Do any of you cross dominant shooters have this problem?

[stevieboy]

I'm cross dominant, meaning that my left eye is my dominant eye but I'm right handed. In order to shoot right handed but line my left eye up with the sights I must tilt my head to the right with my face at a slight angle to the line formed by the gun and my arms. I use an isoceles stance; that minimizes the aiming problems. Anything else makes them worse.

I'm a pretty good shot, except that I have a tendency to shoot everything to the left of my imagined point of aim. It's not an enormous problem but noticeable. Even when I'm shooting well and putting everything in the 10 ring all of my shots will be on the left hand side of the ring. The tendency increases with distance. At 10 yards it's barely noticeable but at 25 yards my shots are consistently a couple of inches to the left of my imagined point of aim.

If I shoot left handed, the problem more or less disappears.

I've tried shifting my rear sight to the right in order to compensate. That helps. But, with the rear sights moved to the right, if I switch the gun to my left hand my left handed shots suddenly go way to the right. I'd prefer not to deal with that issue.

So, my question to those of you who, like I, are cross-dominant is -- have you encountered this problem of shooting consistently to the left? And how do you deal with it?

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

Yep, I have the exact same problem. Right handed, left eyed and I shoot left with iron sights.

As far as dealing with it, well, all my rifles have scopes and I figure that with iron sights on a handgun if I want to hit the middle of a piece of paper then I'll aim a little to the right. Sometimes I just close my left eye and shoot with the right, which works just fine too.( I can outshoot plenty of "you must keep both eyes open!" guys) If (God forbid) I ever need my gun for real, I don't think my intended target will be very concerned about the shots being a bit off-center.

 

[curt.45]

I used an eye patch two or three times and it "fixed" me, for lack of a better way to put it.

 

[Jim March]

Cross-dominant here, left eye and right hand.

I shoot from a Weaver, and either use the "close and fast" drill with elbows bent, gun tilted left about 15degrees to meet my left eye, OR I straighten everything out for best accuracy and flop my head over against my right bicep in what I call the "cheek weld Weaver". This is the most stable standing shooting platform I've used without bracing against something else.

 

[Sixer]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant as well. For me it always felt more natural to sight with my left eye but I really didn't like having to compensate for it. I never tried the eye patch thing, instead I just made myself close my left eye when aiming. I did this alot at home as well as at the range and it eventually felt more natural. Just because you're cross dominant doesn't mean you can't teach yourself to use your right eye.

 

[Quentin2]

I also have a dominant left eye but am right handed. For long guns I'm forced to use my right eye and it works out fine. I do need to close my left eye.

But with a handgun I bring it over slightly to let my left eye take over. Interesting how we're all different - I've never had to aim right to bring shots to the center of the target. With either eye I can line up a handgun and it pretty much shoots where I aim it, but when I don't think about it I always bring it to the left eye (same thing with a viewfinder camera).

Anyway it's not been much of a handicap for me with rifles or pistols.

 

[Couzin]

If SHTF, you ain't got time to think about tilting your head, closing whatever eye, etc - learn to shoot handguns with both eyes WIDE open. Rifle and shotguns - different solutions there depending on what is being done - hunting, clays, SD.

 

[Doyle]

When shooting a handgun (either iron or scope), I use my left eye. When shooting a long gun, I squint my left eye which forces my right eye to take over. This works pretty well except for crossing shots with a shotgun. With crossing shots, I'm generally going to miss.

 

[NavyLT]

I am left eye dominant, right handed. I use the isosceles stance, I just bring the gun over to my left eye. I still have my head straight up, and everything seems to work ok. I use my right eye when shooting a rifle, with or without a scope.

 

[Brian Pfleuger]

If SHTF, you ain't got time to think about tilting your head, closing whatever eye, etc - learn to shoot handguns with both eyes WIDE open.

You're going to shoot the way you learned to shoot. There is no "thinking" involved. It doesn't matter how you do it, it matters that it works.

I had a skeet instructor give me that nonsense about insisting that I keep both eyes open, this after a life time of shooting. Well, I tried it his way for about 2 months and the best I did was like 7 out of 25. I finally said to heck with this nonsense, and shot the way I'd shot since I was about 5 years old. First time out I shot 16 of 25, three weeks later I was averaging 19 out of 25, by our 13th week I was the best in our class.

 

[MrBorland]

In order to shoot right handed but line my left eye up with the sights I must tilt my head to the right with my face at a slight angle to the line formed by the gun and my arms. I use an isoceles stance; that minimizes the aiming problems.

Here's something I'm not yet quite getting: If you're using an isosceles stance, with the gun held directly in front of you, and each arm forming the same angle relative to your body, the position of the gun, relative to either eye, would be the same whether you were shooting left- or right-handed. So, why do you have to shift your head? If you're left eye dominant, your left eye ought to line up with the sights without shifting your head.

