Left eye dominant, right handed?

[xsn10s]

After training LE and competing I'd say go left handed. It's harder to retrain the eyes than it is the hands and body. When I wrestled we learned to do all moves either from the left or right side. Pistols it doesn't matter much which eye is dominant. Rifles and shotguns it's best to shot with the dominant eye side. My two cents from the peanut gallery.

 

[JCMCUBIC]

One of my kids is right handed, left eye dominant. Another is left handed, right eye dominant. I had them both shoot with the dominant eye from the beginning.

 

[MOVA]

If he's going to shotgun birds often go lefty for all long guns. Rifle only I'd go righty for the better options and borrowability.

Pheasants is the only time my dominant left eye comes into play and its a pain to train my right eye up/left eye down before those trips.

My brother is a bonafide lefty- shotgun LH, but rifle and golf righty.

 

[chutinlead]

For those looking at getting LASIK eye surgery, I heard you can have them make your right eye stronger than your left and change dominance. Haven't actually confirmed it with my eye doc, but I will sure be asking him.

 

[Sandstrom]

If he's going to shotgun birds often go lefty for all long guns. Rifle only I'd go righty for the better options and borrowability.

Pheasants is the only time my dominant left eye comes into play and its a pain to train my right eye up/left eye down before those trips.

My brother is a bonafide lefty- shotgun LH, but rifle and golf righty.

Looks like my youngest will inherit all the over unders, and the oldest will get the rifles!

 

[wildwilderness]

Go lefty. I did that with my left eye dominant kids.


So far the only votes for forcing right are from old farts (50yr plus) claiming they did it - who’s to say they wouldn’t have been better shots left handed?

The other reason was availability of RH guns- dont be a cheapskate and force RH to try and save a few bucks. Yeah maybe 50 yrs ago you couldn’t find LH gear but now it’s just a click away!

 

[MOVA]

Looks like my youngest will inherit all the over unders, and the oldest will get the rifles!

Great solution!

 

[WCB]

I'd say go with eye dominance BUT if the kid can naturally shoot right handed and is more comfortable and eye dominance doesn't seem to hinder him have him shoot righty. I wouldn't rally force it either way.

Also, Hockey is not a good indicator IMO. Im right eye, right handed, bat and swing a golf club right handed but play hockey left handed. Also no one I can think of growing up road skate boards or snowboards goofy footed. Every hockey team I played on through college was pretty evenly split between left and right maybe 60 right 40 left handed shooters as opposed to baseball and golf wear I would say over 90% are right handed in their swinging.

 

[MOVA]

For those looking at getting LASIK eye surgery, I heard you can have them make your right eye stronger than your left and change dominance. Haven't actually confirmed it with my eye doc, but I will sure be asking

This is on the list for the next few years, I'll have to ask when the time comes as well!

 

[Harvey_NW]

I vote left hand, been dealing with this with my wife for a few years. At first, the eyepatch was just part of the kit, and an easy solution. After she drew a muzzleloader tag muffed a couple opportunities at big bulls because she got spotted while fiddling with that stupid patch, we're training left handed this year.

 

[Winnie]

My kids all changed eye dominance a few times when they were that age. i wouldnt do anything yet.

 

[Macintosh]

At a minimum Id start teaching him to shoot both left handed and right handed while he’s young. If eye dominance stays left he’ll be crippled as a shotgunner if he cant shoot lefty. Rifles, even though its very helpful, is much, much easier to shoot relying on your non-dominant eye.

 

[OSU Fisher]

since he’s so young and kids can easily adapt I would probably have him shooting lefty. My wife is right handed left eye dominant. Found that out when we started dating and drug her into my long range shooting and hunting hobby. Now she loves it as much as me and is a crazy good shot. She was having issues at first and that when we figured it out. She has to shoot with her left eye (dominant) one closed or covered with a patch. But it cures all her problems.

 

[lilharcher]

I’m left eye dominant but shoot right handed, both rifle and bow. No issues. Do whatever he is comfortable with.

 

[Billogna]

Right handed/Left eye dominant here. I started shooting rifles and bows right handed as a kid. Switched to left handed and not only was the sighting easier, but also steadying the gun/bow with my dominant arm was a huge benefit!

 

[NRA4LIFE]

If it helps, the Browning BPS shotguns are ambidextrous. Safety on top and they eject out of the bottom. This is how I solved the problem with my wife. I shoot right handed and she is right handed but shoots lefthanded. We can both shoot them.

 

[Jpsmith1]

That's my story

Dad caught me leaning WAY over my Red Ryder...

Switched me to lefty and I ain't been right since

 

[WesternSlope]

Left eye dominant right handed here. Didn’t figure it out until my 20’s. Just thought I was a bad rifle shot. Things got so much easier after I switched. One thing to ponder that might explain why some say to switch and others don’t: how much stronger is their dominant eye than their nondominant eye? I cannot look through a scope with my right eye very long before it’s tired and straining. I can look through with my left for an extended period without feeling fatigued. There’s a huge discrepancy between my two eyes despite having better than 20/20 vision in both eyes. One of my buddies though, is right handed and left eye dominant and shoots right handed because it’s not difficult at all to look through a scope with his weak eye. I think some people are closer to ambidextrous with their eyes than other people are.

 

[KenLee]

For those looking at getting LASIK eye surgery, I heard you can have them make your right eye stronger than your left and change dominance. Haven't actually confirmed it with my eye doc, but I will sure be asking him.

My lasik sx 20 years ago just ended up that way. Went from left eye dominant to right. After 15 years, it swapped back. Probably due to cataract in right eye that's not yet bad enough for surgery. For 3 decades, I shot whichever handed was better for the position of game. After blowing my left shoulder out 3x, I shoot right handed unless absolutely necessary. For example, sitting in a climber and will spook game if I try to get turned enough to shoot right handed.

 

[Fox625]

Golf and baseball with a hand/eye cross dominance is an advantage because your eye in the direction of the target line is more oriented ‘down range’ and able to better set the persons alignment.

I am a left eye dominate righty, as are both my kids. My son started shooting archery a few years ago with a right handed bow because it was what we had. He did ok, but once we switched him to a left handed bow he instantly jumped to the top 15 in SoDak for his age division. I will forever recommend getting equipment set for eye dominance and having one less thing to fight during the learning process…makes for a much more intuitive shooter.