[Shooting] A question regarding cross dominance

Zakalwe

With the absense of a shooting forum still I'll ask my question here.

I'm left handed but my right eye is my dominant eye. When I shoot I generally cover my right eye.

Am I causing myself any problems by doing this? Would I be better off trying to shoot right handed or perhaps peering down the sights with my right eye ( perhaps I could tilt the rifle in whole lot more? )



P.S. Where's the shooting forum? There seem to be a whole lot of interest.

red vex

theres nothing wrong with shooting with one eye closed. It is possible to train your eyes to change. Derek Burnett who will be shooting in the olympics was left eye dominant when he was younger afaik.

Zakalwe

Now that's interesting as he has to track a moving target. I doubt trap shooters ever cover an eye as they need their depth perception. I don't actually close the eye as it tenses my face. I merely block it.

I've heard of people having neurological problems when they force themselves to operate right-handed. Some left handers forced to write "right" developed stutters. I wonder if training your other eye to be dominant would do the same?

Sparks

red vex wrote:

theres nothing wrong with shooting with one eye closed. It is possible to train your eyes to change. Derek Burnett who will be shooting in the olympics was left eye dominant when he was younger afaik.

I don't think that that's medically possible red. I've been shooting for ten years with my right eye, and I'm still cross-dominant (my left eye's the dominant one).
You learn to (and I know it sounds odd) accept the feed from your aiming eye over that of the dominant eye if the target is blocked out, either by squinting or a small blinder or whatever. But once you put the rifle down, the left eye reassumes dominance pretty much instantly.

And the thing about shooting with one eye closed is that it messes up the iris setting on your other eye. Apparently, your eyes are not fully decoupled - if one is subjected to a bright light, both irises react. So if you've got one eye in darkness from being closed, it will affect the other eye's iris.

Not to mention that you won't be able to see the wind flags (in ISSF events, there are small flags put out in front of the shooter to help judge the wind):

red vex

yeah, im the same(left eye dominant). i dont think you eye dominance changes but with practice you definately be able to shoot with both eyes open. I fiired at a few targets last week for the first time in ages and i found i couldnt adjust my eyes and i had to shut the left. Some people find it very difficult to train their eyes and use tricks like wearing shades and putting a dark lens into eyepice of the dominant eyes encouraging vision from the other

use of both eyes is needed for judging distance and of course give a wider field of view, but neither of these apply to rifle shooting. Why would you need your other eye open if you are looking through a scope(apologies, youre not shooting through a scope)

Sparks

red vex wrote:

use of both eyes is needed for judging distance and of course give a wider field of view, but neither of these apply to rifle shooting. Why would you need your other eye open if you are looking through a scope(apologies, youre not shooting through a scope)

Nope, iron sights only :



But you still need the wide field of view in order to watch the wind.