Right Handed, Left Eye Dominant Child

[Macintosh]

If he ever picks up a shotgun he will MAJORLY thank you for teaching him to shoot on the side of his dominant eye.

 

[Nine Banger]

If he ever picks up a shotgun he will MAJORLY thank you for teaching him to shoot on the side of his dominant eye.

Yeah,

It seems like some of this advice in this thread assumes shotgun shooting and pistol shooting are not both eyes open activities.

Almost all great shooters I know shoot pistol, shotgun and rifle with both eyes open and on the dominant side.

The only exceptions I've seen to that are shooters where the parent/mentor pushed them to learn on the wrong side....and then I met @SloppyJ.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

My daughter is the same. Bite the bullet and buy the equipment that best fits your child naturally. It will make it more enjoyable for them, therefore they will want to do it more.

 

[MTRaine]

Start him with his dominant eye and never look back. He'll appreciate it in the long run.
Im left eyed dominant and very very right hand dominant. I have cerebral palsy and am hemiplegic to my left side. (meaning my left side is my weak side) I learned to shoot rifles and shotgun left handed right off the bat.
I struggled trying to shoot archery left handed when I was younger and instead shot right handed because my left arm was so weak. A couple years in and my shooting game for archery was a complete train wreck. Started back at square one shooting a left hand 30lb bow in 8th grade. Within a few months my success shooting lefthand archery far surpassed where I was shooting right handed.
Now at 35 shooting lefty is so instinctual it's crazy, but if I try to pick up a rifle or shotgun and shoot right handed you'd swear I've never shot a firearm in my life.

 

[Deeker]

I am right hand dominant and left eye dominant. Didn’t know it until I was in my mid twenties when I was having a real bad issue with missing when bird hunting. Also the same season I switched to a different gun. I grew up working at a trap and skeet club. From 12-18. So I have shot many many thousands of rounds out of a shotgun.

What I have found is that there is a bit of a learning curve between different weapons. Slight adjustments make a big difference.

Shotguns- fit of the gun makes such a big difference. I will go from a very above average shotgun shooter to the laughing stock of a bird hunt, if I switch up guns. I can not try my buddies guns, because I cannot rely on the bead to be where the gun is actually aiming. I shoot benellis, they have shim adjustments in the box when you buy a new one. I take gun out and set up 3 pieces of paper at 30ish yards across a sheet of plywood. Pull bead off gun and then shoot shots at the paper as fast as I can. Then I switch up shims until I find a combination I like. I use the ammo and choke I hunt with.

Bow hunting- I switched up to a single pin, which was a huge help. But my main fix here is I blink my left eye and watch to see what set of pins disappears. It’s the right side all the time. But by blinking my brain can remember that it is the correct set of pins to shoot with. Super simple fix there, and it does nothing to shot sequence.

Pistols- By far the hardest, and my least practiced firearm. On this I know what I do is wrong But I hardly shoot pistols. This one I just close an eye. Not the same one everytime. Still trying to figure out what works best for me. And then I manipulate the gun to match which eye I want open on a given day.


Rifles- By far the easiest. Aquire the target with both eyes open. Once safety comes off I close my left eye.

Hope any of this helps. Keep working at it with ur boy. He will get it Worst they will happen is you have to spend more time shooting guns and hanging out.

 

[RedSmoke]

I grew up being told by a lot of people that eye dominance was important but as I've gotten more experienced I've found that it doesn't matter at all. It's much easier to teach yourself to use another eye than it is to teach yourself how to shoot with your offhand.

 

[TripleJ]

I am left-handed and right-eye dominant. Since I was a kid, I have always shot bows and rifles right-handed. It's second nature to me.

My oldest son is right-handed and left-eye dominant. It was pretty obvious when he was young, so I had him learn to shoot left-handed.

 

[roosterdown]

I’m R/R. Three kids…oldest is righty, and at about 10 figured out he was left-eye dominant. Went all-in on him shooting a bow and then shotgun lefty. Middle kid L/L. Youngest son just like his older brother…righty, Left eye dominant. Did same with him.

While it has worked great for the kids I sure did lose the hand-me-down sweepstakes.

 

[dreamingWest]

More tests this morning with Ruger 10/22, kids recurve, and eye tests. Pretty clear I should start shopping lefty kit.

He will get his own stuff based on a decade's worth of Rokslide knowledge.

