ZommyGun

I am looking for inputs from those of you who have shot rifles from the opposite side of your dominant eye…

Most likely it would be left-handed shooters who are left-eye dominant who had to use a right-handed weapon…

Regardless of right-eye/left-side or left-eye/right-side I am interested in the details of how, what, why you did what you did and what the results were.

Especially interested in that using a scoped rifle shooting off-hand…
Thanks…ZG

grandpabear

I learned when I was just a kid that shooting a rifle right handed with a left dom. eye just wasn't gonna work. I've shot lefty all my life and got used to it, even with right handed guns. I think I can run a bolt on a right handed gun shooting it lefty as good as anyone. Hand guns are easier, I shoot them right and just tilt my head a little farther.

PowPow

When you are sitting in a tight tree climber, sometimes you don't get a choice of shooting with your dominant eye.
The best shot of my young life was a crow at 175 yards with my non-dominant eye. Just closed the dominant eye. It took a little longer to process what I was seeing, but it wasn't impossible.
Also my non-diminant eye requires a little more eyeglass prescription than my "good" eye. I am left-eye dominant . I decided to go with Ruger #1's over bolt guns since almost half my shots from a climber are right-handed.
I rarely shoot off hand either way. Usually resting the gun on something.

Waveform

I don't know if my experience means anything to anyone or not but my eye dominance changed sometime in my 40s. I'm right-handed and always shot rifles that way since I was a kid. When getting back into shooting in my late 40s I discovered I was now left eye dominant. Not a problem with handguns - just line up on the left side. But I just stay with my right-hand use of long guns and squint or close my left eye a bit and do just fine. It's not textbook form and I'm not shooting competition or anything but I do OK that way on the range or in the field.

Apparently I'm not alone in this experience - I've met others including a firearms instructor who said the same thing happened to them when they got older.

ZommyGun

Thanks for the reply...not good news...

Figured there was some left-handed left-eyed shooters around here that would know...

In hockey I had to switch from right-side shot to left-shot due to a right shoulder sprain...it was only supposed to be till it healed...funny thing is...by the time it healed about two months later...I couldn't even imagine going back to right-side the left-side shot improved my skating 200%...a tad less power on shooting but more accurate...points went way up...that was back when I was just a kid...only 48 at the time...

In pool I had a broken right-thumb and had to play one-handed, left handed (or not at all which is nfg)...no I still do that and just as good left or right...

Shoot a pistol left or right...same results both ways...but I shoot one-handed and with my toes pointed 90* from target...

Never tried a rifle...but going to give it a try...supporting rifle with right arm is much easier...bad left should/neck...just discovered by accident that it is way more comfortable for me left handed...holding it and looking thru sights...haven't gotten to actually fire it that way yet...

Getting the eyes to focus is very much not easy...but seems like it could be done with effort and practice...

Any advice besides keeping both eyes open is greatly appreciated from those who have done this with success...

Thanks,
ZG

ZommyGun

That is encouraging... do you recommend closing one eye...

ZommyGun

Yeah that helps too... I know a big difference in pool (it is very similar with regard to stereo vision and getting dominant eye in line with cue... I play regular all my life and last twenty years I play both right and left quite well but can say it is much harder to get the line of sight right when left handed...however, I am good at it and it really doesn't bother me most of the time...

I am definitely going to try this in the near future...

Seriously appreciate all the inputs...

PowPow

Failed to mention, but obviously that shot was with an 18x scope, not iron sights.

Never really paid attention to whether I close my right eye, when shooting left handed, but I definitely have to close my left eye when shooting right handed.

ZommyGun

Thanks...

I did take another look yesterday and both pool and gun were the same...when switch to left handed my left eye (I am right handed and right eye dominant) is directly over both cue and barrel...I take pool for granted been doing so long I actually had to check...with the gun (iron sights at the moment) I found that I could open/close my right eye without seeing any shift of the POA that wasn't due to body movement and not related to eye sight...I found the POA stay put equally well from open/close from both sides...so I think it's doable...

It does take more effort to settle down and get lined up...just like anything else...but in pool people cannot tell if I am right or left handed at first...both sides are natural as can be...

Another thing that occurred to me is that my left-eye is a lazy eye...I have a hard time keeping it open when aiming a gun...but when going left handed it's super-wide open and the right eye wants to stay open...it's even harder to close my right eye aiming left handed than it is to open the left eye aiming right handed...

Learning to steady the aim and control the trigger finger will take a lot of time and practice but I know from other experience that it will come...

It is very interesting to me as to what others experience is with dominant eye theory so thanks for all the replies...

gfw1985

Left eyed, right handed. Shoot rifles left handed, handguns right handed. Never had a problem with anything, except bowhunting which I shoot right handed, entirely by instinct, sights impossible to use. My sister is the same and had to have a deflector installed on her military rifle. Other then that one semi-auto, never had a problem with shell ejection. It's something I don't even think about till someone mentions it. After 50 years hunting it's second nature, couldn't change if I wanted to.

ZommyGun

Glad to see I am not alone and figured most members of this little club would be lefties and here you go another confused "tweener"...LOL...

A thousand times people have asked me if I am right or left handed watching me play pool...I just say... "which sport"...

They say... "pool"...

I say... I am not sure yet...

Willrett

I prefer to shoot long guns left handed and have shot right handed ar's, ak's and shottys this way. I can shoot right handed if I need to I just close my dominant eye until I get a good sight. Handguns I can shoot both left and right handed.

ZommyGun

I have been practicing aiming left handed for a few minutes here and there for a while now...

So much easier for me to hold the gun up its not funny...

Eye seems to working fine for a while...then I get what I would call snow blind for lack of other words...cross hairs disappear on me and that concludes the test...

Getting more control with left hand trigger pull also...

Once I get comfortable handling/aiming/trigger pull I am going to try some off hand shooting left handed...

Funny thing...while it is very comfortable for me to hold the gun and take aim left handed off hand...I cannot get right sitting with gun on rest...of course the opposite is true right handed...much easier from a rest than off hand...

Interesting and very glad I started trying it...

Have a right handed thumbhole stock that I am making more left handed friendly...

Sure hope to get good left handed at some point...

North country gal

Left eye dominant, but right handed - cross eyed dominant. Not especially rare, but a bit unusual.

I shoot a rifle right-handed and use my right eye, of course. Only a problem at times with iron, but no problem at all with a scope, because just about any scope has an adjustable eyepiece to sharpen up the crosshair as needed. With a riflescope, your off eye is completely out of the equation.

For pistol shooting, I can use either eye, so, again, no big deal, though I now use red dots and scopes on most of my short guns due to not being able to focus on iron they way I once could. For a cross eyed dominant person, pistol shooting is probably the easiest to manage. probably why I've always loved shooting pistol.

For wingshooting with a shotgun, being cross eyed dominant is a major pain in the butt. I have always used the blink method, shooting right-handed, where you use two eyes to follow the bird, but at the last instant, blink the left eye shut so that I'm only using the right eye. Have tried shooting a shotgun left-handed, but just never felt right.

On the other hand, first time picked up a bow, I started shooting left-handed (holding with the right hand and drawing with the left) and never knew I was shooting left handed until someone pointed it out to me.

sonicrete

Since this came up.

Very often on TV,or military shooting I see a great number of people shooting what I would call left handed. The gun is right handed and ejects across line of sight. Why is this done? To make it easier to work the bolt? The dominant right hand more stable on the front of the gun and the left hand only works the trigger?

I understand the problems for a left dominant either eye or hand but why so many seen shooting this way. There cannot be that abundance of the population left handed.