Overcoming Cross Eye Dominant Shooting
Are you right- or left-handed?
This simple question will impact every aspect of your life. A specific hand is used for writing, eating, opening doors, throwing a ball, and other tasks.
For shooters, it will determine which hand you use to hold a firearm and squeeze the trigger. You instinctively know which hand to use because it is your dominant hand, but do you know which of your eyes is dominant?
The dominant eye is used to aim down the sights of the firearm. Most people have the same eye and hand dominance – right-handed shooters are often right eye dominant, and left-handed shooters tend to be left eye dominant.
Some people will be in difficult situations if their dominant eye is not the same as their dominant hand. This is called cross-eye dominance (or odd-eye dominance), and it makes using the iron sights of a rifle or shotgun a real challenge.
Source: EasyHit
When a shooter aims with their non-dominant eye, their shots will stray to the left or right of their target because the sights are not properly aligned with the target, even though they may appear to be from the shooter’s perspective. Eye dominance is something that many people do not know. For new shooters, this can make their first trip to the range a frustrating one.
Testing Your Eye Dominance
Here is a simple test you can perform to find out which of your eyes is the dominant one:
- Pick an object in the distance to “aim” at, such as a light fixture, picture, or door knob.
- Keep your index and thumb away from your face by drawing a circle.
- As though you were framing a picture, center the circle around the object.
- Close one eye and then switch to the other. The dominant eye that holds the object within the circle is your dominant one.
Correcting for Cross-Eye Dominance
If your eye dominance test reveals that you have cross-eye dominance, there are a few things you can do to correct or address the issue:
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- Use a Red Dot Sight Many cross-eye dominant shooters report that red dot sights dramatically improve their ability to shoot accurately with a rifle or shotgun. Red dot sights require that both eyes are open while shooting. This allows the dominant eye to focus on the target, and the non-dominant eye to focus on the reticle. (*3*)
704 Tactical Shooting with AT3 RD-50 Micro Red Dot Sight
Experimenting with placement of the sight is imperative, so start with it in the middle of the upper receiver’s rail system and adjust from there. Your red dot should be mounted at the front end of the upper receiver’s rail. Mounting it on your handguard can result in movement and a loss of proper sighting.
- Train Your Other Eye to be Dominant
Source: Field & Stream
Some shooters report being able to “train” their other eye to become dominant and aim normally. Training the eye involves obstructing your dominant eye’s ability to see clearly, forcing your other eye to adjust and take over. Although it takes a lot of effort and time, this technique may be worth your while. When you are shooting, cover your dominant eye using a patch or tape. Wearing a patch for an extended period, both on and off the range, is a more involved training method and tends to be more effective. However, training the eye doesn’t work for everyone; your eye may naturally revert back to its previous dominance when the patch is removed.
- Learn to Shoot with Your Other Hand If you cannot correct your eye’s dominance and are adamant about shooting with iron sights, your third option is to shoot offhand with rifles and shotguns. Realistically, you should learn to shoot offhand anyway – it’s a good skill to have – but it will feel very unnatural at first. Take your time and slowly acclimate to using long guns with your opposite hand. Don’t rush. It will just instill bad habits.
If you plan on learning to shoot offhand, you will want to practice all aspects of weapon usage. Carrying it, shouldering it, aiming, shooting, reloading, and clearing failures are all critical skills that will take practice to learn with your non-dominant hand. Even slinging the rifle over your shoulder must be practiced to ensure that you are able to use your weapon properly when needed.
Being cross-eye dominant doesn’t mean that you are doomed to a life of poor marksmanship with AR-15s and other long guns. You just have to adapt to the realities of your vision, find an alternative that works for you, and practice until that alternative feels natural.
Don’t be afraid to try new techniques – if you find that a certain method helps you put rounds on target accurately and consistently, it’s worth adding to your training until you find something more effective.
One Last Tip
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