Eye Dominance: If your right eye offends thee...

[Spartacus]

maybe it's not really your right eye but your left eye and you just can't tell.

I have tried finding my dominant eye using the triangular hand method. I pop my hands up in front of me eyes, quickly, like when an optometrist is flipping potential lenses during an eye exam (Which is better? Now...or now. Now...or now.) When I do this I end up with my triangle not lined up with either eye.

If I do it slowly I end up having time to line up the triangle with one or the other eyes. Sometimes right, sometimes left.

I want to start shooting using both eyes but this eye dominance thing is killing me.

Is it possible to not have a dominant eye?

[JeffJ]

Very rare, but possible

[JConn]

Are you saying you have a dominant eye and an other-dominant eye?

[Leozinho]

maybe it's not really your right eye but your left eye and you just can't tell.

I have tried finding my dominant eye using the triangular hand method. I pop my hands up in front of me eyes, quickly, like when an optometrist is flipping potential lenses during an eye exam (Which is better? Now...or now. Now...or now.) When I do this I end up with my triangle not lined up with either eye.

If I do it slowly I end up having time to line up the triangle with one or the other eyes. Sometimes right, sometimes left.

I want to start shooting using both eyes but this eye dominance thing is killing me.

Is it possible to not have a dominant eye?

Doesn't sound like you are doing it right. A more fool-proof method: Make a triangle at arms length. Look through triangle to distant object. Bring triangle into face without ever losing sight of distant object. The eye your hand ends up in front of is your dominant eye. Try it again and deliberate bring triangle to other eye. You will likely lose sight of distant object for a split second.

But you can train an eye to be more dominant.

[JeffJ]

Try pointing at something across the room, a lightswitch works well, with both eyes open. Then close your left eye - it looks like you're still pointing at the light switch, you are right eye dominant - if it "jumps" then you are left eye dominant. If you are truly both eye dominant you can probably train one eye to "take over" while shooting by using some sort of occlusion on the other eye for a while and then gradually making the occlusion smaller until you don't need it.

[Spartacus]

Doesn't sound like you are doing it right. A more fool-proof method: Make a triangle at arms length. Look through triangle to distant object. Bring triangle into face without ever losing sight of distant object. The eye your hand ends up in front of is your dominant eye. Try it again and deliberate bring triangle to other eye. You will likely lose sight of distant object for a split second.

But you can train an eye to be more dominant.

Well, I'll be. That seemed to work. Appears I'm left eye dominant, right handed shooter.

You have no idea, how much I appreciate this. My next plan was to get in my car, try the triangle hands on a bridge abuttment, and if it didn't work...drive into the bridge abuttment. This has been frustrating me for at least a couple of years.

Seems I need to work on making my left eye more dominant though. Whips? Chains? Leather? I don't know, I'll Google it.

[JeffJ]

Welcome to the cross dominant club! Of course I'm assuming you're right handed.

Now that you know you'll probably start to realize that it affects other things too - My pool game went from really, really bad to just pretty bad once I learned that I needed to close my left eye.

If you are having trouble adjusting to both eyes open it will instantly help that you now know which eye to hold the gun in front of - but the gradually shrinking occlusion trick works well for most people. I personally spent a lot of time shooting a .22 with all black sights with both eyes open until it became a habit.

[Leozinho]

There's a method of putting transparent/Scotch tape on your shooting glasses over the non-dominant eye. It makes it just fuzzy enough out of the non-dominant eye that your dominant eye becomes more dominant (or that's the theory.) I did it when starting out, and use it again after long layoffs from shooting. I think my dominant eye isn't a whole lot more dominant than my non-dominant eye, and occasionally get double front sight pictures. The tape on shooting glasses seems to work for me. (Blinking my non-dominant eye right before the draw also seems to help for some reason.)

[Leozinho]

Plenty of good pistol shooters are cross eye dominant. They use their dominant eye to focus, and just move the gun over accordingly. Dave Sevigny comes to mind.

It's a bit more problematic for rifle shooters. You'll have to make the decision to shoot left-handed, or close the dominant eye.

[Spartacus]

Leozinho-

I'll have to try then Scotch tape. Thanks again.