cross-eye dominant shooting aids?

[zze86]

I'm cross-eye dominant, left eye dominant, but have been shooting right handed. I've recently been trying to shoot left handed and I can tell that I am more accurate shooting left handed, I have tighter groups and am closer to point of aim. Shooting right handed, I am more consistent in hitting the target but the groups are not as tight and usually hit more to the left.

I've been practicing left handed quite often, every other batch of arrows down range for the past two weeks, hoping to develop muscle memory, improve my left hand form and try to get comfortable, however, it's still very awkward feeling. Frustrating.

If I squint while shooting right handed, like lining up some sights, I have tighter groups but I don't like shooting like this, it messes up my depth perception, and just doesn't feel right. Plus I don't get to see the arrow fly   .

I am now thinking about covering up half of my left eye's field of view to see if that would help any. Doing the whole "point to an object in the distance" routine with half my left eye covered gets my finger pretty spot on when only viewed through the right eye which has me thinking about making an eye patch that only covered half my left eye. I tried completely covering my left eye and that was disastrous, depth perception was complete off.

I was wondering if anybody else has tried this or if there are any cross-eye dominant shooters out there with any other shooting aid?

[slivrslingr]

If you're just starting out, switch to lefty now and work through the frustration, it will payoff down the line.  Trust me, switch now and don't look back!

[khardrunner]

I just switched to lefty and I am RIGHT eye dominant due to shoulder issues. I think it was easier to shoot righty, but it is not impossible to shoot well X eye dominant.

[David McLendon]

You already know the answer, just stick with the LH bow until you develop left hand dexterity. The hardest part for me when I switched to left was the left hand handling the arrow and stringing it on the bow. At this point if I have a dream that involves me shooting a bow, it is left handed.

[Jasper2]

Chee,
Save yourself from more frustration in the future by taking the advice given to stick with LH.  I shot RH for 25 years before switching to LH 2 years ago. If I have sights, pins, scopes on my weapons, I can and still do shoot RH........but for traditional archery I had problems that were solved by getting my dominant eye over the arrow.  FYI it took me a solid year and lots of arrows before it felt natural but the confidence and improved sight picture are worth the wait.

Take care,
Jason

[Bud B.]

I agree. Stick with it.

But if you do shoot RH again, try wearing shooting glasses with a small piece of Scotch tape over your left eye lens where the target would be while you shooting at full draw.

This works for wing/clay shooting behind a scattergun. Using this method might help you with tightening your groups as a righty.

But, for getting it naturally right, go lefty for a looong time without shooting RH at all and your brain will do the rest to get you programmed that it feels right, ahem, I mean correct.    

[mike g]

Chee....
   Just stick with it....
I started shootin lefty and man was it awkward at first....
   As mentiond above, the hard part was handling the arrow lefty....
   I can now shoot left our right without squinting....
   My next HH bow I get will be an ambi bow, so I can shoot both....
   At some 3D shoots a target may be easier lefty then righty....You will have an advantage.
   And another advantage is ya build up your x side muscles....
   Just keep at it and it will come to be natural....

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I shoot cross eye dominant and used to shut one eye closed. Then i moved my anchor point down a bit lower so the tip of my nose rests on the string.... no problems shooting both eyes open now at all....

i did loose a bit of draw length doing this, but it was well worth it to me. i just couldn't adjust to left hand after 23 years of shooting right handed at all.