Gun specific eye dominance?!?!?

[Oly]

I've recently got round to buying an Easy Hit bead to try on my shotguns. It's taken so long as I can shoot really well with my Urika semi-auto, but I lose considerable kill ratio with my MK38 O/U .

 

I've known for years that I am left eye dominant, but right handed, so have always shut my left eye. After buying one Easy Hit bead at the CLA (they too wouldn't to a deal! ) I attached it to the problematical shotgun - the MK38 O/U...and it does work, very impressed.

 

So now when I mount and aim the (empty) MK38 O/U at a spefic point the Easy Hit bead kicks in any my right eye aims the gun in the right direction. However, after trying this with my non-Easy Hit Urika semi-auto (to gage the difference) I have found that I am actually pointing in the right direction, even though there is no Easy Hit on it!!!

 

I have tried the MK38 O/U without the Easy Hit and with both eyes open I am off target, so the Easy Hit definately works on that gun, but it seems like it's not required on the semi! Any ideas on what is going on here? I'm not complaining as I don't need to shell out another £30 for another small peice of plastic , but it definately seems a bit weird!

[alexm]

This is quite well documented actually! The reason is most likely the wider profile of the o/u barrels from side on. Your left eye can see two barrels as its slightly to one side whereas your right eye can only see the top barrel and therefore your left eye has more to line up with the target.

 

With the semi auto your left eye sees only a single barrel and so it is less likely to 'steal' control from your right eye.

 

This suggests that whichever eye is your dominant eye is not much more dominant than the other, i.e. you are more centrally biased. With practice you can actually train yourself to line up with the correct eye if your dominant eye isn't *too* dominant.

[Oly]

Alexm - many thanks, well explained! I had wondered if it was because on the O/U I was seeing double double-barrelled vision - which seems to be what your saying. I was wondeirng whether you could train out your eye dominance too, and it'll be interesting to see if this easy hit bead helps do that.

 

Cheers

[clayman]

Yep, Alexm has it well explained.

 

A large number of shooters test perfectly well as right eye dominant, but when the gun is up on the shoulder their brain says " hang on, theres a great big black thing obscuring 1/2 my R'H vision," and what happens is the brain then superimposes the L/H lower image - and the shooter now has a confused sight picture, typically with a "ghost" barrel - one they can see an image of from the left eye, but are seeing through with the upper right vision, making it seem semi-transparent.

Cures for this include eye / brain training ( this is what the Easy-hit does - train the subliminal brain to take the aim across to the shooting eye)., but as commented the problem is aggravated by gun types and ribs styles, so a high trap rib may not cause the effect, while a low ribbed S/S might create a big problem.

Raising the comb can dramatically reduce this as the lower pat of the shooting eye can now pick up some peripheral vision, and stops replacing it from the other eye. Good eye height is the pupil 3-4mm high om the back of the gun. Use the £1-00 coin test, if with the gun fully mounted a £1-00 coin on the rib about 9" away from the eye blocks out the end bead, the comb setting is too low. Try raising your comb height on guns that seem to cause the problem, and remember to look over the bead, not through it.

Edited August 4, 2008 by clayman

[Oly]

Use the £1-00 coin test, if with the gun fully mounted a £1-00 coin on the rib about 9" away from the eye blocks out the end bead, the comb setting is too low. Try raising your comb height on guns that seem to cause the problem, and remember to look over the bead, not through it.

 

Good info about the £1 coin test there clayman, never heard that one before but can understand fully how it applies the right principle.

 

The final sentance is also worth remembering to inform new starters too - this is often overlooked in my experience.