At any rate, one possibility is that you're pushing the trigger with your right finger, but don't realize it because, with your head shifted as it is, you're looking out of the side of your left eye, and therefore more out of your peripheral vision, so you lose the fine detail of the sight picture. You'd detect this during dry fire if you watch very closely.

 

[Stevie-Ray]

Left-eye dominant, right handed; same problem

I used an eye patch two or three times and it "fixed" me, for lack of a better way to put it.

I've heard good things about those translucent stickers and I'm going to try them out on shotgun, the one thing that I totally suck at. Like peetza, I'm pretty sick of people telling me I'm doing it wrong; usually my scores are far better than theirs. What works, works. Only gun I leave both eyes open with is my EOTech equipped AR.

 

[hardluk1]

For handguns and a two hand grip just move the gunover a bit,ain't a big deal other than just practice at first. I use to lean my head till i was asked why? Then it made sents not to lean . NO that fancey one handed hold don't happen here except to practice for a one hand defensive hold to shot. Just don't think to hard about that it. Rifle is mainly right eye and i do practice left eye for a close up deer, under 200 yards , for when i can't move. Try this for your handgun. Set in your office chair with your handgun and a two hand hold that you use, empty of course Point at the screen right eyed and just swivel your chair till your still on target but left eyed. If both arms are unlocked you will rotate right onto target.

 

[maustypsu]

Nope

I shoot with both eyes open most of the time. But do practice with just my left eye. I have not noticed a significant shift from point of aim. Definitely do not think that I find myself leaning at all. I learned to shoot with my right eye taped up on my shooting goggles.

 

[m&p45acp10+1]

Left eyed here and I just learned to shoot left handed from the get go. My grampa spotted that I was left eye dominant so he taught me to shoot left handed. I can hit anything I shoot at rifle, postol, shot gun, or bow.
Try to train yourself to shoot left handed.

 

[J.Netto]

I am also left eye dominant and right handed, I've never had a problem shooting to the left. And, I've never had to close one eye. I guess I'm just used to shooting that way.

I've always heard if your left eye dominant and right handed, and shooting to the left, just kick your right foot back a couple of inches when in your shooting stance, and that should get you centered again. I have never tried this, and don't know if it really works or not.

And who's to say, in a critical incident, that you would have time to "adjust" your stance anyway. It might be worth looking into for target shooting though.

 

[stevieboy]

Shooting from an isoceles stance makes it easier to shoot cross dominant because it brings your left eye closer to the axis of the rear sights and your right arm and shoulder. But, it doesn't completely align your left eye. In order to get the proper alignment it is necessary to tilt your head slightly to the right. For those of you who are not cross dominant and who don't seem to understand this, try holding the gun in your left hand while sighting with your right eye. I think most of you will understand immediately what I'm talking about.

It's easy for those who don't have the problem to offer solutions like "learn to shoot with your right eye" or "shoot with both eyes open." But, being cross dominant means that you've spent a lifetime relying on your left eye (even though you're right handed) as your main visual point of reference. Correcting something like that isn't easy or perhaps not even possible.

In my case, my best corrected vision out of my left eye, after more than 60 years of cross dominance, is 20/20. Out of my right eye, it's 20/40. I use my left eye as my primary visual reference for reading and distance viewing. So, I'm not going to change my sighting simply by declaring that I'll "teach myself" to sight with my right eye or with both eyes open.

Btw, I shoot equally well left handed as right handed. Indeed, my scores on bullseye targets are higher when I shoot left handed and my groups are smaller from my left side. I've taught myself to shoot ambidextrously and am quite comfortable doing it. When I shoot left handed my shots center without any problem. But, I'm a natural right hander and I simply prefer to shoot that way most of the time.

 

[JohnKSa]

I suspect that the shots being off have to do with your trigger control and not your eye dominance issue.

 

[stevieboy]

Nope. Sorry. Not a finger control issue. I've fired and dry fired 10's of thousands of rounds over the years and I think that I can pull a trigger as straight as anyone. Furthermore, when I shoot left handed (my weaker hand) I don't have the problem because I'm able to line up the sights easily with my left eye over the axis formed by the gun and my left arm. Shooting left handed I have no problems shooting to the left or to the right of my POA. But, when I shoot right handed, I suspect that my sight picture is affected by my need to lean my head over onto my right shoulder in order to visualize the sights with my left eye.

I would accept the "finger control" theory if I consistently pulled my shots to the right. I shoot mainly double action revolver and I know that lots of people tend to pull the gun in the direction of their shooting hand when they fire double action. It's a question of strength, resistance, leverage on the trigger, depth of placement of the trigger finger, etc. But, pushing the gun to the left, away from my shooting hand, is not something that I've ever experienced to my knowledge.

 

[iScream]

I've heard good things about those translucent stickers and I'm going to try them out on shotgun, the one thing that I totally suck at

Just use a little dab of chapstick where the barrel of the shotgun is in view to see if it works for you. I shoot handguns with my left eye closed but that doesn't work well with shotguns. I mostly shoot sporting clays and 5 stand so depth perception is critical and requires both eyes open.

-Chris