How hard to switch eyes?

[rdtompki]

I'm right handed, right eye dominant and also a senior citizen shooting steel challenge. I've experienced some issues with my right eye which may or may not be correctable. I don't think I'm going to have a dominance issues since my left eye vision is now so much better, but can some folks who've had to do something similar comment on the challenges? I'll really have to work coming out of the draw and preferring to shoot left to right I may have to change that. The biggest question I have is how to achieve a natural alignment of eye and sights: 1)rotate head to align with sights or 2)position/rotate grip to naturally align with left eye? I believe #1 is a loser, but it would be interesting to hear other's experience.

[SLG]

I did a combination of 1 and 2 for many many years. Works quite well.

Just close your right eye and the draw will take care of itself. You can then decide if you want to open the eye or not, once you get it down.

[spinmove_]

Right handed, left eye dominant here. For me, it's a combination of both #1 and #2. I'm going back to shooting with one eye for right now, but regardless of that I find that a slight head turn and a grip adjustment (both movements are now natural for me) offers me a good balance to align sights to eye and maintain a good ISO stance.


Sent from mah smertfone using tapathingy

[JustOneGun]

Definitely a combo of one and two. Sort of a meeting in the middle. Most people close their right eye when they are switching.

[TAZ]

Right handed and left eye dominant. Tried to tilt my head, but that did not work well for me especially if you're using an isosceles stance. Weaver you might get away with it by using your bicep as a cheek rest.

Not sure what you mean by rotate the grip. I simply keep the gun level and move the gun over till the sights line up with the dominant eye. Head and gun stay upright.

[rdtompki]

Right handed and left eye dominant. Tried to tilt my head, but that did not work well for me especially if you're using an isosceles stance. Weaver you might get away with it by using your bicep as a cheek rest.

Not sure what you mean by rotate the grip. I simply keep the gun level and move the gun over till the sights line up with the dominant eye. Head and gun stay upright.
By rotate I mean rotate the gun slightly about the vertical axis. My draw brings the gun up to line up target, front sight, rear sigh and right eye. If I keep everything the same I've go to move the gun over about 2.5" and rotate it slightly to the right. I don't think this is a big deal, but there are many tens of thousands of rounds downrange using my right eye.

[SLG]

I misunderstood what you are saying, and now it sounds like I do neither 1 or 2. There is no need to rotate the gun at all. Bad.

There is no need to rotate your head. Bad.

I move the gun to the left slightly, and move my head to the right slightly, while keeping them both vertical, as they should be. Done.

[voodoo_man]

I am right hand and left eye dominant.

I shot right hand, right eye for years. Until I realized I shoot way better with my left eye at pistol accuracy drills. I started out closing my right eye as I was used to defaulting to it. Now it is natural for me to use my left eye.

[Totem Polar]

I switched eyes recently, due to a detached retina in my dominant eye. Details in this thread, here:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?21785-So-long-as-we-are-talking-about-eyes-has-anyone-here-switched-eyes-dominance

TL/DR: it took less time than I thought. Mainly because it's pretty natural to, you know, want to see the sights.
:D

[rdtompki]

I switched eyes recently, due to a detached retina in my dominant eye. Details in this thread, here:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?21785-So-long-as-we-are-talking-about-eyes-has-anyone-here-switched-eyes-dominance

TL/DR: it took less time than I thought. Mainly because it's pretty natural to, you know, want to see the sights.
:D

From the Range - turns out the vision in my left eye is so much better that my brain is handling the whole transition "thing". I do find during rapid transitions I'll have to retrain my grip slight to keep things lined up. So, good news (sort of): poor vision in my right eye, but we are a naturally adapting species.

Of further interest: my shooting glasses have a distance prescription in the left eye, 25" in the right eye, but with Kensight night sights the large white circles work even with the left eye prescription. Might just keep it that way and see how things go.

[7mmSTW]

What works for me is to only move my head, I just put my nose on the other side of the slide and my left eye picks up the sights. I'm fairly cross dominant so that may help, I use that to shoot weak side barricades etc while still shooting right handed.

[rdtompki]

OP here (again). In a totally bizarre turn of events my right eye has returned to its state of slight blurriness which is adequate for SC. In a few weeks I'll get in to see an ophthalmologist, but I could tell on the drive to the match that my right eye was "back". I did try a few stages with my left eye, but it was very difficult not to switch during left-to-right swings.

[Clobbersaurus]

I am naturally right hand and left eye dominant, but have always shot using my right eye.

Recently, due to presbyopia, my right eye has been giving me a slightly more blurry image than my left. I decided in December to start using my left eye. It took me a good month of daily dry fire to make it natural and get my index developed.

I try to bring the gun over to my left eye instead of heavily moving my head. I may move it some, but it is minimal. I have found that brushing my arm/wrist along my rib cage during the draw stroke (OWB, right side holster) gives me a better index and doesn't negatively affect speed.

After almost three months of using my left eye it feels as natural as using my right eye used to, and I'm very glad to have a crisp, clear, front sight back.

[rdtompki]

OP here by way of a close-out. I'm switching eyes at least until I have cataract surgery on my left eye. I can see the sights with my script focused at 24", but because of all the scatter in the right eye I have very little contrast. I made a real effort today to use left eye only with my alternate Rx insert which is set up for left eye. I'll have to work every day dry fire to draw and transition maintaining sight alignment, but once I get that going I'm going to be miles ahead. Even know with crystal clear sights shooting left eye I can at least make very fast corrections. Today was really the best practice I've had in two months; I should have bailed on the right eye sooner, but hard to give up on a body part.

