doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cross-eye dominant

I heard that 85% of women want to be dominate and get lawyers to aid their cause.

Well, you gotta admit its a darn sight better than her being cross-eyed and dominant. Teaching one with those attributes how to shoot might prove something shy of intelligent.

My suggestion is that unless you are an instructor, to take her to dinner, but do it AFTER you have bought her some lessons with a qualified instructor. Certified/qualified instructors can make a world of dif VERY quickly, much quicker than you might, even if you have the best of intentions, but no experience in teaching or as a coach. I wish that I had access to a Pete Blakeley or a Richard Whaley when I was younger or just learning to shoot. I have had access to some wonderful shots as an adult, but that is still not the same thing as a qualified instructor. Some world class shots cannot teach you to tell time, let alone how to shoot. These are honest thoughts for the best return for your friend. Spend the money for lessons, save a bit for flowers, or shells as the case may be, and good luck bringing her into the fold, we need all the participants possible. BTW, women make for wonderful students, so be ready to get your ego drubbed if she really gets into it and you get her a good instructor. He will teach her to shoot left handed if she is left eye dominant, a common situation for many women and one I have fought in later life having gone from true neutral vision to left eye dominant exacerbated by using 'puters. I'd apologize for the length of this post, but ..

The advise is sound, please take it to heart. Just remember that the woman always chooses, so do it right.

edit: I never could spell or type, so you just gotta get past it.

Wow! SG Jones, 85% -- that's interesting.

I have similar experience that supports much of the advice above: Years ago, we discovered that my 31 year-old (then) wife was (and is) left-eye dominant, altho very right-handed.

I think that trying to start someone shooting on their master eye side makes a lot of sense. However, in my wife's case, shooting (or doing much of anything else)left didn't feel right.

The tape dot Bill S suggested works well for her. A smear of grease on the left lens of her shooting glasses works better. The key is to smear, lightly, just the area the left eye is trying to look thru in the shooting position. The advantage of this minimalist approach is the ability to see, with binnocular vision, everything else.

Yep, I use a Chapstick on the inside of my left lens with some frequency these days, being an old untrainable rightist kinda person. It works but I would be better shooting from my left shoulder when tired and the left eye takes over, but WTH, it never forewarns me when it is about to do that ... I always have a 'perfect' sight picture .. and that of course is the very crux of the problem.

Having a dominant eye makes it a very simple matter. Neutral vision is a bit harder cat to skin. It affects a VERY small percentage of people, something on the order of substantively < .2%, so I am told.

The suggested grease smear works quite well, thankfully.

Guys,
That's 85% of CUTE women want to be dominant.

I'm with those that suggest trying to get her to shoot lefthanded since she does't know the difference yet. And hey, maybe PB&J turns her on. Sounds like both are worth finding out about.

Whether to change to left handed shooting depends on how much time she has spent shooting right handed and how off dominant she is. Minor cross dominance is easily solved by a "dot". A proper dot must be very accurately placed if it is the desired small size. Accurate placement implies something more permanent than grease or chapstick. The area to be blocked is the front of the gun, anything past the front of the forend, including the muzzle. This blocked area is to be determined while the shooter is in shooting position. The purpose of the dot is to see the target and target background with both eyes yet only have a view of the gun's muzzle area with the shooting eye (aiming eye). Sorry to conflict with other posters' perceived purpose of the dot, but the dot is not meant to block the target. If you block the target, you are back to one eyed shooting.

Hammer guns have helped my cross eyes.
L.F.

Go Left...when I was just a boy I had discovered this problem, but I was small enough to be able to lay my chin over the stock of the 22 enough to look through the left eye (vision in right eye was poor indeed). As I grew this was not possible, so I simply mounted on the left shoulder. Really not a problem.

JLD

Don't say "sorry," Murphy -- you've added greatly to the discussion. We learned the trick years ago, and were told to use a dot about 1/2". It was clearly annoying so we evolved first to Magic Tape, then to a small grease smear. It has seemed to work well.

Your point of obscuring the muzzle end (only) of the gun from the off-eye's perspective creates an "ah-ha!" moment. I have no doubt it will work better, thank you!

I have a grandson who is cross dominant. Shortly after starting out on station 7 skeet it became very obvious. We switched to the left side and about a month later he hit 5 of 6 pheasants at the Jr. Pheasant hunt. If you just make the effort most can switch very successfully. Think about it, now you are pointing the gun with your dominant hand (the right) and the only thing the left has to do is ride the grip and pull the trigger. What is the big deal about doing either of those things with either hand. Oh yea, be sure to switch the lead foot when you switch sides. Rather awkward otherwise.