I've got a question, the wife and I went to the range today, she's a shooter has been for years, but she's pushing rounds to the left.  I forgot she's left eye dominant but right handed.  I had her switch to her left hand to shoot, which she was not fond of.  Her shots improved though.  So what's your thought on this, should she continue to shoot right handed, left eye or switch to shoot left handed left eye? When I had her on a long gun back in May, she switched to shoot completely lefty and was fine with it, but that's because she's got no real time behind a rifle so there's no real comfort level there.  I can shoot both ways and she even commented that she was impressed when I did so at the range.  I guess she never paid attention that I switch it up for proficiency.  Oh, and she was shooting her S&W 642

Pics before going lefty on a rifle:



After:



All spiffed up:  

I covered up my left eye and changed eyes. I like shooting right handed because of the location of the ejection ports. So I just covered up my left lens with a piece of paper and worked on it until it felt natural. It did take a while but I'm glad I did it.

It took longer to feel comfortable with pistols than long guns though for some reason.

My friend was a firearms master instructor for the PD and told me to shoot (or, adapt to shoot) through your dominant eye. Fortunately, I'm right handed and right eye dominant - so, no issues there. But, he did have a few cadets similar to your wife (left eye dominate but, right handed) modify their training and shooting accordingly.

my $0.02

Sakic #19

She's probably flinching and/or pushing the weapon with her trigger finger.

A good drill is the "buddy phantom reload" drill...one stands at the ready, weapon holstered, buddy standing behind shooter loads a single round (or doesn't), places weapon back on safe, reholsters weapon and taps shooter on shoulder (similar to doing a combat reload with two people).

Shooter then draws and fires.  Quickly reveals flinching.

Make sure trigger finger is not riding on the frame and she is pulling trigger with the pad of her finger and straight back.  Pushing left tends to occur when you have the trigger in the 1st joing and as you pull you twist/push the gun to the left.

I am left handed in everything but shooting...and left eye dominant...as long as your mechanics are right, cross dominance is not a problem.

I'm right handed and left eye dominant and it's a problem........ My cousin is the Training Officer in his Police Dept. When doing some work on his 1911 last spring I held his 1911 to something aquired on the wall after he asked about his sights. No sooner than I got aquisition he said..... Oh, your one of those....  I knew what he was talking about when he said he had a few of "those" in the department. So we didn't expand past that.

Your fine if your focus stays within the dominant eye. I never had a problem until I started shooting long guns a lot, starting last year. Now eye dominance switches back and forth and I'm struggling with it. It's easier to train your eye dominance than hand dominance. Covering up one side of your shooting glasses is the best method I know of. So, I'm in process of training right eye dominance and I can tell you.... it sucks.


<eta> scope shading is the biggest problem I have with my dominance issue in addition to eye dominance shifting with the hand gun.

Trigger issues were what I first thought, after watching and tweaking that didn't seem to fix it.  The positioning of her head in relation to the sights though is why I suspect that.  I'll keep watching her hands and do more dry fire.

It's scope shading....<eta> with the long guns<eta>........I'd lay odds on it. Shooting having improved by switching hand dominance confirms it. Any time at all spent behind a scope strains my  right eye.... and your muscles in your eyes are no different than any other muscle. The eye has to be used to strengthen.

Shooting iron sights with a rifle or shotgun, whatever shoulder you use- use that eye as well. Using the opposite eye will cause aiming errors and misses on target.

Aimpoint or other red dot, use BOTH eyes open. Look at the target and the red dot floats right where you are aiming.

Handgun use BOTH eyes open, your dominate eye will take over anyways and you increase your depth perception, field of view, etc.––-Its a good thing to do.

In most cases, make it simple and shoot with BOTH eyes open. Take it slow and get used to it, you will not switch back. Then you have the ability to use most firearms without the complex formula "of which eye for this gun?" coming up.

