[joe kuhn]

I checked Johnny's eye dominance tonight with the usual test.

"Look at something across the room with both eyes open."

"Point at it."

"Now close your right eye and tell me if your finger moves." His answer, "Which finger?"

Gulp. "So you see two fingers?" "Yeah." Later I said, "So you see two barrels when you're shooting?" "Well, yeah, I guess so."

"You may have to shoot with one eye closed." He admitted that's what he did the few times he went to the range.

Suggestions besides getting him a new skate board?

 

[ysr_racer]

EVERYBODY with two eyes sees two barrels when they look at a target with both eyes open.

If you're looking at the beads, you aint lookin' at the target.

When you play baseball, do you look at the bat or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you play golf, do you look at the club head or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you play tennis, do you look at the racket or the ball? With 1 eye or 2?

When you merge onto the freeway, do you look at the hood of your car or where you want to go ? 1 eye or 2?

Are you starting to see a pattern here?

Look at your target and your brain will do the rest. Yes, I know, it’s not for everybody, but give it a try for a few months.

Now onto something else. After you hit the ball with the (bat, club, racket) do you stop dead in your tracks, or do you follow thru?

You follow thru.

Same thing in sporting clays, if you stop the gun, you probably shot behind the target.

Oh, I'm right handed and right eye dominant. Since we all have two eyes and they're next to each other you're going to see two images of the barrel. It's called parallax.

 

[grntitan]

Nothing wrong with a one eyed shooter. I believe Nora Ross is one. You can also tape off the offending eye.

Matt

 

[RobertT]

If your son truly has a cross dominance issue then I'd recommend the one eye approach. You didn't mention his age but I would not want a young shooter to become discouraged by failing different methods. There are a lot of good shooters who use only one eye. However, if he sees two fingers when he extends his arm I'd take him to an optometrist.

Robert

 

[Hal1225]

Ysr, Grntitan and RobertT very well said! Thank you.

Harry Lyga

 

[ScottEslick]

Try the magic dots, you can still see the target with both eyes (at least for me) but takes away the other barrel.

Scott

 

[Brian in Oregon]

I had that problem. A Uni-Dot sight solved it for me.

It's a tube that has a fiberoptic rod inside. The shooting eye sees a bright bead. The other eye does not.
It is very important to note that you do not look directly at the bright bead. Instead, with peripheral vision, the bright dot is brought to the target. Your eyes remain on the target, not on the bead. If you watch the bead, you'll miss.

I've installed them on all of my shotguns that have a rib.

 

[Palos shooter]

Hello Joe..I think your son has a condition called "Exophoria". This is a common condition in young people .It is when the eyes are not trained to converge on a single focal point.My daughter had this ..She would always see to of everything that was close to her eyes,,She had a training tool that was prescribed by the eye doctor to get her eyes to focus on a single focal point.. Some call this condition lazy eyes..Call the eye doctor and see what he thinks..Dosen't hurt to have a eye check-up..Have hin checked for Exophoria.
When you are out South stop by the club.

 

[Calkidd]

I shoot with the magic dot system. When I don't shoot with it, I don't know what barrel, in my peripheral, to use.

Bryan

 

[Brian in Oregon]

I hate the Magic Dot, or scotch tape on the lens, etc. It's not only a major distraction to me and highly annoying, but it ruins my 3D vision.

 

[wireguy]

Let me get this straight. Based on a child's description of something even adults struggle to describe, we are going to declare the boy cross dominant.

First of all the test used is worse than useless except for people who already understand the subject well. A far better test is to have him hold a ring of some kind, approx 2" diameter, at arms length and, while keeping a distant target CENTERED in the ring, have him draw it toward his open eyes until it lands over one eye or the other. Repeat using other targets, anything way out there. Do it during the day and not in the house. The eye the ring repeatedly lands over is the dominant eye. This test SHOWS dominance rather than depending on a child's description.

Joe, you have been around this stuff for long enough to know we don't look at the barrel - so why are you asking your son how many barrels he sees when he is shooting? Isn't that as much as telling him it's normal to look at the barrel when shooting?

Look at what ysr racer wrote. He is dead nuts correct. Don't condemn the kids eyes and go looking for a solution to an eye issue before you KNOW something is wrong.

