Help with Right handed / left eye dominant teen shooter

[redleg1013]

Just going to throw this out there and probably ruffle a few feathers but I've already had my coffee...

Most of the replies I've seen are hogwash, born of institutional inbreeding. Do not try to "re-train" something that you haven't even trained.

One can absolutely learn to shoot cross-dominantly and do very well doing it. I'll go ahead and disclose that I am not, and never will be an NRA certified anything. I was never the unit's special small arms trainer, but I always got sent the problem children that couldn't qualify.

The problem is that too many "instructors" only know one way to teach and if their student can't learn that way, then they have to "re-train" until they fit the cookie cutter. Ideally, one's dominant eye will align with their dominant hand right/right or left/left. I say Ideally because many, many people are cross-dominant... people like Larry Vickers, who somehow managed to figure out how to shoot and still wind up in Delta. I am cross-dominant and yet I manage to shoot expert in all my qualifications, and only dropped two points on my last DHS/FPS qualification.

Do not fight what your body wants to do naturally... the learning curve will be shorter, and should you NEED to use your pistol, unless you have performed thousands of repetitions combating your body's natural inclinations, you will struggle in all aspects. I have nearly tried it all, closing my dominant eye, putting tape over my dominant side eye-pro to maintain binocular vision, shooting left handed, and failed qualifications; but it wasn't until I just did what my body wanted that I saw significant results.

The problem really is learning to ignore what isn't important to see. There are several individuals I would say have given "masterclass" lessons on various related topics, chiefly among them would be Keith Sanderson, Ron Avery, and Chris Sajnog, with the last two focusing more on the science of all that is shooting pistols.

 

[lyotehunter]

Hi all.
My eldest daughter is old enough to get her minors permit and shoot handgun at the range. All good till the point where she starts to shoot and only manages a few hits .
Its her first visit to the range and i'm standing behind her , so I cant see that she has both eyes open, trying to shoot right eye.
Later at home we were talking and I just asked her to close her left eye, as it turns out she cant but she can close here right .
back to the range and would you know it , Right eye closed and she has improved remarkably.

So is this OK.

I have no experience with this and would appreciate some guidance .

Maybe try safety glasses with a black paper on the left eye

 

[mwkelso]

I'm a right handed shooter and left eye dominant.
It took a while, but I had to learn how to focus with the right eye.
I wasn't even aware of it until my defensive pistol instructor caught it.
I have grown up shooting like this, so I never knew any different. It took patience, but the more aware I was, the better the accuracy became.
The instructor had me focus on an object, then close each eye separately. The whole point was to get me to see how the image shifted left and right as I did this, that way I would know what image to focus on while shooting.
I always shoot with both eyes open and can "switch" to the left eye when I'm behind behind the scope and need to see the scope level. It's a pretty handy skill to have for sure.

 

[haftime]

Left handed rifles and shotguns are not common but can be had. I had a friend shoot a model 1911 left handed and said he was not bothered by the empty as it was ejected.

Got my dad a lefty flintlock and he had me (a righty) shoot it. Think I lost eyebrows.

 

[Treeslug]

Got my dad a lefty flintlock and he had me (a righty) shoot it. Think I lost eyebrows.

Haven't heard anybody else mention it, but shooting right-hand semi-auto shotguns (and rifles) from your left shoulder is a really good way to catch a face full of still burning gunpowder. My face is so ugly that it doesn't really matter, but still, it ain't a lot of fun.

 

[Mike Matteson]

I used a full auto for a year in Vietnam. Never had that problem. Used 1911 .45, M-16 A-1, and a Car-15. I also used M-60 and 50 cal. too. I shot thousands of rounds from action pump shotguns. I could pump generally quicker than the auto loaders could load. The only thing I haven't used is a musket or black powder rifle.

 

[Treeslug]

I used a full auto for a year in Vietnam. Never had that problem. Used 1911 .45, M-16 A-1, and a Car-15. I also used M-60 and 50 cal. too. I shot thousands of rounds from action pump shotguns. I could pump generally quicker than the auto loaders could load. The only thing I haven't used is a musket or black powder rifle.

Mike, you are quick with that pump shotgun. I also shoot a right-hand black powder cap-lock muzzleloader from my left shoulder. But, as I said earlier, my face can take it.

 

[HappyGVM]

I'm a little late to the thread but I agree completely with jpd676.
My grandfather was smart enough to catch by left eye dominance, even though I'm right-handed, at an early age and I learned to shoot long guns left handed. Went on to shoot shotguns competitively at West Point and all my long guns are left handed. For handguns I shoot right-handed but just hold it slightly to the left (to avoid canting it) and my left eye takes over. I managed to qualify Expert with my M9 throughout 26+ years in the Army.

