Dominant Eye or Cross Dominant – Does it Really Matter?

Are you cross-dominant? We’re here to help. (Photo credit: Kat Stevens)

If you’ve been shooting for awhile—or were just lucky enough to land yourself in a class where the subject was discussed—you’ve heard about dominant eyes (and hands). But what does that mean and why do they even matter? More importantly, what happens if your dominant hand and eye aren’t on the same side of your body? Is cross-dominance a problem?

We’re going to answer those questions and offer a few solutions. Consider this your one-hit guide to cross-dominance shooting tips.

cross dominant shooter
Cross-dominance affects both handguns and long guns. (Photo credit: Kat Stevens)

What’s a dominant eye (or hand)?

As a shooter, your dominant eye is the eye that’s the strongest when you’re focusing on your front sight. There are several methods for figuring that out with perhaps the fastest being the thumb test. To do the thumb test to determine your dominant eye, hold your arm out in front of you with your thumb up. Choose a fixed object in the distance and cover it with your thumb. Now close first one eye and then the other. Your dominant eye is the one that keeps your thumb over the object when said eye is open.

Your dominant hand is an even faster thing to figure out—it’s the hand you write with. That means it’s your right hand for about 90 percent of you and your left for maybe 10 percent of you.

cross dominant eye test
This chart shows one method for checking which of your eyes is dominant. (Photo: Very Well Health)

What is Cross Dominance?

Cross dominance is when your left eye is dominant, but you’re right-handed. It’s also true in reverse—right eye, left hand. It simply means your strong side hand and dominant eye are on opposite sides of your body. That can lead to some challenges for shooters. And we’re not just talking handguns, either—cross-dominance affects long guns, too.

A few things worth knowing about cross dominance:

  • Women are cross dominant more often than men.
  • Many experienced instructors and shooters say they’ve noticed cross dominant shooters switch sides, meaning they have mixed dominance traits rather than strictly right eye, left hand or left eye, right hand. Worth mentioning it’s been said the dominant eye changing back and forth seems to happen more with women.
  • Cross dominance can change based on a specific task as can dominance. You might write right-handed but use your left hand for tasks like swinging a bat or shooting a gun. This does happen.
  • Being cross dominant isn’t a flaw, it just gets frustrating at times.
  • 18% of people are cross dominant (according to eye doctors).
  • 17% of people don’t have a dominant eye at all, or so medical professionals claim.
  • Fewer than 1% of people are truly ambidextrous, meaning they’re equally capable of using either hand for whatever task they want.
  • Most people experience mixed-handedness, meaning they favor a different hand for certain tasks.

Being cross-dominant isn’t rare and it also isn’t as predictable or consistent as you might believe. For example, it’s a good idea to pay attention to how your cross dominance while shooting handguns is affected by switching to long guns.

cross dominant eye pro
Eye pro made to help correct cross dominance can be useful. (Photo: Evolution Sunglasses)

Cross dominant eye pro

Cross dominant eye protection isn’t a “fix” to cross dominance, despite some marketing claims, it’s a work-around, but it can help. You can use it, but you’ll still be cross-dominant. The eye pro works by putting a darker, smoke-colored, or opaque lens in front of the dominant eye. This tricks the non-dominant eye into working harder, and it’s effective for some shooters. Pros of using eye pro to “correct” cross dominance include:

  • Having the solution built into your eye pro negates the need to close or cover one eye.
  • It makes it easier to shoot with both eyes open.
  • Broadens your field of view thanks to both eyes being open.
  • Helps maintain and utilize peripheral vision on both sides.
  • Can be made as a prescription by an eye doctor.

If you’re cross dominant, it can be worth trying out eye pro specifically made for that issue. This option works for some shooters and not others…like pretty much anything.

Can you turn your head to “fix” cross dominance?

You can slightly turn your head to offset the effects of cross dominance. To do this, you turn your head just enough to line up your dominant eye with the front sight. Take care to keep your head level, because it can be easy to angle your head as you turn it, and that can hurt accuracy.

