My GF and I have recently taken up target archery. Both of us are right handed, however after a few simple tests we found out that our dominant eyes are our left ones, not matching our right handedness. The other hint was that my GF was consistently grouping 12" to the left of the bullseye!!
This has some unfortunate implications when it comes to aiming a right handed bow (or even an ironsighted rifle).
Luckily for me it doesn’t bother me too much and I am able to just shut my dominant eye and aim with my right eye. My GF though, is having real problems aiming with her ‘poor’ eye. Oddly. her vision is technically ok (she recently had an eye exam).
Her only options are to learn to shoot with the poor eye, or to switch to a left-handed bow. She is not keen on re-learning to shoot left-handed, so my question: Has anyone out there had experience with this problem, specifically regarding improving aiming with their non-dominant eye?
According to what I’ve read over the years, about 30% of right-handers are left-eye dominant; I’m one of them just, as you and your girlfriend are. I shoot iron-sighted rifles by sighting with my right, non-dominant eye. (With handguns and scoped rifles, I’m able to use my left eye, of course, and when shotgunning, I keep both eyes open.) I don’t know of any tricks, or special techniques, that you can use to train yourself to shoot with your non-dominant eye. I’m afraid that lots of practice is the only thing I’ve found that helps. However, if you guys are currently shooting with both eyes open, you might want to try putting an eyepatch over your dominant eye rather than simply closing it. This will, at least, reduce the straining required to keep your dominant closed. I used to find my “cheating” a little bit now and then. The eyepatch will solve that problem, assuming you have it.
Hmmmm. I’ve just found this device in a Google search. It seems to be made for shotguns only however. I dunno how well it might work if adapted for bowshooting, but the principle behind the device seems reasonably sound. Maybe you can contact these guys and see if they might know more about modifying it for bowshooting.
Two guys I shoot trap with are right handers with left eye dominance. One uses a piece of electrical tape over the left eye, the other has presciption shooting glasses with the left eye opaqued about 1/4 inch.
Dumb question from a guy who hasn’t done much shooting other than BB guns: why don’t you just use your left hand for firing guns. Archery I can see it being a problem, as strength, dexterity, etc. comes more into play when having to use the off hand. For a gun, however, it would seem to be better to aim with the dominant eye; it’s not like you need the strength of the dominant hand (maybe for pistol, but not for rifle).
Is it a problem with shells ejecting rightside out into your face? Something else I’m missing? Again, I know it’s a different type of gun, but firing from the left side always worked for me for pellet guns and .22s.
[FONT=Arial]Most guns are designed to be fired from only one side of the body, regardless of the placement of the ejection port; rather location of the ejection port is determined by which side of the body the gun is intended to be fired from. Speaking specifically to shotguns specialized for trap, shell ejection isn’t necessarily a problem, since you only fire a single shell at a time (with the exception of double-trap, which I’ve seen shot only a very few times in more than twenty years). Also, specialized trap guns, both single- and double-barrel, generally break open at the top anyway. There are, of course, exceptions - those being pumps and semi-autos, but they aren’t often specialized for trap - they’re usually general purpose shotguns that the owner may have optimized for trap.
What UncleBeer wrote. Especially when you get into semi-custom guns like those in trap, there’s also the cast of the stock to consider. A gun for a right handed shooter will have the stock slightly bent away from the shooter, called cast off. With the stock bent to the left, this is called cast on. For most shooters, cast off is part of a proper fit. Another significant difference is, shotgunning (except when using slugs) is a point and shoot sport, with much better results achieved (there are exceptions of course) with having both eyes open.
I’m also right handed but left eyed. I was taught from a very early age to shoot left handed, and it now feels natural for me to do so.
It can be a hassle and more expensive to get left handed bolt-action rifles (or bows), but I’m an excellent marksman, and IMHO shooting left handed is the way to go for left eyed people.
