How to Shoot With Your Non-Dominant Eye

Training the non-dominant eye helps improve aim and scope sight when shooting.

While aiming a hunting tool--whether a gun, a bow and arrow or even a spear--people's tendency is to close one eye and look only with the dominant eye. The rationale is that this gives a clear image of the target. However, closing one eye limits depth perception, and relying exclusively on one eye will tire it quickly and increase the likelihood of mistakes. Training to shoot with a non-dominant eye will eventually lead to shooting accurately with both eyes open.

Instructions

1. Determine which eye is dominant by holding a CD at arm's length, using the arm you shoot with. Look at an object through the center of the CD and close one eye. If the object in the center of the CD moves, then the other eye is dominant. If the object stays straight on, then the open eye is dominant.

2. Place a patch on your dominant eye to force yourself to look through the non-dominant eye. Patches that stick on the eye or sling over the head are usually available at drugstores.

3. Bring the shooting device up to your face and aim with the non-dominant eye.

4. Shoot at the target when you feel aligned. See where you missed and in which direction. Continue shooting with your non-dominant eye until you are comfortable with the feeling and are hitting the target with consistency

5. Practice often with the non-dominant eye. The more you train the brain to work with the eye, the more comfortable you will feel. You will not change your dominant eye; that is biologically wired, but the muscle memory will make it feel like second nature.

Tips & Warnings

• If you normally shoot with your right hand but have a left-dominant eye (or vice versa), you are considered cross-dominant. As a cross-dominant person, you are more accustomed to aiming with the eye farther from the shooting device, so you may want to consider shooting with your other hand when training the non-dominant eye (i.e., shoot with the left hand while aiming with your right, non-dominant eye). You may also wish to shoot with a firearm designed for a person of your handedness.

References

• Home on the Range: Eye Dominance and Shooting