TargetTalk

Well I am entering unfamilliar ground.
I have shot Rifle for a long time and the best way to start out a new shooter is to find out there dominant eye and if its right eye doninant the shooter will shoot right handed and so goes left eye goes to left hand shooting.
Is it best to head the shooter the same way with pistol?
I figure it is best to use the dominant eye but it seems do-able to shoot right handed out of the left eye.
My gut feeling says its a bad idea but i currently have a right handed person that is left eye dominant.
I have also heard some have tried what feels comfortable.
If the gun is comfortable in the right hand shoot right regardless of the dominant eye but this goes against alot of training methods I have been taught.

Based on what I have been told at various clinics at Camp Perry. if the shooter is totally wedded to using the dominant hand, you should cover the dominant eye or blur it out so that the shooter looks through the sights with the same eye as the hand that he/she holds the gun with. Some people indeed shoot cross dominant but it can create problems and cause a funny head tilt in order to get your eye alighed with the sights and the target. Others have had to modify the grips on the gun to get proper alignment and orientation to the target. Doing this will obviouly make a consistance stance and hold from shot to shot more difficult. There have been a few high master class shooters that had to switch hands when they had an injury and they found it better to cover the dominant eye rather than shoot cross dominant. Isabel

Hi Little, I have been shooting cross-dominant since early 1970s. It is not
a problem for me, and should not be a problem for you. Yes, you can force
yourself to shoot right/right, but it is not a natural act for us left eye/right hand
shooters. You will not develop a head tilt, we just swivel our heads less than
right/right shooters and bring the shooting arm to a straighter angle than
the sideways folks. Don't worry about the nay sayers; enjoy yourself and
shoot naturally. Later on in your experience, If applicable,get an aftermarket grip that
has a rotated angle which makes your pointing even more comfortable.

Rink will rotate 7 degrees and Marschal rotates the grip to your specs.
Roberto Di Donna is okay with his cross-dominance.
Best of Luck to You;

Tony G

I am an air pistol shooter and this is my experience: I am right handed and right eye dominant. Last year, at age 66, I had to switch to my left hand because of arthritis in my right. Within four weeks of shooting 20 to 40 shots most nights I was back to my normal score.

Then an old injury in my right eye had progressed to the point where I needed to switch aiming with my left eye. Again, it took about four weeks to regain my scoring level and feel comfortable doing it.

In the meantime my monthly scores average about 1.5% higher than before. So, in my experience switching over eye and/or hand in shooting requires only a little bit of patience and should be considered an option.

OzzieM

I have been shooting bullseye with my weak eye for years now without problem. I did find it necessary to use a small square of scotch tape over my left (dominant) eye to block its view of the sights and target. That prevents problems with both eyes being open while shooting and the dominant eye trying to take over. Just fold the end of the tape over a little before cutting the square so you can peel it off your glasses easily.

Another option is what has become known as the "Zins Grip" after Brian Zins, the many time national champion. He recommends this grip for everyone but it has the effect of making it easier to shoot with the other side eye if you choose to go that way. Rather than try to describe it here I'll give you a link to a blog where it is described in some detail. There were some pictures posted a while back but I cannot find them now.

http://www.conventionalpistol.blogspot. ... peaks.html

Clark

Just a word of warning about using the Zins grip. It cannot be used on any gun that has an orthopedic grip. The purpose of the Zins grip is to get the dot to line up better with your eye and allow a quicker recovery in timed and rapid fire. It is very difficult to even use the grip on a stock Beretta as the double stack magazine makes the grips too fat to use the Zins grip and still get your finger on the trigger. It is intended for a straight grip 1911 only. So if you decide to go with this as a solution to cross dominance you will find yourself having to possibly use a different stance and hold with any pistol that does not have a stright 1911 grip on it.

I am convinced that cross eye dominance is essensally a non issue. My own father in law lost the use of his right hand and one yeay later was a firing member of the national championship trophy pistol team shooting with his left hand and right eye, I have heard of an east european gold medalist in Olimpic rapid fire that repeated after loosing his shooting hand in a world war 11 incident with a gernade explosion. My advice is to not worry about the issue and train harder and smarter. Good Shooting Bill Horton

IPSC and Action shooters commonly put a piece of clear scotch-type tape over the dominant eye. Forces the other eye to focus but leaves depth and peripheral vision unimpaired. On the advice of Brian Enos my own son uses that system.

I thought I was left eye dominant. Used the test looking through a tube, close the eyes.

Well folks, my eye dominance changes. Most of the time it is left eye, but sometimes it is right eye dominant.

I can see me in a situation needing to pull the concealed carry, asking the other guy to wait while I check my eyes. Guess they might find it funny if I just pull and aim...5 feet to the left if I have switched to right eye dominance.

Chief, that sounds like my eye dominance. I never have found the usual test with looking at an object through a hole etc. to work for me. I guessed all the while that my eye are equal. But I do notice that my left eye is easier to single out momentarily staring at something. Just look straight at a word on your PC screen and try to get a feel for which eye is doing most of the work.

I have seen some very good shooters where I am who shoot cross dominant. They all say that it is very important to have an excellent fitting grip.

Other than that from what I am told there is no major worry.

Good luck

There are degrees of eye dominance. If vision in the non-dominant eye is OK, or correctable, dominance is not really an issue if you can put a blinder over the non-aiming eye. If you have to keep both eyes seeing, dominance will be an issue, to an extent depending on the degree of dominance. Some people find they can certainly learn to swap dominance for shooting. Like most things in this business, try it and see.