Cross eye dominate and I picked Trap for a shooting Sport?

[Roscoe38]

I am wondering if I am possibly setting myself up for failure. I am cross dominant. I can't switch and shoot from the other side. Too old, way to right handed. I am really struggling with Trap. Last night I shot a 9, 17, and 8. I probably average around 11 per round. I am currently trying the opaque tape on my dominant eye to force my non-dominant eye to do the focusing.

What I am beginning to wonder is: should I be trying to shoot a non-moving target instead of a clay pigeon? I know that other cross dominant people do okay, but no one will convince me that it is not a handicap in activities in which you aim or point at an object. I see other new shooters like myself and they are hitting in the mid to high teens right out of the box. And it seems like within weeks they are up around and over 20. I have shot 450 rounds out of my 20 ga O/U, then switched to my 12 ga autoloader(which I think is better suited for Trap) and have shot 375 rounds so far this year.

Do I just need more practice? Or should I cut my grief and try something else? I can shoot pistol by a slight head/body turn to line up my dominant eye and I have no problem closing one eye for bench type shooting with a scope.

Add: hopefully this will post and I will get notifications. So far with the site "under construction" I have not had much luck.

The "shotgunworld.com" forum is full of psuedo solutions for your problem. Most trap shooters shoot with two eyes open, but there are also a lot of us that shoot one eyed.

Have you patterned your gun (where does the load go)? High, low, right, left, It is not like shooting a rifle. Most field guns shoot "flat" (most of the pellets will be on or just above the bird) so if you are using a hunting gun like most of us poor folk do, you really need to know where to aim/point the gun. I'm 75 and when 9mm ammo became extinct for my wallet I turned to trap. Shoot an 870, 12 with a 28" barrel. My pellets are almost on the bird with a minimal amount of lead, I am not even close to being a great shooter but I think 18 - 22 of 25 isn't too shabby. And I am having fun.

Mostly, I enjoy shooting, so try the shotgunworld.com forum (clays) there is a lot of good information there.

 

[gregkl]

The "shotgunworld.com" forum is full of psuedo solutions for your problem. Most trap shooters shoot with two eyes open, but there are also a lot of us that shoot one eyed.

Have you patterned your gun (where does the load go)? High, low, right, left, It is not like shooting a rifle. Most field guns shoot "flat" (most of the pellets will be on or just above the bird) so if you are using a hunting gun like most of us poor folk do, you really need to know where to aim/point the gun. I'm 75 and when 9mm ammo became extinct for my wallet I turned to trap. Shoot an 870, 12 with a 28" barrel. My pellets are almost on the bird with a minimal amount of lead, I am not even close to being a great shooter but I think 18 - 22 of 25 isn't too shabby. And I am having fun.

Mostly, I enjoy shooting, so try the shotgunworld.com forum (clays) there is a lot of good information there.

I will check it out. Thanks. I am going to pattern my gun one day. I was going to do it yesterday, but ended up not having time during my lunch hour.

Based on last nights shooting, I think it will just take some time and practice. Sure I think cross dominance is a "handicap" but it can be minimized just like other handicaps. Last night I focused on keeping my cheek on the stock, following through and covering the bird. I shot my best score last night and was doing fairly well for me until the last round when the light had faded enough to make it hard for me to see the birds.

And I shoot a 38 year old field gun. 28" mod fixed choke, low rib, field stock.

 

[Roscoe38]

My dominate eye has some kind of corneal defect and sometimes I have blurred vision and the front sight on my pistol is not real sharp. So I went cross dominate with the pistol. Right hand, Left eye.. didn't take long to perfect this process.

I've seen trap shooters with occluded eyes and they all say they are shooting with both eyes open ????

I am finding that the longer I shoot this "trap" thing I am picking up the bird from the house with two eyes open, but when I get on the bird I naturally close my left eye. I don't know if this process could work for a cross dominate shooter, just a thought.


Just pattern the gun at 30 yards, see where the big mass of pellets are, open both eyes and let her rip. And remember the cheek weld is the most important part of the shot.

