Eye Dominance - mine seems to change very regularly?

In February I changed to shooting two eyes open, and up until then had always dimmed\closed my left eye as I got ready to fire.

In February I also got diagnosed by my Instructor as left eye dominant, but he was also somewhat perplexed at how well I could shoot off the right shoulder with left eye dominance.....since February it has been a roller coaster...sometimes I can hit really well and feel as if the transition is paying dividends and then two weeks later cant hit a thing.....

So, I started to test my dominance regularly, and throughout the course of the day, and I am left somewhat perplexed....my dominance changes!  Is this common or am I an oddity!?  I do work on a PC all day and certainly by the middle of the week am already feeling as if my eyes are tired...

I use the The Miles test where the observer extends both arms, brings both hands together to create a small opening, then with both eyes open views a distant object through the opening. The observer then alternates closing the eyes or slowly draws opening back to the head to determine which eye is viewing the object (i.e. the dominant eye).

Any advice or feedback will be much appreciated

Thank you, James

Pandora's box jimmybh

Yes your odd

Firstly - welcome aboard Jimmy. 

Going to suggest that @EdLyons is a good person to help you here, he is our resident sports vision expert and gave me some very interesting information about my (extreme) left eye dominance. 

jimmybh said:

In February I changed to shooting two eyes open, and up until then had always dimmed\closed my left eye as I got ready to fire.

In February I also got diagnosed by my Instructor as left eye dominant, but he was also somewhat perplexed at how well I could shoot off the right shoulder with left eye dominance.....since February it has been a roller coaster...sometimes I can hit really well and feel as if the transition is paying dividends and then two weeks later cant hit a thing.....

So, I started to test my dominance regularly, and throughout the course of the day, and I am left somewhat perplexed....my dominance changes!  Is this common or am I an oddity!?  I do work on a PC all day and certainly by the middle of the week am already feeling as if my eyes are tired...

I use the The Miles test where the observer extends both arms, brings both hands together to create a small opening, then with both eyes open views a distant object through the opening. The observer then alternates closing the eyes or slowly draws opening back to the head to determine which eye is viewing the object (i.e. the dominant eye).

Any advice or feedback will be much appreciated

Thank you, James

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​What was the reason for changing from dimming the left eye to keeping it open ? What level of experience/percentage hits are you at and what discipline do you normally shoot ? I am left eye dominant but shoot off the right shoulder so it can be done but a good level of understanding the basic mechanics is involved in order to make it so you're no longer even aware. 

Can you for instance always effortlessly come up to and hit easy going aways ? Do the problems arise on certain presentations ? How do you address and call for the bird ?

Hamster said:

​What was the reason for changing from dimming the left eye to keeping it open ? What level of experience/percentage hits are you at and what discipline do you normally shoot ? I am left eye dominant but shoot off the right shoulder so it can be done but a good level of understanding the basic mechanics is involved in order to make it so you're no longer even aware. 

Can you for instance always effortlessly come up to and hit easy going aways ? Do the problems arise on certain presentations ? How do you address and call for the bird ?

Click to expand...

​All very good questions!

I shoot sporting and started when I was 12 (so have been shooting now for 28 years!).  I expect to get between 40 & 44 on a typical Sunday shoot.  The reason to change is so I can improve...I turned 40 in Feb and thought right, what do I need to do to become better, much better.  So arranged a two hour lesson with Graham Brown at Purbeck and the first thing he mentioned was keeping both eyes open....since this lesson I have been practicing with mixed results.

My style depends on the bird but typically am gun down and very much a move-mount-shoot style.  Get my visual hold, find my gun hold, call for the bird, try and be as smooth as possible, typically using a swing through or pull away method.

As for your question about effortlessly shooting going away birds.....typically yes! A few Sundays ago straighted a stand with a semi-teal kinda pair....last Sunday got to an absolute beginners style stand with a going away bird on report.....got 1!!!

I am lucky in that I have a course of 3 lessons coming up with a new Instructor (Steve Rawsthorne at Holland & Holland - I won a prize with Clay Shooting Magazine and they are all free which also helps!) and we are hitting the pattern plate first.....fingers crossed we can figure out what is going on!

jimmybh said:

​All very good questions!

