Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Shooting and Hunting => Topic started by: Scottski on January 26, 2013, 11:43:08 pm
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Ok found out last summer I am left eye Dom. I have always
Been right handed and shot ok like this. Untill I find out I am
Left eye Dom. Now it seems like I can't hit my target as well
As I did. So do I learn to shoot left handed or aim more to the
Right or shoot with a patch on my left eye. Cause now I think
It got my head messed up and it more of a mind thang. What
Are your thoughts? Welcome any kind of help thank you.
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Sounds like it is all in your head. If you shoot instinctively it doesn't matter if you are left or right eye dominant or right handed or left handed. You shot fine before you realized you were left eye dominant so go back to what you were doing before you found out.
Concentrate on all aspects of each shot and you will get back in the groove. Its not a bad idea to learn to shoot both left and right. Try it both ways and see which you prefer.
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I'm the same way: left eye dominant and right handed. I squint my left eye when I shoot so that my right eye takes over.
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I agree with Pat B.
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im left eye dominant, but shoot a bow right handed. (i shoot a gun left handed :o) i dont really aim with a bow i just look at the target with both eyes open and shoot. this works ok for me. i cant split arrows lol but i do ok.
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Im a lefty & left eye dominant. My left elbow is shot so i shoot righty. I instict shoot. Out to 20yrds dont bother me but past that i start shootin to the left so i just close my left.... Pats correct tho; its mostly a mind thing. If i have been shootin alot... It corrects itself... jmo.... Brian
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I'm a little concerned with the replies here. Not sure if you guys that shoot with both eyes are actually able to switch from dominant eye to non-dominant eye. If you always shoot with your dominant eye and you can't help but do this every time, you wont have a problem. However, if you are like me, sometimes my brain switches to my non dominant eye at the moment of aiming and firing and it's confusing. It does make a difference if you mistakenly make the correction and adjust your aim to the other eye at the instant you release the arrow. It must be an ADD thing. It usually happens to me on the last shot and makes me shoot outside the group.
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I am left eye dom. and shoot right handed,with both eyes open,just how I learned,I tried to switch to left but just couldn't or wouldn't work hard enough
at it for it to feel confrontable,If you can make it work I would suggest you swap to left,I know several that have for one reason or another and after they got use to it they seemed to shoot better.I just couldn't make it work for me. :)
Pappy
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i tried to shoot left handed with a slingshot as i use them alot. and just couldnt get used to it, so i would have no chance with a bow. i think if you shoot right handed and are left eye dominant (or vice versa) i find its better to have both eyes open and just focus on the target rather than the arrow or anything else. but other than that just do what ever is the most comfortable and feels right.
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I'm left eye dominate and right handed. Just close my left eye and shoot. Can't shoot with both eyes open probaly comes from my compound days looking through a peep sight :-[
Thanks Leroy
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The only problem I have with closing one eye is I loose my depth perception which is importand in the style I shoot,My brain [what little I have ] ;) ;D tells me the distance ,I don't judge distance at least not out to 25/30 yards. Gap shooting or point of aim shooters need to know how far, and actually aim so closing one eye really shouldn't matter. :)
Pappy
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PAPPYS right to shoot instintive you have to have both eyes open.
I known and helped people that the same things happened to them.
It is in your head. If you shoot with a different dominant eye to the side. And have did it like this with out knowing. You never shoot great up at hunting distances your hand eye makes up the short distance. The longer the shot the harder it is. It's alot easyer to take up shooting (switch) with the other hand than you thing. If your haveing a problem with your shooting.
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Well I think I might try and get me a light wait left handed bow do a little practice to see if I get any better. Can't hurt to try it out who knows i might get better.
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I grew up being taught to do everything right handed . I started shooting a bow at 8 years old and could hit things very well . Started hunting with a shotgun at 16 and did very well with that too .
BUT at 21 I wanted to shoot copetitive combat pistol . A friend of my fathers who was an instructor for our PD agreed to teach me . I hadn't even sent 6 rounds down range and he stopped me and had me do the domanent eye "test". He told me I was left eye dominant and even though I thought I was a pretty good shot , if I wanted him to work with me , I would have to learn to shoot lefty .
The next few weeks were very awkward but my accuracy improved tremendously over the next month .Like I said before , I thought I had been a pretty good shot . Now I felt like Doc Holliday !
