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shawn706 · Member

With Christmas right around the corner, I thought I’d share a little of my experience teaching kids to shoot.

One of the most overlooked details for beginning shooters is eye dominance. Being right handed or left handed is irrelevant, eye dominance is what should determine whether you should shoot right handed or left handed. You’ll want to shoot, and teach shooting with both eyes open. If you are aiming with your non-dominant eye you will have a false sight picture. Cross dominance is quite common, and I can tell you from experience that it is worth effort to learn to shoot left handed with your dominant eye.

AirGunEric · Site Admin

How would someone determine which eye is dominant?

shawn706 · Member

The way I use is to have the person stand about 10ft away. Extend their open palms and put their hands together making a small hole between both thumbs and index fingers. Then with both eyes open I have them look at my nose through the hole. The eye that I can see is their dominate eye. There are several different ways to check but I've found this one to be the easiest.

You can do it on yourself by doing the same thing and looking at a fixed point. Then close one eye. If you can no longer see the point then you have closed your dominate eye.

Robw · Veteran Member

That is interesting. I do pest control and have to switch eyes some times
depending on whether I am shooting right handed or left handed. I notice
no difference in my accuracy (baring using a springer) though.

rsterne · Moderator

If you shoot with one eye closed, you may not notice a difference.... However, try a shotgun or archery with both eyes open and using the non-dominant eye will almost guarantee a miss.... However, I would still recommend mounting the gun on the same shoulder as your dominant eye, as it is very hard to change over should you ever need to shoot with both eyes open.... Some people have great difficulty in closing their dominant eye, and I've even seen right handed kids craning their neck over the stock to try and use their left eye.... NOT a good idea, even if in fact you can hit anything shooting that way....

Bob

shawn706 · Member

If you're using a scope it's not as big an issue, and as rsterne stated, if you close the nonaiming eye you can still make a good shot.

Slavia · Moderator

I use the same method that shawn706 described. Have the person hold the hole at arm's length and snap it up to view. Do that several times in rapid succession and the dominant eye will make itself known.

Defensive situations aside, in cases of cross-dominance it's better to go with the good eye than the good hand. The trigger finger has a relatively simple job compared to the eye.

Using a scope with the non-dominant eye doesn't guarantee success, either. In times of stress the body diminishes blood flow to the non-dominant side. If your heart rate goes up because buckzilla is standing in front of you, or maybe a Victoria's Secret model is shooting in the lane next to you - you could be partially blind in the non-dominant eye.

Hey, it could happen.

Robw · Veteran Member

I always keep both eyes open. Maybe both of my eyes are equal.