I shoot sporting and started when I was 12 (so have been shooting now for 28 years!).  I expect to get between 40 & 44 on a typical Sunday shoot.  The reason to change is so I can improve...I turned 40 in Feb and thought right, what do I need to do to become better, much better.  So arranged a two hour lesson with Graham Brown at Purbeck and the first thing he mentioned was keeping both eyes open....since this lesson I have been practicing with mixed results.

My style depends on the bird but typically am gun down and very much a move-mount-shoot style.  Get my visual hold, find my gun hold, call for the bird, try and be as smooth as possible, typically using a swing through or pull away method.

As for your question about effortlessly shooting going away birds.....typically yes! A few Sundays ago straighted a stand with a semi-teal kinda pair....last Sunday got to an absolute beginners style stand with a going away bird on report.....got 1!!!

I am lucky in that I have a course of 3 lessons coming up with a new Instructor (Steve Rawsthorne at Holland & Holland - I won a prize with Clay Shooting Magazine and they are all free which also helps!) and we are hitting the pattern plate first.....fingers crossed we can figure out what is going on!

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​Likely that you rode that bird rather than mount into and just shoot it. 

First things first, 44 is pretty damn good even for a straw baler so even assuming you'll be somewhat less impressive on registered birds, it is entirely possible you're going to be around A class already. Meaning your present method hasn't exactly held you back so with respect I already question why someone would be so keen to rebuild you rather than build on your present method. 

However, assuming that you're convinced it will eventually pay dividends then I have to go back and explain what I meant by saying you need a good grasp of the basic mechanics involved in two eye/wrong shoulder shooting. When holding the gun in the ready position just out of the shoulder and looking over the barrels beyond towards the pick up point you will be peripherally aware of two sets of barrels, the one beneath your right eye (the left hand side barrel) is the one that the pellets come out from.

Cross firing occurs when the left eyes dominance pulls the brain/eye and uses it to provide any forward allowance; since that eye is looking at the barrel from the side and (not from along/beneath) it's easy to see why the shot will be delivered nowhere near the target. The trick is to absolutely understand this point. It may be a worthwhile exercise to go and shoot some very easy Skeet or going away targets and try to consciously make your subconscious understand how vital that relationship is. Essentially you have to train for the right eye control of the process to become subliminal and unforced. Occasionally you will still find some targets that will benefit from left eye dimming such as close, quartering rabbits that are easily missed in front, reason being that reverting to one eyed aim slows you down ! 

Another good training aid is simply shooting at a pattern plate from say 20 odd yards, the purpose being to bring the gun up and fire using the live barrel with the wrong eye (left barrel under your right eye), with practice this method works extremely well and will have benefits such as better peripheral visual awareness of the target area and easier mental judgement of range (which is harder with one eye). 

Your wasting your time hammy we have already established the bloke is a bit "odd"  

Thank you Hamster for taking the time to reply in such detail......much appreciated!

jimmybh said:

Thank you Hamster for taking the time to reply in such detail......much appreciated!

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He's that kind of bloke ?

I could have written the very same post!

I have instinctively always closed my left eye when shooting - which means I struggle on straight on driven birds given that I can't see them - and started trying to shoot both eyes open back in Dec, after a guy I met at a Sunday shoot (who wiped the floor with me) suggested it as a way to improve.

Had some success- shot some lovely driven birds on the game shoot, but at times I could 'feel' my dominance moving coinciding with missing some absolute 'sitters'. Testing it throughout the day at work produces results that are indeterminate. sometimes central, sometimes left, sometimes right.

Back in Feb shooting at a sim pair of straight away targets I think I hit two... went back to closing my left eye after that,  and I'm usually hitting 35-40 at my local straw baler each week (usually in the top five or so, and had high gun a few weeks back) like this.

So in short I gave up trying to work out how my eyes and brain worked, or forcing something that didn't come naturally, and went back to doing what worked for me!

