RH shooter and left eye dominant

[bushpilotmexico]

I always wondered why I was a poor pool player and not much better of a wing shot with a shotgun. Of course I knew I was left eye dominant and shooting right handed but never connected the two together.

I turned 71 years young the end of June and although I flung a lot of arrows when I was younger (homemade bows and even the odd commercial one) I hadn't touched a bow in 53 years. Our local gun club just started an archery section so I decided to head up and give it a try.

Not bragging but I wasn't all that bad so I'm sticking with it, I even bought a used Checkmate Falcon recurve 40# @ 28".

The buddy (classified as a master traditional archer) was noticing that no matter how hard I tried my arrows were consistently going left of my target. Some where in the course of our conversation I told him that I was left eye dominant. My friends eyes lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July. We went back out to the range and he told me to close my left eye before I shot....lo and behold my arrows were going where I was aiming.

Now comes the big question....should I at age 71 continue shooting right handed with my left eye closed or should I try and buy a LH bow and switch?

[floodman]

Keep shooting Righty..It worked for Howard Hill,and sevral other shooter,Im in the same Boat,and Im not changing,,just find a bow cut to or pass center you will be fine....

[ron w]

Just keep at it.....have fun!

[KentuckyTJ]

My brother was in the same predicament as you. He went with a left hand bow this year and after about a month of adjusting is loving his accuracy improvement. I would suggest getting a lefty and trying it for a month or so. You can always go back.

[R. W. Mackey]

I agree with TJ, I think you should at least try left handed shooting, It can;t hurt anything. I have the same problem, right handed, left eyed dominant, I was lucky enough to find out early in my shooting career and made the switch.  The hardest thing will be getting used to doing things with your left hand and building up strength on your left side. RW

[David Mitchell]

I made the switch a few years back from right to left due to being left eye dominant/right handed.  I would do it again IN A HEART BEAT!  It is soooo much better seeing the world all lined up straight and not closing one eye and destroying my depth perception. And that was after shooting "cross-eyed" for about 30 years.

[J. Holden]

I switched, you should too.  You're accuracy will improve and so will the "fun" aspect of archery.

Not sure if you hunt with your equipment but I do and that was the deciding factor.  I wanted to be as accurate as possible.

You should at least try it.  Can't hurt.

-Jeremy  

[David Mitchell]

It surprised me how quickly something that felt so extremely awkward became second nature.

[59Alaskan]

My wife shoots RH and is left eye dominant.  She has no plan to switch.  I am right eye dominant moving to left hand for other reasons.  I will admit the eyes are the toughest part of te conversion for me, but that said I have no intent on moving back.  

All kinds if theories on this topic.  Do what works for you.

[bushpilotmexico]

I wouldn't mind trying LH but if I pick up an el cheapo rather than spend the bucks on a decent one then any obvious improvement in accuracy might be a dice roll due to the cheapness of the bow? I'm in decent shape for my age and work out on strength training 3 times a week at the gym so I'm fairly sure I would have the strength in my left arm to draw the bow.

[ron w]

I just bought a longbow that has a dual shelf. I have do desire to switch after 45 years of doing it "wrong" but I just wanted to try it. As far as being more accurate.....if I do my part right I'm pretty good shooting wrong eye dominate......a lot of really good shooters are in the same boat as us and do just fine!

[David McLendon]

I'm the same as Mr. Mackey, RH/ Left eye dominant and I switched to LH about 12 years ago. Super nice LH bows aren't as plentiful as the righties but a real plus is that Roy lets go of some of the highest quality lefty bows from time to time and some of them now live here.

