Eyeball Trouble

[Davo]

Curios if anyone has struggled with this.  I am left eye dominant and right handed.  I have to really concentrate when I shoot my right handed bow my left eye' I think wants to take over and I have a tendency to shoot and group nicely about 6 inches left.  If I close my left eye for a bit or concentrate a bit more I group very well in the bulls eye area.  As I have just returned in earnest to traditional this summer I have shot 100's of arrows and I think my form is ok my arrows fly straight, broadheads are good.  Its just sometimes I forget and shoot to the left. Its almost like I need to train my eye as I really don't get the veiwpoint of looking down the arrow.  I am instinctive as I use no reference point. I stare at the target.  I have put three arrows at times with fletchings touching 6 inches off to the left. Fricken drives me nuts.  When I do concentrate and really focus I will get about a 4-6 inch group in the imagined kill zone around the bulls eye.  Ok I will shut now any advice I would love to hear.

[Killdeer]

I would be willing to bet a dozen doughnuts that you do actually use a reference point. I know that I subconsciously use the tip of my arrow. I don't notice it, but as I am burning that hole in the bull, my secondary vision is picking up that tip and the coconut computer is calculating a gap.

If you were shooting at say, fifteen to twenty yards, and it were totally dark except for a flashlight pointed at the target, I bet you would find yourself looking for that arrow tip, especially a target tip that did not extend past the riser, silhouetted against the light on the target. Ask me how I found that out.

I would also wager that you can throw a rock pretty much where you want it to go, and that uses no reference point.

I am left eye dominant, and shoot right handed. Fortunately, my left eye is not too insistent, and is trainable. I spent a few sessions concentrating, and that seems to (mostly) put things into perspective. One thing you might try, if you wear glasses, is to put some matte-finish Scotch tape over the left lens. Right eye takes over as the left eye mopes and grumbles about life not being fair. If you, like me, do not wear glasses to shoot, try an eye patch, or close the left eye. The patch will be less work for you, and less distraction. Eventually the right eye will stand up and shoulder its share of the load.

Killdeer

[Smallwood]

I bought an eye patch from walmart and wore it over my left eye while shooting to train myself what the correct sight picture was.
It didn't take long at all to program my eyes and brain.
on the other hand, I looked like a really cool pirate while I was doing it!   :D

[Pat B.]

I rt eye dominant and shot left handed quite a lot over the last year.. I got pretty good at close ranges, say up to 25 yards.. But I found I had to cant the bow to about 10 o'clock, lefty, then my dominant right eye could look over the shaft and to the target. In other words I was still using my dominant eye but shooting with the non dominat hand. Using that cant I was able to shoot "down the middle"..

[Pat B.]

I'm right eye dominant and shot left handed quite a lot over the last year.. I got pretty good at close ranges, say up to 25 yards.. But I found I had to cant the bow to about 10 o'clock, lefty, then my dominant right eye could look over the shaft and to the target. In other words I was still using my dominant eye but shooting with the non dominat hand. Using that cant I was able to shoot "down the middle"..

[Walt Francis]

I shoot left handed and am right eye dominate.  It took a while when I switched due to a shoulder injury but closing the right eye is now automatic, after a lot of bale work, when I start to draw the bow.  Larry Yien, former world champion, squints his left eye as he draws the bow which forces his right eye to do the sighting.

Keep practicing at either closing or squinting the eye and it become automatic after awhile.  Awhile can be a couple of hundred arrows for some and several thousand for others.