Help with dominant eye shooting

Hi all just retired and started shooting and would like to shoot NRL22. I started practicing 4 days a week on a 100 yard range at my home in western Washington, I was using a Marlin xt to start with then purchased a Ruger precision rimfire that I am enjoying shooting. the problem is that I was shooting 1 inch groups at 50 yards with my right eye then I tried to shoot support side and my groups went down to 3/4 to 1/2 inch with both eyes open. So I'm left eye dominant didnot know for 65 years. My question is can I shoot nrl22 matches left handed with a right handed rifle? What do you thing the drawbacks would be and any suggestion would be appreciated Thank you

 

I don't shoot NRL but I'll reply and bump this.

In slow-fire, precision(like f-class) right handed bolt guns are GREAT to shoot left handed. I like them better than my left handed bolt rifle.

The obvious weakness is rapid fire but I've seen people shoot right handed 1903s left handed in rapid fire and compete at a high level so it definitely is possible.

 

I shoot F Class and I shoot right handed but I am left eye dominate. I shoot with both eyes open mostly. Once in a while I need to close the left for focus but not very often.

 

Kevin - shooting better with both eyes open, doesn't necessarily mean that you're left eye dominant - it means that you're a normal functioning human being.

The eyes are meant to work together, at the same time. The brain even prefers this, as it creates a natural symmetry in your sight picture.

I shoot various forms of positional rifle & pistol, using iron sights. While I am definitely right eye dominant, my left eye works very well - so well in fact, that I need to use a blinder over it, which helps tremendously to keep a natural sight picture, alignment, and alleviate most eye fatigue.

I don't know what NRL competition is, but no matter what you shoot, you should shoot with both eyes open.

-tc

 

You might get more NRL specific response if you repost in the 'Practical Precision' sub forum

 

Yes you can, nobody cares. Do it however you are most comfortable. Muscle memory might mess you up initially, but after practice you will get better.

That being said, you are overthinking this. Just go shoot the way you have always shot. You change everything now, it probably will have the opposite effect your looking for. Your gonna be on a bucket, wobbly barricade or some other nonsense during most of these matches, so groups size and eye dominance will have little to do with your score. There will be stages that you shoot "support side only", you may do better on those than most (better than me for sure). Take those extra points and and put them into the bank.

My advice, go have fun and don't worry about it. Do what you've always done and practice "positional shooting" (aka barricade/tank trap/barrels/modified prone/offhand/etc). You can download old NRL22 COF (course of fire) from their website and practice them. Most importantly, just go to a match and shoot. After you will have a much better idea of your strengths and weaknesses for that game.

 

I would never shoot with an eye closed. You lose balance, perception and peripheral vision. None of those losses are a good thing.

Decades ago I taught myself, using brain control, to shoot equally well with both eyes, both hands and both shoulders. Makes "no never mind" to me what I use and how I use it. Dry fire, sight and practice shooting with both and you might find the same.

 

When starting my 9 year old right handed grandson shooting rifles and bows I discovered he was left eye dominant, I talked to a very good archer who told me to get a pair of cheap sun glasses and take the lenses out of both sides and tape a piece of thin cardboard in place of the left lense and blacken it with a magic marker and use it as a "training aid". This forces them to use the right eye when shooting right handed. After a year or so he learned to shoot with no "glasses" and use the right eye for shooting.

 

^^^^^^ This might sound crazy to some folks, but is not necessarily.
I was a kid who was born "cross-eyed", which makes it impossible to look at an image with both eyes without seeing two overlapping images.
When I was two or three years old, my eye doctor had me wearing glasses with the inner portion taped over. this made me use the center and outer portion of whichever lens I was looking through.

Fast forward a few years, and I was no longer cross-eyed, and could use either eye individually, but not together. To this day, I don't have binocular vision, but can use either eye without double vision. My depth perception sucks, but I've adapted well enough that I am able to be a crane operator, and do most stuff that a normal person can.

-- NO I'm not claiming to be normal. jd

 

I am right-handed , right eye dominant , and shoot with both eyes open . On a left bolt , left port TR rifle ( .308 ) Now I only get screwed up when I go back to my right-bolt Open rifle ... Experiment with it . Find what works best for you . As long as it's safe .

 

I am a right handed/left eye dominant shooter and I shoot pistols with either hand and rifles left handed with right handed actions. I do not compete but shoot sub MOA at 100 yards with a Savage FrankenGun shooting left eye/right hand action.

No problemo. Figure out exactly which eye is dominant especially if you ever intend to use a scope.

VooDoo