Originally Posted by
Rex G
I write lefty, throw righty, am left-eye-dominant, and totally screwed the pooch when attempting racquet/bat sports. I chose to carry “primary” at 0300, not only because the draw felt most natural when done right-handed, with my throwing arm, but because the right hip was most accessible when driving most motor vehicles, and I knew that I would mostly be patrolling alone, while wearing the light-blue-over-dark-blue costume on the mean streets of mid-Nineteen-Eighties, oil-boom-town-sliding-into-recession Houston, Texas. (Private citizens could not, generally, carry handguns, in Texas, from ~1877 to ~1995, and I did not grow up among handgun owners, so, choosing a position for toting a handgun was not a thing, for me, until I was training to be a sworn LEO.)
So, well, first and foremost, I would advise to train to shoot with each hand being the “primary” hand, as a foundation. During my academy time, I trained with the then-mandated S&W L-Frame, 80% right-handed, and 20% left-handed. During my personal time, for “homework,” I trained using each hand 50/50. Starting about the time I graduated, I shifted to emphasizing the left hand mostly with the more-difficult-to-shoot J-Frame. I was “one of the better shooters” in my academy class, according to the instructors, but it was not natural ability; I had to work at it. (See the words “kinesthetic doofus” in my signature lines.)
I do not claim to be any kind of firearms instructor, so, this is a personal “testimony,” not instruction.
I will echo those who recommend using long guns on the same side as one’s dominant eye, BUT, I would say there are outliers. Plus, I have heard of “incomplete” eye dominance. Having said that, a shotgun with a bead sight works about as well, for me, from either shoulder, and some barrel-mounted open “rifle” iron sights are decently usable, for me, when the weapon is fired from either shoulder. It is when using aperture sights, and optics, that I perform noticeably faster and more accurately if I fire from the left shoulder, aiming with my dominant left eye.