He's 11. Do I teach him to use his right eye so his dominant hand does the trigger/string pulling or do I let him use his dominant eye and off hand do the trigger/string pulling?!?

Or do we just spend hours doing both and see what he's batter at?

I am left eye dominant and right handed, shoot much better left handed than I do right handed. Was easier to train my hands than my eyes. Just me though, my daughter is left handed and right eye dominant, she shoots left handed with her pistol. She does not shoot rifles or shotguns often.

Don't fight it. Being a lefty shooter ain't all that bad.

I'm cross dominant and it would've probably been easier to learn how to shoot left handed but I shoot just fine right handed.

My son is same he shots left handed

Same issue here. Learned to shoot left handed initially. As I got older I taught myself to shoot right. I've won more than a few dollars shooting "off eye" before the guys figured out why I was so good with either hand.

I've got a matching set of 6.5 Creedmoors (one southpaw and one backwards) that you're welcome to try him on. My son shot his (righty) out to 1291 yards in Wyoming as a 12 yo.

Not sure where you are located?

Shoot lefty. There are plenty of good lefty guns these days.

Left eye dominant, right hander checking in.

Don't force it and he'll choose what works for him. I played T-ball left handed until I didn't. I shoot pool, bows, and long guns left handed. Write, throw, and shoot pistols right handled. The pistol thing is the weirdest thing about my split.

It works. And being ambidextrous is pretty cool

Follow the dominant eye. Easier to train muscles than eyesight.

I'm a lefty that is right eye dominant. First had to switch over to shooting a pistol right handed and it was far better. Years later I bought a new LH bow, but they shipped me a RH model accidentally. Instead of sending it back I learned to shoot righty and was more accurate in three weeks than ten years of shooting a bow left handed.

First of all, normalize it for him, don't treat him like there's something wrong. A huge percentage of people are cross dominant. My son is right handed left eye dominant. I'm a certified 4H shotgun coach. We deal w this all the time.

For wing shooting and shotgun sports, definitely want him shooting on the same side as his dominant eye. But we teach to shoot w both eyes open. I'd suggest to go that way w all long guns. it's not as important for rifle shooting although I'd stay on that same side for consistency.

Left eye dominant and right handed. I much prefer to glass with my good eye. My right eye is a lazy eye and I can ignore it. It literally doesn't work unless the left is closed or if I force myself to switch to the right. I can keep the right open and look through the glass with my left and see through the glass and ignore the right. Then when I shoot I can swap eyes and see with the open right what's downrange without taking my eye off the scope. So I shoot lefty to make it work.

Left eye dominant right handed. Learn to do lefty. I make it work foing everything right handed but wish I'd learned lefty. I'm a terrible putter because of it and probably need to switch to a lefty putter it's so bad.

I shoot pistol, rifle, bow shotgun all right handed a d do it OK but shotgun and pistol I'd probably be so much better.

I'm left eye dominant and right handed. Learned to shoot right handed all my life and had no issues. Randomly decided to try shooting left handed and it was immediately easy to switch. I can't think of any time that shooting right handed put me in a weird position or caused me to miss a shot.

Probably also depends on your philosophy about shooting with one or two eyes for rifles with irons or scope, pistol, or shotgun. If you're going strictly both eyes open, then you might have more issues than closing one eye when shooting through a scope, for instance.

Btw, eye dominance is a crazy thing. It isn't a difference in your eyes, but the way your brain functions when receiving the two images from your eyes. Your brain can actually decide to switch dominance for certain situations, and you don't realize it.

My 8yr old is left eye dominant and right handed. I got her a left handed bow and just taught her the normal shot process and she has been doing great. Have a friend in the same situation and he got his kid a right handed bow and said he catches him trying to peak over with their dominant eye

Right eye dominant and left handed. I've always been a great shot.

Now eyes are old like the rest of me and maybe worn out. When I was growing up and hunting with a fixed power scope as the only optics, I could look thru scope with both eyes open and as needed, focus with either eye independently. This was to maybe find a deer walking through brush and once spotted get back on it with the scope. Was really handy and I sure miss that.

