Cross-dominance and pistols

Sketcher

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I am cross-dominant, right-handed, and left eye dominant. When firing rifles, I have always fired left-handed, that's what feels right to me. I have far less experience with pistols, and while training with one for CCW does interest me, I'm wondering about a couple of things.

- Should I still fire left-handed when using a pistol? What are the drawbacks of using my left eye to aim and my right hand to hold and fire the weapon? Should I train that way instead of left-handed?

- If I should still fire left-handed, how do I retain the weapon in my weak hand if a perp grabs for it?

- If I should train left-handed, what would be a good pistol for carrying concealed? Firing a 1911 with my left hand did not feel anywhere close to comfortable, especially changing magazines.
 
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Dave G.

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When you train for pistol shooting you will find it's actually a two handed action. You should have an opportunity to use either for the trigger finger hand. It will be a matter of which hand lays over the other hand and which one you are most comfortable squeezing the trigger off with.

On another note, I'm right handed and with pretty bad astigmatism in both eyes. As such I shoot any gun better with a red dot, on my 30/30 I use a red dot scope ( the dot floats around inside the scope as you aim but if the dot is on target where you want it and you squeeze off a round, that is where the bullet is going ), I have not yet purchased red dot laser sights for my 9mm pistols but should. With my eyes messed up as they are I end up skewing the rear sight quite a ways off to the side to meet center on the target. You can't possibly be in worse shape shooting right or left handed with the left eye.lol
 
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Humble me Lord

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I have the same problem. Right handed, left eye dominant.
Over the years, I have learned to compensate with a shotgun, but have not shot pistol enough to do the same.
I worked in security at a federal installation, and qualified expert every year, but that was with a S&W Model 10-5, and there was always plenty of time allowed.
I'm not nearly as accurate when I'm rushed or forced in a timed situation.
Your right, it does feel really strange firing with your non-dominant hand, kind of like throwing a baseball.
 
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ChavaK

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I am right handed/left eyed and find rifles and shotguns frustrating to shoot because of it. I end up shooting right handed and closing my left eye. Which feels awkward because I am strongly right handed and strongly left eye.

For shooting handguns, I do four things that work well for me. First I close my right eye. I know it is not ideal, but I cannot get used to having both eyes open. I've tried all the tricks (taping the glasses, blinking before pulling the trigger, etc) and none of them work. Then I rotate my head very slightly to the right, move the gun slightly to the left, and then tip the front sight slightly to the left. All that allows me to line the front sight up with my left eye without over doing any one of the three things.
 
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