From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: Eye dominance
Keywords: vision
Date: 24 Jul 89 17:34:33 GMT

In article <30200@ism780c.isc.com> chen@gatech.edu (Ray Chen) writes:
>Never really having shot rifle in my life, I ask:
>
>What if you're right handed but your left eye is the dominant eye?
>
>Can I shoot right-handed but looking down the barrel with my
>left eye?

Sure you can.  But why?  I'm heavily right biased in everything else
I do.  But I shoot left-handed because my left eye is so much
stronger.  Left handed shooting is easy to learn.  And with bolt-action
rifles, you have the advantage of having the bolt on the inside.
When I finally discovered my left eye to be dominant, I was able to
convert over in a matter of hours.

The one exception I make to this is silhouette shooting.  My custom built
bolt gun has a right-handed grip.  I have played with positions involving
both left and right grips and find that in the creedmore position, I'm
more steady gripping with my right hand and looking over my stomach
with my left eye.  I plan to experiment more with this but for now, the
gun is still right handed.

John

From: John De Armond
Subject: Re: left eye dominant
Organization: Dixie Communications Public Access.  The Mouth of the South.

humphrey@hpcvcpc.cv.hp.com (Tom Humphrey) writes:

#My son, who is 12 years old, is left eye dominant and right handed. While this
#does not pose a problem for handguns, I am having difficulty in deciding
#how to handle a rifle. He would prefer to shoot right handed rather than
#left handed and use his left eye. Is there a way to mount a scope such that
#he can do this?

#What do other people do out there for this situation?

I'm left dominant, right handed.  My left eye didn't really dominate until
I was in my 20s.  Or more correctly, my right eye didn't go out until
then.  I solved the problem the old fashioned way - I taught myself to
shoot left handed.  That was 20 years ago.  Shooting left handed now is
as natural as was right handed shooting was before.  A big benefit from
this is I'm equally able with either hand.  Real handy for
weak hand competitions or if I ever get in a situation where I must
shoot defensively with my left hand.  Kinda like a basketball player
being able to shoot with either hand.

I'd encourage your son to learn to shoot left handed.  He'll never
achieve his best performance straining to look at the sights
through his left eye.

John