Any suggestions?

[wtretrievers]

I have acquired a 13 year old for youth w/e this coming w/e in Mississippi, & he hasn't had much experience shooting, something I'm not used too. My 2 boys are 15 & 17 & have been shooting since they were very young.

The problem is I had him shooting a .22 this past w/e & he is right eye dominate & left handed. So when he shoots he puts the rifle on his left shoulder & leans his head over & looks through his right eye. He could group consistent at 40 yards, just worried when a .243 or bigger in his hands to hunt with it is going to bust his azz! Don't have time to switch him over & get him used to shooting the correct way.
I tried to get him to shoot through his left eye but he had trouble, also off his right shoulder & it's uncomfortable, I know he needs seat time.

Any suggestions??????

[Jordan]

put him down and get another one... lol thats weird... i dunno man, wish i could help !!

[wtretrievers]

put him down and get another one... lol thats weird... i dunno man, wish i could help !!
That's great Jordan, Yea, I could see me telling his Mom.....Uhhh.....this kid ain't gonna work.....you got another one!:shaking::*****:

[Red Devil]

Is he leaving both eyes open when aiming? That may help. Only thing I can see in this situation is practice. Unfortunately time isn't on your side right now. Good luck. RD

[longsidelandry]

My brother was right handed but left eye dominant, we just sat him down and made him shoot with his right eye until he got used to it. It took about a box of bullets but then he was comfortable.

[longsidelandry]

That's great Jordan, Yea, I could see me telling his Mom.....Uhhh.....this kid ain't gonna work.....you got another one!:shaking::*****:

lmao :*****: :*****:

[SULPHITE]

Hows the kick on a .243...is it enough to give'm a racoon eye if he is too close?

[Red Devil]

Hows the kick on a .243...is it enough to give'm a racoon eye if he is too close?
.243's got a good thump to them. Been there, done that. LMAO

[Jordan]

That's great Jordan, Yea, I could see me telling his Mom.....Uhhh.....this kid ain't gonna work.....you got another one!:shaking::*****:

i thought it was a good idea....drop the "backwards kid" off at academy or toys-r-us and find someone else...
:*****:

[wtretrievers]

Hows the kick on a .243...is it enough to give'm a racoon eye if he is too close?That's my concern is it popping him & he not want to hunt anymore. I'm thinking this w/e we will hunt out of a stand with a rail or box stand that way I can put my hand across the top of the gun right in front of the scope & may help on the recoil. I think if I can let him practice with a pellet gun around the camp & shoot off his right shoulder only he'll be fine over time.....just needs practice.

[wtretrievers]

i thought it was a good idea....drop the "backwards kid" off at academy or toys-r-us and find someone else...
:*****:
I gotta make this work! HIS MOM IS HOT!!!!!:grinpimp:

[Jordan]

haaaaaaaaaa get 'em u ol' hern dawg !!

[Red Devil]

I gotta make this work! HIS MOM IS HOT!!!!!:grinpimp:
GETRDONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Work your magic.

[Jordan]

lol... hell i'll take him hunting; he gotta hot aunt ?? !!!!!!

[Gerald]

I have acquired a 13 year old for youth w/e this coming w/e in Mississippi, & he hasn't had much experience shooting, something I'm not used too. My 2 boys are 15 & 17 & have been shooting since they were very young.

The problem is I had him shooting a .22 this past w/e & he is right dominate & left handed. So when he shoots he puts the rifle on his left shoulder & leans his head over & looks through his right eye. He could group consistent at 40 yards, just worried when a .243 or bigger in his hands to hunt with it is going to bust his azz! Don't have time to switch him over & get him used to shooting the correct way.
I tried to get him to shoot through his left eye but he had trouble, also off his right shoulder & it's uncomfortable, I know he needs seat time.

Any suggestions??????

At this point......I would suggest you give him some more instructions and have him hold what ever gun he will be using and see if he will have enough eye relief to be safe. Maybe don't even mention "eye relief".....just look to see if he is holding the gun in a safe position.

This can all be done at home......shooting can come later before actually hunting......if there is time to shoot.

[wtretrievers]

Gerald, I did let him shoot the .243 but out of a lead sled. His eye relief is good but with his head leaning over the stock is what I have concern about, may be a trip to the denist after the hunt!:D Practice is what he needs, just wish I would have known about this earlier. I think the pellet gun & scope will work to get him lined out but just going to take some time.
I used to shoot (bows) with a guy who was left eye dominate & right handed & he would wear a patch over his left eye to shoot. May slap some duct tape on him & cut him lose!:rolleyes:

[Gerald]

Your call.......but maybe spend a little while shooting first thing in the morning and then go hunting.

[Is it October YET?]

I am left eye dominant and shot right handed. I missed twice trying to "lean" over and see through the scope. He just needs to learn to shoot right handed and feel uncomfortable. You can also try using an eye patch over his right eye. I learned that I would rather have a deer on the ground and be uncomfortable than miss again. I wear a patch over my left eye when I bow hunt as I shoot right handed. They call me one eyed willie at the camp. If you get him a deer you will have a better chance with the mom!!!:)

[Bluechip]

I am right handed but I shoot left handed because I am left eye dominant. My dad always tried to change me around but ????? Let him do whatever he is comfortable with, he is a tough 13 year old boy and will figure it out quickly...