 

[rarmitage915]

Just my input as a right-handed/left eye dominant person, I am glad I learned to shoot rifles and bows left-handed when I was young. Now my situation may be slightly different than your sons, as I'm almost completely blind in my right eye. So shooting with my right eye was never an option. I have always shot left-handed compound bows, but I actually just got my first left-handed bolt gun this year. I never saw an issue shooting a right-handed bolt gun left-handed for 20+ years. Since hes young ,maybe he'd be able to adapt to using his non dominate eye if the vision is just as good in that eye, but I would lean towards learning to shoot with the dominate eye. Just my 2 cents.

 

[SupressYourself]

As a left-eye, right hander, I will say do the kid a favor and don't fight the eye. You'll only be holding him back.

 

[dreamingWest]

We're just getting started.

 

[moqwack]

CVA single shot rifles! Doesn't mater what eye/hand and are crazy accurate

 

[omariio0]

Eye dominance just means it will be easier to pick up the skill with the Dominant eye.

Agreed. But he'll probably be fine with whatever he starts with and gets used to.

 

[FLswamper]

We're just getting started.

Wise.

Just scanning through this thread, it seems that the dominant eye is the one with better vision. That has been the case with me. There was no mention of right eye or left eye when I started out shooting. My BB gun posse shot on whatever side "worked."

 

[WstrnCP]

OP - I’m in the same boat. How’s it going? I’ve pretty much decided on getting a left handed setup for my 11 year old. A bit worried that one day he will put it up to his right shoulder…

 

[WstrnCP]

CVA single shot rifles! Doesn't mater what eye/hand and are crazy accurate

Personal experience with these? Considering as an option for my right handed/left eye kiddo

 

[PLhunter]

Man as someone reading this with strong cross eye dominance (Very right handed and extremely left eye dominant) I’m surprised at the number of recommendations to try to have him switch eyes. For me that was an impractical impossibility and lots needs to be considered. There are degrees of eye dominance and maybe some can be overcome but some certainly can’t. I wore a patch for years until I was 8. My dad tried to get me to shoot right handed initially and it was a wreck. I was just looking down the side of the barrel missing by feet or with the patch I had poor vision and focus in my non dominant eye.

I now shoot a bow and long guns left handed and hand guns right handed. It’s worked fairly well and has become very natural. I’m an above average shooter with a shotgun and average with everything else. I’d say I’m streakier than most with a bow and that’s definitely the biggest challenge which makes sense. All that said for low recoiling open sights weapons like bb, 22’s, or pellet guns where I can just shoot right handed looking over the top, even though it feels unnatural, I’m a better offhand shot than I am when lefty. Even though now it feels super weird.

Overall, I think that more needs to be considered than just eye dominance. How pronounced is it and is there a vision difference between the eyes? For me it simply wasn’t really and option and I’m glad my dad quit trying to train me to shoot right eyed early because it was beyond frustrating and I would likely have wanted to quit even though I took to hunting as second nature.

 

[Balderdash]

Man as someone reading this with strong cross eye dominance (Very right handed and extremely left eye dominant) I’m surprised at the number of recommendations to try to have him switch eyes. For me that was an impractical impossibility and lots needs to be considered. There are degrees of eye dominance and maybe some can be overcome but some certainly can’t. I wore a patch for years until I was 8. My dad tried to get me to shoot right handed initially and it was a wreck. I was just looking down the side of the barrel missing by feet or with the patch I had poor vision and focus in my non dominant eye.

I now shoot a bow and long guns left handed and hand guns right handed. It’s worked fairly well and has become very natural. I’m an above average shooter with a shotgun and average with everything else. I’d say I’m streakier than most with a bow and that’s definitely the biggest challenge which makes sense. All that said for low recoiling open sights weapons like bb, 22’s, or pellet guns where I can just shoot right handed looking over the top, even though it feels unnatural, I’m a better offhand shot than I am when lefty. Even though now it feels super weird.

Overall, I think that more needs to be considered than just eye dominance. How pronounced is it and is there a vision difference between the eyes? For me it simply wasn’t really and option and I’m glad my dad quit trying to train me to shoot right eyed early because it was beyond frustrating and I would likely have wanted to quit even though I took to hunting as second nature.

I bet you looked like one bad ass 8 yo with the eye patch, though.