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Lefty Wilson

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I know there is a wealth of information here about eye dominance. I have searched and read much of it. All of it good advice and information. I'm not sure if this is an eye dominance issue.
I am a longtime rifle and pistol shooter. Over the 26 years I spent in the military I have trained my left eye to automatically close when I sight or aim my rifle or pistol.
I recently started trying to learn shotgunning (is that even a real word?) and specifically sporting clays. With this new discipline I am working at teaching myself to keep both eyes open.
I am left handed, but am right eye dominant and shoot long guns right handed. I am having difficulty getting consistent hits. I work on focusing on the clay target and not the front bead.
After reading some more of the eye dominance threads I took my shotgun outside to see for myself. I mounted the shotgun with my eyes closed. On opening I see the mid bead sitting below the front bead with some rib showing between the two. With both eyes open I can see the beads and the left side of the barrel. Naturally when I close my left eye the image of the left side of the barrel disappear.
When shooting I find myself checking my, lead shooting and then missing. I think I am basing my lead based on the image from my left eye, which would really give a false sight picture.
Would I be better off either closing my left eye once the target is picked up visually, or should I put Vaseline on the left lense of my glasses?
Another question is if you are not supposed to see your front bead while tracking the target, how do you determine the lead?
 
It's frustrating trying to figure out vision issues, especially when eyes change over time and everyone's eyes are different. I'm experimenting with the frosted tape dots on the weak eye now, still working through it so no answers yet.
What's making me try this is my eye dominance is fluctuating, probably due to presbyopia (the typical aging eyes issue where it's difficult to clearly see close objects or small print). Never knew it was happening until I went to an optometrist for the farsightedness and we stumbled on it happening during the exam. I was also missing when I thought I had a perfect sight picture, but as it turns out with the weak eye. Now I know what's going on but have to determine what fix works best. Maybe someone else knows already and will chime in.
 
Lefty Wilson said:
Would I be better off either closing my left eye once the target is picked up visually, or should I put Vaseline on the left lense of my glasses?
You'll be MUCH better off somehow clouding or occluding your left eye's vision of the barrels but letting it see everything else around it. I have the same issue as you and I use a small piece of translucent Scotch tape with a section folded over itself to serve as a tab. I keep several of them attached to my earpro case and stick one on my left lense, right about in the middle of it. Blocks the barrels but I can see everything else and my depth perception is MUCH less affected compared to winking or squinting. Take it from another rifle/pistol shooter: you need to FORGET everything you thought was correct as soon as you pick up a shotgun.

Lefty Wilson said:
Another question is if you are not supposed to see your front bead while tracking the target, how do you determine the lead?
You're supposed to see the barrels in your peripheral vision. What you cannot EVER do is FOCUS on the front bead (or anything else besides the target). Remember when I said forget everything you were taught about shooting? Yeah, start with "front sight focus, squeeze".
 
Discussion starter · #4 ·
Thanks for the responses. I'm going to work with a Level I instructor tomorrow morning. I'm not sure this is an eye dominance problem, it could be more of a rifle shooter trying to see the sights and aim.
I will let you know what I learn after tomorrow's lesson.
 
Discussion starter · #5 ·
Well I had a really enjoyable morning on a SKEET range today. I met with the instructor and after approximately 170 shells I now know my shotgun's pattern and what the correct sight picture should be for this particular shotgun.
I didn't hit every clay, but I was able to hit pretty consistently. Apparently I was shooting low. I would watch the clay all the way through the shot. The problem was in order to see the clay I needed to keep my barrel down so I was forcing my shots to be low. Once I started covering up the clay with the correct lead I was hitting them.
This was definitely time well spent and I am looking forward to the Sporting Clays League tomorrow evening.

I forgot to mention I do not have an eye dominance issue. When patterning the shotgun we did it first with both eyes open and then with my left eye closed. There was an insignificant amount of difference.
 
Sounds like a good session with the instructor and good that it's not an eye dominance issue.
After some trials with and without frosted tape, that dominance fluctuation is only happening with rifle & pistol, not shotgun. Which makes sense since that requires focusing up close. So I'm ditching the tape, which BTW is a PITA to have on when just walking around. Someone mentioned they squint or semi-close their weak eye for rifle/pistol and that seems to work, just FYI for anyone.
 
Just FYI. When I was first introduced to the tape it felt uncomfortable. I was told the more uncomfortable it is the more you need it. The uncomfortable feeling is the dominant eye complaining that it cant see the barrel. The feeling goes away after a few outings as the eyes get used to their new roles.
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
Continuing my journey to learn how to shoot my shotgun I have had two rounds of sporting Clays since I worked with an instructor. Week before last showed a good improvement, in the early stages I was able to connect with a couple of the report pairs. But toward the last half of the stations I was back in my old pattern of missing the clays.
Last week I made a couple changes to the Beretta. I added a 1/2" spacer between the buttstock and the recoil pad. That gives a 15 1/4" LOP with the recoil pad installed. I also added one of the Beretta gel cheek pads that in effect raised the comb just shy of 1/4". Minor changes, but the end result was a way to test whether I needed a longer LOP and an adjustable comb. My shots began hitting higher than previously (closer to flat or 50/50).
Now I was beginning to hit where I pointed and not underneath the clay I was able to see a pattern to how I was shooting. What I, along with some of my squad mates, realized is I appear to be over thinking the first clay of a report pair and missing it. When the second clay launches I was routinely hitting it solidly.
I'm looking forward to Thursday this week to try out just shooting the clays when they first appear and letting my subconscious and my hand and eye coordination do the work. I am simply going to focus on the clay and shoot.

Thanks for all the suggestions and information. I will let you know how things turn out.
 
A 15 1/4" LOP is quite long.

How tall are you?

How much do you rotate your stance when you shoot, assuming that you will be shooting a target when it is directly in front of you? Another way to put it, how directly do you face the target?

Keep in mind the advice about seeing the front bead ONLY in your peripheral vision. Your focus should be only and always on the target. Glance back at the rib and your swing slows causing you to shoot behind the target.
 
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