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So I find out out yesterday, after taking my #1 kid to a 4H shooting safety training course that said child is right handed (I knew that) but left eye dominant. Since all I knew about eye dominance I can sum in up two words (not much) I'm looking for help from the intarwebz.
We ended up after multiple iterations and options having the kid shoot with from the left shoulder on a right handed rifle (we had left and right handed savage mark II's available). This resulted in pretty good groupings and the cheek weld was natural while aiming with the left eye, but it still made working the bolt awkward. Using a lefty rifle was tough b/c there was no fine motor control in the left arm, and using the right handed rifle was tough b/c the right arm had to come back from the forend. This worked b/c we were using a bench rest setup and the barrel and forend were supported without the kid's arm.
Of course in a standing or prone situation this would be difficult for a kid to hold up the rifle entirely from the trigger guard area since that would be so far behind the center of balance for the rifle.
So, should we stick with left shoulder, right hand rifle or maybe just move straight from bolt-action to semi-auto to avoid any issues with the bolt altogether?
The kid also wants to get into archery and there just happened to be an archery instructor on site yesterday who said we were going to be pretty much looking at a left handed bow as the only option for someone using their left eye to aim.
I spend all these years making sure both my kids are right handed and no one ever told me to also put a patch over their left eye and make damn sure they are right eye dominant. ;)
Anybody have any experience or thoughts? By the way, the #1 child has gone through a couple of doses of vision therapy over the years to cure the kid of being cross-eyed and we have absolutely no interest in trying to go back at 10 years of age and re-train the eyes on something else, so using the right eye isn't an option.
Anyone with any feedback is appreciated.
1 comment:
As a right-hander who is left-eye dominant I grew up shooting long guns and playing pool left-handed. I found myself more adept operating right-handed bolt actions than left, and had no problems associated with standard semi-autos or even flintlocks (just be strict about wearing eye ptotection).
When pistol shooting, you may have to tweak the Weaver stance a bit, but should have no problems at all shooting them right handed.
As far as bows and slingshots, I can only shoot them effectively left-handed.
I'm 49 years old and began shooting at age 7; I shoot and train frequently. Hope this was helpful.
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