Confused by my eye dominance

[Ayrshireshooter]

So I'm shooting right handed and been closing my left eye for two years.

I decided to research using both eyes and did the eye dominance test again using the palms/triangle method. To my surprise, I am right eye dominant apparently.

 

despite this I see double with a ghost gun whenever I try and struggle to be aware of the gun/bead in my periferal vision.

all the online stuff seems to suggest if I'm right with both I should be fine so I've kind of confused myself. 
 

both hands out, I look at object in the triangle and it stays where it is when I close left eye ...moves when close right eye.....

 

 

[Stonepark]

Dominance is variable and is affected by how your brain handles the parallel information delivered by both eyes and to an extent is only ever partial.

 

Similarly, I am naturally RIght Handed and Right Eye Dominant but can change RED to LED, (same technique used to see hidden pictures in visual puzzles)

You either keep closing one eye if this occurs without you 'thinking' about it or try to practice positive  control over it which is possible.

[Ayrshireshooter]

This is interesting and not really covered in online guides. Most just say if you have same eye as your hand you will be fine ...

 

byw if I squint my left eye rather tha. Close it the ghost disappears. I struggle to maintain this though and relax with it.

 

I do wear glasses and am looking at optical inserts for shooting glasses. Would lowering the Pescription in my left eye to simulate squinting work? I had read some people do this when left eye dominant.

[wymberley]

1 hour ago, Stonepark said:

Dominance is variable and is affected by how your brain handles the parallel information delivered by both eyes and to an extent is only ever partial.

 

Similarly, I am naturally RIght Handed and Right Eye Dominant but can change RED to LED, (same technique used to see hidden pictures in visual puzzles)

You either keep closing one eye if this occurs without you 'thinking' about it or try to practice positive  control over it which is possible.

I have the same problem as the OP and as above it can come and go. The next problem is that the symptoms are the same as for a too low a comb where because you can't see, the left eye tries to help out. Have a word with your fitter while you're in his care. Because I too wear and shoot with glasses and do not want to interfere with my 3D vision until a point is reached where it makes no difference, I shoot both eyes open. To overcome the problem I stick a small patch on my left lens in such a position that it only blocks sight of the barrels/muzzles when the gun is mounted and I'm about to pull the trigger. At all other times as it's pretty much high up on the lens and you don't notice it after a while. Obviously on safety grounds, a second or older pair are required if you drive - reversing looking over your left shoulder with these on can be fun.

Edited September 27, 2021 by wymberley

[Ayrshireshooter]

Btw one of the tests for eye dominance is to point at something in the distance with you right hand abs both eyes open.

when I do this I get similar effect to the barrel with it being ghosted/blurry

goung to try a patch or bit of Vaseline on my new optical insert glasses. See if it helps.

[Centrepin]

Stop overthinking, if you shoot right handed, right eye and left eye closed stick with it. If its not broken don't fix it.

 

[Walker570]

I am now very much right eye dominant but 35 40 years ago I believe I was about even stevens mainly because of traing shooting around barriers, left shoulder right shoulder, however from the very firdt shotgun I fired round about 10 years of age I was taught to shoot both eyes open, so to this day I do that with all shooting shotgun or rifle, scope or no scope. As Stonepark says you can train your eyes to do either.   I would advise shooting both eyes open with a shotgun and LOOK AT THE BIRD don't aim up the barrel if the gun fits you properly then you will connect..... point at something...you don't aim up your finger, do you?   Also practise as always makes perfect so don't give up.

[Ayrshireshooter]

I don't look up the barrel but, like most, I am aware of the bead in my periferal vision which is how I judge lead. 
 

 

[Rifleman22]

Try a ‘Easy Hit’ bead, cheap, easy to fit and use and tend to help with master eye problems etc!

[Scully]

48 minutes ago, Ayrshireshooter said:

I don't look up the barrel but, like most, I am aware of the bead in my periferal vision which is how I judge lead. 
 

 

Everyone is aware of their muzzles in peripheral vision.  As you say, it’s how we judge lead. 
I have a left master eye but am right handed, but have learned to ignore it and shoot both eyes open. 
My mount is much more deliberate now, which seems to have helped enormously. 

[Agriv8]

I am neither eve dominant and clay presentation affects which eye locks on. High viz beads and shutting an eye tended to have me riffle shooting if I start getting annoyed ! I do get a Perifal vision with an eye shut but again that tends to get my brain looking at the distance between blur and clay and not the clay !!!

I found an sp bead helps . Ps no barrels in my Perifal vision with both eyes open i just visualise an x where I want the lead in relation to clay that I have locked onto and pull the trigger I shoot gun down so a consistent mount is important!

I struggle with incomers as I have a tendency to pull the trigger as clay disappears as the barrels block them but if I have planned the stand right it my imaginary x to the side of then swing through and intercept to the lead point.

I will say my eye issues play up worst when I have not done my home work with pickup points and kill points ! 
 

Agriv8

 

 

 

[Smokersmith]

After being left eye dominant for years I decided when re-starting more serious clay shooting to get my eyes checked. I'd been shutting one eye, then moved to a blurred patch on my glasses.

Turned out that over the years it had changed and now right eye dominant ... welcome to the world of shooting with both eyes 🙂

The danger when you're at home messing around is that you get drawn to look at your barrel .. when you've a target moving in the sky, you can forget this and just stare the target to death.

Go out and shoot some more ... really focus on the target and you'll soon get used to it.

 

[Ayrshireshooter]

I noticed when I take my glasses off and mount the gun my right eye takes over more. Also when I point my finger at various distances it gets ghosted/ blurs in different ways.

 

as the original poster suggested, my dominance seems to change based on factors like distance.

