Right-handed, left-eye Dominant

[G8rHunter]

The next video you can see me "floating" my right arm away from the hot brass.

Damn!!!

 

[Kruel J]

It happened to me the first time I shot a rt hand semi-automatic at an indoor range. I did not even realize it was a spent cartridge that popped over my glasses and was burning my forehead. It must have looked funny as hell, but, in the moment, there was nothing funny about it!

LOL I've seen that happen, not from a "left or right handed" deal but from someone that limp-wristed. The piece of brass landed right in between the glasses frame and the eyebrow. Ouch!

 

[No_Regerts]

Here is a video that might help. Just happened to watch it a few days ago and I think it makes great sense:

I don't ever think anyone should shoot with their weak hand for the sake of eye dominance issues. Shoot with both eyes open and train through it. With a rifle, if you have to cheat one eye closed before
a shot, just remember to open it after you send one downrange.

 

[Kruel J]

I shoot with both eyes open regardless of distance or firearm being used. My right eye is useful enough to make me look human. From 10 yards pistol to 1000 yards rifle both are open. When shooting, my right eye goes blank except for peripheral.

 

[turq]

Weatherby Vanguards have a number of left hand models.

I'm right handed right eye dom. but played golf left handed.
A few famous golfers are cross eye dom. Jack N. is one he tilts his head to get his left eye behind the ball in putting and other parts of the game I guess,,,

 

[MountainBear]

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. First time Dad took me shooting, I shouldered the Stevens 120 single-shot .22 on my left shoulder. The response from my father was a chuckle and something akin to what the hell was I doing. I told him this was the way that worked for me. He mumbled something about left handed guns being expensive and gave me an eye patch instead.

Later, when I shot competition small bore for a time, I did not have access to a left handed Anshutz, so I cut an X in an index card and unscrewed the ocular cap from the rear sight, stuck on the card so it was in front of my left eye and put the ocular back on.

Neither of these things "cured" me. I am still right handed and still left eye dominant. I shoot my pistols with my right hand and left eye. Never been a problem, I've always passed any qualification I've tried to. In fact I have a bit easier time when asked to shoot weak handed.
I can shoot rifles equally well right or left handed anymore. The patch is no longer necessary.
The only place where I still find it necessary to shoot left handed is when shotgunning. Doesn't matter if clays or actual birds. I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with the door closed from the inside with, well, a shotgun, using my right hand and eye. But thankfully an 870 is more or less forgiving to shoot left handed. Defensive use of a shotgun with ground targets, gun goes back to my right side.

Give it time, try some tricks like index cards and patches, or even some electrical tape over the left lens of a pair of safety glasses, and you might be able to turn the wife and son into more or less ambidextrous shooters, which will save you money in the long run.

Good luck!

 

[DLS]

If you have any doubt about handling a right hand rifle from the left shoulder watch Saving Private Ryan. The sniper is a southpaw and handles to '03A3 with aplomb.

Patches and such will not "train away" eye dominance. It's hard wired into our nervous system. While you can get better at shooting cross dominate with practice, you will always be performing (vision wise) at a disadvantage compared to using your dominant eye.

I've coached junior programs for years and trained dozens of shooters to shoot off of their dominant side. It takes about six weeks but they all get to a point where it's comfortable and highly effective. They just need to stick with it through the difficult first few weeks.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

If you have any doubt about handling a right hand rifle from the left shoulder watch Saving Private Ryan. The sniper is a southpaw and handles to '03A3 with aplomb.

One , its a movie...and a bad one at times to boot...but I digress...
Two , its been a long time since I've watched it....does the actor actually , shoot , then operate the bolt from his shoulder , then fire the rifle...

I have tried to operate the bolt of a right handed rifle like the 03 from my left shoulder and could not do it...
Now all that really means is that I couldn't do it...someone else may be able to...
Andy

 

[DLS]

True it's a movie but it does demonstrate how fluid bolt manipulation can be with a right hand rifle while staying on the left shoulder.

A real life example would be two of my four kids are cross dominate and even my tiny 14 yr old daughter can operate her bolt guns with the same fluidity as in the movie and she is actually shooting rounds up to .257 Robert's in size.

