GUNSMARTS: Determining Eye Dominance & Pistol Shooting

Eye dominance is a challenge for a lot of shooters. Whether they battle with cross dominance or vision issues requiring them to shoot with their non-dominant eye, finding a consistent method is critical to keep your hits in the center.

The vast majority of people have a dominant eye. If that dominant eye corresponds with your strong hand, it makes shooting rifles and pistols easier. Cross dominance is when your dominant eye is the opposite of your dominant hand. An example is a right-handed shooter who is left-eye dominant. When it comes to handgun shooting, there are simple ways to address cross dominance. Watch this GUNSMARTS video to learn more.

5 Ways to Adapt and Shoot Well When You’re Cross Dominant

1. Switch hands. One way to help solve your cross dominance problems involves choosing a shooting hand. Some believe you should always use your dominant eye, and that means shooting with your weaker hand. If you’re ambidextrous or close to it, you’re pretty special. Switching hands is the way to go. If you’re like me, and most other people for that matter, your strong hand is much more dominant. It has more strength and dexterity. If this is the case, these next 4 options are for you.
2. Close or squint an eye. Ideally, it’s best to shoot with both eyes open, even with iron sights. That said, if your vision doesn’t allow you to focus on the sights with both eyes open or if you struggle with using one eye consistently, you can certainly close or squint an eye. This eliminates any distraction from the eye you don’t want to use.
3. Use tape. This next way involves a little frosted tape and it allows you to keep your eyes open when you shoot. This allows light to reach your eyes and increases your peripheral vision. Simply take a piece of frosted tape and afix it to your glasses in front of the eye you wish to obscure. Unlike closing an eye in the method above, the tape lets light get to your eyes while allowing you to see everything but a clear sight picture. The downside to this method is that it assumes you always have taped glasses when you shoot.
4. Change your stance. The fourth way addresses cross dominance through your stance instead of your eyes. It takes some training, but practice lining up your sights to the eye you wish to shoot with. It’s a slight shift but makes a major difference. For a right-handed shooter to aim with their left eye, all that’s needed is to shift the arms to the left, bringing the sights over to the other eye.
5. Turn your head. This last method is similar to the previous one, but instead of moving the gun, it involves a little turn of the head. For a right handed shooter to aim with their left eye all you need to do is turn your head to the right just enough so that you can see and line up the sights through the left eye only.

One final note: Don’t let eye dominance get you down. In a perfect world, our dominant hands sync up with our dominant eyes but you can learn to shoot with either eye. It takes practice to become consistent but you can still shoot very well.

Be sure to check out my other videos in Smith & Wesson’s GUNSMARTS series. Head on over to S&W’s website for more information, free downloads, and giveaways.