Eye Training

[Diamondback]

For the cross-dominant, you might look into the Olympic Gold Medal-winning McMillan Tilt--Bill McMillan was a cross-dominant Marine who found out tilting his 1911 45 degrees left--no more--both gave him better lockup on the bones in his arm and more importantly brought his right-side sights over directly in front of his left-side master eye.

I don't fully close the eye I'm not sighting with, but I kinda half-squint it, which lets me keep some peripheral vision on that side.

 

[Pops1911]

I did try that for a time when my brain couldn't make up its mind. LOL Results were UGLY!

 

[Diamondback]

Which one, the McMillan or the half-squint?

Goes to show, though, this ain't a One Size Fits All game.

 

[Lange22250]

Read this and you will have a better understanding of the issue - pistol-training.com » Vision (http://pistol-training.com/articles/vision)

 

[ZigZagZeke]

Read this and you will have a better understanding of the issue - pistol-training.com » Vision (http://pistol-training.com/articles/vision)

I'm just now realizing how lucky I am after reading this article. I am ambidextrous. I play all positions in baseball, including batter, left handed, though I can bat effectively right handed as well. I play golf right handed and billiards right or left handed. I eat and write right handed. I shoot right handed or left handed, but prefer right handed.

The reason I say I'm lucky is that I have always just naturally sighted a pistol (or a shotgun) with this procedure from the article:

"Convergence and accommodation start out unified and on the target spot. There is one target spot and it is sharp and clear.

Once the decision to fire is made and as the gun is brought from wherever it was (holster, ready position, previous target) to its final shooting position, convergence stays on the target spot but accommodation shifts back to where the front sight is about to be. There is still one target spot but it is now blurry, because accommodation is at front sight depth. When the gun arrives in its final firing position, the front sight is immediately sharp and clear since accommodation is already at front sight depth. There are two guns since convergence is on the target spot. Use the dominant eye image (the inner of the two images) to align with the target spot. Disregard the nondominant eye image (the outer of the two images.)"

I've never had to work at it that I remember, it's just always been the way I've done it. I'd never heard it described that way before, but that's exactly how I do it. It's served me well over the years. I've shot trap and skeet, and played pro tournament level paintball with great success. I used to regularly place very well in small bore rifle competition as a teenager, and I recently broke 23 out of 25 at the trap range, even though I hadn't fired a shotgun in nearly a year. I can shoot a pistol very effectively with either hand, but I prefer right handed because it just seems more natural somehow, even though I believe I'm left eye dominant.

One of the things I learned from paintball, where there isn't always time to use sights, is to point and shoot. I can pretty reliably hit a paper plate at 15 yards without sights with my 1911. Firing 2500 paintball rounds per day a couple times a week for a few years will do that for you. You get visual feedback as to where you're rounds are going because you can see them travel, like tracers. This trains your muscle memory and your hand-eye coordination so that you can pretty much hit what you are looking at. My dad was one of those people who could hit an egg sized object thrown in the air with his .22 rifle. As a 12 year old kid he put a brick of .22 LR through his single shot rifle every week. They didn't have TV in those days.

My problem these days is that being in my late 60s all of those minor eye injuries I suffered over the years as a race car builder and steel dock construction contractor, all those little pieces of steel and grit have taken a toll on my right eye. Wear all of the eye protection you want in those occupations, but you will still experience bad stuff getting in your eyes. My right eye has a scar over the cornea from a microscopic sliver of steel that a doctor removed, but it still gives it a slight distortion, making things a little blurry on that side when focusing up close. That does affect my ability to focus that eye on handgun sights, and my accuracy has suffered somewhat. If things keep deteriorating I may have to try something different with sighting techniques.