Just have fun, don't let the frustration get in the way

 

[gregkl]

My dominate eye has some kind of corneal defect and sometimes I have blurred vision and the front sight on my pistol is not real sharp. So I went cross dominate with the pistol. Right hand, Left eye.. didn't take long to perfect this process.

I've seen trap shooters with occluded eyes and they all say they are shooting with both eyes open ????

I am finding that the longer I shoot this "trap" thing I am picking up the bird from the house with two eyes open, but when I get on the bird I naturally close my left eye. I don't know if this process could work for a cross dominate shooter, just a thought.


Just pattern the gun at 30 yards, see where the big mass of pellets are, open both eyes and let her rip. And remember the cheek weld is the most important part of the shot.

Just have fun, don't let the frustration get in the way

I wear shooting glasses with magnification(readers, 1.5) when I shoot pistol to sharpen the front sight. And I do the same as you do; right hand, left eye. I just adjust a little to line up the left eye better.

I am going to stick with the tape over the lens until I get consistent and then work at reducing the amount of tape. Hopefully one day, I will just have a small Magic Dot on the lens.

 

[tobi]

Close the left eye, relax and enjoy yourself. There are a lot of two eyed shooters out there and a lot of one eye shooters, use what works for you.

In the above post it looks like you are doing a fair job talking yourself out of getting good enough to really feel good about it.

I was probably 5000 shots into trap before I really started understanding the sport. Shoot where the bird is going to be!

Yes

 

[marv]

I have the same problem, sort of. I shoot right handed and am right eye dominant. Since late May the right side of my glasses has been covered with surgical tape due to double vision. My rifles have been retired as I can't shoot them LH. I've learned to shoot pistols "crosseyed". I put a red dot sight on a Ruger 22/45 and it replaces a rifle up to a point. It ain't a disability but it sure is a helluva inconvenience.

 

[Landon]

I am right handed and left eye dominant, but I shoot long guns left handed. Always have since I was a young kid so I never had to retrain myself to do so.

 

[stephen87]

Right handed and left eye dominant here. I've been trying to shoot left handed more to try to compensate. I'm a decent shot right handed, but I could be better.

 

[abrams12]

I too am a cross eyed dominant shooter (right handed/left eye dominant), and the mid bead does help tremendously. I recently purchased a 12 AWG with a mid bead sight, and my hits improved by quite a bit. I shoot a hand gun using my dominant eye and do well and shooting a rifle doesn't seem to be affected by shooting with my non-dominant eye, but I haven't been able to transition to left handed shot gun shooting. So, I close my left eye aim with my right. I think the key is waiting to see the clay before moving your hands and following through after the shot. My problem at trap and sporting clays was that I was stopping after the shot and not following through. But the mid bead sight is a huge help. I am going to have a mid bead added to my other shotguns as soon as possible, definitely before sporting clays starts in my area in the spring. I couldn't agree more with your advise about the mid mead sight.

 

[badapples]

How do you cross eye dominant people hold on the trap house? High gun or low gun?

 

[gregkl]

How do you cross eye dominant people hold on the trap house? High gun or low gun?

I hold low, but that might not be right. It just works better for me. I also have my dominant eye lens taped with cellophane tape so it forces my non-dominant eye down the rib.

I am a little slow to pick up the bird, but I am working on getting faster.

 

[badapples]

You definetly will be able to pick up the target faster with a low gun and shooting one eyed. The best advice I can give you is see the target before you move your gun.

 

[gregkl]

You definetly will be able to pick up the target faster with a low gun and shooting one eyed. The best advice I can give you is see the target before you move your gun.

Yup. The guys that are trying to teach me how to shoot Trap are on me about this. They will come up and say; "you were moving before the bird was out of the house!" That and about a dozen other things I do wrong keep me coming back. A lot of guys make it look easy. For me, it's not.

I shot about 1000 shells this year and more than half of the time I spent trying to figure out my eye issues. I hope that next season I can work on some of the other things that I need work on.

Stance
Cheek weld
See the bird
FOLLOW THROUGH!
Tight frame
Chicken elbow
Fast on the bird
Turn from the legs
Shells with shot in them(I'm pretty sure a lot of mine did not have shot in them!)

