cross-eye dominance

[kmaultsby]

Ok;
I am right-handed left eye dominant. I know on this site it was recommended to just move the pistol over to the left eye but I still see double. So I have been playing around with shooting left-handed. No issues so far, a little slow when I tried it in my local IDPA matches. I have been using a timer for draws and reloads practice, and my times were about the same of and little faster on some of my reloads. Accuracy was also a little better. Should I continue down this path? Just looking for opinions.

[Dan_S]

I'm out of my depth here, but I *think* that shooting a handgun would be no different than shooting a rifle in relation to cross-eye dominance.

I've seen students that were right handed but left eye dominant, start shooting left handed and their group size would shrink noticeably, repeatedly.

I won't say what you should or shouldn't do, since I'm not qualified to make such statements regarding handguns, but if shooting left handed is working for you then I think I would stick with it for a while.

[JConn]

I'm no expert but I always see double when shooting with both eyes open. You just need to know which image to use. The only way I can see clearly is by squinting with my off eye or just straight closing it. I am not cross eye dominant.

[NETim]

I am cross dominant but despite that, I'm not an expert on a darn thing. I'll offer my experience anyway. I've shot long guns LH all my life. When I picked up handgunning seriously (my version of "seriously"), I just went LH as well, even though my left hand isn't quite as strong as my right. The LH trigger finger is considerably more educated though.

It has some advantages beyond getting the gun in front of the dominant eye IMHO. Your more adept, better coordinated RH hand gets to do stuff like swap mags and operate lights.

Yeah, it takes awhile to get the LH up to speed but to me it's worth it. The biggest obstacle and downside has been trying to build up strength in the LH. No better way to do that though, than to shoot. That would be true regardless of which side I determined was my "strong side."

[Jay Cunningham]

Ok;
I am right-handed left eye dominant. I know on this site it was recommended to just move the pistol over to the left eye but I still see double. So I have been playing around with shooting left-handed. No issues so far, a little slow when I tried it in my local IDPA matches. I have been using a timer for draws and reloads practice, and my times were about the same of and little faster on some of my reloads. Accuracy was also a little better. Should I continue down this path? Just looking for opinions.

Have you tried just cocking your head to the right a bit to allow the sights to line up in front of your left eye?

[JHC]

My younger son (now 21) is a lefty (left eye dom also) and continues to shoot rifle lefty. When we ramped up his pistol shooting he really sucked. We hit a low plateau and I could not budge him. In desperation I had him try shooting pistol right handed and that was an improvement. The big shocker was when we introducted the reload. It was faster and smoother than I've seen a noob before. It was very very respectful, as good as I've seen with many more experienced shooters. I attributed that to his most dextrous hand going for the spare mag and indexing it into the pistol.

As a side note; we hit another less low plateau and I learned a lesson too. Two intense days with Frank Proctor and he was shooting much much better in every respect and has continued and advanced now afterwards too. I had learned a similiar lesson years earlier around baseball hitting instruction. Seek out a pro if your serious.

[orionz06]

I'm right handed and LED and shoot right handed with a slight shift in my head and the gun. Haven't had any issues that I can blame on this. I shoot rifle right handed as well. I have gone as far as taking a carbine class left handed to see how it worked out for me and there was nothing, for me, worth switching for.

I've been to handgun classes from most everyone out there and no one as suggested I switch either. That's not to say they endorse me shooting this way but rather that it was not an issue that they noticed.

[167]

Question:

Should I continue down this path?

Answer:

I have been using a timer for draws and reloads practice, and my times were about the same of and little faster on some of my reloads. Accuracy was also a little better.

If you have not seen a significant degredation in performance and in some cases an improvement, then why not?

[JRB]

I too am left-eyed right-handed.

I've run into a dozen or so other cross-dominant shooters over the years, and no two of us really sorted out the same doctrine with rifles & pistols.
The trick, as you've discovered already, is to recognize when you're not improving, and mix things up to see if improvement results.

Now that you've found improvement, roll with it, and improvement should continue.

Dealing with cross-dominance really is one of those 'If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid' sorts of scenarios.

The key is to realize when it's not working, fix it, and if it's stupid without needing to be, see if you can un-stupefy it.

[kmaultsby]

Have you tried just cocking your head to the right a bit to allow the sights to line up in front of your left eye?

Yes; But sometimes I still get a little cross-eye. This maybe caused by incorrect head position on my part.