Given, her rifles have a LOP at 11.5 inches to fit her frame ... she could not do this with a full sized rifle due fit issues.

I have witnessed (and trained) dozens of small bore match shooters learn this while slung up and in position. They have to lift their heads from the comb but otherwise can stay on the gun.

Same for service rifle and high power matches.

So it's not the most natural of things but can be done, and if you are shooting iron sights any slight loss due to dexterity on the weak side is way overcome by increased visual acuity!

I hope this helps.

 

[G8rHunter]

Here's another reason for using a bolt-action rifle for the appropriate side. I remember being taught in defensive driving training as a teenager to stop at all railroad crossings and look both ways before crossing. I have never followed this advice and not sure about what is suggested below about rifles. I have read about a few champion shooters using right-handed rifles and shooting left. Does catastrophic failure occur with factory loads? Or is it more about hand loads? I don't plan on doing hand loads.

"In the case of a catastrophic failure, a left-handed shooter using a right-hand action is almost certain to sustain injuries, perhaps severe, to his or her face. It is absolutely true that catastrophic failures are extremely rare. In a lifetime of shooting I've never had it happen to me, and I've seen only three or four firearms "blow up." It's ugly when it happens, but it isn't common. Safety, not ease of operation, is the primary reason why we lefties should use mirror-image actions.

If you have a child, spouse or any other beginning shooter who happens to be left-handed (or left-eye dominant), please start them out not just properly but safely with a true left-hand firearm, or at least something genuinely bilateral. Most of us will go through a lifetime of shooting without a catastrophic failure, but it just takes one."

Source: Rifles For Left-Out Lefties

 

[G8rHunter]

Ah, offset scope mount for cross dominance! Anyone tried it?

 

[Esam85]

I am right handed and right eye dominant that being said I can shoot lefty. It took lots of rounds to be efficient and I still really struggle shooting pistols.

 

[DLS]

...
"In the case of a catastrophic failure, a left-handed shooter using a right-hand action is almost certain to sustain injuries, perhaps severe, to his or her face...

I'm not sure I understand that statement from the American Rifleman article. I'm not trying to pick a fight here … I'm looking for clarity.

So, why would this "almost certainty" be so? Granted the gas relief port on most right hand bolt guns in on the right side placing the escaping gas as far away as possible from the "same-sided" shooters face. Even so, that port is still very far from a lefty's face as well. It's highly unlikely that gas flowing from that port would / could reach the lefty's shooter, even if they were really crawling up on the stock. That and the fact that most gas is actually directed into the magazine wells of bolt and semi guns makes me question the statement.

Given that, perhaps the author was meaning something different? I personally don't call a ruptured case event a catastrophic failure, and perhaps the author is in the same boat. To me a catastrophic failure is a rupture of the rifle not the cartridge case. This can happen either in the action area or the barrel. Bursting of the barrel is far more likely that a failed action but actions do fail. When this happens I don't see how action handiness / shoulder used makes any difference. You have metal coming loose in a very violent and unpredictable way … so I don't see in this instance how you could say one side or the other is more or less at risk when this happens. You basically have a grenade going off in your face … and who can predict how and where the shrapnel will fly?

On another topic in the article the author makes a big deal about push-feeds being able to feed in awkward, even upside down conditions and states he does not see the antipathy CRF folks have toward push feeds. Well, CRF is all about extraction, not so much about feeding, so his comments don't make much sense but that's another topic … so I digress.

So that's my thinking thus far … I'm happy to be illuminated to other ways of seeing the issue!

Cheers!

 

[DLS]

Ah, offset scope mount for cross dominance! Anyone tried it?

International rules (Olympics, Pan-American Games etc.) allow for offset sights. These are for iron sights but I think what I'm going to state would hold true for scopes.

You never see the top shooters using offsets sights, they always shoot off the eye dominate side, hand dominance is irrelevant to them. I think that says something. There was an Olympic shooter in the 60's that did use these mounts, but he had an eye injury late in his shooting career and did not want to (or maybe could not?) undo decades of position refinement he had given to his dominant side. By the way, he never did well after the accident so that may be telling as well.

