To red dot or not?
- Thread starter kokoji04
- Start date
Your eye dominance will change on some shot angles - if you don't close your nondominant eye you will miss.
I shoot both eyes open - even with rifle & scope. Have been trying to make an effort to close non-dom eye in some instances. On-coming ducks that will cross overhead is a tough one for me - eye dominance switches about when the trigger breaks.
Sounds like a lot of guys are thinking way too much while shotgunning.
All i know is whenever guys think about aiming, they miss, myself included.
Shooting a shotgun at a moving target by making yourself half blind is not the answer, under any circumstance.
Yes. Station 3 high house on a skeet range is a classic example of this. The bird comes from hard left, so a right handed shooter will pick up the bird first with their left eye. Right handed/right eye dominant shooters that have weak eye-dominance or cross-dominance often have to squint, at least early in the presentation, in order to not have their left eye “grab” dominance. Its common-enough that those opaque sticky dots that come with many shooting glasses are specifically to help with issues like this.
I say this only to point out that partially obscuring the target by putting a rds sight between your dominant eye and the bird, is one more thing encouraging eye-dominance issues.
loganwayne
WKR
100% if he told me he was going to throw a clay i was worse than 50/50 on them. if we were talking and he randomly threw one i was about 90%.
i also throw up and shoot fast. i have to make a conscious effort to slow myself down.
Edits:
There are different circumstances that require a break from the "norm". Being too stubborn to realize this is only gonna hinder the long game.
Many professional shooters shut an eye or use those eye blockers on shooting glasses for a reason.
Not an all the time thing - you don't have to always close one eye - just when you know you need to. In my case it is close, ducks crossing directly overhead.
KurtR
WKR
Are you talking about the sides like this. I have seen rifle shooters have the off eye blocked but never trap or skeet.
I understand that some will put shields on one side for specific shots or if they have eye dominance issues. The side things are much more common.
It's not an all-or-nothing thing, just specific shots.
My father shot competitively for 20 years or so. He did all kinds of stuff to try and hit more clays. Said it is ultimately more mental cause mind gets tired or something like that. I would not have understood that our eyes can and do change dominance in some situations if he hadn't been so into this stuff.
It has helped me with the duck hunting so no complaints there. Have an oncoming shot, pull up and block bird out, shoot. If it is right on top of me I try to shut my off eye as the bird crosses overhead - hit em sometimes instead of missing every time. Before starting to close the off eye would miss them.
Blockcaver
WKR
A younger fellow (40-ish) and fairly new shotgunner that shoots at a our range has a red dot on a Remington 1100 with the butt stock built up to help with alignment with the red dot. He also shoot a Beretta A400 Xcel....factory set up. He seems to shoot about the same with either shotgun which is quite well given his experience level.
One day after a round of 5-stand he offered to let me shoot the 1100 w/red dot a couple shots. As a two eye shooter, I chose a couple of fast crossers. Pounded them to dust. Didn't find the dot distracting at all but was cogniscient of it. Haven't considered a dot for clays or hunting but wouldn't rule them out based on my sample of two clay targets, plus watching the Remington 1100 w/red dot owner shoot one.
Good info in a few posts by Terrapin that had data from master class shooters who went down hill with them.
One day after a round of 5-stand he offered to let me shoot the 1100 w/red dot a couple shots. As a two eye shooter, I chose a couple of fast crossers. Pounded them to dust. Didn't find the dot distracting at all but was cogniscient of it. Haven't considered a dot for clays or hunting but wouldn't rule them out based on my sample of two clay targets, plus watching the Remington 1100 w/red dot owner shoot one.
Good info in a few posts by Terrapin that had data from master class shooters who went down hill with them.
loganwayne
WKR
Same.
But even hunting i throw up fast and shoot. Now that I force myself to slow down im killing alot more birds
In addition to the blinders, it is also the “magic eye dots” that you see on some people’s glasses. Photo below has one of the opaque dots pasted over the left eye. It is usually to prevent a shift in dominance caused by the bird first appearing on one side or the other, and that eye taking over dominance. The way this would pop up with a red dot site, is that it is in between your dominant eye and the target, and would perform the same function by slightly obscuring your vision in that eye, encouraging your off eye to pick up dominance. It would be different for different people, but folks that aren’t strongly right eye dominant could easily have their left eye, pick up dominance and screw up their shooting as a result.
rocky IV
FNG
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2026
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This guy gets it
WMelbgator
FNG
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