DP

Same situation. When I was learning to shoot back in the 70's-early 80's, they put an eye patch on my left eye.....

Modern SOP would be to teach me to shoot as a lefty.

Do that.

I am the only right-eyed person among myself, wife, and kids. Being left-eyed is more common than you think.

Wife AND oldest son are right handed, left eye dominant. Wife shoots lefty and the boy shoots righty.

Having some lefty rifles made it easy for us to let the boy try each and determine what works best for him.

He's probably a better shooter than I am if I'm being honest but he's one of those kids that seems to be good at almost everything.

I'll add that if you go w left hand rifle shooting to keep the long guns consistent, don't feel like you have to outfit him w left handed rifles. I'm a lefty and as many have posted previously, shot right handed bolt guns for 20 years before I ever purchased a left handed rifle.

There are actually some handling benefits of running a right handed bolt gun on the left side, particularly when working the bolt and chambering rounds in low light conditions or with gloves on or when it's so cold you can't feel your fingers. By holding the right handed gun in the left hand and canting the gun to the left, the bolt and chamber are presented to the shooter in a way that makes it easy to work the bolt with the right hand and use gravity to help cradle/catch bullets if you are loading turn I to the mag and they slip out of your fingers. The round stays in the mag well/action and doesn't fall out on the ground.

It's also much easier for a novice shooter to visually confirm an open chamber and cleared weapon holding the rifle this way, as the scope is canted out of the way and your visibility into the action is much better.

My oldest son is left handed and right eye dominant. He shoots right handed.

Youngest son (11) is right-handed left-eye dominant. He didn't feel comfortable trying the left-handed rifle so we used clear tape on the left lens of his shooting glasses, kid is lethal with his firearm now. It didn't take long for him to adapt.

The only issue I would have the left eye shooters using right hand firearms are those instances with guns like pump and auto shotguns or Ruger 10-22 that eject casings to the right, right across your face. Or other long guns with a cheek rest on the stock. Otherwise, it should be no problem.

Does cross eye dominance help in baseball? I feel like it would, but never played.

Yes this is why I get my son ambidextrous shotguns like a browning bps or over&under/side by side. It is dangerous trying to operate backwards. Also I like being able to pick up and use his gun if I need to.

Barry Pepper is my favorite left-eyed shooter.

Both of my boys are RH and left eye dominant. Taught them to shoot lefty and it immediately stuck, they both naturally pull guns up to the left side like its all they've known. Archery as well, I got them LH youth bows and they took right to them.

I'm also left eye dominant and LH, never had a LH gun. The only RH guns i don't like are beretta shotguns, the safety in front of the trigger is hard to work left handed. Semi's ejecting across my face has never been an issue with shotguns or rifles

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Does cross eye dominance help in baseball? I feel like it would, but never played.

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They've actually done studies on this and it didn't impact baseball, but seems to be a positive for certain sports. Oh, at first I read target sports but it seems that it's other sports. Oddly not tennis or baseball, but golf and soccer. Good lord I can't type today.

There's no downside to baseball, just no advantage either. Golf and soccer have a small advantage for cross eye dominance. Mostly it really doesn't matter, except tennis has a strong advantage at the elite level for same eye dominance - (60%). Which seems very odd.

Ya, but can he switch hands and gain a stroke?

My boy bats righty and is Left eye dominant. He says he sees the ball better from the pitchers hand at the point of release.

He plays catcher and says having mitt and dominant eye on the left side makes pickup up the ball easier as well. Says it makes framing easier on the outside pitch as well.

That's all anecdotal, but he sees it as the advantage.

Shoot with the dominant eye. I am the same...left eye dominant and mostly right handed. I grew up shooting my dad's left handed guns right handed. I had a boy scout rifle range instructor challenge me to try shooting left handed instead when I was about 12. Within a few targets, I was shooting better than I had right handed. I can still do both easily, but I am better left handed.

Go with left hand. My son is the same. He started shooting 4-H small bore left and just naturally shouldered a gun lefty. He handles righty guns just fine now.

Aggieland. (For him shooting a matching left/right set.)