i'd say it would be easier to let them shot left handed. it's just like a dominant hand. it is easier to use the dominant hand then try to change it. i should know about it. my dominant hand is right. i had an accident with it that i could not use it for 6 mo. and had to use the left. that was 8 years ago. i still don't have full use of my right hand and i can't do all the stuff i with my left hand. so i use both now. also the dominant hand is the stongest. so it should be with the dominant eye. besides how can you tell which eye is the dominant one.

We went to the range today, and she shot left handed. She did great! She tried first to shoot with both eyes open, (a friend suggested this), right handed, not so good the left eye wants to take over. I think you can get a correct sight picture with the subordinate eye but it fades in and out, because some shots were good, and she said she was struggling.

Thanks for the reply darkwolf, sorry to hear about your hand.

The easiest way to find the dominant eye is to hold a finger up and fix it on an object, ( like you were aiming at the object) close one eye then the other, if you are right eye dominate, your finger will still be on target when you close your left eye. I noticed my kids when they wanted to put their heads over top of the stock and look through the sights with the left eye, holding the gun in a right handed hold. Both kids write and throw right handed so I just assumed, they were right eye dominant.

 

MASTER EYE:

This is really for some of our female members who are new to the sport of shooting, and are not aware of some of the finer points in how to shoot faster, and better. Most individuals depend more on one eye than the other. The eye that is most used is usually referred to as the master eye. The master eye often, though not always, has greater visual acuity and therefore provides a sharper, more precise focus on the sights. The first step toward better shooting is to determine which is the master eye. Most often the master eye will be the same as the dominant hand. To find out which eye is the master eye, pick out an object across the room such as a light switch. Make a circle with your thumb and forefinger. With both eyes open and your arm extended, center the object in the circle. Now, alternately close one eye, then the other. The master eye is the one for which the object remains centered. Most likely you will find that the master eye and the dominant(shooting) hand are the same, which is what you want. If, it turns out that this is NOT the case, let me know or email me, and I will explain something you can do to help you and/or correct the situation.

Most novice shooters develop the habit of closing or squinting one eye while aiming. Most top level shooters keep both eyes open while shooting. Research done by a bunch of people(which I won't name here) indicated that closing one eye had several negative effects. Closing one eye results in straining of the eyelid muscles for both eyes. Pressure from the eyelid on the shooting eye causes a decrease in visual acuity. When one eye is closed, the pupil of the other eye dilates involuntarily in order to gather more light. The strain of keeping one eye closed during the many shots fired in long practice sessions is fatiguing, particularly for beginning shooters.This reduction in acuity is on an average of 20% reduction.One solution would be to "BLOCK" the vision of the other eye by simply placing a strip of transparent tape across the lens of your shooting glasses over the NON-MASTER eye.The tape serves to reduce the acuity of that eye just enough to allow the master eye to take over aiming, while retaining the binocular vision and other advantages of having both eyes open. I hope this helps out those of you whom are NOT aware of the difference in your eyes.

Most of the people that I know shoot with one eye closed. I will tell them all of the time that you are putting a strain on the eye and that is not good.  Find the dominant eye and shoot with both eyes open.  Practice shooting this way and you'll find out this is the only wasy you will want to shoot as firearm.  Practice sitting outside and follow a moving object ex. (birds flying).  Keep it in the field of view of your scope.  Learn to pick them up while the are on the move .  For sure you will become a better shooter. No Eye Strain.

There's good information on eyes and shooting above in this section, and I have another bit to add way below for those who wear bi-focals.  First, I want to stress as extremely important what was covered about finding and using one's dominant eye.

In my case, I'm right-handed and left-eyed, but early-on was taught in junior NRA to shoot rifles and shotguns left-handed to accommodate my "affliction."  With practice, I learned to to be ambidextrous with handguns.  The right-hand bolt action on an XP-100 pistol is perfect for shooting left handed -- and I suspect Sam Colt must have been a lefty, as he positioned his SAA's loading gate perfectly for port-side handling.

Standard bolt-action rifles are somewhat inconvienient, but not so much that I'd give up using my dominant eye.  Lots of rifle manufacturers now offer left-hand models of their bolt-actions.

John Browning might have been another lefty, as so many of his designs are ambidextrous -- the '79 and '85 highwalls, '92 and '94 lever-actions, and superposed shotguns are some, my hunting and saddle guns.

I'm pushing 60, and my eyes -- as well as other things -- don't work so well anymore.  As I went to biofocals to read near and see far, I just adjusted the focus ring on my scopes, but my open sights shooting went to Hades in a handbasket.  The best shooters focus on that front sight, and I couldn't -- until my eye-doc put a trifocal on my left spec-lens. 

Wow!  My competition scores went up again, and I could actually hit again with my iron-sighted carbines and rifles.  I know alternate sights are available -- laser-dots, long-eye relief scopes and such -- but the extra window in my glasses focused a yard from my nose cured everything without me having to alter my guns (also, some Cowboy Competition events won't allow such modern do-dads as lasers and scoped sixguns).

I agree about point-and-shoot up-close.  In one steel-shooting event, the pepper-popper targets are at 7 yards and those who tend to aim tend to lose.  The same is often true in a close people-type confrontations.  A big HOWEVER is as the range increases to 17-25 yards and beyond, those who don't focus on their front sights often come in second best -- not a good standing in a fire-fight.  I know opinions differ, and this is just one borne of many years on the range, in combat, and in law enforcement.

I'm left handed, right eye dominant. after 3 yrs in the Marine Corps. I switched from training to the left hand hold to training right eye shooting.  Now I shoot gun AND bow right handed, and golf ambidextis.  Something about Lefties being only ones in our right mind!  Easier to acquire targets, easier 2-eye open shooting and other added dimensions in my shooting form were improved to be more natural.  Again , its recommended to train to the eye- NOT the hand.  M1 Abrams tank has unique feature of slaving the gun to the sight,  this allows use of other features to incorporated into the ballistic computer- cant,meteorological data, thermal sights, muzzle boresight device, STAB & auto lead, laser ranging,Elevation- Uncouple, weapon selection, etc.  if u can see it, u can hit it, and kill it!  Work your shooting Discipline.  

Thanks, that is a great explanation.

It never occurred to me that someone could be right handed and left eye dominant. When my daughter was having so much trouble, I needed to think about it. (What a terrible over sight on my part.)

If you watch my daughter she naturally picks guns up right handed.

Shooting left handed is the right way to go, it made things a lot easier for her.

The next complaint I got was the eye fatigue, like you said beginners try to shut one eye. I don't shut one eye when I shoot.

I guess I'm not a very good teacher, I take too many things for granted and don't really break things down far enough, and transfer that info.

Thanks again for the help, and great info on the bifocals too. With open sights I will usually shoot with out my glasses, but I know I am missing some things I shouldn't be.

Thanks again.

 

Hey, Hows it goin?  I am a Strong right hander, have been all my life.  I Just recently discovered that I am Left eye dominant and I'm wondering what you would recomend?  Left eye dominance seems to have many disadvantages, it even interfears with reading.  Any Ideas as how to switch it up?

 

Thanks!

Mike