 

[wtjohnso]

Short answer, take him to an optometrist, the problem can likely be corrected with glasses/contacts.

Long answer, I have a similar problem and I wear glasses. I have since I was two years old. I'm now approaching 40.

I'm left brained, right handed, shoot right handed, which means my right eye should be the dominant eye. However my left eye is stronger and fights for dominance. I wore patches over my left eye for a period of time when I was younger, the theory being "force the right eye to gain strength", didn't work. Glasses/contacts did correct the problem, so much so that I no longer see double. I can shoot with one eye open or two, doesn't really matter to me because what I perceive is 80% of my visual acuity is through the right eye, the left only gives me some peripheral vision.

 

[yansica1]

Hello Joe,

As often happens too many people are over analyizing this. There is nothing wrong with your son`s vision, it is perfectly normal to see two fingers or barrels whilst soft focusing over and beyond the pointing fingers. For a right hander with a right master eye, the real barrel is that on the left. I see two barrels, am left master eyed and shoot very well off the right shoulder with both eyes open. No patches, no eye doc, no vaselin or dots on glasses, no need for glow type beads either just training and awareness.

 

[joe kuhn]

I sense some passion in the topic.

My next step is to see if he can hit a tossed pop can with his air soft gun. I'll stand next to him, first on one side and then the other. Will toss at different angles. Dad gets a turn too. We'll have his glasses nearby for a test with and without. Everybody wears some type of eye protection.

Later.

 

[spitter]

Joe:

Been dealing with that very same issue for 20 years... If Johnny closes one eye, breaks some targets - will Daddy still love him?! It's OK to shoot one-eyed for recreation.

Tell him its OK, he's fine and you're not disappointed in him... and bring him out to the range!

regards,

Jay

 

[Setterman]

I can't believe all the rediculous statements about this. What the kid sees is normal. He will see 2 fingers till he closes one eye, then he will see one finger. For example, if he is pointing at a clock and closes his right eye, and his finger moves, he is right eye dominant!

Hell, I see 2 fingers too, and I'm AAA27!....and shoot both eyes open.

 

[yansica1]

I can't believe all the rediculous statements about this. What the kid sees is normal. He will see 2 fingers till he closes one eye, then he will see one finger. For example, if he is pointing at a clock and closes his right eye, and his finger moves, he is right eye dominant!

Hell, I see 2 fingers too, and I'm AAA27!....and shoot both eyes open
====================================================================

Absolutely.

By the way Joe don`t read too much into his performance with a BB gun trying to hit tossed cans. I could do it kind of well when very young and I could even hit rolled tennis balls at 20 yards range too but I practically lived with airguns at the time. What I recall very clearly is when dad took me to a gunshop to buy my first airgun. He kept laughing at my attempts to roll my face over to line up the sights using my left eye! Neither he nor I knew then that I was master left eyed but I soon learnt to shoot using my right eye instead.

 

[Dahaub]

Joe take your son to get an eye exam and you could learn if he has a problem that can be corrected. I was deemed to have had "lazy eye" when I was six years old. The right eye had to work so hard to see what the left eye saw so it just didn't do it's job at all. When my Dad discovered this he had bought me a BB gun and I couldn't see the end sight on the gun trying to shoot it right handed. I shot it fine left handed and have shot my whole life left handed. The eye doctor had me wearing special glasses to watch tv with and to read with for about a year. My eyes came out of it and I never needed glasses to read or see clearly with until I was over 50 years old. I think he should be trained to shoot with the dominate eye, which ever that is and will save him problems in the long run. Good luck with this and it's good to hear you are training him to enjoy Dad's activities at an early age. Dan

 

[blkcloud]

I eyes sometimes switch on me while i'm shooting.. only on left targets.. the bird comes out I get ready to pull the trigger and all of a sudden the bird jumps about 4 feet to the left and I have to try and catch it.. I got my left lens dotted and tried that.. i couldnt even walk from station to station with out nearly falling down...

 

[Hardage]

Well if your son is really serious about Trap then he should agree to have one of his eyes removed. Pretty sure he would only see one of anything then. Just kidding of course...thought I would raise the severity of the analysis going on. I do agree that a good eye exam would not hurt at all. Sometimes easily treatable conditions IF he even has anything going on are discovered by chance while doing something new.