I am both right eye and right hand dominant and have spent over 31 years training with a long gun and shotgun . Since retiring, I have endured 5 surgeries in an attempt to save my right eye after a detached retina with no success.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation and succeeded in learning to shoulder and shoot a long gun with their non-dominant shoulder and eye ?
At the current age of 68, I am not feeling very optimistic.
Should I just be content with being able to shoot a handgun ?
_

Either learn to shoot as a lefty or move to scoped handguns.
I would go the scoped handgun route.
Something new, challenging, and fun.
Try and find a IHMSA club in your area.
I wish you the best.

Thank you. I will research the scoped pistol an an alternative.

Many people have learned to shoot long guns from their nondominant side shoulder, and if I were in your situation that’s what I’d do—or at least try—because shooting rifles is important to me. I’m a bit older than you and at our ages it probably wouldn’t be easy, but for me it would be worth the attempt.

If, however, it’s not that important to be able to use a long gun but rather just be able to shoot something at moderate distances, then I agree the simplest and easiest option would be learning to shoot at handgun with your nondominant eye. I have always had farther vision with my dominant eye and in recent years it’s gotten so I can’t focus on the front sight of a handgun and it’s getting blurry enough that precision sighting is not possible. When I need a sharp view of my handgun sights, therefore, I switch to aiming with my left, nondominant, near-sighted eye. I do that even in drills when I’m engaging targets near to far without pause: right eye up close, left eye far away.

An optical sight would improve aiming precision, and options are getting better all the time.

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Many people have learned to shoot long guns from their nondominant side shoulder, and if I were in your situation that’s what I’d do—or at least try—because shooting rifles is important to me. I’m a bit older than you and at our ages it probably wouldn’t be easy, but for me it would be worth the attempt.

Thanks for taking time to respond.
Having the ability to accurately utilize a long gun is very important to me as well.
I will certainly give it my best.

I used to teach sailors how to shoot, when we ran across a left eye/right handed shooter- he/she got to learn how to shoot an M16 or shotgun left handed..

Easy peasy, it’s just spending the time to acclimate your body to develop the muscle memory to be a left handed shooter.

I had to learn how to shoot lefty, just so I could teach to lefty’s. I’m not as good shooting left handed, but I can qualify marksman with an M16 left handed

I can shoot both ways, it came pretty natural to me. Naturally left handed with rifle and hockey stick but throw righty, etc.

First time I tried right with a rifle it felt off. I just forced it and now it's almost the same as lefty.

Just need reps if you ask me. Totally doable.

quote:

Originally posted by BradleyS:
I am both right eye and right hand dominant and have spent over 31 years training with a long gun and shotgun . Since retiring, I have endured 5 surgeries in an attempt to save my right eye after a detached retina with no success.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation and succeeded in learning to shoulder and shoot a long gun with their non-dominant shoulder and eye ?
At the current age of 68, I am not feeling very optimistic.
Should I just be content with being able to shoot a handgun ?
_

Never say Never. Thousands of Vet's came back from from WWII with missing limbs and eyes. One of the more notable Skeet shooters at my club was shooting in the mid to high 90's for 4 rounds at age 80 with all of the fingers on his left hand missing and just the thumb, index finger and 3/4 of the middle fingers remaining on his right hand. We had another member who was missing his right eye and ear and he learned to shoot lefty in about 6 months.

Point is that if you set your mind to it you can learn to switch hands.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I used to teach sailors how to shoot, when we ran across a left eye/right handed shooter- he/she got to learn how to shoot an M16 or shotgun left handed..

Easy peasy, it’s just spending the time to acclimate your body to develop the muscle memory to be a left handed shooter.

I had to learn how to shoot lefty, just so I could teach to lefty’s. I’m not as good shooting left handed, but I can qualify marksman with an M16 left handed

"Easy Peasy"?? How long did it take the sailors to get comfortable to shoot with their off hand? I'm up there in age (6 decades up there) so it will probably take me longer. I haven't shot a long gun since my M16 A2 days in the 80's.

We shot them with the M16 on a 1000” (27 yds) course with a reduced target. Once we figured out the left eye right hand thing, we’d immediately let them run thru the zeroing part (3rds-then adjust sights) three times for 9 rnds. Then we would slow walk them thru the course once with no score….the second time we would count the score for score and most guys did it in the first try.

Now, running them thru the combat course was no problem if they had never shot before but with people who had prior shooting or hunting experience…they took a few cycles ( maybe three times- but only second and third try were for score) to get them up to par.

Usually all this happened in one day at the range. Maybe we’d have to have one come back the next day.

Once they have worked out how the rifle functioned with a left hand they did OK. I never had one not qualify. So there’s that.

My wife is right-handed and left-eye-dominant, and she seems to have passed this genetic defect on to our daughter as well. Neither of them is a serious shooter, but when I can drag them to the range, they shoot long gun left-handed. They're both pretty decent at it, too, especially considering how little time they put into it.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
I never had one not qualify. So there’s that.

Well, there is hope for me!!! Thank you.

Encouraging words, thanks y'all.

I have replaced the iron sights on my patrol rifle with Troy HK style battle sights and ordered an
EOTech red dot to replace my Aimpoint. Hoping this change will aid in transitioning to left hand shooting.

Right handed/left eyed shooter here. I accomplish this task one of two ways.

First way, I shoot piston rifles where the stock/comb has a good drop below the optic rail height. Think Sig 55x rifles, SCAR's, CZ Bren's, etc. With a normal absolute co-witness height optic this works well shouldering on my right and shooting with me left eye. I've shot countless multi-gun matches (and placed VERY well) doing it this way in addition to rifle courses. When shooting a rifle with an even plane between stock and optic rail (think AR-15) I just shoot them left handed with no issues.