Shooters, a question for you (vanity)

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[Corinthian Warrior]

Calling all shooters out there.

I am right handed, and formerly an expert shot. I was in the Marine Corps, and prior to that I was a competitive shooter with 22. caliber rifles. However, a strange thing happened to me. I was right-eye dominate - now I am left eye dominate.

I think this happened when I came down with Bells Palsy -that is paralysis of the 7th crainial nerve. For about 8 weeks I could not blink my right eyelid. After that, my vision went from 20/20 to something much worse. Soon I began to have headaches and my vision became very sensitive to light. I could hardly see at all without sunglasses - I had to wear them both indoors and at night. Then, all of a sudden, my eyes stopped hurting. But the funny thing was, my eye-dominace had reversed!

Nowadays, I have a difficult time shooting rifles. I do fine if I use instinctive "quick-kill" methods, but not if I use my rear sight. With the pistol, I shoot left handed now, which is no problem.

If I were to get lazer surgery for my right eye, will my right eye become dominate again? What's up with this switch. Can I get it to switch back?

[Kitanis]

I think only a Eye Surgeon can answer your question..

I am left hand dominate.. so my Left eye is my shooting eye.. but I can shoot my pistol right handed if need to be. But I still use my left eye to aim.

Have you gone to the Veterans Administration and got screened after your exit from the Corps? Sounds like to me.. you might be a candidate for revaluation by them.. you developed this problem while you were in right?

[Corinthian Warrior]

Nope. Just a month or two after I got out.

[TC Rider]

I was right eye dominant as a child/teen. I didn’t shoot for a number of years.

When I took up shooting again at 50, I was left eye dominant. Not a problem with handguns, I bring them up to my left eye and still shoot with my right hand.

3 years ago I had laser eye surgery to correct my near-sightedness. It made no difference in my eye dominance.

I still shoot long guns with my right eye, but I have to shut my left eye.

Probably not what you wanted to hear.

FWIW, I had good close vision before the laser, now I require readers. Doesn’t bother me though.

[Corinthian Warrior]

I figured that would be the case. So you fire the rifle by squinting? That is all? I have tried that, I still shoot okay at a known distance range, but at 200 meters or more when I am out and about, squinting forces me to spend a few seconds reorientating. Slows down everything.

It is not the end of the world.

[Semper Mark]

You said that you couldn't blink your right eye for about 8 weeks...could you close it at all?

If not, then maybe the strain on your eye caused the switch?
I could have been your bodies natural compensation for a deficiency.

[calex59]

With a pistol it doesn’t matter which eye you are dominant with, right or left hand will still line up the sights. Try it with and empty gun. Pick a target and then aim at it(use right hand)close your right eye and you should be still lined up with target. Rifle on the other hand is a different matter.

[Semper Mark]

“I could have been” = It could have been

[Corinthian Warrior]

My pistol shooting is fine. The rifle is akward. And yes I figure the eye strain from the Bells palsy brought this on.

[OneWingedShark]

There was an eye-dominance exercise I learned in Basic training: you cover/block your non-dominant (or dominant) eye but keep it open and just practice sighting in (and such). Do it for about 20 minutes solid 4 to 7 times a day (you can skip Sundays) for three weeks.

You should notice some change by then; after which exercise it as needed. It can be used to strengthen eye-dominance and/or delink binocular dependence. (Some people can’t shoot well with one eye, as it tears up too much to sight-in, but this exercise helps with that... it should also help build up your original eye-dominance.)

You can liken your experience to that of breaking your right hand/arm and, while healing, you used your left enough to become proficient with it (and strengthen it) just as your right atrophied and weakened.

[EasySt]

Perhaps a holographic sight, like an EOTech, would help?

Shoot with both eyes open, focused on the target, rather than the sight. (The holographic sight fools the eye as it seems to paint the circle in focus, but on the target, as if it were a projected laser reticle.)

