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My Son if left eye dominant. Right handed. What to shoot?

MattMan81

MattMan81

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So youth hunt is coming up here. I have been having my son shoot the crossbow some to see if he can do it. Turns out he is left eye dominant. But right handed. I noticed he was aiming with his left eye on the scope. So I switched him over to the left side, and the accuracy improved. Does any one shoot their compound right handed left eye dominant? Should I try a left handed bow? I could get him use to shooting a gun left handed if it do it from the start. But not sure on a bow what would be best. Anyone have some insight to setting him up right for the future?
 
I’m left eye dominant and right handed as well. I shoot my bow, all rifles and pistols right handed. I can’t seem to make the left work well for me.

both bow and rifles I shoot using my right eye, but pistols (using iron sights) I shoot both eyes open for 7 yards and in and use my left eye for anything further.
 
I’m left eye dominant/right handed. I can shoot either way with either eye. I shoot a scoped weapon left handed. I shoot my compound right handed and with my right eye. Just close my left eye. I shoot trap both eyes. My dad just let me do what was comfortable. I can shoot a bow lefty but I decided it was easier to get right handed equipment compared to left. With practice a righty shooting lefty with a right handed bolt and it can sound like a semi automatic
 
MattMan81 said:
So youth hunt is coming up here. I have been having my son shoot the crossbow some to see if he can do it. Turns out he is left eye dominant. But right handed. I noticed he was aiming with his left eye on the scope. So I switched him over to the left side, and the accuracy improved. Does any one shoot their compound right handed left eye dominant? Should I try a left handed bow? I could get him use to shooting a gun left handed if it do it from the start. But not sure on a bow what would be best. Anyone have some insight to setting him up right for the future?
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The book says left eye dominant, shoot left handed. If he feels more comfortable shooting RH, dominate left eye it can be done.
It may also work switching him over to left handed, If not…not to worry if he is left eye dominate he can shoot well with practice closing that left eye. I’m RH and left eye dominant it’s works with me closing the left shooting RH with guns and compound bows.
I shoot instinctively both eyes open with longbows and recurves but that’s a whole different story. Great that you are getting him started early!! Good luck!
 
@MattMan81 - I’m a little bit surprised at the diversity of opinions on this. Personally, I think that it’s better to match to the dominant eye vs. the dominant hand when they differ, but clearly folks can make either work with practice & perseverance.

I’m left eye dominant and like topdog, pretty ambidextrous. Whether using iron sights, optics, or a peep, I prefer bringing them to my left eye.

I would set your son up with a lefty bow and long guns even though he’s right handed. He’ll develop the physical memory and LH trigger control pretty quickly. Before long, he won’t think about it at all and his LH trigger control will be equal to or better than his RH. But he’ll have the advantage of using his dominant eye for all sighting tasks, which will be more natural and instinctive for him. That equates to making shots with less effort, greater accuracy, and (when needed) greater speed.
 
I'm left-handed and right eye dominant, my shooting (shotgun, rifle, pistol, and bow) improved significantly when I bit the bullet and learned to shoot with my dominant eye. Get him shooting left-handed from the start--things will be easier for him.
 
Be mindful that eye dominance can change as he ages. I don’t think there is any way to predict that in advance though. Level of dominance can be a factor in the decision of which side to shoot from and whether a correction might be necessary. When it comes to shotgun sports, we encourage 2 eye open shooting and mounting the gun on the dominant side. Nice thing there is you don’t really have to change equipment if dominance changes. My eyes are close enough where my dominance can change just by how I mount the gun.

with archery, you gotta choose a side and than adjust the eyesight if your choice is a weak eye side bow. Some simple ways to adjust are squinting or closing the dominant eye, wear a patch on the dominant side or put a small piece of tape on the lens of some shooting glasses to obscure the vision of the dominant eye a little. The weak eye will naturally take over.
 
I'm left eye, right hand too. Which way does he throw or swing a bat or club? I'm so uncoordinated I'm pretty sure the weak eye, dominant hand is right for me but he's young enough he could probably learn either
 
I'm the opposite, left handed, right eye dominant. I do pretty much everything lefty but taught myself to shoot right handed. I do things a little odd probably (it's hard always having the knife and fork on the wrong sides of the plate) but it's comfortable and if you learn that way it'll feel fine. Feels more awkward for me to draw a bow lefty than righty now.
 
I'm left eye dominant/Right handed and shot right handed bow for 25 years but now that I'm older and my eyes are dimmer i just switch to a left hand bow at the first of the year and I think I'm going to stay with the left hand for those late evening shots when light is low. I still rifle and shotgun shoot right handed. I would recommend left hand shooting if he can so he dont have to switch years down the road when his eyes get dim. My eye dominance hasn't changed since my youth.
 
I'm a lead firearms instructor for my job and I'm big on dominant eye matching same side hand......especially with people who are not regular shooters.
On most average sized people it just works better cause everything naturally lines up. The hardest thing for most is if they have to learn to draw from a holster of some sort, which takes a lot of practice for it to feel natural.
We have a few cross dominant shooters who have shot enough to manipulate the ergonomics. One is 6' 8" tall and is long armed enough to move the pistol to his left eye while shooting righty.
When teaching kids on our archery team, as soon as we see them try to look over and aim with the wrong eye, we switch them to their dominant eye side. There's always less of a struggle.
 
For hunting it's better to shoot with dominant eye as it's easier to shoot both eyes open for better view of what is happening in the field if that makes sense.
 
I'm lefthanded and right eye dominant. It took some concentration to close my eye for a lefthanded compound bow, but I don't even notice it now. I shoot trad with both eyes open so no biggie shooting lefthanded. HTH
 
ofor said:
Be mindful that eye dominance can change as he ages. I don’t think there is any way to predict that in advance though. Level of dominance can be a factor in the decision of which side to shoot from and whether a correction might be necessary. When it comes to shotgun sports, we encourage 2 eye open shooting and mounting the gun on the dominant side. Nice thing there is you don’t really have to change equipment if dominance changes. My eyes are close enough where my dominance can change just by how I mount the gun.

with archery, you gotta choose a side and than adjust the eyesight if your choice is a weak eye side bow. Some simple ways to adjust are squinting or closing the dominant eye, wear a patch on the dominant side or put a small piece of tape on the lens of some shooting glasses to obscure the vision of the dominant eye a little. The weak eye will naturally take over.
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This is exactly what happened to my son. When we first started mom sewed up a patch for him to wear when shooting. He eventually grew out of it.
 
I'm right handed and left eye dominate, and have shoot right handed my whole life. I just switched to a left handed bow this year. It was very awkward for the first 20 shots, but after 200 shots it is natural. The coolest thing is being able to shoot with both eyes open, which was so weird at first. I suggest every cross dominate person try the switch your accuracy will get better and at last light you will be able to see way clearer with both eyes open.
 
+1 for matching eye dominance. I’m RH and left eye dominant. I shot my whole life just closing my left eye, and always struggled a bit in low light. Changed a few years ago to shooting LH and saw instant improved accuracy. After I got over the awkwardness of loading an arrow with the opposite hand, it was cake.

I still shoot guns RH, but only because I’m too cheap to change over my whole safe to lefties.
 
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