I decided to try the same thing with archery and borrowed a lefty recurve . Like with the pistol , at first it felt very awkward but after a couple hundred arrows I was a convert for life . I had always been an instinctive shooter and still am (57 now ) but the improvements in accuracy were astounding once I got used to lefty .
If you can invest the time and change of equipment , IMHO , it's well worth it.
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Now I just have to find a lefty that wants to get rid of a bow.lol!!
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Yeah, Chucker is right about taking time to make the switch. I tried shooting lefty but gave up because of the time involved to get used to it.
I think I might have another go at it, though. I'm already doing exercises for my left side (using a warbow) so I might as well shoot also. I'm very curious to see if my shooting improves.
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I prefer both eyes open when shooting, however, one should shoot based on the dominant eye, left eye dominant, shoot left handed. right eye dominant, shoot right handed. When the eye dominant thing crosses over, there are only two solutions in my opinion - switch to dominant eye side or close dominant eye.
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I found out I was like you by accident. I was in N.C., with a Friend of mine who had to have the best of this, and the best of that, etc. He could afford it. Well he had to have a Browning, Citori, Special edition, over under. Then we went to the local trap and skeet club, and a Champion shooter was there giving lessons. Well I couldn't afford it, so I just sat in the bleachers, and listened to what was being said. I learned a lot just by listening, also how to check for my dominant eye. My left! :P I am right handed. Well later on, I tried shooting left handed. I did almost as well as I did right handed. :o Just a little bit awkward. But I tried closing my left eye, and did well. I normally shot with both eyes open. It hasn't affected me either way, I guess I have adapted to it over the years. Some people use a patch, or just a piece of scotch tape on the lens of the dominant eye, and it is enough to make the less dominant eye take over. However you want to do it, go for it. Whatever is easier for you, and whatever gets the best results.
Wayne
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Left eye dominamt rand hand shooter .... No problems .... I found out shooting a pistol held it in my right hand but realized I was using my left eye to shoot the pistol!
Tried a LH bow, I did OK but if I shot any better than I do RH I'd be world champ! LOL! J/K
~HF~
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I have the same issue and could never learn to shoot with both eyes open and left handed feels too strange. I am still shooting righty and closing my left eye. Doesn't seem that I have another choice. :( I am a more accurate gap shooter than instinctive so that not an option for me either. It limits me a bit in low light but not that much.
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I'm left eye dominant and right handed --- But, I shoot left handed. Seems like everybody who is a righty with a good left eye shoots right.
Shooting left was always more natural for me, that's the way I shot when I was a kid, before I knew about these rules. :)
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Right-handed left-eye here as well. I was lucky that both my parents and my older brother are lefty so no one forced me to do anything off-hand. Also my dad was a deputy sheriff so he figured out my eye dominance early too. The only thing that stinks about shooting lefty for me is that it's a bit harder to find left-handed weapons. Also - think of it like this. If you're a left-handed primitive archer - you have less chance of a buddy overdrawing your bow if it's made left-handed. "Sorry - it's not the right hand for you to try it". :)
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I'm strongly left eye dominant and shoot lefty.
As I understand it, you won't shoot as well if you're fighting your eyes' natural allignment. when you look at something your dominant eye is staring straight at it, and your other eye gauges distance, depth, all that good stuff. If you're lining up that shot with the weak eye, there are consistancy issues because it's trying to defer to the dominant eye. That's why eye patches are sometimes effective; they blind your dominant eye so there's no distraction, and your off eye can do its job.
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just needed to say I love this site and glad I found it
I dont have a dominant eye anymore. I have always been right hand right eye until the retina of my right eye decide to give out. Now I can hardly see out of it even with glasses and i cant even close my right eye when shooting. I shoot with both eyes open, it took a bit of advice and practice but now i can reliably hit a target. Sometimes it takes a few arrows to home in on it, a bit more practice and i'll be good. Loosing an eye or partial sight isnt the end of the world.
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I am left eye dominant due to the strength of the eye when compared to the right. I had 20-20 vision in my left eye, but my right was considerably weaker. I am right-handed, but as a kid I knew I could not sight a bb gun without holding it left handed. My dad was left handed so he never tried to get me to change. I shoot long guns and bows left handed, but hand guns with my right hand. I was given a right handed recurve when I was a teenager and learned to shoot it left handed. I was really screwed up. Finally got my first left handed longbow in 1992 and have been shooting that way ever since.