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Overcame some bad shooting and left eye dominance

teej89

Senior Member
2,288
48
NE PA
So I've been on a 2 week streak of god awful shooting. Believe me, it was embarrassing, ask Milo, he saw. Anyways the archery Ke-mo sah-bee he is he got me a lot more comfortable when at full draw, and because I was uncomfortable I was slapping the trigger flinging carbon everywhere. After Milo seized my sight and I shot without one for a while I finally became more relaxed at full draw. However the skeeters got to us and I didn't have the chance to shoot with the sight back on.

Yesterday I went to the range and was a hell of a lot more comfortable however when I got to full draw everytime my pin would be at least a foot left of the target and then trying to get my arm to swing the pin the whole way over the target I'd rush the shot and slap the trigger. I've always had this problem but because my shooting is quite sketchy right now it really stuck out. I would stare at the bullseye and draw and get settle and once again the pin was WAY left of the target. Well I am left eye dominant and I realized I'm probably taking over with my left eye when I draw. So I started drawing with my left eye closed and 10/10 times the pin was right in the middle of the bullseye. However having my left eye closed that long puts a lot of strain on my right eye and my vision gets cloudy a lot faster than normal.

So this got me wondering... What can I do to fix this? A lot of people said they actually went to shooting lefty but I feel i'm way too late in the game, 11 years of archery hunting. I read about an eye patch or pratice with a cheap pair of sunglasses and pop out the right lens. What do you guys think? Anyone here shoot righty and are left eye dominant?
 
Squint with your left eye......or at least blink it, especially if you notice it taking over.

Maybe next year if you got going early enough you could give a left handed bow a try. That's what we ended up doing for my wife after trying the eye patch, red dot scope, etc..
 
I shot RH and Left eye dom for 6years an am not able to close my left eye while keeping the right eye open..I used a eye patch to cover just a small amount of my left eye..Just enough so that when lined up to the peep sight it blocked everything out that was needed to be blocked..I was able to still use binos etc with the patch on this way....I tried many peep elimination systems and some seemed like that could work,but I did not have the patience to give any of them a fair shot...I got sick of the patch blocking my peripheral vision to the left while hunting so I ditched everything right handed in the spring...I tried a scoped crossbow an LH compound at the shop an other then the awkward feel of the compound it felt amazing using my dominant eye.Lining up to a scope with both eyes open felt amazing....I am gone about 12hrs a day 5-6days a week so I decided to get a crossbow for this season and use it as a tool to transition to shotguns an rifles LH...I plan to pick up a LH compound in the spring when I have more time to relearn everything.....
 

Beentown

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
15,740
154
Sunbury, OH
I am left eye, righty shooter.

I have practiced for at least 5 years with pistols to be able to force my right eye to take over. I have to squint or wink for a sec for it to take hold most times.

For bow I draw, anchor and center my sight with the left closed then open it for shooting. Would not be able to do that before training my brain to switch eyes.

I walked around and dry fired my guns while watching tv/surfing the interwebz with a small piece of Scotch tape on the center of my left lense (shooting glasses). They make a hood for your sight scope that helps also.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,762
248
Ohio
Same problem. I don't have the mental ability (aw heck, no will power or desire more like it) to try to retrain like Beentown did. I just close my left eye. Problem solved.
 
Im cross eye dominate too. I've done a lot of the same things beener did. It doesn't bother me anymore when I shoot my bow. I just have to remember to close my left eye before putting a rifle to my face. When I shoot a pistol I shoot right handed just close my right eye.