Yea it's still a conscious thought to switch, but I haven't been able to shoot as much as I'd like either.
Yea it's still a conscious thought to switch, but I haven't been able to shoot as much as I'd like either.
"For a moment he felt good about this. A moment or two later he felt bad about feeling good about it. Then he felt good about feeling bad about feeling good about it and, satisfied, drove on into the night."
-- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy --
Got it.
I came to the forum with the intent to ask about shooting with both eyes open vs single eye shooting when this post caught my eye. The answer is yes, you can learn to shoot with the non dominant eye. At least I could. Let me explain how I got to this point: In my mid forties, my qualification scores dropped and I couldn't put a finger on why. I was squinting at the front sight with my dominant (right) eye and noticed how blurry it was (this was corrected with contacts). I switched to the left and was rewarded with a clear sight picture. I finished the day with my usual score by squinting and using my left eye. To make the long story short, I then practiced with the left, live and dry fire, until it became 'natural' and automatic.
Until one day, I dropped a mag during a reload and was rushing to beat the targets swinging close by going to the second mag on my belt. Afterwards, in the stress of the moment, I realized I shot the course of fire with both eyes open. I kept at it and had really good results. Not nearly as hard to learn as shooting with the non dominant eye. I've shot this way for about the last seven to eight years until yesterday. Which is why I was here tonight.
I was shooting the FAST drill and was having a horrible time with it. When I'm really screwing up a drill I abandon what's planned and attempt to break down what I'm doing wrong and correct it. I realized I was not consistently finding the front sight. After another run, on impulse, I shot the drill left eye. Clean. 5.89 from a 5.11 Thumbdrive holster. PERSONAL BEST. Then shot it with the right eye. 6.21 clean. Two more runs were close to the same times but I threw the second 3x5 shot each time. My goal in July was to consistently shoot advanced times with my every day work gear, which is Vertyx polos and pants, Blade Tech single mag carrier and the Thumbdrive holster for a lightly modified G19. Although it's to early for me to make a decision without a lot more work, I would welcome input on when single eye shooting is better than both eyes open or vice versa. If I'm hijacking this thread I'll be happy to start one. Again, input appreciated.
Bring on the hijack; more input is better. Also, search for Gabe White's vision thread. When I get back to a desktop, I'll dig up a link.
As an aside, each trip to the range is better in terms of getting the FS under my non-dominant eye. I'm confident things will pan out with enough reps. I'm actually using this as an excuse to break down everything and do a spring cleaning from the ground up: I've been working a ton of DAO revolver trigger, so long as I am reworking the presentation anyways.
This thread discusses the very issue I've just experienced. I've had a vitrious detachment in my right (dominant) eye, not retinal detachment and one decent size floater. The floater is a non-issue, but I've lost some acuity in my right eye which may or may not be correctable (or some recovery may take place).
Other than the usual SD/HD for which my right eye would work just fine I shoot steel challenge. This is not precision shooting and I've been using fiber optics on both front and rear sights. Unfortunately, our practice range has a huge tree overhanging the range which puts my wife and I in shade when we're practicing; the rear sight fibers are now much dimmer than the front when viewed with my dominant eye.
The bummer is that my right eye might work ok on a normal outdoor range; our practice range is another matter.
More follow up today reinforced that I'm shooting faster and more accurately when I use one eye. Six runs with both eyes open yielded times in the 7 second ranges with a thrown shot or two. Switching to one eye shooting gave me five clean runs in the low six second range. I screwed up a mag change on one and it all went to hell. I was called to work and couldn't finish up my session today, but definitely looking forward to exploring this more.
I backed into this through my cataract surgeries. Have always been nearsighted, right handed and cross dominant. My right eye was first and had it corrected for distance in the process (they can implant any lens you want, am amazed that they do not do this more frequently). Actually told the doctor to try to not go totally out to 20/20 so I could still see pistol sights. Now my vision in my right eye is strong enough to (legally) drive without correction, though the fact that this indeed legal is appalling and I wear glasses after dark. This left me with my uncorrected nearsighted left eye for about three years, and when it was ready for surgery I picked a lens that would give me close detail. It is great, especially for activities like the snowmobile in the cold, I can ride and read the map without glasses.Originally Posted by JodyH
And it has maybe tempered my cross dominance? I shoot skeet without correction and it probably has the same effect as the trick of putting scotch tape on your glasses. For pistol it is still not optimal but probably good enough to be in sync with the rest of my abilities, never have been a good group shooter at distance anyway. I have only done a bit of experimenting shooting strong hand with my left eye, interesting that you have been working that angle also.
I thought I was bad, but some of you guys may have it worse. I have no real dominant eye and dominance can switch throughout the day especially if I get fatigued or one eye gets fatigued. I am right handed and because of this I have taught myself to ensure dominance on my right eye by squinting the left eye so there is no guess work for me. Like Jody if I am going for precision and I notice the left eye is "seeing better" I will take a precision shot with my left eye. Now that I am getting older and my eye sight near and far is degrading, this just creates more issues.
Just a quick follow up to my OP from months ago: At this point, it's pretty much second nature to just align pistol/revolver with my (formerly) non-dominant offside eye. I can see enough better out of my left eye that it didn't take very long to just acquire the habit of aligning straight to that eye, instead of defaulting to my old right side dominance. Truthfully, the switch was easier than I thought; aided in part because, you know, I sort of want to see the sights when I shoot.
So all's well that ends well on that, at least until I quasi-pressure test things in a longer format class sometime in the coming year.
Now... rifles... that is a whole separate matter. I got my first pellet gun when I was 7 or 8 or something, and I was shooting my dad's crossman in the basement with his help since before I can really recall. I honestly don't know if I have the enthusiasm to relearn rifles left-handed. I know that some folks advocate switching sides when running ARs around opposite side obstacles; can anyone who has a lot of experience with long arms comment on that? Who's the go-to for Southpaw AR training? Anyone come to mind?
Thanks in advance!
I have worse vision than you do. My dominant eye is significantly worse than my other eye. I used my non dominant eye for many years, with no issue at all. I taught myself to shoot rifles left handed as well, but decided that was just silly, and went back to using my right hand for both guns. Left eye for pistol, right eye for rifle. No issues at all.
A few years ago I decided to switch back to shooting pistols with my dominant eye. It took a little work, but I now use my weaker but dominant eye for pistols as well. I found that if I zeroed a gun with my better, left eye, the group would shift when using my weaker, right eye. Now I zero and shoot exclusively with my right, dominant eye.
I do not wear correction and never have for normal life, but I have a few pairs of corrected range glasses. It doesn't seem to matter much if I wear them or not, so I'm still experimenting a bit. They help with red dots, but not much else. Its one reason I prefer scopes for my primary.
As we age, I'm sure that range sessions will be more and more experimental.
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