Hello, have a few health DX’s, Lupus and skeletal/muscular included, Now I’ve suffered a Hemmorage in my dominant eye, have to wait 5 more weeks to see if it clears up, if not it’s a Lazer surgical procedure AND…get this, 10 days face down during recovery!
I’m hoping it clears up on its own but it got me to thinking, I’m right-handed but worse case scenario if I permanently lose clear vision in my right eye, how do you learn to shoot using your left eye? Only weapon I have a lot of ammo for is my 38 revolver & with the shortage I don’t want to use my EDC because it’s ammo is scarce and my 10mm is too.
And in the meantime I’ve seen u tube vids of the surgery and the face down recovery, gosh its gonna really suck due to having back probs already.
I may buy a c02 BB pistol and practice sighting & shooting with my other eye in case I don’t have a good turnout, any one care to share their experiences or advice I’d be grateful, Thanks for your time
I was TOP GUN in my 40 hour class of 33, using a Smith&Wesson CS40 of all things! I am right handed and left eye dominant. Obviously, the range-master did not concentrate in depth on individual student instruction, so I learned to shoot that way by compensating during my aim. Yes, I learned the wrong way! But it is possible to be great shot.
Sounds like you are having a challenging time! Hope your eye clears up on its own! I am cross eye dominant and learned to shoot pistols strong hand/strong eye. Rifles I shoot weak hand strong eye since this feels more natural. So it is possible to switch eyes.
Dry fire practice is your friend. No ammo required:)
I’m cross dominant. Turn your head slightly to bring the eye in line with the firearm. For long guns, you’ll have to learn to shoot with the other hand, unfortunately.
First off, I hope you get good news and do not have to go through that. I’m also a cross eye dominant shooter and have no issues. Use the advice already given and in time I think you’ll see it’s very doable.
As for long guns, it is very difficult, especially with iron sights or a scope. However, I still shoulder my AR right handed and I use a holographic sight with no issue shooting both eyes open. It works for me, but I do not hunt nor do I shoot any competition with long guns. For me it’s all 50 yards and in, usually 25 and in. **With that being said, I was recently in an instructor development course with Tom Givens who said you can’t shoot a long gun cross eyed and I am not going to disagree with him.
Thanks Everyone for the positive feedback, you are appreciated 
Cross dominant here as well. Pistol, no issue both eyes open, but took some time and yeah, a little tilt to the head as mentioned above.Rifle with irons, stiff neck getting my head over enough to shoot, so everything has a scope or dot, and my non dominant right eye works fine. Have a ler (long eye relief) scope, 12" roughly focal on my M1a Scout, and initially was using my left eye, but learned to use my right…making my neck much happier…prism scopes on the AR’s with about 5" relief, no issue using non dominant eye. I shoot to 340 yards at present (club limit) scoped rifle,sub moa, and 14.5" AR with 3x prism can hit 9" steel every time at 210 offhand without my glasses and 62 year old eyes.
Everything mentioned is shot with both eyes open…
I am cross dominant. Shoot pistols right, aiming from left - it’s just how I always did it - and shoot long guns lefty - just how I always did it. Works for me.
I was born with poor eyesight in both eyes. The left eye has astigmatism and neither eye had very good distance vision. I am right handed and at that time the left eye saw better than the right despite the astigmatism. I shot BB guns, shotguns, and rifles from the right shoulder cocking my head over the stock and sighting with the left eye. This went on from about 5 years old until I was 15 years old. I had my first eye exam at 15 to get my driving learner’s permit. I failed the eye exam and my parents bought me my first pair of glasses.
I changed to right eye sighting once I had glasses and could see better with my right eye. The main thing I remember was how much easier it was to not have to cock my head over the stock to aim.
My vision has improved with age to the point “eye correction required” was removed from my driver’s license several years ago. I did not start shooting handguns until I was in my 50’s. I honestly did not have any problems aiming with either eye and it really did not matter which hand I shot with. Here’s the caveat – I always closed one eye so there was no competition between the 2 eyes.
Then I joined this site and learned the situational advantages of aiming with both eyes open. This became a real struggle for me and I went from my buddies at the range thinking I was a real marksman to I maybe had combat accuracy. 
It has taken a lot of practice and discipline to learn to shoot with both eyes open, but I feel the journey has been worth it.
