When my hubby flipped his Bronco and detached the retina in his right eye - losing virtually all sight there - he had to go to left eye shooting. It’s taken about 20 years, but he’s got most of his right eye vision back, just not the very center fovial field - the part that you read with and use for binocular vision to judge distances with. He may get that back eventually, but in the mean time, he’s still shooting cross-dominant. He does the turn-the-head thing for handguns, and mounts some of his rifle scopes offset to the left so he can shoot right shoulder.
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Growing up I was taught that cross eye dominant is poor training and the wrong way to do it. Most new shooters I take to the range try and shoot that way and are always off target. They try and compensate by adjusting their sight picture with where they are grouping. But, I say, “hey, learn how to hit your target and know your weapons.” If you can group by adjusting and hit your target, that is what matters.
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Really? That’s terrible! It has nothing to do with poor training. There are a number of great videos on how to shoot when you’re cross eye dominant.
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I’ve overcome cross eyed dominance by going both eyes open.
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I believe it’s simply a matter of learning how you like to shoot. I was taught it was wrong, and to overcome it… like it was some kind of rule breaker… I did overcome it… but I have seen new shooters that are CED having trouble on accuracy.
More time at the range… oh darn 
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Here’s one for you. I have had cataract surgery of BOTH of my eyes, but many years apart (~25). Your eyes do NOT change focus after having an artificial lens implanted. I CANNOT focus clearly on the front sight with my glasses on or off. I could if I used readers, but frankly, I prefer to train as carry, and I certainly don’t wear my readers everywhere.
Fortunately, there is a difference between your crystal clear lens focus, and what you are looking at. I look at my front sight and it is good enough to get a sight picture with, but the target will still be in clear lens focus no matter what I do.
Just wondering how other folks in this situation handle the challenge.
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@Fish I was trying to figure out how to train with my readers, or if I should get specialty glasses made or… or…
I can sort of focus the rear sites with my readers, I mostly can’t get a clear focus on the front site with the readers. I can focus target pretty well until it gets over 20 yards. If I squint I can get either the rear or the front sight to focus, but my re-focus time to the target can take more than several seconds. It just wasn’t working and it was making a mess of my shooting. A couple months ago I switched to just shooting no glasses, with pretty much a point shooting style - target in focus, all sights not focused, but in my awareness. that’s worked REALLY well, I think… my accuracy is back on track.
Red dot really helps… no focus issues when using that.
I’ve lost my strong-eye dominance and now get toggling back and forth from one eye to the other, sometimes several times in the same second. I close the left, or slow-blink the left until my right eye grabs hold. With the red-dot I don’t toggle back and forth, even if the red-dot is off… I think because the housing of the optics serves as an open ring to sight through even when the dot isn’t there.
hope that gives you some ideas.
Right handed left eye dominant here. I’ve used the modified weaver and head tilt in the past but find it much easier these days to use an isocilies stance and move the firearm to my left eye when I’m shooting for marksmanship.
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I am right handed and left eye dominant. I’ve experienced no trouble shooting my pistol this way for 20 years. Long guns are tricky but I do very little of that.
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Well I maybe cross dominant for a bit as will be having cataract surgery in a couple of months.
I did shoot qualifications left handed, slightly supported by my right-hand as I had surgery to correct the damages to my hand. Since my hand was in a splint/cast I used it to support my revolver I used for shooting. My left eye is worse so I was shooting cross.
My hand is free now and on rehab status still need to strengthen it so I can up tilt and hold weight of 2,pounds and greater.
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I’m glad to hear that you’re training to accommodate for some physical challenges right now, @Joe! Unfortunately when we’re recovering we may present a better/weaker target to attackers. It’s awesome that you’re making modifications to your training so you can stay safe!
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Okay shooting left-handed first major attempt supported only by arm on half cast after surgery on April 19th this year. Using a S&W model 64, 4 inch .38 special, dark marks are powder residue from the revolver shots. Majority of rounds went into 9 ring.
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Lived this dream all my life. Right handed Left eye dominant. When I started shooting seriously it was with rifle, pistol was an occasional thing. Somehow I managed to end up on the Navy Rifle Team so I started getting some serious practice for cheap and we had several world class High Power Shooters come coach us. The first few years GYSGT Hathcock even came to the East Coast matches. One trick I picked up was to take a section of plastic milk jug and attach it to your “non shooting eye” safety glasses. I used a mini bulldog clip attached at the BOTTOM of the glasses, the reason being most positions have you nose down and you don’t want to see a big black square in the top of your vision. The thing with the milk jug is that it is translucent, it allows almost equal amounts of light in. Covering one eye just makes the pupil fight with each other and after not too long you end up with a headache. The end result is after a lot of shooting/dry firing is that your right eye will take over, The problem is that if you take a break from shooting the left eye will slowly come back to dominance. For pistol I just turn my head as I shoot isosceles, that said I rely more on stance and muscle memory than I do front sight inside of 7 yards.
Cheers,
Craig6
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“What’s on your cast?”
“Smith and Wesson signed it.”
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Yes, I am cross-eye dominant, Left eye / Right hand. I have no issues with handguns… but I shoot left handed when trap shooting.
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Yes I am right handed left eye dominant I just shift my line up to the left a little so I can aim. I shoot my long arms left handed.
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Yes, I watched it. I have tried that in the past with tape, it works but I did not like it because I did not get the full view and I was using my weaker eye. You don’t need to do this with a pistol but shooting a rife or shotgun you may. I decided just to switch over to my left hand being left eye dominant. Go trap and skeet shooting and hit moving clays, this will make you confident shooting on your opposite side, its more beneficial to learn to use your other hand anyways and it’s lots of fun.
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I am cross eye dominant, left eye, right hand. I try to practice shooting ambidextrous. Pretty sure the cause of my cross eye dominance is an injury from grade school. I used to have 20/15 vision, till a kid on the playground, with intent, threw a tennis ball at my head from 15 ft away. The impact knocked me to the ground, and detached the retina of my right eye. It was fixed, but I’ve had glasses since. I’m near sighted now with a -3.5, -4 L and R prescription.
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In my youth it wasn’t a problem with long guns-I was able to hold the rifle/shotgun right handed and lay my cheek over the the buttstock-with a slight cocking of my head allowing me to use my left eye to aim…of course since my head is too large to do that now, I’ve had to adapt to using my non dominant eye…
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