 

I do honestly get the focus on the target thing even when I shoot with one eye I do this. However, your brain does need a consistent reference in the muzzle/bead in Perifey. I think a lot of instinctive shooters have this at a sub concious level and so seem to suggest you don't need it.

I think I will at the very least blurt our my left glasses rather than close the eye. I believe closing it is tiring, makes my right eye squint slightly and leads me to tense ever so slightly.
 

 

[London Best]

Try a disposable contact lens in the right eye only. 

[retromlc]

I have cheap coloured shooting glasses with a small round plaster stuck in the correct place in front of my left eye, it cures it for me.i only close my left eye when pulling the trigger when I have a very close clay to shoot

[Walker570]

20 hours ago, Scully said:

Everyone is aware of their muzzles in peripheral vision.  As you say, it’s how we judge lead. 
I have a left master eye but am right handed, but have learned to ignore it and shoot both eyes open. 
My mount is much more deliberate now, which seems to have helped enormously. 

100% how it should be done.  I have seen so much unnecessary junk sold to attach to shotgun barrels with the promise it will make you a better shooter. No kidding I shot on a days pheasant with a very nice young chap and he had been conned into installing the kitchen sink on his barrels...no kidding it looked like it included one of those red dot rifle units.    Get your gun properly fitted to you by someone who knows what they are doing which isn't easy I know. Then shoot as above with both eyes open and look at the bird you will instinctively lead that bird. I honestly never really notice the barrels or the bead but I suppose in my sub conscious I do have it in my periferal vision.   I say again point your finger, do you have sights on it???

[Scully]

1 hour ago, Walker570 said:

100% how it should be done.  I have seen so much unnecessary junk sold to attach to shotgun barrels with the promise it will make you a better shooter. No kidding I shot on a days pheasant with a very nice young chap and he had been conned into installing the kitchen sink on his barrels...no kidding it looked like it included one of those red dot rifle units.    Get your gun properly fitted to you by someone who knows what they are doing which isn't easy I know. Then shoot as above with both eyes open and look at the bird you will instinctively lead that bird. I honestly never really notice the barrels or the bead but I suppose in my sub conscious I do have it in my periferal vision.   I say again point your finger, do you have sights on it???

I bought one of those BH gizmos secondhand but didn’t like it, so removed it. 

[Ayrshireshooter]

3 hours ago, Walker570 said:

100% how it should be done.  I have seen so much unnecessary junk sold to attach to shotgun barrels with the promise it will make you a better shooter. No kidding I shot on a days pheasant with a very nice young chap and he had been conned into installing the kitchen sink on his barrels...no kidding it looked like it included one of those red dot rifle units.    Get your gun properly fitted to you by someone who knows what they are doing which isn't easy I know. Then shoot as above with both eyes open and look at the bird you will instinctively lead that bird. I honestly never really notice the barrels or the bead but I suppose in my sub conscious I do have it in my periferal vision.   I say again point your finger, do you have sights on it???

I honestly not sure I could point my finger accurately at a bird with any distance and correct lead.

ones things for sure is that there are a lot of different eyes and brains out there and different things work for different people. 

[Walker570]

IF your gun is reasonably well fitted then instict will kick in. After that it is practise pratise practise.  Woodcock flits across a ride, do you have time to line the barrels up etc etc or is it a split second instictive shot and how often in that case does the bird explode in the centre of the pattern. The same with that short distance bolting rabbit when ferreting. No time to engage brain, which will always get you in trouble...pure instnct, something that technology struggles to equate with.

Edited September 29, 2021 by Walker570

[Scully]

5 hours ago, Walker570 said:

IF your gun is reasonably well fitted then instict will kick in. After that it is practise pratise practise.  Woodcock flits across a ride, do you have time to line the barrels up etc etc or is it a split second instictive shot and how often in that case does the bird explode in the centre of the pattern. The same with that short distance bolting rabbit when ferreting. No time to engage brain, which will always get you in trouble...pure instnct, something that technology struggles to equate with.

Yep, agree entirely. 
I think we’ve all experienced those sudden reactions to an unexpected opportunity resulting in a blurred explosion of feathers, on occasion. 🙂
The whole point of repeatedly practising your mount is to create muscle memory. It is one of the reasons the top shots are top shots. Repeated practise of GOOD technique, over and over again, on a regular basis.

[Ayrshireshooter]

Did some shooting today with patches and Vaseline on glasses etc. Didn't really get on with it so gave up and went back to one eye closed.

I certainly don't disagree on the above couple of posts. The less conscious and more instinctive my shooting, the more I hit. On those hits, no part of my concious brain acknowledges the bead or muzzle.

Insid have a lesson in Bywell a couple on months back and he was keen that try and get me shooting both eyes. He did acknowledge though it would take many of hundreds of shots to get me comfortable so we just focused on other things.

[Smokersmith]

During my transition from one to 2 eyes I had quite some time using ‘shotspot’ dots on my glasses.

Worked for me …

[Westward]

On 27/09/2021 at 08:52, Ayrshireshooter said:

despite this I see double with a ghost gun whenever I try and struggle to be aware of the gun/bead in my periferal vision.

It's entirely normal to see double when an object such as a gun barrel (or a finger) is close to the eyes, but it's not normal to try to be aware of the gun/bead in your peripheral vision. Your eyes will always "see" the gun as it's a 3' chunk of steel right out in front - so stop trying to see the gun and soon your brain will sort it out so that you become aware of the gun and where it's pointing without it interfering with your view of the target.

The point is that it's mistake to assume the gun is in your peripheral vision because it isn't, and since vision happens in the brain - eyes are just optical transducers - objects that are not the subject of focus are only partially visible unless you refocus on them. That holds true whether in the full or peripheral field of view. Peripheral vision is there to detect and assess movement, central vision provides colour and detail data for the brain to process.