The GunGoddess Guide to Finding Your Dominant Eye

When you first learn to shoot, you may have some trouble getting your sights lined up correctly. While you may be chalking that up to inexperience, there may be another reason you're missing your target - your eye dominance.

If you haven't figured out which one of your eyes is dominant, take a minute to figure it out now. Read on to find out how to figure which one of your eyes is dominant and learn what to do if you determine you are cross-dominant. 

Why is Eye Dominance Important?

Just like you have a "strong" hand and "support" hand, you have a dominant and non-dominant eye. The dominant eye is the one that focuses on the sights, and if you can't see the sights correctly, your accuracy will be severely affected. 

How to Determine Your Dominant Eye

There are a few simple things you can do to figure out which eye is dominant. The first thing you can do is make a triangle with your hands, then stretch your arms all the way out in front of you. Look through the triangle and focus on an object about 10-15 feet away. Keep your focus on the object while you pull both your hands back toward your face. When your hands reach your face, you'll see that they will naturally go to your dominant eye. 

Another similar test is to make that same triangle, then look through it and focus on an object about 20 feet away. Close one eye, then the other. Your dominant eye will show the object in its normal place, while it will either disappear completely or appear off center using your non-dominant eye.

What to Do if You're Cross-Dominant

Some people are cross-dominant, which means they are right-handed, but left-eye dominant, or the other way around. If you've done the tests above and figured out that you are cross-dominant, don't worry! Aiming a firearm may initially be a little more challenging for you, but there are some things you can do to make the adjustment.

You're going to need to retrain your eyes, and while that may seem complicated, the solution is quite simple. You will need to cover your dominant eye to give your brain the signal that it needs to use your dominant eye to focus. 

Since you don't want to completely obstruct your eye while you're on the range (it's important to see what's going on around you at all times), you can place something on your glasses to force your non-dominant eye to become dominant. Our Shooter's Magic Dots are made just for this purpose - they subtly prevent the eye from focusing, while maintaining depth perception and peripheral vision.

Practice and training is the best way to overcome cross-dominance. If you're still struggling after covering your dominant eye, you may want to consider shooting with your non-dominant hand and see if that brings your aim back on target.

If you have more questions about eye dominance, feel free to get in touch with us so we can help!