Every now and then I get someone inquiring how to determine which is their dominant eye. This is such a critical issue for a shooter, that we have to be sure every shooter knows how to determine eye dominance.

I happen to be “left eyed” and right handed. That is I like to shoot off my right shoulder and everything else right handed. But my “lead eye” is my left one. Cross dominance if you will. Most chaps who shoot (and prefer to do everything else) right handed are right handed and right eyed. But some are right handed and LEFT eyed. This is me, and I was in my 20s when I discovered this! Here is how I learned about this condition.

I missed one of the finest bucks I have ever seen by 6 feet at a distance of 20 yards because my dominant eye stole the sight picture. How?

Here’s how. With an open sighted rifle (no scope) I threw up the gun right handed and my left (dominant) eye took over. Once you understand eye dominance and how you determine it, this miss will explain itself. But here it is in words. Read each word very carefully and visualize each phase until you understand it or you will become confused. You can’t follow this lesson with Peggy Sue, (or Brad Pitt) on your mind.

With both eyes open, which is the proper way to shoot at game, I aligned the sights (rear and front sights) with my right eye looking straight down the barrel of the 30.30 lever action rifle, placing the front sight bead on the rib cage of the buck. In the understandable excitement and rush, my left eye (my dominant one) took over and saw the front bead on the buck. This instantly resulted in the rear sight being far to the right, thus causing my shot to hit well left of the buck.

“But you carefully aimed down the barrel with your right eye,” you argue. Yes. But an interesting phenomenon happened here which is the fly that finds himself in the ointment. No human eye can focus on three things at three distances at once. Ah ha! So if you are looking at the spot on the deer you want to hit (which you should), and at the front sight, (which you should), guess what gets ignored in this little triple option story? You got it! The rear sight becomes nothing but a blur, thus easily ignored by the lead eye.

The dominant eye, in this case my left one, sees what it really likes; a front bead on a monster buck, and it tells the brain to hit that trigger (the rear iron site on the rifle getting left out of this little tale.) Remember this all happens in approximately one second. NOTE: How to avoid this problem? Use a scope! The scope “forces” the right eye onto the same plane as your target – AND you have reduced the number of things you have to see at once from three to two – and both of them are clearly focused!,

So my wall hanger was frightened by some thunder and a bunch of dirt and leaves jumping up in front of him and he sprinted off to less noisy woods and out of my life forever.

Stop right here and make yourself believe this. Point your finger at arms length at some small object; a door knob, a photograph of Jennifer Anniston, a squirrel nest or a distant chimney top. Without moving your pointing finger, close one eye and then open it and close the other eye. Face the object squarely as you point, both eyes open, shoulders squared. When one of your eyes is closed, your pointing finger will appear to jump to one side of the object, while the other eye when closed will not cause the finger to move at all. Doing this a few times will show you which is your dominant eye (the one that doesn’t cause the object to jump to the side.)

I have never led a single nimrod through this exercise who didn’t try to rush ahead to the conclusion, subrogating one of the required steps and having embraced the typical human love affair with the short cut, thus frustrating himself and his/her instructor simultaneously.

At this point I am inclined to tell the student to forget it and go ahead and miss every object in the future that he/she needs to shoot in hopes that one or more of them with especially big teeth will bite them in the butt; but I hold my tongue and instead note in patient and quiet words that an important step had somehow deserted their otherwise flawless list of actions.

To further confirm which eye is dominant, perform this easy maneuver. Extend both arms forward, elbows locked, as if trying to keep Dick Butkas from running you over. You’re hands are turned up at right angles. Move your hands together with both index fingers touching and both thumbs touching, overlapping them a bit until the “hole” they form is the size of a lemon. View your object through this opening and VERY, VERY SLOWLY bring the “hole” back to your eyes keeping the object visible through the opening. Your hands will surround your dominant eye. You rushed didn’t you? Now do it again (several times if necessary) and move SLOWLY this time!

Now, how can we use this information? Affixed in my mind and reflexes, I would have killed that buck, or at least instantly knew why I didn’t. You may decide to learn to shoot off either shoulder, as I have very successfully done. The dove field is a good place to learn to “switch hit.” There is so much shooting at doves, you get lots of repetition. And it’s nice to spread the recoil to two shoulders instead of one.