It probably depends. By the time I learned about eye dominance I had 3-4 decades of shooting experience/habit. If I were you, I would try doing it left handed. And when I say try, maybe set a line in the sand, in order to force yourself to struggle past a natural inclination.
Thanks for the additional push. I'll still defer to my first personal instructor's evaluation, but I can see how it might be a good thing to explicitly avoid natural instinct and develop all of my gun habits from scratch. And for what it's worth, I just tried a few dry draws and found it much easier to bring my support hand into position with left hand primary. I've really been struggling this week in my right handed draw-to-sight practice, needing multiple seconds and a lot fiddling plus visual support to get my support hand positioned on the grip.Originally Posted by mmc45414
I am right hand left eye dominant. I see absolutely no problem w/ that. I know it is popular to shoot both eyes open but I try that and see two sets of sights and two targets so my right eye closes. Every once in a while, practicing w/ my wife, she asks if I shoot w/ both eyes open? Answer no. So when do you close your right eye? Answer, I have no idea, it just happens. I just started getting a slight tennis elbow pain in my right arm. I have exercises I did 6-8 yrs ago to fix my left arm. So I grabbed my can of soup and figured I'd spend some of my 2 computer hours each morning doing exercise which would require me to run the mouse left handed. After an hour,,, uh,,,, no way in heck am I going to waste time w/ that. Once in a while an idpa stage will have us shooting weak hand (left hand for me) only. I can do it, even fairly accurately, but it is SLOW. There is no way, I would try to switch hands unless my right were permanently injured.
This describes me to a T!!
As @Noah suggests below, handguns shouldn’t be an issue. Best to learn shooting both eyes open. And, yes, learn to shoot long guns left handed.
My perspective, originally based on Officer Survival Instructors like Mas when I was younger and backed up by painful events and injuries for me and friends as I get older, is if primary goal is self defense practicing with both strong hand and weak hand is really good idea.
I am cross eye dominant, but because of Mas articles about needing mirror image holster when he injured his dominant side arm/shoulder I always practiced with both hands.
Also course of fire I had for 1st CCW renewal pointed out something I had noticed but ignored, that one hand only shooting especially with J frame or other pocket gun is a LOT harder than two handed shooting regardless of which hand has firing grip.
So ever since then I have done at least half of my CCW gun practice one handed.
And again with officer survival training and data, its common to get hit around gun in a gunfight. Because humans tend to focus their vision on what worries/scares them under stress. Its a real thing to the point many driving classes teach person to look for path you want car to go in instead of what your afraid of hitting, because where your eyes/focus goes so does everything else. So being able to shoot with one hand, ether one of them seems important for defense.
If your going for hobbyist, competitive, or hunting shooting then do whatever serves that goal best.
As I mentioned I am cross eye dominate. With handguns I have found precision shooting easier when shooting weak hand/dominate eye, while for speed shooting dominate hand/weak eye feels easier.
With my pocket guns, my primary CCW I have practiced evenly strong and weak handed. But I also almost always CCW 2 guns, one in left pocket and one in right pocket.
With full size guns I tend to shoot service pistols (9mm/45 ACP) mostly right handed and hunting revolvers (357 & 44 mag)/hunting pistols (10mm) left handed.
YMMV
It is very easy to bring the gun up under the dominant eye, regardless of which hand and eye are involved. It is harder to apply a good trigger squeeze with the non-dominant hand.
With that said, practicing with both hands is wise. I try to shoot 2 hand, strong hand only, and weak hand only.
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I'm a "cross dominant" shooter, and can tell you from experience some people make way too big an issue of this. Its people who are NOT cross dominant shooters, or were infected by instruction from people who are not cross dominant, who try to turn this into an issue when its not.
When is the last time you heard an instructor mention eye dominance when teaching someone who is NOT cross dominant to shoot with their "weak" hand? When is the last time you heard an instructor tell a cross dominant shooter they had an advantage over other shooters when shooting weak hand?
Rhetorical question, as we all know the answer is never. Because with pistols you just put the gun in front of the dominant eye, and get to work, no matter which hand the gun is being held. So, if it's not a problem when a non cross-dominant person shoots weak hand, then it's not a problem for a cross dominant shooter shooting strong hand. QED.
Long guns are a bit different due to your cheek "weld" on the gun. For me the best solution was to shoot weak hand, and keep both eyes open. However, the only long guns I currently shoot are AR style rifles, and after putting on an ambidextrous safety an AR is very easy to operate with either hand. The safety on Remington 870s was an issue for me shooting lefty, but we took those out of service a few years ago.
People who are not cross dominant need to stop telling people it's a problem that needs to be fixed.
One of my motivations for becoming a firearms instructor at work was to stop the BS being spread about eye dominance.
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"Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me." - Isaiah 6:8
1000%
I’m cross dominant. Shoot everything right handed. Handguns get put in front of my left eye. Long guns get a squint from my left eye to help my right eye pick up the sights or better yet I use a dot with a target focus and all is good.
One big question I ask people who are cross dominant and getting ready to shoot a long gun for the first time is whether they can close their dominant eye. If not, it’ll be very difficult to use a long gun on the side of the non-dominant eye. Not impossible, and can be practiced to proficiency, but I have to consider whether the student is more likely to train the arms to do or the eyes/brain to see and perceive.
Shooting with one eye closed limits your visibility during dynamic shooting, IME. I did it with long guns for several years before making the choice and committing to shooting long guns left handed. It shoot be noted I am VERY left eye dominant.
It does. Shooting with my wrong had after decades limits my ability to manipulate my equipment and exercise marksmanship fundamentals. I can shoot long guns with both eyes open now - the question isn’t so much which to sacrifice but where one wants to put their effort to achieve proficiency.
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