pretty good article about it.

http://pistol-training.com/archives/292

I don't use these charts when I teach personally.

Do you have one you use with the Stu grip?
 
I recall having a conversation with a firearms instructor that has way more experience than me teaching and shooting, and he said those charts were designed for shooting one handed. I did some digging, and Todd Green wrote a pretty good article about it. http://pistol-training.com/archives/292 I don't use these charts when I teach personally.
Good article and I agree, they aren't perfect.

When I first started shooting pistols a few years ago, I was frustrated and looking for tips and stumbled across one of those targets. It didn't necessarily help me nail down one specific issue, but it did help me understand that there is a lot more to it than just "you're flinching" or "too much trigger finger". Just seeing all the different things that could go wrong opened my eyes to how important everything was.
 

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