[wtretrievers]

I think the patch thing will work for the w/e. But he will be learning to shoot right handed. He switch hits in baseball so it shouldn't take him long. Deer or no deer the "Mom" thing will be ok also!;)

[Bluechip]

I think the patch thing will work for the w/e. But he will be learning to shoot right handed. He switch hits in baseball so it shouldn't take him long. Deer or no deer the "Mom" thing will be ok also!;)

Good.....:grinpimp:

[mikedatiger]

Any pellet gun or bb gun you could turn him loose with until hunting time?

Other than that, I would have him try keeping both eyes open as was earlier suggested.

[mikedatiger]

Here is an article I found on the subject:

By Gordon Hutchinson
July 23, 2007
http://www.mwwonline.com/images/print.gifPrint (http://www.mwwonline.com/printer_friendly.php?id=74)
http://www.mwwonline.com/images/email.gifEmail to Friend (http://www.mwwonline.com/details.php?id=74#)http://www.ms-sportsman.com/pics/med/p1185288236.jpg (http://www.ms-sportsman.com/pics/p1185288236.jpg)To determine which eye is your dominant eye, make a peep sight with the webs of your thumbs, and stare at an object in the distance.
Photos by GORDON HUTCHINSON To determine which eye is your dominant eye, make a peep sight with the webs of your thumbs, and stare at an object in the distance.Brian Arabie, a regular reader, queried the magazine about teaching his young son shooting and firearms safety.
“I have a 5-year-old to whom I’m teaching the basics of marksmanship (on the air rifle, for now.) My son is right handed, but appears to be left-eye dominant. In other words, he is unable to close his left eye and keep his right eye open. He can, however, keep his left eye open and close his right eye.
“What should I do? Insist that he learn to close that left eye, or just teach him to shoot left-handed?”
It was readily apparent Arabie’s son is cross-dominant, meaning his strong hand and strong eye are opposed.
Todd Masson, editor of this magazine, answered the query first. Masson stated his son, Joel, was cross-dominant, and he had solved it by putting a patch over his son’s left eye whenever he shot. This forced him to shoot with his right eye.
Joel is now 8, and a very accurate shooter.
Everyone has a dominant side, either right or left, and a strong hand which does most tasks. In most folks, it is the right hand. Likewise, most will have a strong or dominant eye on the same side as the dominant hand.
Your dominant eye is the eye you should use for aiming when shooting any firearm — if possible. To do otherwise is working at cross purposes with your brain. It is accepting visual signals from your eyes and transmitting orders to your muscles to accomplish whatever task is at hand.
But cross-dominance is a far more common problem than one might think. I have taught handgun safety and shooting courses at least once a month since 1992. These courses run as small as three people and as large as 50. In perhaps no more than four or five of these (and they were always smaller classes) can I recall not having a single cross-dominant person in the classroom.
One of the easiest ways to determine your dominant eye is demonstrated in the accompanying photographs. Jamie, my model, agreed to let me photograph her showing how to hold her hands properly, making a sort of “peep” sight between the webs of the thumbs, extending the hands interlocked as shown, and focusing with both eyes open on a distant target, looking at it through the small hole formed by interlocking the webs of the thumbs.
Keeping the eyes open, you bring the “peep” sight back to your face. You will naturally bring it back to your dominate eye; in other words, your dominant eye will be the one looking at the target through the “peep” between the thumbs.
Another way to do the same thing is to hold your finger or thumb upright at arms length and look at a small object some distance away. With both eyes open, you will see a “double” of your finger or thumb — it will look like two of them out in front of your face.
When you close one of your eyes, the finger or thumb will cover the object you are viewing. When you leave it open and close the other eye, the finger or thumb will obviously jump to the side of the object. Your dominant eye has lined the finger or thumb directly in line with the object.
Another, perhaps even simpler way to do this is to hold a pencil in your right hand extended in front of your face at arms length.
With both eyes open, align the point of the pencil on a small object about 20 feet away. A light switch is a perfectly good target for this.
Now take your left hand and cover your left eye. Did the pencil move to the side of the light switch, or keep it covered? If it kept it covered, you are most likely right-eye dominant.
Now, switch hands and repeat the experiment, this time pointing the pencil with your left hand, and covering your right eye with your right hand. If you are right-eye dominant, the pencil will noticeably move to the right.
When we conducted the experiment with Jamie, we found she also is cross-dominant — she is right-handed, and left-eye dominant. She was a bit distraught at first, thinking it meant something was unusually wrong or different with her.
I was not surprised to find this. It is a common condition, and more common, for some reason, in women than in men. We tried it at the house for the first time, and my own wife, Mary, is left-handed and right-eye dominant.
When my two sons became old enough to hunt, I discovered my stepson, Brent, was cross-dominant — he also was right-handed, and had a vision problem that gave him a weaker right eye. This necessitated prescription lenses while he was growing up.
As in Brent’s case, it is very awkward, almost impossible, to sight through a riflescope when you are shooting from your right side, and having to aim with your left eye.
