# Shooting a right handed bow while left eye dominant



## tannertt (Jun 15, 2007)

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Most archers, shooters etc shoot with their strong side and the same eye is dominant, however there are many other who have the opposite eye is dominant. When this happens the arrows or bullets are to the left or right of target. This causes frustration, worry and lack of confidence in equipment and oneself. 

Many people say just learn to shoot with both eyes open, close the dominant eye, or learn to shoot opposite hand. I've had shooters that I've worked with try them all. For the new shooter with no bad habits I will have them try to shoot opposite hand easier to retrain muscles then trying to switch eyes. That works for some, for others I try the both eyes open or close the dominant eye with mixed results. 

Until the other night, I had a shooter I was working with found out after several years of shooting he was right handed, left eye dominant. Recently he just purchased a new right handed Bear Strike Shadow Series bow. When he was shot he kept hitting to the left of the target and we ran out of sight travel. After talking with him, all his shots over the years have been to the left. He was shocked and saddened at the same time. 

So we tried the both eyes open method with poor results. (he couldn't figure out which target to aim at) Next we tried to shoot left handed, not happening. He was pretty upset thinking that the new bow he just got he would never be able to shoot accurately. He was talking about selling the bow and giving up hunting. That is when I started thinking outside the box.

I looked at his bow and noticed that the sight mounting holes on his riser were tapped all the way through, so I mounted his sight on the inside of the riser and removed his peep sight. I had him draw to full draw, set his anchor points then close his right eye keeping his left eye open. Success! We shot 5 arrows from this position and his group size got smaller and closer to the center. I added the hind sight inside the riser to give him a rear reference point. After minor adjustments and 15 arrows later he was shooting a half dollar size group into center of target. I placed the Hindsight so the center of the cross-hairs were on the 40yd pin. Now he draws right handed anchors and shoots with his left eye. He places the different range pins on the target like normal keeping the 40yd pin between cross-hair to see if he is torquing the bow. He loves it and has new confidence in himself and his bow.

He are a few pics taken with my phone some of angles not exact due to safety at full draw. Yes I know the setup looks weird but it works. Most bows now have holes drilled though the riser, maybe this can help some more people.


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## Veni Vidi Vici (Jan 23, 2011)

I'm in the same situation, but fortunately I can still shoot with both eyes open. If the lighting conditions are such that I can't tell which target to aim at, I just close my left eye for a second to figure it out. What you've done is interesting, especially with the Hindsight, but I'm suprised that the pins are all vertically aligned. I would have expected there to be parallax issues that would required the pins to be misaligned.


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## tannertt (Jun 15, 2007)

It took about an hour to adjust but the sight, Hindsight are inline with his left eye while he is at full draw right handed with his right eye closed. Again solid anchor points are the key


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## Veni Vidi Vici (Jan 23, 2011)

Since the sight is to the left of the arrow, I would have thought that the 20 yard pin would have been closest to the riser and the 40 yard pin would have been furthest from the riser instead of having them all in line vertically.


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## caspian (Jan 13, 2009)

tannertt said:


> however there are many other who have the opposite eye is dominant. When this happens the arrows or bullets are to the left or right of target.


how? you've got a rear sight (albeit a silly one, throw the thing away and get a proper peep) and a front sight to align. with the rear sight only in line with one eye, it baffles me how cross-eye dominance can be an issue.

cross-eye dominance is only an issue when you can mistakenly align the sight with the wrong eye. I think you might notice your anchor a wee bit off if you were doing that.


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## kspseshooter (Aug 6, 2010)

I am right handed and left eye dominant. I shoot left handed with bow and gun.


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## Doubledroptine4 (Jan 25, 2009)

This may help some of you I am left eye dom right handed here is what I do as I come to draw I keep my left eye closed once Im on the target I open both eyes. At this point you know what target your on and it works out great for me been shooting 300s with a high of 58x count for a long time now. Just cant seem to grab them last 2 xs but thats me not my eyes lol


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## Big DnTN (Mar 9, 2009)

*Eye Domination Help*

I have the same problem it does not affect my shot in the way discribed - Back in Middle School when I found this was affect my shot in Basket Ball I had a coach tell me how ti fix this problem. Basically the problem is that the dominate eye is stronger and you brain will take the signal from that eye and uses it instead of the weaker eye. You basically need to strengthen the weaker eye. You can do this by where a patch over the dominate eye when you are performing an activity - for me I would practice B-ball at the house with the patch. Now I can make my right eye take over any time needed like when shooting a bow or gun, if I have trouble focusing I just close my right eye briefly and all is well. Hope this help some of you with the same problem.:wink:


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## purplewg (Sep 13, 2010)

I am left handed, left eye dominant. I shoot right handed with no problems. Then again I can also shoot a left handed bow and own both. I prefer and shoot 98% of the time the right handed bow. It works for me. Not sure if a righty were to shoot it where they might hit though.