I'd respectfully suggest that having an eye test with a proper optician might be a good idea and mention that knowing which is your dominant eye is important to you because of this sport.

Although we have two eyes our brains perform a curious trick in that they actually only use the visual data from one (the dominant eye) for vision and the other provides stuff like additional information to enable us to judge distances etc more accurately.

My optician said that people over 40 years of age can, sometimes, become cross-dominant i.e. the brain alternates between the left and right eye as the primary data source as is the case for me.   The optician can perform a test for you that shows which eye is doing the dominant job - in my case it will alter every few minutes so closing my left eye is the only option or rather locate the target with both eyes and close the left one to take the shot.... 

I have known eye dominance to switch due to stress. The Guy in question was physically shaking. We stopped, went in for a coffee and after 30 minutes or so resumed without further problems.

Thank you for all the replies....good to hear similar stories.

I had two hours with Steve Rawsthorne at Holland & Holland on Friday and the pattern plate said it all......yes my changing dominance is an issue and Steve has put this torrid time to rest now and said just go back to closing one eye, it is not as if I was ever going to be chasing the coat tails of Digweed or Faulds!  Secondly, it would appear over the course of 28 years I have let some bad habits creep in and we focused on getting the basics right again...stance, posture and gun mount....

The day after the two hour lesson and changes I then hit Purbeck and put 190 clays up...safe to say am already feeling a lot happier and enjoying my shooting once more...lots to work on but seeing the results already....

Well, I have just had an eye test with a Sports Optometrist (Underwood Eye Care in Ferndown).......in short, I was diagnosed as right eye dominant!  After numerous tests the issues are between my left hand and right eye (I am right handed so my left hand leads the barrels).  My left hand is heavily influenced by my left eye, despite being right eye dominant....

Whats the short-term solution to try, basically to smear a very light layer of Vaseline on the left hand lens of my shooting glasses to obfuscate the barrels but to still allow some peripheral\depth perception and go practice......

For now, whilst I am having my freebie lessons with Steve Rawsthorne I shall keep to closing one eye, but just thought I would share this in case anyone else is struggling with two eyes open.....like Cosmicblue suggested earlier in this thread an eye test with an Optician who understands sports vision is worth while....

I don't quite see why, if you are right eye dominant, and right handed, you would need to smear anything over your left lense on your glasses? That's a trick for someone being left eye dominant and right handed.

Also, trust me on this one, your left hand is not controlled by your left eye, unless I am indeed, a Chinaman?

Ian Lawrence said:

I don't quite see why, if you are right eye dominant, and right handed, you would need to smear anything over your left lense on your glasses? That's a trick for someone being left eye dominant and right handed.

Also, trust me on this one, your left hand is not controlled by your left eye, unless I am indeed, a Chinaman?

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​Agree. it sounds like there is a basic problem of not ensuring that your focus is out at the clay. Never look back near the gun. Problem solved?

Will Hewland said:

​Agree. it sounds like there is a basic problem of not ensuring that your focus is out at the clay. Never look back near the gun. Problem solved?

Click to expand...

​Unfortunately at the time of the eye test there were no clays or barrels present

jimmybh said:

Well, I have just had an eye test with a Sports Optometrist (Underwood Eye Care in Ferndown).......in short, I was diagnosed as right eye dominant!  After numerous tests the issues are between my left hand and right eye (I am right handed so my left hand leads the barrels).  My left hand is heavily influenced by my left eye, despite being right eye dominant....

Whats the short-term solution to try, basically to smear a very light layer of Vaseline on the left hand lens of my shooting glasses to obfuscate the barrels but to still allow some peripheral\depth perception and go practice......

For now, whilst I am having my freebie lessons with Steve Rawsthorne I shall keep to closing one eye, but just thought I would share this in case anyone else is struggling with two eyes open.....like Cosmicblue suggested earlier in this thread an eye test with an Optician who understands sports vision is worth while....

Click to expand...

This could possibly also indicate that you are moving the gun with your left hand rather than turning your upper body, keeping your arms and shoulders steady as a frame. By moving the gun you are altering your mount whilst mounted, as it were ?