You can do this with both eyes open or by closing one eye. And although this method can be used with any shooting stance or grip, it’s easier for some shooters when shooting in the Weaver or Chapman stance.

You’ll find some instructors and shooters don’t think this is an ideal solution to being cross dominant. On the flip side, a lot of highly respected instructors suggest trying this. No solution is one-size-fits-all, and no one method is loved by all or preached as gospel.

Things to know about turning your head to correct cross dominance:

  • Eyes can be open, or one can be closed.
  • Keep your head at the correct angle for proper aim, meaning don’t tilt your head.
  • Shooting Weaver or Chapman lets you press your cheek against your strong side shoulder as you turn your head, not as a headrest, but simply as another contact point for greater stability.
two targets
Shooting mirror takes practice, but it’s one fix for cross dominance. The left-side target was the author shooting mirror while the right-side target was shooting normally, meaning cross-dominant. (Photo: Kat Stevens)

Does ‘shooting mirror’ help cross dominance?

“Shooting mirror” isn’t the easiest fix to being cross dominant, but it can be effective. Shooting mirror means using your non-dominant hand to hold the gun. Right-handed shooters would hold the handgun with their left hand and vice versa. Somewhat surprisingly, some people find it easier to retrain themselves to use their off hand rather than trying to trick their eyes. Yes, really.

This method especially applies to long guns, because switching which shoulder you mount the gun can make a huge difference when looking through a scope. I discovered this years ago when an instructor had me run my rifle mirror and I actually shot better. Never underestimate the power of shooting mirror.

When you decide to switch the hand you use to hold your gun during live fire, start slow. It takes time to get comfortable and proficient. And when you’re using long guns, it takes some shifting and getting accustomed to the new head position and cheek weld. That said, it works well for a lot of people, so it’s worth trying. Just be prepared to put some work into it.

rooster cogburn eye patch
Was Rooster Cogburn cross dominant? Not exactly…but sort of. (Photo: Movie Show Plus)

Can you close one eye if you’re cross dominant?

Some shooters close their dominant eye to force the weaker eye to take over and it works for them. If you consider closing one eye, there are things to consider:

  • Loss of peripheral vision on the side of your body where your eye is closed
  • Can result in squinting the eye that’s left open
  • Could negatively impact depth perception
  • Reduced field of view

Yes, you can close your dominant eye to try to make the lazier side pick up the slack. But if you’re going to take that approach, be aware of the downsides. It isn’t typically considered an ideal method for handling cross dominance (this is a no-judgement zone considering that I’ve used this method myself).

There are a lot of methods for correcting and working with cross dominance issues. Some people put tape over the lens of the eye pro covering the dominant eye to both train the weaker eye and maintain some peripheral vision. You’ll see this a lot with shotgunners. Others go ahead and shift their handgun hold slightly to position it in front of their dominant eye while still using the dominant hand to hold the pistol. Still others insist both eyes must be open no matter what and you should just learn to deal with it. That’s not the greatest plan because people who are cross dominant might be seeing two front sights using that approach.

In the end, you need to figure out the method that’s safe and effective for your specific needs. After all, we all want to be accurate on target.

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2 thoughts on “Dominant Eye or Cross Dominant – Does it Really Matter?”

  1. I’m cross eye dominant.
    For rifle shooting, I have no issue using my non-dominant eye.
    For pistol shooting, I don’t rotate my head, and I don’t recommend that to my students. The reason is you lose situational awareness on your dominant eye side WRT field of view. Instead, with your normal pistol grip, you can shift your extended hands left (for left-eye dominant folks) by ~2 inches. This still provides adequate recoil management.
    For one-handed pistol shooting with your dominant hand, I recommend rotating the firearm about 10 degrees into your dominant eye’s line of sight. This still enables good situational awareness and recoil management and doesn’t alter short/medium range point of aim/impact. Just don’t go gangsa-style and hold it at 90 degrees!

  2. Gov. William J Le Petomane

    Closing my left eye works fine for me. You’re training your weak eye just as well as wearing those stupid one eye blacked out glasses, only it’s a lot quicker to open your dominant eye than to take off your glasses.