I currently shoot handguns right eye dominant with both eyes open regardless of which hand is shooting the gun. I believe I could train myself to shoot left eye dominant with both eyes open, but have not because my right eye has clearer vision. I have played with this by holding the gun with the front sight slightly above the rear sight. I lock in my right eye on the front sight and then raise the rear sight up with the front sight in the middle. BTW, this is how I learned to aim a speargun – place the tip of the spear (front sight) on the fish you want to shoot, then raise the rear until the tip disappears and pull the trigger.
That has been my experience so far …
One thing to try is to put a piece of transparent tape on a pair of glasses on the dominant eye side. Then practice sighting with both eyes open. The goal is to blur out your dominant eye, giving your non-dominant eye the burden of focusing the sight picture.
Let me know if that helps. I’ll be praying for hemmorhage to dissolve and be absorbed. If not, please get a second opinion on the surgery.
For pistol shooters, close the non-dominant eye when raising the gun to the target. This will force you to hard-focus on the Front sight, which is what you should be doing in any case. As you catch that focus by leaning your head a bit to equalize posture with your shooting hand, bring the rear sight into alignment with the front sight - keeping a hard-focus on the front sight. (The actual, much larger, target will be somewhat out of focus and shold not be your primary concern in obtaining a Proper Sight Picture.) This will give you proper sight alignment, and if you can remember the additional secrets of hitting your target (a different subject) you will be happy with the outcome.
I am right-handed and right-eye dominant. I purposely train to aim with my left eye as well, just in case anything happens to my right eye and need to aim in an emergency. I aim and shoot with both eyes open and sometimes rotate from right to left eye between each shot.
If you can keep both eyes open without interfering with your shooting eye while handling a pistol, so much the better. That is usually the recommendation for a rifle because of the distance between sights and the more distant target typically involved. I have alternate vision because of a childhood issue and can be left-right selective at will, although I will close one eye when the target is closer. Hard focus on the front sight comes first, so you are doing it right. 
I’ll try to make a long story short. I am right-handed and left eye dominate. One day I decided to stop closing one eye and close both of them. No, no, I decided to keep both eyes open. It took about 2-hours of live fire over 3 sessions to do it. However, sometimes under stress, in limited light or long precision shots I sometimes close one eye. I mentioned this to a grand poohbah competition shooter and he advised this is common even at his level.
Keep us posted and God bless.
I’m also cross eye dominant, now. Don’t really know when it changed or why, but I grew up shooting and aiming right handed and aiming with my right eye. Haven’t shot in over 40 years, but with what’s happening in the world, I bought my first pistol last year and, suddenly found I was, now, left eye dominant. Taught myself to shoot by turning my head slightly to aim and it worked. Then I started covering my left eye with a piece of tape on my glasses and made myself relearn to shoot with my right eye. Now I shoot equally well with either eye. But it did take a while. 
@Lewis18 @mattm @Bruno >> BOTH EYS OPEN FOR HAND GUN SHOOTING HAS
HAS MANY BENEFITS TO INCLUDE
( Depth Perception ) also your dominant eye will go
Into auto pilot.
Good luck
BLACKY
Yeah, that’s what my uncle’s said when I was growing up and learning to shoot. One was a marine in WW2, the other was in the army in Europe at the same time. They taught me a lot. I even keep both eyes open when I shoot a bow. They taught me well and I guess it really stuck cause every time I would close one eye I would get smacked on my head and told, “Open that other eye boy.” Some really fond and fun memories now, a real pain back then. 
I’m not great expert by any means, but here’s my experience.
I learned to shoot as a child and had always been right eye dominant. A few years ago (I am 64 now) I developed a blind spot in my right eye. It is close enough to the center of my visual field that it interferes with seeing my sights. Soooo I figured I needed to switch eyes. I continued to shoot right handed. For a while I closed the right eye, but over time my brain began to just ignore it when shooting a handgun. In retrospect I probably should have patched the right eye while I was switching. I am a pretty casual shooter - going to the range 3 or 4 times a month - but I have successfully made the switch to left eye dominant and can now keep both eyes open. I have not addressed this problem in shooting long guns.
Oh and one more thing… I have a laser on one of my pistols. In the early stages of switching eyes that really helped me a lot in letting me know where I was aiming.
Best of luck with your eye issues!
I have done that occasionally but I shoot with both eyes open