dammechanic
Well-Known Fanatic
The purpose of this is to help cross eye dominant shooters make a decision and give them a path with a time frame so they know what kind of commitment will be needed if you chose the same path as me.
I found out what being cross eye dominant was shortly after I started shooting and that I was plagued with this condition. I read several different opinions on how to deal with this from learning to shoot with your weak hand or holding your head at a funny angle or just angling the pistol in your strong hand so that it lines up in front of your dominant eye. Also from what I read it’s generally accepted that you transition faster and do better with both eyes open. I wanted to shoot multi-gun which dictated my solution had to work with the shotgun and rifle. After looking at different guns I came to the conclusion that this is a right handed world and I didn’t need to handicap myself any more than necessary. I read that some people have trained themselves to shoot with their non-dominant eye but no real guidance could be found on how to achieve this goal. So knowing that it could be done I set out to become a right handed right eye shooter.
I sometimes wear corrective lens or contacts so my first attempt was to leave out my left contact hoping that my right eye would take over. After five days the results were severe headaches, dizziness and blurred vision. Next was the eye patch. Wearing it around the house, during dry fire and shooting. This lasted about two days I just did not like the pirate look or the loss of peripheral vision. Next was a single piece of translucent tape placed vertically in the center of the left lens of my safety glasses. This worked my peripheral vision was acceptable and allowed both eyes to work together
I started out by drawing, acquiring the target and dry-firing. I did this for ten minutes per day using a timer so not to cheat myself on the time. This initial period was tough for me, ten minutes seemed to take forever and felt more like punishment rather than practice for my new found hobby. At first I had a hard time trying not to focus on the tape while forcing my right eye to align the sights. An interesting observation is that I would subconsciously revert back to my left eye by turning my head so that I could look around the tape. After about eight plus sessions I was consistent enough that I started transitioning from target to target and magazine changes. I used a .22LR pistol to keep live fire affordable and went to the range as much as possible to get actual trigger time. I even shot one pistol match with tape over my lens, just be careful go slow to compensate for your reduced vision.
After about twenty sessions of dry fire practice I was able to remove the tape from my lens. A quick blink of my left eye was all that was needed to switch focus to my right eye or to make sure that I was using my right eye. Sometimes I would experience double vision when transitioning between targets but again just a quick blink of my left eye would bring the sight picture back into focus. At this point I started using the TV. The back ground movement would make it challenging to keep focus with my right.
After thirty sessions of dry fire practice the need to blink to maintain focus had been greatly diminished. After six months, three USPSA matches, three multi-gun matches, one pro-am, three thousand rounds of.22LR and a weekend at TDSA I would say that I was 95% converted to right hand right eye shooting . By the end of 2012 or about 11months all that was needed was merely raising my pistol to engage the targets.
2013 I shot two matches in January and did not make another appearance until October. I was I little nervous and very rusty so I shot the first stage slow and deliberately. After seeing all my hits were good I decided to go full speed. The next two stages were pathetic missing a fifth of my shots. I put a card board target paster in the center of my left lens problem solved. I’m speculating that my left eye would align the front sight in front of the target and my right eye would focus on the rear sight and my mind would put it together so that I thought I had a good sight picture. I’ve shot a few matches since then and I would say I’m about 98% so it did not take much time or effort to regain control of my non-dominant eye. If you decide to go this way I’m guessing you will have to practice on a monthly base to maintain this ability and like so many things if you don’t use it you will lose it.
I found out what being cross eye dominant was shortly after I started shooting and that I was plagued with this condition. I read several different opinions on how to deal with this from learning to shoot with your weak hand or holding your head at a funny angle or just angling the pistol in your strong hand so that it lines up in front of your dominant eye. Also from what I read it’s generally accepted that you transition faster and do better with both eyes open. I wanted to shoot multi-gun which dictated my solution had to work with the shotgun and rifle. After looking at different guns I came to the conclusion that this is a right handed world and I didn’t need to handicap myself any more than necessary. I read that some people have trained themselves to shoot with their non-dominant eye but no real guidance could be found on how to achieve this goal. So knowing that it could be done I set out to become a right handed right eye shooter.
I sometimes wear corrective lens or contacts so my first attempt was to leave out my left contact hoping that my right eye would take over. After five days the results were severe headaches, dizziness and blurred vision. Next was the eye patch. Wearing it around the house, during dry fire and shooting. This lasted about two days I just did not like the pirate look or the loss of peripheral vision. Next was a single piece of translucent tape placed vertically in the center of the left lens of my safety glasses. This worked my peripheral vision was acceptable and allowed both eyes to work together
I started out by drawing, acquiring the target and dry-firing. I did this for ten minutes per day using a timer so not to cheat myself on the time. This initial period was tough for me, ten minutes seemed to take forever and felt more like punishment rather than practice for my new found hobby. At first I had a hard time trying not to focus on the tape while forcing my right eye to align the sights. An interesting observation is that I would subconsciously revert back to my left eye by turning my head so that I could look around the tape. After about eight plus sessions I was consistent enough that I started transitioning from target to target and magazine changes. I used a .22LR pistol to keep live fire affordable and went to the range as much as possible to get actual trigger time. I even shot one pistol match with tape over my lens, just be careful go slow to compensate for your reduced vision.
After about twenty sessions of dry fire practice I was able to remove the tape from my lens. A quick blink of my left eye was all that was needed to switch focus to my right eye or to make sure that I was using my right eye. Sometimes I would experience double vision when transitioning between targets but again just a quick blink of my left eye would bring the sight picture back into focus. At this point I started using the TV. The back ground movement would make it challenging to keep focus with my right.
After thirty sessions of dry fire practice the need to blink to maintain focus had been greatly diminished. After six months, three USPSA matches, three multi-gun matches, one pro-am, three thousand rounds of.22LR and a weekend at TDSA I would say that I was 95% converted to right hand right eye shooting . By the end of 2012 or about 11months all that was needed was merely raising my pistol to engage the targets.
2013 I shot two matches in January and did not make another appearance until October. I was I little nervous and very rusty so I shot the first stage slow and deliberately. After seeing all my hits were good I decided to go full speed. The next two stages were pathetic missing a fifth of my shots. I put a card board target paster in the center of my left lens problem solved. I’m speculating that my left eye would align the front sight in front of the target and my right eye would focus on the rear sight and my mind would put it together so that I thought I had a good sight picture. I’ve shot a few matches since then and I would say I’m about 98% so it did not take much time or effort to regain control of my non-dominant eye. If you decide to go this way I’m guessing you will have to practice on a monthly base to maintain this ability and like so many things if you don’t use it you will lose it.
