Shooting Position - Eye specific - Left Eye Dominate

[Smitty911]

I had the Ghost in .25 cal out today, trying to get a feel for her. I was shooting the JSB Exact King Heavy MKII 33.95grain from a Bi-Pod and rear bag, reg setting at 145 from the factory. Started with the settings at Min and worked up to Max. I didn't have my LabRadar out so I have no idea of the speed, with the distance at 50 yards by laser. Filled from 225 bar down to 160-165 bar on the bottle.

I next switched to JSB Exact King .25 25.39 gain and started at the Min and worked up through to the Max. The only thing I changed was: A. dialed 8 clicks down on the scope and wore an eye patch over my left eye. Left eye is dominate.

The MKII wouldn't group to save their life.
The Exact King 25.29 you can see the one group it one hole with 5 pellets going through it.

So I've tried to shoot with both eyes open - Shooting the MKII, and with an Eye Patch for the 25.39 grain Exact Kings. I also noticed if I tried to force my left eye closed it would change the impact point as well.

What do you all do to combat this issue? I'll be trying the MKII again tomorrow with an eye patch to see if they tighten up, if not it will be 145 on the reg and 9 on the wheel for submoa shooting.

After this I'll get the RedWolf out and start all over. It seems to love the 18 grain in .22. The Redesigned and similar weights not so much.

Suggestions.....

Smitty

 

[Coinwa]

If you’re left eye dominant, you should probably give shooting left handed a serious try. It’s much easier to train your body, than it is to change autonomic brain functions.

My girlfriend is left handed and right eye dominant. She struggled to shoot a rifle left handed for a year or so.

I finally bought a .22 Airacuda and set it up just for her to learn to shoot right handed. We started shooting it at 15 yards in the house. Initially, she fumbled around a little, but after a week or so running the gun right handed became much easier and her shooting got far more consistent than it ever was from the left side.

 

[elh0102]

I've found that shooting with both eyes open is the best way to avoid early fatigue. But, if you're shooting from the shoulder opposite of your dominant eye, then both eyes open is probably not an option. In fact, even though I am totally right side dominant, shooting with both eyes open will slightly change the POI if I am not careful with good eye alignment with the scope. I'm surprised that you experience a change in POI when you close your left eye, but since that's the case, using a patch might be the best option. If you are shooting from a bench, and as mentioned above, you might find that shooting from your left side is a better solution. I've done it some as an experiment. While it doesn't feel natural, I believe that with some practice, it would be a practical solution.

 

[bigHUN]

Follow the eye dominance. The head position = eyes pupil/lens aligned with POA centerline is more critical then your hand dominant posture.

 

[boscoebrea]

The eyes have it,I am left-eye dominant,I shoot left-handed and I have both eyes open. With a scope, it is not hard. I can shoot right-handed, but it is unnatural and takes me a lot longer to get a good sight picture. Join the lefty club, we are always looking for new members.

 

[alejo]

I totally agree with Coinwa, when I found out that I’m left- eye dominant I started training my left hand to do pretty much everything, I switched the cocking to the left side , pulling the trigger was the harder part but in couple months started feeling much better, now 2 year later it feels normal, give it a try. Be safe

 

[JBHC]

When I do miss left it’s like at least 6” at ten yards with the occasional arrow straying like a foot left. I’d love to video my form and get a critique. What angles should I video from?
The idea of shooting left handed just seems so crazy to me because I’ve shot rifles, compounds, and now traditionals right handed for my entire life (only 26 yrs)

I read a tip on this forum about addressing the string with the fingers on your string hand facing downwards at about 30 degrees to reduce torque on the limbs. This seemed to help a lot

 

[Berserkeley Mike]

What if you're on patrol and peer around the left side of a tree or corner and see a can? You can't just throw your whole body out there to line up a right handed shot, or the can might see you.

My favorite drill: 5-shot groups, lefty and righty, from standing, kneeling, sttting and prone. With spazzes, sighters and fliers, that is around 50 shots. To really mess with my head I'll throw in pistol at the end as that uses the same eye for a given hand AND same side (eg, right eye, right trigger hand and pointing right), while the rifle points that all to the opposite side (right eye, right hand, but across the body to the left).

 

[Smitty911]

I'll try this left handed thing but make no promises. Thanks for the suggestions.

I've shot right handed since my time in the Marine Corps, lefties always threw hot brass on the righties.

Smitty

 

[Vana2]

I'm right handed and right eye dominant but have always made an effort to do things with both hands.

Yeah, for really fine work I'm better using my right hand but I can use tools and shoot quite well lefty. Lots of advantages to being ambidextrous.

Think that anyone can be reasonably ambidextrous if the try, it's just that we always take the easiest way.

Suggestion: Try doing daily things - stirring your coffee, cutting your food, shaving - stuff like that, with your off hand. It's amazing how quickly it stops feeling awkward.

Good luck!
Cheers!

 

[Treefrog]

^ That. While in school for welding I found that I'm much better with the off-hand than with the dominant hand.

In firearms training we learned to shoot with both eyes open because situational awareness is important. I found that a red-dot sighting system helped a lot with that. You might want to try it and see if it works for you.

Cheers,

J~

 

[Tumblinginflight]

If you were to create an aggregate group of all the MKII groups, it looks like it would have a smaller mean radius than the same for the Exact Kings. To me that suggests it is less sensitive to both environmentals and reg pressure, and would be where I would focus my next efforts, despite not having a “wow” group. I don’t know if you took any shots off to the side between groups to allow the reg pressure to stabilize, but regardless, to me there are just way too many variables at play to draw any conclusions from the data collected. Learning non-dominant hand shooting can be fun, challenging, and build new skills. There are also drills and techniques that will improve two eye shooting, and sometimes even help neutralize eye dominance. Curious how MKIIs with the patch will go.