Do you have a big bruise on your cheek after shooting one
hundred targets? Do you close one eye
when shooting? Do you see down the side
of the gun instead of down the rib? If
you answered yes to any of those questions, you could be what John calls “cross
dominant." This month I want to
explain what that means, how it can affect your shooting, and how to compensate
for it.
We all know that most people are born with a dominant
tendency to use one hand more than the other (i.e. right-handed or
left-handed). What most beginning
shotgun shooters don’t know is that almost everyone has a dominant eye as
well. Even if your vision is perfect in
both eyes, one eye is the one you use most to focus. Ask any shooter how to tell which eye is dominant and you will
probably get a different technique each time. Here are a few ways listed from
least reliable to most reliable. First,
which eye do you put to the viewfinder on your camera when taking a photo?
Second, point to something in the distance like a tree trunk, with both eyes
open. While pointing (and without
looking back at your finger), close your right eye, are you still pointing to
the same place? Now start over and
close your left eye? Whichever eye is open when you are still pointing at the
tree is your dominant eye. The third
and most reliable method is to stand about 20 feet away from someone else and
first point your right hand at his or her dominant eye without looking at your
finger, and then take your right arm down and point your left hand to their
eye. If you repeat this several times
the individual you are pointing at will be able to see which of your eyes is
the one lined up with your finger most consistently. The critical factor is not to look at your finger, just the other
person’s eye. If I made that all too
confusing stop John the next time you see him and ask him to show you. According to my husband the majority of men
that are right-handed are right eye dominant and a large percentage of women
that are right handed are left eye dominant.
The situation where you are right-handed and left eye dominant is what
he calls cross dominance.
The best time to find out that you are cross dominant is
when you first learn to shoot a shotgun because the preferred solution is to
switch shoulders which is much easier when you are first learning. Therefore, checking eye dominance should be
the first thing you do when teaching a new shooter, especially children.
So how does cross dominance affect your shooting? Imagine this scenario, you are cross
dominant and shooting right handed at a right to left crosser like the low
house on skeet station 4. When you
mount the gun imagine a straight line from your left eye to the bead on the end
of the barrel to the bird and you will see that the gun is actually pointing
too far in front of the target. Of
course, you wouldn’t be looking at the bead if you have been learning from our
earlier articles but your left eye is still naturally in charge of the barrel
movement.
Another consequence might be that you end up bending your
head over the top of the stock trying to get a look down the gun with your left
eye. That is what usually causes your
cheek to be bruised.
Now what does John recommend for cross dominance? Absolutely switch shoulders, regardless of
how long you have been shooting. I’ve
mentioned before our friend Norm who was in his 50s and had been shooting since
childhood when John got him to switch shoulders. He says that it was awkward for the first 1000 rounds or so but
now, it is great. He shoots clays and
hunts left-handed now, his scores are better than ever, and the limits come
more quickly too. Another example is
Mel Kukich of Pennsylvania or Bob Nolen of Alabama. Both switched shoulders and although the first year has been
challenging, they are seeing steady improvement. John changes approximately 100 people a year and of those about
50% stick with it. Of those 50% that
persevere, they all improve. (On the
rewrite John added “after a few months of anguish”.)
However, if you are determined not to switch shoulders,
another alternative is to put a small piece of opaque tape on your
glasses. The tape should be placed so
that when the gun is properly mounted, the tape obscures the left eye’s view of
the bead. The rest of the left eye
vision is still available and helpful so don’t make the tape too big (a
half-inch square should do it). If
possible, have a designated pair of shooting glasses, apply the tape to the
inside of the lens, and leave it there.
The last piece of advice concerning this topic is DON”T
CLOSE ONE EYE! Closing one eye ruins
your depth perception, which is essential in sporting clays. Closing one eye also causes you to aim or
measure, which is BAD BAD BAD! By aim,
we mean to line up the bead with the target and measure a lead, similar to
aiming a rifle. Aiming is devastating
to the scorecard when you are shooting a shotgun at moving targets.
All of that said, some people can learn to shoot on the
opposite shoulder from their dominant eye, but some can’t. When you mount a
shotgun and look at a point in the distance, you’ll notice that you see two
barrels in your peripheral vision. It is possible to train yourself to see the
correct barrel in your peripheral vision and use that perception when shooting
the target, but we don’t recommend that method.
Well I hope this helps someone and if you have any
questions about anything I’ve said, as always feel free to ask John when you
see him around the tournaments or write the Clay Pigeon.
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