What do you think?

 

[G8rHunter]

International rules (Olympics, Pan-American Games etc.) allow for offset sights. These are for iron sights but I think what I'm going to state would hold true for scopes.

You never see the top shooters using offsets sights, they always shoot off the eye dominate side, hand dominance is irrelevant to them. I think that says something. There was an Olympic shooter in the 60's that did use these mounts, but he had an eye injury late in his shooting career and did not want to (or maybe could not?) undo decades of position refinement he had given to his dominant side. By the way, he never did well after the accident so that may be telling as well.

What do you think?

I'm like everyone else. At the end of the day, I just want to do my best!

 

[G8rHunter]

I'm not sure I understand that statement from the American Rifleman article. I'm not trying to pick a fight here … I'm looking for clarity.

So, why would this "almost certainty" be so? Granted the gas relief port on most right hand bolt guns in on the right side placing the escaping gas as far away as possible from the "same-sided" shooters face. Even so, that port is still very far from a lefty's face as well. It's highly unlikely that gas flowing from that port would / could reach the lefty's shooter, even if they were really crawling up on the stock. That and the fact that most gas is actually directed into the magazine wells of bolt and semi guns makes me question the statement.

Given that, perhaps the author was meaning something different? I personally don't call a ruptured case event a catastrophic failure, and perhaps the author is in the same boat. To me a catastrophic failure is a rupture of the rifle not the cartridge case. This can happen either in the action area or the barrel. Bursting of the barrel is far more likely that a failed action but actions do fail. When this happens I don't see how action handiness / shoulder used makes any difference. You have metal coming loose in a very violent and unpredictable way … so I don't see in this instance how you could say one side or the other is more or less at risk when this happens. You basically have a grenade going off in your face … and who can predict how and where the shrapnel will fly?

On another topic in the article the author makes a big deal about push-feeds being able to feed in awkward, even upside down conditions and states he does not see the antipathy CRF folks have toward push feeds. Well, CRF is all about extraction, not so much about feeding, so his comments don't make much sense but that's another topic … so I digress.

So that's my thinking thus far … I'm happy to be illuminated to other ways of seeing the issue!

Cheers!

I think we all are looking for clarity.

 

[41mag]

I am left-eye dominant and, by necessity, have to shoot left-handed. Bolt-action rifles are predominantly right-handed.

I was Rt eye dominate until it went 20/400. I had to learn other tricks.
Started shooting my cowboy SAA one in either hand. It allowed training of the L hand along with retraining using Left eye. Lever carbines are wonderfully adaptable to L hand use. As are single shot rifles.

Complicated medical treatment over a period of years allowed gradual recovery of much of my Right eye function. It's possible to develop an adaptation to solve a lot of problems, OP. Good luck in finding a solution.

 

[dplev4]

Left handed-Right eye dominant. Shoot Rifles right. Pistols - Revolvers - right but working on ambi control. I'm not a great pistol shot to begin with, so I have been trying to different stances and holds and even forms to see what is most comfortable and the most workable for me. I am shooting right more often than not with most consistent results, and will probably stay with that. I am stronger on my left side and that does seem to make a difference when shooting a large caliber revolver. Not much difference for me shooting a 9mm semi automatic pistol.

You can train to shoot with your non-dominant eye, it just takes time.

I had right shoulder dislocation and rotator cuff tear, now repaired but had to switch sides to shoot my compound bow. Shot left for ten years before getting the shoulder fixed and returning to shooting right.

 

[titsonritz]

I'm left/left and shoot only right handed bolt guns. It works for me.

Freak.
Don't get me wrong I've shot plenty of '03s, P-14s, K98s, etc. but it is 2019 and there are plenty of LH bolt guns out there.

 

[titsonritz]

I am left-eye dominant and, by necessity, have to shoot left-handed. Bolt-action rifles are predominantly right-handed. Generally, models for lefties are more expensive and limited. Just wondering if some of you have shot right-handed bolt-action rifles on the left side and it has worked for you?

That is not as true as it once was and ,besides, Tikka makes a LH rifle, what else do you need to know?