Dominant Eye Sighting
- Thread starter kelcarry
- Start date
A fail safe way to determine your dominant eye is to take both hands and make a triangle (have your pointer fingers touch each other and also your thumbs) Extend your arms outwards and then slowly pull your hands to your face while staring into the middle of the triangle with both eyes open. . Your hands will come to your dominant eye automatically.
Hope this helps.
-Chris
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
Police Officer, NYPD 5 years
Hope this helps.
-Chris
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
Police Officer, NYPD 5 years
mappow
New member
Good Article in this months American Rifleman (MAY2011 Issue) concerning this. I used to be right eye dominate but over the years with my eye sight degenerating some. I guess it's switched. Don't really use sights at the 3/5/7 Yrd. Draw and shoot basically from the hip, intuitive aiming, always hitting DCM. First round low right 1-2 inches, second round dead center. That's just the way I do it.
BC1
,
Learn to shoot with either hand, either eye, cross dominant eyes/hands and with both eyes open. For PP reasons, you must be able to respond to an attacker if you're injured so these capabilities are a must. When shooting in a PP situation, closing one eye is not a good idea. It destroys your peripheral view of the surrounding area. Bad guys hunt in packs. The one who confronts you may not be the one who will inflict the fatal attack. He may be approaching from the blind peripheral side.
When aiming with standard sights our hands and gun block the attackers body. Bad deeds come from hands and they're hidden by our own gun. And it's especially bad when one eye is closed. I prefer a laser sight on a PP gun. It allows me to maintain a clear line of vision by lowering the gun a few inches and keeping my peripheral view clear. Besides, that little red dancin' dot can be a deterrent the primary attacker's advance when checking your 3:00, 9:00 and 6:00.
Practice range exercises using both dominant and weak eyes. Eventually the weak eye will be just as accurate.
When aiming with standard sights our hands and gun block the attackers body. Bad deeds come from hands and they're hidden by our own gun. And it's especially bad when one eye is closed. I prefer a laser sight on a PP gun. It allows me to maintain a clear line of vision by lowering the gun a few inches and keeping my peripheral view clear. Besides, that little red dancin' dot can be a deterrent the primary attacker's advance when checking your 3:00, 9:00 and 6:00.
Practice range exercises using both dominant and weak eyes. Eventually the weak eye will be just as accurate.
thetravlor
New member
I am right hand/left eye. I shoot pool, rifles and shotguns left handed. Never hand a problem until I tried correcting proper handgun stance and grip. I pull down on my left elbow a little and it helps line up the sights. Reminds me to do if I have problem hitting zero on target.
Regular_Joe
New member
It is actually surprising how many right-handed students end up being left-eyed dominant. We have new shooters explore shooting right or left handed, while sighting using the right or left eye. Most typically shoot right-handed and use their left eye to sight in - it feels a bit cumbersome at first, but most take to it immediately.
Experienced shooters taking advanced classes should consider taking BC1's advice above and become competent with both sides - you never know when your 'weak' side will have a battlefield commission to become the dominant side...
Experienced shooters taking advanced classes should consider taking BC1's advice above and become competent with both sides - you never know when your 'weak' side will have a battlefield commission to become the dominant side...
snatale42
New member
Yes, shoot with the dominant eye.
No, it isn't that simple. You don't HAVE to sight with your dominant eye. I am left eye dominant and shoot everything right handed. The only place I have trouble is with a bow, so I use a peep sight to keep my attention on the correct eye. If you are comfortable shooting with your non-dominant eye, and it doesn't cause issues, there's no reason you have to change.
snatale42
New member
Not saying you have to but why not use the dominant eye, for me at least it takes me way to long to sight in with both eyes open because of it, I can shoot with my non-dom eye but I gotta close my dom eye before I sight in so I'm not off. Again, for me too much work. I wish I new somebody that could shed some light on the whole use your weak eye and it will strengthen it and even of the playing field a little. I wouldn't mind doing that If I knew it wold help.
MONTANA
New member
I really like this response. A person is just not always going to be able to script the way a defensive situation goes down. After getting serious about defensive shooting, in addition to shooting with the non-dominant hand, I began practicing writing with my non-dominant hand, shaving with my non-dominant hand, brushing teeth, etc. The goal was to greatly improve the natural use of my non-dominant hand. I practice shooting with both eyes open but have not practiced using only the non-dominant eye as if the dominant eye were injured. This response reminds me that I need to fill in that training deficiency. Thanks for the reminder.
First question: How did you come to the conclusion you are cross eye dominant?
My wife has been dealing with the issue for many a year and quite successfully so. She is right handed but has a dominent left eye. (Watching her shoot can be painful but darned if she doesn't consistently out score me!)
You are correct, sighting with your dominent eye is critical for rapid target acquisition. If you have to take the time to figure out which eye gives you the better sight picture you could loose critical time at a critical time. (? sound weird but is true)
One of the thing I discovered while going through my drills is that I am just as good (or bad depending on your view) left handed as I am right handed(my dominant side). When I line up lefty or weak hand, I naturally sight with my left eye. I tried something a while back. I has holding in my right/dominant hand and sighted with my left eye. All it took was a little bit of head canter to get my left eye on sight. Surprise! I hit as well as I did if I was "right eyeing it".
It all boils down to what you are most comfortable with and get the best results from. But keep practicing the weak side, just in case!
Nightmare45
NRA LIFE MEMBER
I shoot with both eyes open not really an issue, I am right eye dominate and shoot mostly right handed.
