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Your Dominant Eye...an Experiment

Trebor657

Trebor657

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Read an article recently concerning identifying your dominant eye to increase accuracy and if you may be a cross-dominant shooter. I am a right-handed shooter and never really thought about it but found that I am in fact a cross dominant shooter without even realizing it; that is even though I shoot right-handed, I use my left eye for the sight picture. Cross dominant shooters sacrifice some accuracy and according to the article, identifying your dominant eye allows you to perfect your accuracy and increases your confidence as a shooter.

There is a simple test to determine your preferred eye. With both eyes open, look at an object about 5' to 10' away from you (I used a wall light switch). While staring at the object, extend both arms in front of your face and form a triangle with your hands by connecting your pointer fingers and thumbs. Keep both eyes open and position your hands so the object is in the center of the triangle. Slowly bend your elbows and pull your arms toward your face, keeping the hand triangle. When your hands are about a foot from your face, stop your arms. Close your left eye. If you see the object in the center of the triangle, you are right-eye dominant. If the other way around, you are left eye dominant.

I did this test and found I was right eye dominant even though I naturally favor my left eye without realizing it. I took this information and went to the range. I made a conscience choice and first shot as I normally do with the left eye (pic below) and then shot with the right eye (pic below)....I could hardly believe the difference....Although, at times I caught myself naturally using the left eye, I adjusted and had much better accuracy....Targets were at 25 feet with 115 grain FMJ target ammo....

The non-dominant eye issue can be overcome with adaptation and training....It make take a little while, but the results are well worth the effort in my opinion....
 

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I learned i was cross dominant before i started shooting which helped. i shoot with both eyes open. When shooting this way i usually end up a little left of the target. If i close either eye my shots tend to land more “on target”. It is fine for what i ishoot pistols for, home defense. As long as my group is around center mass at 5-10 yds i’m fine with that.
When i started with rifles i just taught myself how to shoot left handed from the start. I am equally accurate righty or lefty with a rifle shooting from a bench or off hand. When i shoot rifles right hand i close my left eye.
 
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Done similar tests many times, always the same, left eyed and left hand dominant. HOWEVER... my dominant shooting hand due to training, is my right hand. My father taught me since very young to shoot and play sports right handed. He drilled it into me hard because in his experience, 60 years ago, good left handed sporting equipment was harder to come by. Right or wrong that is why he pushed me to right handed things.

The past few years I have been training myself up on my left handed shooting and doing very well with it.
 
So I just discovered I'm left eye dominant (stupid test) but been shooting righthanded, right eye all my life (almost 67 years young).

I can see moving a handgun over to the left eye easy enough (after practice, practice, etc.) but how does a righthanded shooter get his left eye across the rifle comfortably?
 
Annihilator said:
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I don’t get this cross eyed dominant….what do you mean? 😬😬😬😬
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everyone has a dominant eye, like a dominant hand. even people that are ambi still have a side they favor. Eye dominance breaks down thus. basically one eye focuses on a subject, and the other inputs the depth of field data to your brain. with both eyes open hold out your hand with index finger up like a sight, and align it with an object further away, like a lamp or a tree. close one eye, then the other. you dominant eye will keep the object inline with your finger while having your non dominant eye open will cause the object to jump to the side. There are a few ways to over come this if you are cross dominant. one is shooting both eyes open, and some people will put frosted tape over the lens of their glasses on the eye they dont sight with. for hand guns you can shoot across the body to take advantage of using your dominants eye if you are cross dominant. the use of optics has negated a lot of the effect of eye dominance. If you have never shot without an optic, and are not aware that you are cross dominant, you will be in for a surprise when and if you have to go to irons.
 
Bear007 said:
So I just discovered I'm left eye dominant (stupid test) but been shooting righthanded, right eye all my life (almost 67 years young).

I can see moving a handgun over to the left eye easy enough (after practice, practice, etc.) but how does a righthanded shooter get his left eye across the rifle comfortably?
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My accuracy with a handgun improved when I figured it out and mitigated it. Also with a beaded shotgun.

I think people make a bigger deal of it than it is, especially these days in the military where they try to make you switch hands.

The fix is a lot easier than that. Line up the gun in front of your dominant eye. It's that simple. You can cant your head a tad or just retrain your draw to bring the gun up a smidge to the left, in front of your your left eye.
 
Bassbob said:
My accuracy with a handgun improved when I figured it out and mitigated it. Also with a beaded shotgun.

I think people make a bigger deal of it than it is, especially these days in the military where they try to make you switch hands.

The fix is a lot easier than that. Line up the gun in front of your dominant eye. It's that simple. You can cant your head a tad or just retrain your draw to bring the gun up a smidge to the left, in front of your your left eye.
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Seems easy enough. I'll start handgun retraining at the range after my hunting season is over. Glad I just picked up another 1000 rounds, I might be a slow learner. 🤣
 
Bear007 said:
Seems easy enough. I'll start handgun retraining at the range after my hunting season is over. Glad I just picked up another 1000 rounds, I might be a slow learner. 🤣
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Start by training yourself to shoot with both eyes open ( if you don't already). That's 3/4 of the battle right there. You can do this without firing a single round by the way. Practice your draw and concentrate on your target first, the front sight next and then the rear sights. After you do this a few times you will begin to see how you can keep your sight picture with both eyes open. Then it's just a matter of keeping your sight picture in front of your left eye. Which you can also do without ever firing a shot.

That's how I did it. The first time I actually went to the range with this new technique my accuracy was immediately improved. It's also how I figured out why shooting a bead sight shotgun from the left side improved my accuracy.
 
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