HTH

She does keep both eyes open except when she shot the Savage rifle in the pic above, but she only put 2 rounds down range.  hehe, .308 recoil isn't her friend.   But pistol wise, today, shooting a right handed weaver stance, she still had to move her head to get the picture.  When she switched to the left handed stance using the left eye, that's where the improvement came.  Scope shading was a problem on the rifles when she was using her right eye, that went away when I had her switch to her left.  The consensus seems to be, see left shoot left, which was my thought too.  We'll keep working on it and see what happens.  Mainly, I want which ever option to be second nature and accurate so she can carry and be efficient if the shit hit's the fan.  

Thanks fellas.

You've explained her circumstance exactly as I have tried too, to the point I know your wife is operating off the same song sheet as I..... In a panicked situation most all bi-linquals revert to their native language. Her native and instinctive nature is right handed. Talk to most any accomplished action shooter and they will tell you to train eye dominance..... with both eyes open.

See that fellar right there .He's right handed and left eye dominant. Oughtta know cause he's me.............................. I can no more train to instinctively draw from my left than training that tongue from sticking through when shooting... Notice my right eye is open. Being left eye dominant with my right eye open would mean...... You guessed it... both eyes open. Now having worked the right eye a lot over previous year behind a scope.... Eye now have dominance issues behind a handgun.... [://. .. Causing my stance to change in a string of fire. needless to say... I'm wider on the target with a handgun than before.....and it pisses me off........... better to be off, than on. Train the eye.

clear scotch tape over left eye on the shooting glasses.  you can strengthen the muscles in your eye to fix cross dominance

I shoot right handed left eye dominant. At first I had to figure out what I was most proficient with, but I still with my left eye. If im punching paper I can eat a whole in the bullseye with my right eye but It took some getting used to. With a rifle though I shoot completely left eye, and close my right !

How do you pull that off? I am in the same boat =left eyed/right handed. I can shoot handguns with both eyes open focusing with the left. With rifles it's more complicated since my right eye is a little weaker then my left (probably why it's dominant) so I HAVE to close my left eye when shooting long guns or else the left 'takes over'.

So again, how do you manage to shoot right handed and left eyed with a rifle? I envision a very interesting cheek weld.....or did I misunderstand?

Left handed right eye dominant here.

Shoot handgun left and long guns right.

Have her keep shooting right handed with handguns and lefty for long guns. Only training/practice will make her a better shooter.

I have to agree with Furyataurus. I am left eye dominant and right hand dominant and do the same thing. I noticed you said, "Mainly, I want which ever option to be second nature and accurate so she can carry and be efficient if the shit hit's the fan." If that's the case then it would be best to train with both hands. What if things do hit the fan? What if she gets hurt, gets something in an eye or is shot in her dominant arm/hand? Training both is uncomfortable at first but best for tactical advantage.

Also, she should be shooting with her head turned a little to right to bring that left eye behind the sights, not shifting the gun to bring it behind the eye. Now, I have heard of some people retraining their eyes but it's simply not for everyone. A simple shift of the head and cross training the hands will improve matters greatly. I got used to it pretty quickly on the rifle and while shooting prone.

Cross dominance is a bear to deal with.  Conventional wisdom is shoot left handed if you're left eye dominant.  Like much conventional wisdom, this is widely ignored with varied results.  Shooting a handgun left eyed but right handed is doable.  Rifles are difficult.  Shotguns are usually a lost cause.  

Keep trying to teach her to shoot left handed.  Its probably going to take some time and a lot of patience but in the end I think the results will be worth it.

I'm left handed and right eye dominant.  Grew up shooting handguna and rifle from left side.  Trained myself to shoot long guns from right shoulder.  Regarding pistol you have two options

1. Get a new wife.  
2.  As mentioned tilt head a little to side needed with dominance.  During my muscle memory drills.  I shoot isosceles.  When by sights are aligned my head is tilted to the left and my left cheek is planted against my left bicep.  Reverse for your wife and see if it works.  Good luck.  

