Right handed left eye dominant daughter

[String&stick]

My 6 year old daughter is right handed but left eye dominant. She shoots her brothers BB gun right handed but doesn't hit much. I started her on a crossbow shooting left handed and she has improved accuracy greatly.

Here's the kicker. She wants to start on a youth recurve, and tells me she wants to bow hunt when she's older and not rifle. Can she retrain her eyes to utilize her dominant. Arm, or do we just start training her left arm for the draw?

I'm assuming it's the latter but have never dealt with this! Any advice appreciated.

 

[go4thegusto]

I am the same way and switched to left handed bow and gun in my youth. I am still right handed but left eye dominant. Switch her to left shooting or it will be a life long struggle.

 

[michihunt]

I am the same way. My Dad figured it out when I was around 10 and switched. I shoot bow and gun left handed and I don’t know any different. I would switch her to shooting lefty....


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[LandYacht]

I am right handed and left eye dominant. Switched to left handed archery in my thirties and it’s a fun thing to be ambidextrous with the bow.


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[bsanders8181]

My Daughter and I are both right handed and left eye dominant.
I shoot Rifles and shotguns right handed and do ok.
My first bow was a righty, but it’s hard to see arrow flight with one eye closed, so I switched to a lefty and wouldn’t go back.
When my daughter started shooting a bow and rifle she wanted to shoot right handed. I bought her a left handed bow, and she likes that.
We were shooting 22s, and I could tell she was trying to look through the peep with her left eye and shoot right handed. When she wanted to shoot the scoped one, she asked if she could shoot left handed. So much more comfortable shooting position.

I think it’s helped tremendously shooting with the dominant eye, versus closing it and shooting with my dominant hand.



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[Grumman]

I went through that with my son. I ended up getting him ambidextrous firearms to allow him to shoot lefty. He has a Henry .22, an AR .22, and a BPS shotgun. For archery I started him on a right handed mini-Genesis before I realized his eye dominance. I replaced that with a lefty model and haven’t looked back.


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[wapitibob]

use a drop down blinder for the dominant eye

 

[String&stick]

Thanks guys, my son is the same way but through his own work with his 22 and shot gun he has become fairly ambidextrous at shooting. Daughter seems to have more eye dominance than my son

 

[Backpack Hunter]

It is typically much easier to go with the dominant eye than train it out.

Esse quam videri

 

[aron]

I would make the switch as early as possible. It is much more difficult the later you wait. She will get to utilize shooting with both eyes open versus having to close the dominant eye if you don't switch. I made the switch in my mid 20s and wish my dad had the knowledge to do so at a younger age.

Shortly after switching by bow, I was hunting whitetails sitting in a stand and heard a deer coming in. Went to clip my release on the d loop and realized I had put the release on the wrong wrist, oops...

 

[renagde]

Definitely get her setup with the right equipment. My brother is the same way. Struggled with a right handed bow for a few years before he got setup with a left handed bow. Not worth the time fighting it, and there's really no cons to getting her a left handed bow.

 

[Mike 338]

It's not really a problem and there's really no need to retrain anything about her eyes. Just insist she shoot lefty. You'll need a left handed bow but she can get away with right handed rifles and she can just shoot right handed on handguns but line the sights up to her left eye. Fact is, before long, picking up something to shoot righty for her will feel unnatural and she won't want to do it. It won't make her left handed. She'll still use her right hand for everything but rifle and bow. She's lucky her dad knows something about eye dominance and how it fits into shooting. It's a lot more fun when you hitting what your aiming at!

 

[Ac338]

Same as said above, it is a lot easier to retrain handedness than it is to "change" eye dominance. Especially being that she is young and doesn't have years of bad habits it makes sense to start her out as a lefty.

 

[theCaptain]

Good to hear people are sticking with eye dominance. I am left handed and left eye dominant. My oldest son is right handed and recently discovered he is left eye dominant. We are slowly working through shooting as a lefty now with his 22lr and i am about to get him his first recurve and glad i found out before spending money on a righty.

 

[LostArra]

It's a simple decision at 6 years of age to go lefty but cross dominance affects shooting skills to varying degrees for each individual and cross dominant archers can be very proficient. If that wasn't the case you would expect to see more left handed competitors at Olympic levels (3%). USA hasn't sent a left-handed archer to the Olympics in over 20 years.

Interesting video about cross dominant archery. I wish he would finish the series

Some folks are just "good shooters" regardless of hand or eye preference. I elk hunted with a young guy that hunted with a left-handed compound. While we were on a 3D course he took my right handed longbow and 10 ringed two consecutive deer targets at 20-25 yards. I didn't even attempt to shoot his compound.

 

[Broomd]

Start her lefty now. It's all about the vision, everything else will follow. I speak from experience.

 

[String&stick]

Thanks everyone, that's the way I was leaning but all the advice just pushes me over the edge!

 

[Jahvette20]

Do her a favor and get her shooting dominant eye now. I just did a post last week on my experience switching to lefty at age 30. Wish I would have 20 years ago. Good luck to her and you.

 

[Ph&s3]

I would make the switch as early as possible. It is much more difficult the later you wait. She will get to utilize shooting with both eyes open versus having to close the dominant eye if you don't switch. I made the switch in my mid 20s and wish my dad had the knowledge to do so at a younger age.

Shortly after switching by bow, I was hunting whitetails sitting in a stand and heard a deer coming in. Went to clip my release on the d loop and realized I had put the release on the wrong wrist, oops...

I couldn't agree more Make it as natural for her as possible set her up to succeed. The more she uses both hands the better she will shoot a rifle a pistol there is no downside to it. I have a couple of buddies that discovered they were left eye dominant in their 30s actually one of them shot up $40 worth of my steel shot until I finally checked his eye dominance. I bought him an eye patch. But for someone that young give her every advantage possible we need every young hunter we can get.

 

[Ridge Ghost]

Absolutely may the switch to the dominant eye now. I switched to lefty when I was 27. In about two months I was shooting better than I ever had before, and wished I had done it sooner.