Three questions about eye dominance

Q: I have to close my left eye because of eye dominance, so sometimes I lose sight of high driven birds. What can I do to stop this? 

A: If you’’re losing sight of the bird in this way then it suggests that your gun is too low in the comb, and needs raising.

When the gun is mounted and brought to an ever-steeper angle, your right eye drops below the line of the rib causing you to either lift your head from the stock or open the left eye in an attempt to regain sight of the bird.

You might even slow/stop the swing of the gun with the same result. A  missed target. Raising the gun’’s comb height means your one good eye remains on the bird throughout the mounting process allowing you to pull off a successful shot.

Often you only need to lift the comb by a quarter of an inch to achieve a remarkable transformation. It’s worth experimenting to discover what suits you best. You’ll find rubber comb raisers in different sizes in most good gun shops.

Q: Will a foresight bead help my eye dominance problem?

A: Yes. And no. The thinking behind these  is that when a gun is correctly mounted, the bead aligns with the master eye allowing you to focus better on the target.

The makers and importers claim that the beads help correct eye dominance problems and there are plenty of people out there who’ have tried them and would agree. On the other hand there are others who have not found foresight beads as helpful.

My view is that these foresights do have a lot to offer but they really come into their own when used with a gun that fits, and the shooter knows how to mount a gun properly in the first place.

Q: Will bad eyes mean I have to learn to shoot left-handed?

A: There are two solutions to your problem – which is one of the frequent questions about eye dominance we’re asked.

At one time, such an issue would have been solved by having a cross-over stock fitted to one’s gun. This allowed the gun to be mounted on the normal shoulder, but brought the barrels over, so the dominant eye could sight down the rib.

In my experience it was never a very effective solution and was invariably costly, as the stock had to be bent dramatically or a new one fitted.

It is probably not readily adaptable to modern over-under guns because of the long bolt that secures the stock to the action. Guns with cross-over stocks sometimes come up for sale, but they tend to be expensive and there is no guarantee one would fit you.