 

[Humble Lab Boy]

I've been shooting trap with one eye for 40 years and am a class A shooter. Keep practicing!!

 

[chipsher]

I know this not what you want to here. I'm also cross eye dominate and severely left handed. I started shooting pistols right handed last summer, shot about 3000 rds and multiple competitions. It finally feel fairly natural and my shooting is more accurate. I'd never go back, I'm 51.

 

[jwdeford]

To be honest the best way to shoot trap is both eyes open you get a better view of the field and you also get a better jump on the bird as it comes out of the house. Now this will take practice as you are currently a one eyed dominate shooter, but as with all shooting it will get easier the more you practice. as you start working on two eyed shooting i would suggest lining your beads up with one eye first then opening both eyes before calling for the bird the progressively line the beads up with both eyes. Hope this helps I remember I was just a one eye shooter forever but I found that my scores grew higher when i switched to both eyes.

 

[Hookeye]

I've always shot both eyes open, on everything.
Having an eye condition where my dominant is super dominant, it was cool how I could be in a rifle scope and "click" my left to work and look outside the scope, and ignore the dominant right, and "click" back.
As I got older and my vision degraded to 20/20 (age 42) I lost the ability to click. Now several years past that, it's all pretty much suckin' these days.
Having decent eyes and losing it, it totally screws up your mental focus.
I dunno if I can retrain, or if it's worth the hassle.
That too might be part of getting older.
Two of my kids are cross dominant eyed. Patch and they do OK bow, scoped gun they close one eye. I have not seen how they do on the trap range yet...........I suspect it to be pretty bad without a patch. Bow they could go OK for a spell, no patch and then a nanosecond before release, switch eye (and not know it) and crank a shot way wide. Never knew when that was gonna happen either.
Patches sure saved a lot of headache and lost arrow tips in the wood

 

[gregkl]

I've always shot both eyes open, on everything.
Having an eye condition where my dominant is super dominant, it was cool how I could be in a rifle scope and "click" my left to work and look outside the scope, and ignore the dominant right, and "click" back.
As I got older and my vision degraded to 20/20 (age 42) I lost the ability to click. Now several years past that, it's all pretty much suckin' these days.
Having decent eyes and losing it, it totally screws up your mental focus.
I dunno if I can retrain, or if it's worth the hassle.
That too might be part of getting older.
Two of my kids are cross dominant eyed. Patch and they do OK bow, scoped gun they close one eye. I have not seen how they do on the trap range yet...........I suspect it to be pretty bad without a patch. Bow they could go OK for a spell, no patch and then a nanosecond before release, switch eye (and not know it) and crank a shot way wide. Never knew when that was gonna happen either.
Patches sure saved a lot of headache and lost arrow tips in the wood

I have found that opaque cellophane tape over my dominant eye and shooting both eyes open does the best for me with Trap. Closing one eye is fatiguing for me.
Scopes, I close one eye. Iron sights I either close one eye or use my Trap glasses.(see above). Pistol, I cheat my stance a little to favor my dominant eye and keep both eyes open.

One thing, I advise; don't listen to people who are not cross dominant! They have not walked in your shoes and most likely they don't understand what we are seeing.

At the end of the day, better shooting is the goal. If that means a patch, wear it. If it means closing one eye, do it. There are plenty of people who have a lot of fun and even shoot respectable scores who don't follow the formulas for good shooting.

Some may think it's an excuse, but I think being cross dominant presents a handicap of sorts to many activities that requires eye/hand coordination.

 

[Hookeye]

I know a guy that grew up shooting, cross dominant eye.

With bow he shoots right handed (left eye dominant) and..............both eyes open. He says his sight picture is all jacked up (recurve) but he's so used to it that he can actually shoot decent (he can, shot with him).

Tha gap to learn has to be freakin' huge..........but he can learn it, he keeps his shots 25 and under though.

I dunno if he does any clicking back and forth or if it's all left eye dominant all the time.

As if shooting a recurve wasn't tough enough!

 

[.452browning]

I'm left handed and right eye dominant. I shoot skeet/trap with both eyes open. Works fine for me. I can shoot equally both right and left handed.