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## Deer Eliminator (Jan 21, 2010)

I am left handed right eye dominate. I have trained both eyes to hit the mark. I shoot left handed. But have been known to pick up a bow in our shop that is right handed and shoot just as well. I and as some of the others have just mentioned, practice and train our eyes and mind to do what you want them to. 

Hutch


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## revwilder (Apr 11, 2005)

My opinion is that you thought outside the box, it works, the customer is happy, and the shots are effective. Good for you! Keep it up, it may not work for another dozen customers, but you have helped this one.


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## tjb50cal (Jul 5, 2010)

revwilder said:


> My opinion is that you thought outside the box, it works, the customer is happy, and the shots are effective. Good for you! Keep it up, it may not work for another dozen customers, but you have helped this one.


ditto, well done.


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## tat2 (Apr 2, 2010)

I'm left eye dominate but shoot a right handed bow with my right eye & have no problems for hitting where I aim...just close my left eye when its time to shoot. though I shoot firearms left handed with left eye. 




Big DnTN said:


> I have the same problem it does not affect my shot in the way discribed - Basically the problem is that the dominate eye is stronger and you brain will take the signal from that eye and uses it instead of the weaker eye. You basically need to strengthen the weaker eye. You can do this by where a patch over the dominate eye when you are performing an activity - for me I would practice B-ball at the house with the patch. Now I can make my right eye take over any time needed like when shooting a bow or gun, if I have trouble focusing I just close my right eye briefly and all is well. Hope this help some of you with the same problem.:wink:


I totally agree you can strengthen your weak eye to be stronger but not become the dominate eye, but still strong enough that you can accurately change eye domianace once in awhile if you want...I can do this but dont try it for hunting & risk the shot.


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## tannertt (Jun 15, 2007)

Just found this does, almost same exact thing 
http://www.perrysnopeep.com/


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## gfinlay (May 10, 2013)

caspian said:


> how? you've got a rear sight (albeit a silly one, throw the thing away and get a proper peep) and a front sight to align. with the rear sight only in line with one eye, it baffles me how cross-eye dominance can be an issue.
> 
> cross-eye dominance is only an issue when you can mistakenly align the sight with the wrong eye. I think you might notice your anchor a wee bit off if you were doing that.


it's not the peep that is the problem it's the front pins. your dominate eye will see the front sight and try to line it up with the image that your brain is getting from your non dominate eye of the peep.


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## bul9isco (Mar 14, 2013)

I am right handed, left eye dominant. I shoot right handed and always have. I have also always shot a gun left handed. I have never had an issue with shooting my bow. I use a peep sight and close my left eye, ensure that my nose is touching the same part of the string and that my right hand is tucked back behind the jaw bone in the same position. I don't know why it would be an issue if he closed his left eye....not sure, i am not a pro by any means. I just go for what works for me.


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## Don Schultz (Jul 5, 2002)

Veni Vidi Vici said:


> Since the sight is to the left of the arrow, I would have thought that the 20 yard pin would have been closest to the riser and the 40 yard pin would have been furthest from the riser instead of having them all in line vertically.


I use an optical peep eliminator on my hunting rigs which means my sighting eye is off to the left of the string. I concentrate my azimuth (left/right) sighting efforts on 40 yards and more, and don't worry about the less than an inch issues at close range. It is apparent, but not enough to worry about. If I used the hunting setup for spots at fixed distance, I'd adjust the sight for the X ring.


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## RhinoFire (May 14, 2013)

I have the same right-hand left-eye problem, and have a very similar setup to the OP, and it has helped me a LOT. However, I have a problem getting a concrete anchor at full draw, as the bow string is not tight against my face as it would be if I was sighting through a peep. This makes my shots a little inconsistent, and hence my groupings bigger than I'd like. Any suggestions to fix that?

Rich


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## daancon (Jun 24, 2010)

I have the same problem although I shoot right handed with my left eye closed. I have to really focus on keeping my anchor point and not opening my left eye until the shot is executed or my shot will drift left.


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