Left eye dominant, should learn to shoot left?

[throttleman]

Hello,

I am looking for advice on training my seven year old son to shoot.  He holds long guns right handed, but I have found him to be left eye dominant which makes aiming a real problem.  Any advice and/or personal experience is welcome.  Thanks!

[Don Fischer]

Piece of cake. Have him shoot with his left eye closed! Really!

[Siskiyou]

I inadverterently found out I was left eye dominant at Boy Scout Camp.  My best friend who is left handed out shoot me.  So I tried shooting left handed, guess what my scores got better.  When we returned home I told my Dad about my discovery.  He hand been reading about the problem in Outdoor Life.  He supported me being a left-handed shooter.  To the point that he bought me a Remington M760 deer rifle.

Over the years I learned to shoot both right and left handed.  As a LEO it was to my advantage.  Because I could approach a corner or doorway and cover it and maintain protective cover for my self.  If you are just right handed, or left handed you are at a disadvantage.  

I have used a number of right handed bolt action rifles, and pump rifles, and shotguns who are ideally setup for a righthand shooter.  Rather then shed tears over the problem it became an advantage.  One must learn some skill levels but it makes one a better shooter.

It did get me beefed one time.  As a LEO I carried my handgun on the right side.  At a range session with a bunch of rookie female officers we were shooting clay birds with 870's.  Being they were rookies they did not have the same level of experience as I had with the 870.  While they all tried, a few had some problems hitting the birds.  When it came my turn I broke my birds shooting left-handed.  I was accused of sexism.  BooHooo!

Closing the left eye will work, but better yet help him learn to shoot from both sides.

[Don Fischer]

I'll go along with that. I shoot mostly right but have taught myself to shoot either way. In Illinois some years ago, maybe still today, the state police were required to start carrying their service weapons on the left side. The state claimed it put the weapon out of reach of a passenger. My question is, what is a passenger you have to worry about doing in the front seat?

Actually the only thing I can't do well left handed is throw.

[Siskiyou]

In Illinois some years ago, maybe still today, the state police were required to start carrying their service weapons on the left side. The state claimed it put the weapon out of reach of a passenger. My question is, what is a passenger you have to worry about doing in the front seat?
quote]

1.  Butt forward is an invitation to grab an officer's weapon.  Illinois is not the only State that tried that carry.  It cost officer's their lives. If I spotted an officer in uniform carrying a cross draw holster, I would be concerned for his and my safety.  A lot more is know about officer safety now then in the past.  Law enforcement does learn from it's mistakes.  Of course standards vary across the country.

2.  If an officer has a vehicle with a cage carrying a "searched" prisioner in the back seat is the way to go.  But I normally had a SUV and was working alone.  I treated prisoners right, but I was not in the comfort business.  If a prisoner was in the back seat they were hard to see.  I put them handcuffed behind their back in the front passenger seat.  A loop was rapped around both legs and anchored to a eye bolt in the floor.    "It" was then seat belted in.  Without a cage a prisoner unwatched is more of a threat in the back seat.  

A second prisioner would be secured in the same manner in the right rear passenger seat.  The preferred method was to request a car with a cage in it.  The cost of a good cage beats the cost of a funeral.

Officers have been know to get into accidents while transporting prisoners.  The prisioner is safer when seatbelted in and they are in compliance with most State laws.

The officer with the cage car is normally very unhappy when the prisoner does a big one in his shorts.  That is life.

[GregP42]

My son is also left eye dominant, we taught him to shoot left handed as a child, (Well we did when my X wasn't around!) He does better lefthanded than right. He shoots rifles left handed and pistols right handed without problems and he uses his left eye to aim with on both. Teach him to shoot lefthanded, it will work out just fine.

Greg

[dukkillr]

it's easier to learn to shoot left handed (As i did) that constantly compensate (like shooting with your strong eye closed).

I can't think of a reason not to teach him to shoot the way most left eye dominate shooters do, left handed.

[Don Fischer]

I can't think of a reason not to teach him to shoot the way most left eye dominate shooters do, left handed.

I can. There's a lot better selection of right handed rifles than left.

