One important aspect of shooting a handgun consistently and accurately is finding out which of your eyes is dominant. This is a very easy thing to do, you can do it at the range or while sitting on your couch in your own house. Pick out an object, like a light switch on a wall. Then do one of the following with both eyes open…
1. Make a Triangle with your hands, framing the light switch in the center of the triangle.
2. Point at the object with your dominant hand, again with both eyes open.
3. You can even make a Taylor Swift “Hand Heart” (if you are feeling 22) and frame the object in the center of the heart, with both eyes open. (Ha ha!)
Once you have the object framed or targeted, close your left eye, then open it and close your right eye. Whichever eye is open when the object is still centered – that is your dominant eye. It is the eye that chose the “centered” location. It will most likely be obvious. When I close my left eye, the object stays centered, when I close my right eye, the object moves completely out of the frame.
Knowing which eye is your dominant eye will help you choose a stance that works best for you, and will help you with your sight picture. What did you figure out? Were you surprised?
Over the years of training cops, I found several who shot “off eye’d” Most were left handed and shot with the right eye. None of them even realized this and when I pointed it out, they were surprised. It wasn’t caught in the police academy because most instructors there don’t have time to look at things like that.
A person can still shoot a pistol like that- but they will never be super fast because they’re shooting off balanced. It’s impossible (almost) to shoot a long gun “off eye’d”.
Very nicely done. Covered the subject in a understandable way for me. Thanks!