[Rex G]

Thanks for starting the discussion, as I am interested in reading the responses. I am naturally left-handed, and naturally left-eye dominant, but chose to carry "primary" on the right hip in 1983, because I am naturally right-armed when throwing, and using some larger, heavier tools. The drawing of a heavy, fully-lugged-barreled revolver from the then-PD-issued low-slug, swiveling flap holster was much like the start of an underhand throw. (Drawing into a high #2, and pressing-out, was not part of the equation in those days.)

I tried a few self-taught solutions, including tilting my head when shooting PD-taught modified Isosceles, which we now know is not a best practice, and a Weaver-ish stance with a head-tilt, using my right inner deltoid and bicep muscles as a cheek rest, which is probably not a best practice, either. (Both methods involved keeping both eyes open, and for reference, my vision was 20/13 or better, at the time.) To be clear, I am not recommending either of these self-improvised solutions. Better to keep the head up, and bring the weapon to high-center. When I have done that, only the most alert firearms instructors have noticed I was shooting "cross-dominant."

Now, at age 55.5, with both near and far vision needing correction, I find my dominant left-eye's distance vision to be worsening more quickly than that of my right eye, and in some environments, I find myself closing my left eye, and sighting with my right. I am very interested in reading everything I can find on this matter, so will gratefully follow this discussion.

[voodoo_man]

Thanks for starting the discussion, as I am interested in reading the responses. I am naturally left-handed, and naturally left-eye dominant, but chose to carry "primary" on the right hip in 1983, because I am naturally right-armed when throwing, and using some larger, heavier tools. The drawing of a heavy, fully-lugged-barreled revolver from the then-PD-issued low-slug, swiveling flap holster was much like the start of an underhand throw. (Drawing into a high #2, and pressing-out, was not part of the equation in those days.)

I tried a few self-taught solutions, including tilting my head when shooting PD-taught modified Isosceles, which we now know is not a best practice, and a Weaver-ish stance with a head-tilt, using my right inner deltoid and bicep muscles as a cheek rest, which is probably not a best practice, either. (Both methods involved keeping both eyes open, and for reference, my vision was 20/13 or better, at the time.) To be clear, I am not recommending either of these self-improvised solutions. Better to keep the head up, and bring the weapon to high-center. When I have done that, only the most alert firearms instructors have noticed I was shooting "cross-dominant."

Now, at age 55.5, with both near and far vision needing correction, I find my dominant left-eye's distance vision to be worsening more quickly than that of my right eye, and in some environments, I find myself closing my left eye, and sighting with my right. I am very interested in reading everything I can find on this matter, so will gratefully follow this discussion.

The progression should be something like this for you given your age + left eye issue:

7 yards, 2 inch target, close left eye and only use right eye to aim - slow fire of about 5 rounds, perfect shots, all in the 2 inch target.

Repeat until you get all 5 rounds into the 2 inch target without issue, after you do that, move onto:

7 yards, 2 inch target, both eyes open, low or high ready, on command or buzzer, acquire 2 inch target and close left eye in transition to acquiring target.

Repeat until you get all 5 rounds into the 2 inch target without issue, after you do that, move onto:

7 yards, 2 inch target, both eyes open, holstered (preferably concealed) pistol. On command or buzzer, draw and acquire 2 inch target, close left eye in transition to acquiring target.

Repeat until you get all 5 rounds into the 2 inch target without issue, after you do that, move onto:

7 yards, 2 inch target, both eyes open, holstered pistol. On command or buzzer, draw and keep both eyes open only using your right eye to focus the entire time while acquiring target.

Repeat until you get all 5 rounds into 2 inch target while focusing with only right eye.

Once you do the above, you can repeat at 15 yards and 25 yards.

You may need to shoot each step several times and/or go back and forth between steps to iron things out.

This can also be done dry fire, and I would suggest doing it dry fire for a while before hitting the range.

[Totem Polar]

...I should have bailed on the right eye sooner, but hard to give up on a body part.

I hear that. FWIW, I'm back 100 percent, so far as accuracy goes. Still working on speed, but i'm convinced: use the eye you see best with. Done.

[rdtompki]

Shot my first left-eye match today. Used a bit of painter's masking tape over the right lens to eliminate binocular rivalry. Sight picture at initial press out isn't great, but the clear sight picture is easy to correct. Transitions still find the sight alignment wanting to drift back to the right eye, but that will come with time. Of course whenever you're working on something at what passes for speed other skills suffered. Over this next month I'm going to slow down in practice and work on creating the proper mechanics. I see this as an opportunity to improve my shooting faced with the necessity of really concentrating on fundamentals.

[beenalongtime]

A LEO family member had a medical incident that caused them to have to wear an eye patch over their dominate eye. They had to do so for a fairly long time, enough so their other eye became dominate. When the patch came off, in the first week, major headaches became common as both eyes fought for dominance.
The comment made to me was they were happy they didn't have to use their gun, because they really feared if they would shoot straight.

[rdtompki]

I've pretty much got this thing licked after a few wrong turns. I tried rotating my head to the right to get my left eye behind my normal draw; didn't work well as my software really wanted to keep my head square to my shoulders. Tried an eye patch, but that proved to be really annoying. Finally, I let my brain figure things out; close right eye, index on the draw target, draw, rinse, repeat. Didn't take all that long before my brain rewired things and I don't really have to think about my left eye.

This exercise produced a number of unexpected benefits. I was caused to think very hard about my mechanics and found I had really fallen down in several area. So life handed me a (small) lemon, but I turned it into lemonade. I'm shooting better now than anytime in the past 6-8 months.