[dukkillr]

But you can shoot right handed rifles left handed.  This very slight disadvantage is far outweighed by the ability to learn to shoot shotguns with both eyes open.  Plus there are enough left handed rifles available to remove that as an excuse.  

Shooting a shotgun is a far more instinctual skill than shooting a rifle.  Learning to shoot a shotgun wrong would be much harder to undue than learning to shoot a right handed rifle left handed.

[Val]

I'm left eye dominant and shoot right handed. I wish I was aware of the eye dominance issue when young. I would have learned to shoot left handed. It's not a problem with scoped rifles where I close my left eye. It's a real problem with shotgun shooting. A couple of years ago I put tape on the left lens of my shooting glasses and started shooting with both eyes open. My trap and skeet shooting scores improved significantly. I use the taped lens in the field when bird hunting. Unfortunately, I.m well beyond the age for retraining or I would try to learn to shoot lefty.

I would recommend that you teach your son to shoot left handed with both eyes open.

[rebAL]

Piece of cake. Have him shoot with his left eye closed! Really!

  I've been shooting right handed all my life with no problem even though I learned later on that I'm left eye dominant.  I am naturally right handed so it is more natural for me to shoot right handed.  If I were a lefty I would shoot left handed.  To me it's more important to shoot the way it feels more natural regardless of eye dominance as long as you have no visual handi-cap.

[.308sniper]

I started out left dominant and a started to shoot with it closed and now my problem is solved.

[dukkillr]

if you're going to shoot shotguns, particularly in fast shooting situations (ie, not trap) you're better off shooting with your strong eye, that's because the second eye won't obstruct your sighting and will allow faster target aquisition.  If you're going to shoot mostly rifles it probably doesn't matter much.  Again, if you're a young shooter starting out, I can't think of a reason not to start out using your strong eye.

[handyman06]

i am right handed left eye dominant, i shot left handed untill i was about 22 years old and a motorcycle wreck messed up my left arm. now im 28 and have retrained myself to shoot right handed. in the beginning shooting clays was the hardest because i would throw the shotgun up to my right shoulder and close my right eye then switch and that wouldnt look right so id bounce back and forth and end up not even shooting. left eye dominance can be overcome, i now shoot on par with my old self, but i think the left eye right hand shooter has the advantage. your strong arm is controlling the aim on an offhand shot and your weak arm only has to pull the trigger. also if you are shooting from the drivers seat assuming you live in the U.S. it is much easier. id let him shoot left handed, but use a right handed rifle, if he learns with it it will always seem natural

[jwinva]

I'm mostly right-handed but shoot left-handed with long guns as my right eye has poor vision.It has rarely caused me a problem in gun handling.My Dad also bought me a Remington 760 in 30/06 when I was 21.I mostly deer hunt with it or a Marlin 336 but use my right hand bolts,too.AS a side note ,My son is ambidextrous but is more left-handed as a first choice and he shoots right handed.

[jpsmith1]

I'm cross dominant and was taught to shoot left.  It's the most natural thing in the world for me now.  I'm 31 and truly have to make an effort to shoulder a rifle right handed.  Since I was younger than your son, I shot left and haven't ever tried to shoot right.  Once, with a bow, I tried it and missed by many feet at 10 yards.

In order to aim and shoot well, you must use your dominant eye.  You could retrain him to use his right eye, but that would be akin to teaching a left handed kid to write right handed.  He is the way that he is, deal with it and accept it.  There are plenty of lefty rifles out there, I just don't have any.  Never needed one.  Pumps, levers and single shots are good options as are autoloaders, if you can't find a lefty bolt gun.

[SDS-GEN]

I'm cross-eye dominatnt/right handed, the only time it has ever bothered me is shotgunning.  I learned to squint my left eye when the gun came up.  Now I have no problemshooting with both eyes open.

[wyohandi]

My 7 year old daughter is left eye dominant right handed, she got so frustrated trying to shoot right handed
she didn't want to try anymore. So I got her shooting left handed now I can't keep 22 shells in the house!
I guess when your young its not very hard to adapt, bought her a left handed bow (try to set one of those up when your
a righty) I think I know what she was going through. Do whatever it takes to get and keep them shooting