I am mostly right handed at things that I have always done right handed , but I am also ambidextrous, so my change to mostly left handed does not count the same as someone that is totally right handed.  I switched from right to left hand shooting due to worn out release fingers and things are not quite the same for me left handed, not quite as fluid, my draw is a half inch shorter and the worse things is that for 50 years I have always lead with the same foot and ducked the same way to get my back quiver and bow through the brush, that still seems backwards to me with the left hand back quiver.  However, with the shooting take Howard Hill's advice on teaching yourself to aim.  Secondary sighting, stare at an object and then point your left index finger at it without looking at your finger.  You will see two fingers, if you are somewhat emulating your shooting form the left finger that may be up and left finger will be what your right eye sees, aim with that one. Then practice pointing it at something under a selected object while keeping focused on the object and notice that you can very soon point your finger at anything fairly accurately without looking directly at it.  Again if you are copying your shooting form the right which would be over the arrow will seeing upper left of the two fingers you see in your secondary vision. Next practice this with your bow in hand and an arrow on the rest without pulling the string. The upper left of the two arrows will be the one that is in line with the right eye.  When that gets a bit easier, go out to your target and draw staring only at your target and notice where the arrow is pointing, but do not shoot yet. Move it around a little and notice that you can see when it 'feels' right and let down. Then put something on the ground or under the bullseye and plan on putting your arrow on that spot without looking directly at it, make a double check to be certain that it is the upper left of the two arrows that you are seeing on the mark without looking directly at it and release. If you were on the mark and you missed by a foot, move your secondary marker that foot and try again. When this starts becoming familiar, it will also become automatic until it is virtually instinctive. It may take a couple hundred practice shots, just practicing aiming, but it works.  By the way I am doing this from my car in a Hardie's parking lot, this new car will do everything except wash itself.

[rmorris]

Cliff,
These are just my thoughts but here it goes... If someone were to tell you to point at a tree out of the closest window to you, you would more than likely take your right hand and point. So why do us right handed shooters use our left hand to point our bows and our dominate hand to hold the string???? If you are right handed and left eye dominate I think you have a huge advantage shooting left because you can point the bow with your dominate hand and also take full advantage of your dominate eye... let us know if you make the switch  and how it goes...

[Bladepeek]

FWIW, I'm 71 too and left eyed/right handed. I picked up a couple of left handers and a '56 Bear dual shelf. I found I could shoot slightly faster left handed because both eyes stayed wide open. Finally went back to right handed.

As I hit anchor, I close my left eye and then just move the point back to the spot (I'm always a bit left when I close my left eye). Accuracy seems to stay the same. I'm keeping the dual shelf and make a point of shooting half a dozen arrows from each side just to balance my strength out a bit.

[Danny Rowan]

I am left eye and right handed, I keep both eyes open and look at the spot I want to hit and I hit it. Do wht works for you, but closing one eye will mess with depth precption. I am almost 62 and have tried left handed but it is not for me, been doing this since I was 14 so it is ingrained in me.

[Irish]

X2 Danny!   Except I am much younger.  Won't be 62 for another 2 months!  :D

[bushpilotmexico]

Hey guys....I appreciate all the info and I'll keep on practising and see what works for me.

Thx

[Bernie B.]

x3 Danny!  I'm also left eye dominant and right handed.  I also keep both eyes open and look only at what I want to hit (shooting three fingers under).  I used to close my left eye and "gun-barrel" down the shaft shooting three fingers under.  That worked, but my depth perception is so much better with both eyes open, and I don't have to guess the yardage.  I like this style much better, and I shoot better also.    

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/ SW Wisconsin

[bushpilotmexico]

I just watched Rick Welch's DVD tonight and picked up some good tips. He didn't mention anything about shooting right handed with a dominant left eye but it seems that he teaches a strictly instinctive way of shooting, not gap shooting or point of aim.

It's confusing when someone says they strictly shoot instinctively with out consciously aiming.

Instinctive to me is something you're born with sort of like a female robin instinctively knows how to build a nest or a monarch butterfly instinctively knows it has to fly south to Mexico for the winter.

After we learn how to walk we don't just instinctively pick up a bow and throw an arrow into the bullseye. We have to learn how to shoot a bow by trial and error.

Somehow Rick has learned the hold under for close shots and the hold over for distance. Unless you've thrown a lot of arrows at various distances it hard to fathom that Rick can say just look at the target and launch the arrow and your mind coupled with your body will make the necessary correction and you'll hit what you're looking at.

Mind you once I save up the $500 I am defintely going down to Rick's school for his 2 day course. Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks?

Tomorrow I'm up at the range trying Rick's shooting style and every thing Tradgang members have told me when they replied to my thread.

Have any Tradgang members taken Rick's course?