I’ve been diagnosed as left eye dominant. I’m a right-handed shooter. I miss left to right targets consistently in front. Right to left targets are easier but only when I close my left eye.
Kay and George
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As we go through our year, we are always astounded at finding simple basic fundamentals that are not clearly understood.
As a woman, Kay, you are not alone in the pool of misdiagnosed cross-dominant shooters we hear about and see. Although this problem does exist, we find that it is misdiagnosed more often than not. Especially in women.
The overwhelming reason for the misdiagnosis is the fact that the symptom for cross-dominancy and looking at the gun is the same. A right-handed shooter who is cross dominant will miss a left-to-right target behind a right-to-left target in front. A right-handed shooter who becomes too aware of their muzzle or the lead will have the same symptom. When asked by their friends what they saw when they shot, they answer “the left side of the barrel.” At that point, the inexperienced “shooter coach” will diagnose the problem as cross dominance.
What they fail to realize is that when a right-handed, right-eyed shooter mounts the gun, if they focus on the front bead, they will always see the left side of the barrel. Why? The left eye is not behind the receiver but to the left side of the barrel, allowing it to see the left side of the barrel as sharp and clear when focused on the front bead.
Last year, Vicki made this simple comment at a seminar we were giving: “Shotgunning is a simple game made difficult by people wanting to look at the barrel.” You can’t focus on the barrel and the bird at the same time. It is physiologically impossible.
In one of our most recent DVDs, “14 Tips to Better Shotgunning,” we addressed the fact that you never look down the rib of a shotgun.
Think about it. If the gun must be in front of the bird to hit it and your eyes must be focused on the target, you can’t be looking down the barrel. Your shooting eye must be positioned and aligned with the barrel, but your focus will always be on the target which must be behind the barrel in order for the barrel to be in front.
In your case, we would be suspect of a diagnosis of cross dominancy. Our long-distance diagnosis here at “Broken-Targets-R-Us” would be that you are looking at the gun. The reason you hit right-to-left targets more consistently is as your awareness of the gun becomes greater, it causes the gun to shoot to the left, putting it ahead of a right-to-left target. The reason you are missing a left-to-right in front is due to visual confusion and excessive gun speed.
Again, the culprit is too much muzzle awareness. Focus on the front edge of the target and keep your barrel awareness to a minimum.
