Your eye and your finger

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I have two good friends who are interested in firearms. Autodidactic from gun magazines and the square range at 7 yards. However, one is interested in becoming a serious defense oriented shooter, esp. for church scenarios. I've been trying to supply resources (get him to a class, etc.). Anyway, he is suffering from bad arthritis in his dominant hand trigger finger. When shooting, he shoots to the classic misplacement of a right handed shorter. I've given him info and some dry fire exercises from legit sources. So he doing them but finds his stiff finger fights against correction due to it immobility. He says that he is trying out pulling the trigger with his middle finger if that helps. It is an empirical question. I suggested training up on his nondominant hand which is much better functionally.

So Friend Two opines that then you will have to switch to your nondominant eye as blah, blah. I opined that you don't have to because it ain't a rifle and a slight movement brings the sights into alignment for the nondominant hand, dominant hand combo. Experientially, I have been through this when I broke my wrist. I used my nondominant hand and dominant eye and shot just fine. I took an injured shooters class at krtraining in the cast (how convenient to plan it this way, Paul Gomez was in the class too - that's how I met him). Then I took LFI-1 and Stress Fire with a removable cast (Wayne Dobbs was aiding Ayoob) and I shot it as well as most average folks in the class).

So what do you all think?

Dominant hand with middle finger?
Non dominant hand with or without eye change?

[Peally]

Shoot with a working trigger/index finger. If the right hand is so messed up it can't shoot, use the left hand. It's not like he's a master right-hand-only bullseye shooter that needs to take decades to completely relearn mastering a trade with another hand. Any competent shooter needs to take time to train one handed regardless, no biggie.

Cross dominance is a bullshit pseudo-problem RE: handguns and optic (AKA all modern) enabled rifles IMO and it's kinda annoying how often people get hung up on it being a real one. It's not a factor with handguns unless your neck is broken or you have really, really fucked cross-dominance where your brain doesn't know what the hell to see with.

JMO YVVM. I'm a cross dominant USPSA Master so while I have little tactical experience (outside of "try to shoot em in the face") shooting one handed is something I've already had to do plenty whether it be due to stage requirements or fucking up one of my hands temporarily. I'm sure a crapload of guys here can echo my findings.

My vote is shoot lefty/nondominant and use whatever eye is natural.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Yeah, I thought I would ask. Being a vision guy, I studied lateral dominance quite a bit. I never bought the freak out over eye dominance in most folks.

I've noticed that when some scenario circumstance led me to use my nondominant hand and eye, I could shoot just fine in a practical sense. This was with a couple of stages with those new IDPA fault bars that screwed the left handers such that I had to do that. I hit the targets for zeros or one's.

[PD Sgt.]

I would also recommend shooting lefty with dominant eye. The world is full of very capable cross dominant shooters. It may benefit your friend to seek out a class with one of these to help him address any problems he may be having(Vickers basic pistol comes to mind).

There will probably be a lot more effort required to learn basic mechanics (drawing, reloading, malfunction clearance) than to bring everything into line for sighting. The good thing is a lot of that can be addressed in dry practice.

[Drang]

He should try all three, but (FWIW) I tend to agree that what will probably work best for him is non-dominant hand with dominant eye.

[spinmove_]

Shoot left handed with the dominant eye. I’m cross-dominant myself (right handed) and it’s really not that big of a deal. Just put the gun in front of the eye he naturally wants to use. Close one eye if necessary. He hasn’t been shooting that long so relearning trigger control isn’t that big a deal.


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[olstyn]

Yeah, I thought I would ask. Being a vision guy, I studied lateral dominance quite a bit. I never bought the freak out over eye dominance in most folks.

The guy in my USPSA league who kicks my ass every week had an injury to his dominant eye many years ago, and had to basically train his other eye to be dominant. I'm sure it took a lot of time and effort, and I'm definitely glad that I haven't had to do it, but you can "fix" yourself.

[psalms144.1]

While posted in Europe on a protection detail, I ended up getting my hand slammed in the door of a Mercedes 500 up armored sedan during training - resulting in a catastrophic break of my right 5th finger. Luckily, we had previously had "wrong handed" shooters on the team, so there was a spare left hand P228 holster in the gear safe. Once back from the unfortunately surprisingly lackadaisical Portuguese "orthopod," I swapped holsters, and started carrying south paw. I never felt the need to swap eyes, as I tend to shoot both eyes open. When shooting for REAL accuracy (25 yards and beyond), I was able to cant my head enough to get a good sight picture with just the dominant eye with minimal effort.

He's a newish shooter, I'm assuming. Get his training shooting his left hand as his primary, and go forth and do great things. Both eyes open will help a lot...

[Clobbersaurus]

Cross dominant shooter here as well.

Tell him to dry fire for ten minutes daily, for three weeks, with his non dominant hand and his right (dominant) eye. He needs to commit to it and not worry that it feels weird. He will be much more confident in the process “feeling” correct after three weeks. Tell him to really crank down with his right hand grip pressure so that it feels like he is doing something useful with it. After several months, it will feel “normal”. He just needs to practice it.