 

[Lefty G-gear]

Hi all.
My eldest daughter is old enough to get her minors permit and shoot handgun at the range. All good till the point where she starts to shoot and only manages a few hits .
Its her first visit to the range and i'm standing behind her , so I cant see that she has both eyes open, trying to shoot right eye.
Later at home we were talking and I just asked her to close her left eye, as it turns out she cant but she can close here right .
back to the range and would you know it , Right eye closed and she has improved remarkably.

So is this OK.

I have no experience with this and would appreciate some guidance .

I'm Left-handed and Left-eye dominant, but I shoot a handgun with my Right hand. and pretty well.
That's OK.
But, I shoot a rifle Left-handed.
What does your daughter do with a rifle and scope?
The last rifle I bought is a RH model, since Mossberg only makes it in RH. - But I put a RH Boyds laminate stock on it with the LH cheek option. - It works.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Being left handed and left eye dominant myself. I learn shot right handed action at an early age. Never got a left hand action. Not that I couldn't afford one or more. I did learn how to set a rifle action into a stock with left handed check piece.

 

[shawn mcjunkin]

same boat Sons left eye, RH He adapted fine. pistol both eyes open, shotgun does cant his head a little but shoots trap for school Very well. Scoped rifles He Prefers to use right Eye But then he shoots his bow left handed sooooo? Start em now they learn quick

 

[LuvDog]

Did OP say whether his daughter is right or left handed? From reading the post, it made it seem like she held the gun right handed.

Does she do other things lefty? Honestly, I think teaching her to be ambidextrous early would be the best thing. It would make those weak hand only stages easier in USPSA when she gets older.

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. So when my son was just old enough to shoot a nerf gun, I checked his eye dominance. Good for him that he's right eye and right handed.

For long guns, I shoot left handed - but I got so used to shooting right handed bolt guns lefty, that I don't bother finding and paying extra for a left handed bolt. I just make sure the stock/chassis can accommodate me.

For hand guns I shoot right handed. Red Dots really help here, but before that, I'd put scotch tape on the left lens of my shooting glasses. It still allowed some light and shapes, but kept my focus with my right eye.

 

[USA_774]

I was born with a cataract in my right eye. I am right handed. I do everything right handed except shooting long guns.
My Dad knew it might be an issue so when he bought me a deer rifle, he bought me a Remington Pump Action Model 760 in a .270 Winchester.
I learned to shoot right handed. Rifles, shotguns and bows. The first time I shot my .270, I had to lean across and use my left eye to see through the scope. Guess what happened. The scope came back and bit me on the eye brow.
My Dad's first words were " I was afraid that would happen. "

From that point I learned to shoot left handed. I went out and bought a used Winchester 101 O/U shotgun with $400 from my paper route. That and my Model 760 Remington were my only guns for years.

Fast forward a few decades and I have a few LH bolt action rifles, a Browning BPS Pump Shotgun that ejects out the bottom and of course my favorites, my Model 760 rifle and Model 101 shotgun.

Learning to shoot long guns lefthanded was relatively easy. Probably because I wasn't fighting the gun to see the target. The bow took a little more time. I still feel I can shoot a RH bow more accurately Right Handed without sights than I can a LH bow without sights.

 

[ntsqd]

Haven't heard anybody else mention it, but shooting right-hand semi-auto shotguns (and rifles) from your left shoulder is a really good way to catch a face full of still burning gunpowder. My face is so ugly that it doesn't really matter, but still, it ain't a lot of fun.

I used a full auto for a year in Vietnam. Never had that problem. Used 1911 .45, M-16 A-1, and a Car-15. I also used M-60 and 50 cal. too. I shot thousands of rounds from action pump shotguns. I could pump generally quicker than the auto loaders could load. The only thing I haven't used is a musket or black powder rifle.

AR SP-1's are a no-go for me. Even with the case deflector on the later rifles about every third case grazes my right cheek as it goes by.

We lefty's learn to be at least semi ambidextrous naturally, it doesn't need to be taught as it is forced upon us.

What does need to be taught are the normal basics, only mirror imaged for a left handed person. My 3rd grade teacher wanted me to curl my left hand around so that I held the pencil at exactly the same angle as all of the RH'd kids in class. That was extremely awkward and quickly made my hand cramp. I shortly quit doing that and was resolute in not doing it the way that she wanted me to. Watch left-handers write something, 9 times out of 10 what she was trying to get me to do is exactly what they will do.

Adapt the process to the person, not the person to the process.