Teaching my son to shoot

[ShaneP]

So I've started teaching my son to shoot the past couple of years. He just turned 7, and my Dad bought him a crickett .22LR. In the past I've taken my 10/22 put the length of pull is to long for him to shoot, which is why we bought the youth size crickett. With that said, when he does shoot, he tries to turn his head and use his left eye to aim instead of his right eye (he is right handed). Like he is left eye dominant maybe? I remember growing up that my brother shot like that for years, and has since grown out of it or overcome it somehow. My question, is there a good way to "break" by son from trying to shoot like this? Should I just let it pass over time, or is it even that big of a deal? I try to have him close his left eye, but he doesn't like doing it.

 

[drmitchgibson]

Have him shoot left-handed, see how it goes. Or see if he can shoot both eyes open right-handed.

 

[ExSniper]

Sounds like he is left eye dominant. Probably the easiest thing is to teach him to shoot left handed so he can get a good cheek/stock weld.

 

[Corey]

Sounds like he is left eye dominant. Probably the easiest thing is to teach him to shoot left handed so he can get a good cheek/stock weld.

I agree teach him to shoot left handed or make him shoot correctly right handed
My son when he started playing basketball age 6-7 he shot the ball as if he was throwing a shot put later when coach went to correct him it was a difficult process. With my little girl I taught her to shoot baskets correctly at the time she could barely hit the rim. Moral of story is right or left handed teach him correctly first time around. Good Luck and have fun shooting

 

[Browtine]

Do the eye dominance test on him. Have him point at an object with both eyes open and then have him close one eye while still pointing at the object. If his finger moves off the object when he closes the one eye, he just closed his dominate eye. If he's still pointing at it, he closed his non-dominate eye.

 

[ShaneP]

Thanks for the replies. I would like to get him accustomed to shooting one particular way, and not have to worry about him developing a bad habit that he will have to break later. I'll see how it goes on Saturday.

 

[BJS]

I'm in the same boat. My 7-year-old is right-handed but left-eye dominate. I've been coaxing him to shoot left handed, but he says it's not comfortable, so he'll switch to the right hand. When he does shoot left-handed he can hit the plates at the plinking range at OKC Gun Club. He doesn't hit anything right-handed, so hopefully he'll realize that if he wants to hit what he's aiming at he needs to shoot left-handed.

 

[Ksmirk]

might do the ol' tape on the safety glasses thing so he will get used to what the view should look like from the right eye most of the time after awhile it'll just become second nature, Later,


Kirk

 

[sefentress]

You can learn to shoot rifle or pistol using the non dominate eye and have reasonable success although it will be more difficult, shotgun is a different story. Younger learners sometimes can develop their abilities with the non dominant eye but it takes a lot of practice and time to develop, much easier for most to learn from the dominant eye side.

 

[ShaneP]

Thanks for the tips, I had him shoot with both eyes open to start out then gradually switched him to closing his left eye completely. He was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. I think he just needs repetition and more practice. After a 100 rounds of single shot bolt action, he was ready to shoot my Mark II and single six. He shot my PF-9 one time, and decided that it wasn't for him, which I tried to tell him before hand, but he insisted that he wanted to try it.