Brent overcame it by forcing himself to use his weaker right eye. And it worked, because he has killed several deer and other game with rifles and shotguns. Eventually, the prescriptive lenses corrected his vision, and he now has true right-eye dominance.
Intrigued by Abadie’s question, and my experiences with people in my classes, I talked to Guy Coates, a writer with Associated Press and a dedicated shotgunner who competes regularly shooting trap. It is well-known around the Hunter’s Run shooting club that Guy is cross-dominant.
Since shooting a handgun is no problem with cross-dominance (you simply tilt your head slightly and use your dominant eye to aim), I was not familiar with overcoming the problem with long guns — and it is a very real problem with long guns.
If you are shooting a rifle right-handed, it is almost impossible to lay your head far enough over on the rifle stock to be able to sight with your left eye.
If you are shooting a shotgun, cross-dominance will alter your perception of the target and your gun barrel, and cause you to miss. I asked Coates what he did about his problem.
“Every article I’ve ever read in a shotgunning magazine has said the same thing,” he told me. “The experts say if it is a young person, even any age less than 20, teach them to shoot with their off hand. They all say the young person will be better served learning to shoot on the same side as their dominant eye.
“Now, that works well with young folks. But when you have someone like me who waited until his kids were all grown and gone before he took up shotgunning, it’s going to be nearly impossible to convert to shooting with the offhand. I didn’t take it up as an active hobby until I was 52 years old. You’re not going to get a 52-year-old man to change his strong side.”
Being so right-handed I practically can’t scratch my head with my left hand, I could identify with his condition.
“The answer,” he continued, “is just like your editor’s solution — force the mind to utilize the non-dominant eye.”
Several different tricks can be used here. You can patch the dominant eye as Masson did. Coates said the method most preferred here is to place a piece of opaque tape over the glasses on the side of the dominant eye. This forces the non-dominant eye to take over and aim without totally blocking vision in the dominant eye.
“Generally,” Coates said, “they recommend opaque tape rather than a patch — the non-dominant eye will learn to take over. There are also sighting devices you can attach to your shotgun’s rib that will force use of the non-dominant eye by blocking the sight path of the offside dominant eye.”
One of the devices described by Coates is simply an L-shaped piece of angle aluminum that is glued to the rib of the shotgun near the front sight. By its design, when the head is pressed to the stock, the off-side eye is blocked from seeing the front sight, forcing the strong side eye to dominate. The off-side eye cannot see the front sight at all.
Interested in how this was developing, I called Dr. Charles Williamson, an ophthalmologist, eye surgeon and dedicated outdoorsman. Williamson was raised on a farm, and grew up shooting and hunting. I asked his opinion.
“I’d have to agree with the shooting experts,” he said. “It’s better to teach the student to work off their weak side and use their strong eye, than vice-versa. But the eyes can frequently be trained. For instance, we sometimes operate on someone who had corrective lenses made as contact lenses. In some cases, we have discovered the optometrist corrected their vision opposite their true dominant eye. We kept the correction true in surgery, since the person had become used to it.”
Similarly, in a recent class, we discovered one of the male students was cross dominant. He was right-handed, and left-eye dominant.
Knowing he was a dedicated hunter, I asked how he’s managed to shoot a rifle all his life.
His friends laughed at my question, and said he was different than anyone else. He writes with his right hand. He shoots a rifle and a bow with his left hand, and he shoots pool with his left hand.
So here is a perfect example of someone’s brain and muscles accommodating the demands from the dominant eye. Notice that each of these activities demands skill at aiming with the eye. Since his left eye is dominant, his body has learned to do the necessary muscle actions to use his strong eye.
I can’t recommend either method, and from the literature and opinions of experts, apparently either patching or forcing the body to learn to shoot from the offside is acceptable.
But I compliment Brian Abadie on his dedication and interest in starting his son in the shooting sports at such a young age. We need more dads getting their sons involved like this. I started my own life-long love affair with guns by receiving a Daisy air rifle on my sixth birthday, and was taught safety and accuracy by my father and uncle from the start. Fortunately for me, I wasn’t cross dominant.
Looking back on my own kids, if I had to do it over, I probably would now try to train my stepson to shoot with his left hand. In the long run, it makes him a more versatile athlete, and he is accommodating that all-important dominant eye. Of course now his dominance has been regained in his right eye, and he would be that most versatile of all of us, like my former student, an ambidextrous shooter.
Gordon Hutchinson’s best-selling novel, The Quest and the Quarry, a generational tale that parallels the lives of a line of trophy bucks and the youth of a farming family that hunts them, can be ordered at thequestandthequarry.com or by calling (800) 538-4355. It was recently chosen as a book of the year by the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association.

[wtretrievers]

Good read......Thanks!