LittleLamb

Crash,  She does do some limited cross type training not as much as I do.  Something is better than nothing, lol.  Like I said though I want what ever way she chooses to be second nature so there's no hesitation in her draw, target acquisition and execution.

Little Lamb, as for #1, we've been married 7 yrs and together for almost 14, so her trade in value is down and warranty's expired so I'm stuck with her.  lol

I'm right-eyed and left-handed.  When I was a kid I naturally shot my first gun (bolt-action .22) left-handed.  Big problem.





Once I learned to shoot a rifle right-handed it became very natural.  I still shoot a pistol left-handed without any problems.





I think your wife should learn to shoot a rifle right-handed.

 

Hey SharpCharge! You said, "I want what ever way she chooses to be second nature so there's no hesitation in her draw, target acquisition and execution," and I agree that is important. She most likely will not be carrying a long gun as her primary defensive weapon unless though, so working on drawing strong handed and turning her head to the right to get that left eye behind the sights is what would work best for that purpose. She can take it slow with learning to shot the rifle left handed unless there is some other urgency. I would guess she hasn't attempted this too many times yet? I got comfortable with it fairly early on. I say shoot, and shoot some more, until you figure out what works best.

She's shot for years crossed up, but I never noticed an issue with her point of aim/ point of impact that's why when I had her switch the other day after throwing numerous rounds and noticed an improvement that maybe she should switch.  So to answer your question, no she hasn't had much range time going straight lefty.   I guess I should get into reloading sooner than later to keep shooting more.  LOL.  Now if I could only convince her to carry a long gun.....   hahahaha

I'm cross dominant.  Left eyed.

I carry my pistol on my right side because my right arm has way more coordination than my left.  I can draw faster and reholster safer on the right side.    I turn my head and maybe swing my arms over a little to the left.   But it's more likely we'll never use our sights at all in a defensive situation anyway, so I don't sweat my weird long range stance.

I shoot rifles lefty, because my weak right eye is truely weak, and deosn't like scopes.  I can switch back and forth with 1x reddots, but scopes and irons are all left eye ball.  Being cross eye dominant, left eyed, is actually an advantage at tactical carbine classes.  I can reload faster because my strong arm is my support arm, and that arm has more coordination for reloading.  Our trigger arms just stay on fire control and do nothing.  It's also easier for me to transition to my secondary.  I can switch arms as needed for my cover as long as I run a 1x dot.

I'd let her shoot pistols righthanded, and rifles lefthanded.  Works fine.  I do cover my left eye to strengthen my right during pistol practice sometimes.  It's good to strengthen each eye, but my eye dominance will not go away.    I shoot with both eyes open at all times, closing one eye only for using my scoped SPR at long ranges or weird positions.

I'm right handed/left dominant. Pistol shooting is no problem at all, I just move the gun about two inches to the left. Rifle and shotgun haven't really been a problem, I just have to close my left eye. It definitely does lead to strain though. I would say my dominance isn't very strong though, as when I started pistol shooting I actually had to tape my right eye to cut out the noise from my right.

I'm a little surprised at the thread . . .

Train left-handed; train right-handed; train with dominant eye AND with your other eye.

If you are ever in a gunfight there's no telling what can happen . . . splinters and bullet fragments can lodge in your "good eye," a knife or bullet wound can incapacitate you "good" arm and hand . . . ANYTHING can happen.

If you aren't adaptable and proficient all the way around you might lose.

Good hunters learn quickly to shoot their rifles with either hand . . . and shoot also with the eye that naturally lines up in the scope at the same time.  To do otherwise is to lose that trophy of a lifetime.

I completely agree with your statement.  Just looking to see how we should move forward with her.  Like I said, she's not as well trained as I am so I try not to hound her on some of the things I know I can do much more efficiently.  Baby steps to bring her up to speed.  LOL.