[mamelukesabre]

Eye dominance has nothing to do with the eyeball itself. Eye dominance is determined by the nerve and brain connection. The eye with the superior pathway to the brain is the dominant eye.

Think of a person that has a stroke and becomes partially paralyzed on one side. That side that is partially paralyzed becomes withered and weak. If the condition occurs when the person is young, then even the bone is affected. The bones on the weak side are stunted and never grow as robust as the other side.

It may be theoretically possible for you to wear an eye patch over your newly dominant eye to force your original dominant eye to strengthen the eye-brain pathway and then become dominant again. That’s something you will need to ask a doctor.

[frog in a pot]

If you haven’t, I recommend you seek an expert opinion on when you likely contracted the physical condition.
You may have noticed the symptoms 30-60 days after discharge from USMC; however, that particular condiition may typically develop much earlier.

[Redcloak]

The brain is capable of reprogramming its visual center. This is obviously what happened when your right eye became disabled. Try wearing an eye-patch over your left eye. This should force your brain to reprogram itself and the right will become dominant again.

I remember seeing an experiment once where volunteers wore special glasses that inverted their field of vision; everything was upside down. At first, they were running into the walls and such. But, after a surprisingly short period of time (a week, IIRC), their vision inverted. The same thing happened when they took off the glasses.

[NVDave]

There’s a man who might be able to answer your questions: Dr. Norman Wong, OD. Competitive shooter, Navy veteran, Doctor of Optometry and someone who helps shooters with vision issues and vision issues related to shooting:

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/nwongarts.html

[ansel12]

Shortly before I went into the army my right eye went bad (permanently)and so when I started basic I had to switch to my left eye, I didn’t see any problem because for stable shooting the sight picture was all I needed and either eye can do that (I was always expert).

While the change annoyed me a little, it really bothered me on “quick shooting” and patrolling because I stayed with my right eye carry and “quick shooting”.

My quick shooting was pretty good and no one ever knew what I was dealing with but I always worried about the real world delay of switching from a right handed “quick shot” to a left handed follow up knowing that I would want to switch to my left shoulder at some point in an engagement.

[Drammach]

The light sensitivity and headaches lead me to suggest a condition called "diplodopia" which involves damage to the rod and cones at the center of the retina.
This is the fine vision portion of the retina and is used for focusing on image details.
Loss of the fine vision portion of the retina will result in a central dark spot in your vision and inability to focus on details, read signs, etc.
Your peripheral vision will remain, and the eye's attempts to use it for vision will result in a sort of "wandering eye" similar to amblyiopia, but not necessarily due to weak orbital muscles.
The eye will attempt to use the peripheral vision to see, resulting in the eye turning either inward or outward.
This works after a fashion but results in double vision.

Squinting to focus operates on the same principle as a pinhole camera.
Chances are your dominant eye has become near sighted, or has difficulty focusing on objects over a wide range of distances.
This might be a result of your illness and being unable to blink, thus drying out the lens or cornea.
Loss of elasticity in the cornea or damage to the muscles that focus it could result in your vision problems.

Another possibility is "Macular Degeneration" which is similar to the condition above, and having similar symptoms.
There are both age related and disease/injury related causes for this condition.

Much as the other comments have suggested, you need professional examination to determine what your present visual condition is and whether it can be corrected.

[Eagles6]

Interesting question. I am right handed with left eye dominant. Pistol, I can shoot right or left eye but squint the left eye to use the right. Rifle I squint the left eye. Has worked well enough so far.

I am interested in the surgery too and would be interested in what you find out.

I agree that the surgeon would be the one to ask.

[Corinthian Warrior]

I just want to thank everybody for their relpies. I think I will have to go to an eye doctor.

[goodwithagun]

I was on the rifle team at the University of Akron. The current thing is about right handed vs. left handed, not eye dominance. If you are right handed, continue to shoot with your right eye. The argument is that shooting left handed would be backwards for you and interfere with acuracy.