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Eye dominance issue

2K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  InfernoMDM 
#1 ·
I am a relatively new shooter and am struggling with eye dominance. (right handed-right eye dominant)

Everything I read about combat shooting says that both eyes must remain open when acquiring a sight picture. When I practice this, I cannot even see the front sight with both eyes open.

Can anyone recommend some exercises to help me get over this eye dominance issue? I'm just not exactly sure where to start. :confused:

Thank you!
 
#2 ·
This can be a tricky issue. Most would say either to take you protective shooting glasses and put a piece of tape over your "off hand" or "weak hand" side and then train your other eye muscle to adjust accordingly. (If you are a right handed, put tape over left lens and this will help train you right eye to adjust).

If your left eye IS your strong/dominant eye you may be better off training yourself to shoot left handed.

Check out these links...
http://www.trapshooters.com/cfpages/thread.cfm?threadid=129890&messages=11

http://www.easyhit.com/misc/MasterEyeDominanceArticle.pdf

http://www.basc.org.uk/content/eye_dominance
 
#5 ·
Buddy went from the marines and then to blackwater. Blackwater finally told him he was left eye dominat and to switch hands. He cant shoot as well as I can (thankfully), but he has gotten alot better. Transitions are a pain in the ass but once you do, your now a ambi shooter, and probably better. That means your better then 95 of the police. Us lefties have it made because were always forced to shooting off handed and learning off handed.
 
#6 ·
I am right-eye dominant and right handed. Will the tape-over-the-glasses on the weak eye technique still work for this?
Yes it will help strengthen you dominant eye if you are truly right-eye dominant. If you are left-eye dominant then most would suggest switching shooting hand. I am right-eye dominant but have trained myself to be ambi with both hands. Only problem I run into is that I really have to focus with my right eye when shooting because my dominance tends to switch...not good for competition shooting.
 
#8 ·
eye ... what?

Don't worry abuot it.
I shot olympic pistol for 18 years and did it the only way:
right hand-right eye.

but when I use a defensive pistol I shoot with my left eye, right hand. So what?
I also won a few of idpa style matches that way and nobody complained.

And when speaking with my friend Gabe Suarez about this isuuse (riught eye, left eye, one eye open.. two eyes open) we agreed in one thing:

The only thing you must not do is to shoot with both eyes closed. The rest is irrelevant as long as you use a correct technique.

Sorry if I am a little irreverent here, but nobody remembers how did he shoot when he was doing it for his life.
At least not the ones I have spoken with.

Saludos.
 
#9 ·
This discussion is definitely an eye-opener (pun intended).
I have been shooting pistols now for about twenty months with an average of one range trip per month. Prior to that I hadn?t shot a rifle since I left Viet Nam in 1969. In other words, I?m very much in the learning phase.
What I did do during the intervening years was astronomical telescope viewing. Conventional wisdom is to use one?s dominant eye on the eyepiece with the other open. and glasses on. This works well if there is no other light nearby but is next to useless for city-bound observation. I was always most comfortable using my other (left) eye and closing my right eye while using the scope?s own focusing capability to sharpen the image instead of my glasses (astigmatism notwithstanding). With my small telescope I somehow managed to spot and identify all the major planets out to Neptune and in to Mercury, major moons of Jupiter and Saturn as well as details of Saturn?s rings, close binary stars including some with faint companions, and all 109 (110?) Messier Catalogue clusters, nebulae and galaxies.
The point is that now my tendency is to close my right eye and aim with my left while shooting right handed. Of course I need to modify this when shooting a stocked Artillery Luger or C96 using my right eye. I find that, with the benefit fine accurate mostly German guns, my target shooting is improving a lot. My concern is that in a truly defensive situation I would want to keep both eyes open and be sure of my aim. The obvious answer is to practice more with both eyes open and use my dominant eye to aim.
Practice, practice, practice.;)

Russell
 
#10 ·
I'm still new and inexperienced enough to not know what I'm doing right or wrong. From what I've read and experienced so far, point shooting seems to be my best way of shooting. I wear bifocals and have problems focusing through them frequently. When concentrating on the front sight its much easier for me to do with my right eye open and left eye closed. When point shooting both eyes open works best, but I'm spending less time aiming. I'm not a great shot either way yet, but I am keeping all rounds on the target paper much more often now. I used to always have a few rounds off the paper and through the cardboard.
 
#11 ·
I don't think any of the major classes train point shooting anymore. Basicly put the front sight on the target, and focus on the front sight only. When everything is in line pull the trigger. If you can focus on the front sight you can hit just about anything.

Point shooting is for extremely close shooting, like body contact to a few feet. Do some more research on the subject if not we have a few good guys who can explain my above info in greater, better detail.
 
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