I'm just getting into shooting clay birds, and need help. I've shot pistols & rifles for a long time, but until recently haven't had an interest in shotgun. I'm right handed and shoot right handed. I've always shot left eye closed. A couple of friends had me test myself and it appears I'm left eye dominant. When I hold up my right index finger like a front sight and focus (both eyes open) on a small object across a room I see two index fingers faintly. I've been told it's best to shoot a shotgun both eyes open, but I'm thinking that I'm going to have to shoot left eye closed as I do with pistols & rifles.

Will this handicap me, or is there a way to work through the problem. Any advice or pointers from more experienced shotgunners would be appreciated. Thank you. ;)

Make a triangle with your hands. Look thru the opening in the middle, at an object across the room. Slowly bring your hands back to you eye, following the object to your eye.. The eye that the opening comes to is your dominant eye.

I am lefty, and left eye dominant, and shoot shotguns lefty. Though alot of practice and training, I have been able to keep my right eye open, and shoot both eyes.

Here's a trick;

no matter what side you shoot from, don't aim... point. What I mean is, do not focus on the bead, because it is impossible to focus on the bead 30 inches away, and the bird at the same time 30 yards away.
Instead, look at your bird, not the bead. Keep your non-trigger hand, or support hand holding the handguard with it's index finger in a pointing position.
Now, while looking at your target, and not the bead, point the same finger at the bird at the same time. What happens is the finger will naturally point to where your eye looks, and in doing so, the shotgun barrel will go to the bird to.
Now comes the trigger pull. A very good skeeter taught me to forget all you have been taught about shooting pistols and rifles.....instead, have your trigger finger "slap' the trigger. A slow timed rifle type pull can also pull the gun off the bird just enough to miss.

Expert, no way, but if I can pass along pointers that have helped me, have at it!:cool:

To add to the good advice you already have, don't forget to follow through. Stay on the clay as you pull the trigger as well as after, you'll bust more targets.

There are classes you can take on shooting without using a bead or other aiming device. That might be worth looking into.

Also, some shotgunners use a 'fuzzy' patch that slightly blurs the vision in the dominant eye. It's a thin plastic film that goes over your glasses or shooting glasses, just a dot, really. It forces your brain to use the other eye as dominant.

How well either of these works, I can't say. But both have come up in discussion, and in print.

Best of luck to you.

another thing to consider, but only to reference the end of the barrel[s] are those fiber optic beads, but don't get one until you can forget about using the bead to aim. Don't aim....point, eyes follow target, not sight, slap trigger, follow thru!

Hey, look at that, you just broke 8 in a row!!!!!

Britt Robinson(a very famous trapshooter who broke his first 100 at age 10) showed me a practice tip. Take a empty target box over the end of your barrel(through a hole so end of barrel is through box). Point is you can't see the beads(sights) and shoot a round just looking at the bird. I broke 22 first time out. After you look at the beads then focus on the target, forget the beads. Most beginners make the mistake of checking the beads just before shooting, BIG MISTAKE.

There are probably only 4 solutions. 1) learn to shoot left handed 2) get a crooked stock that lets you shoot right handed, but moves the barrel alignment to the left eye 3) Use a small translucent patch on your left eyeglass lens (as suggested by MikeG and may be the best solution as I know several competitive shooters who use this solution) 4) continue to close your left eye (which eliminates your depth perception).

Thats a tough one. I was forced (by injury) to shoot handguns opposite for awhile(I shoot both eyes open). Trouble was, the firearm was not where it was supposed to be. I could still hit ok, just took along time to get the front sight where it needed to be.

I might start working on this with stationary targets to get "on top" of the learning curve.

You could also get a side-by-side 10 bore and pull both triggers together to help fill in the pattern.:D

Above suggestions seem better than mine. I wish you well.

Cheezywan

Practice keeping both eyes open as you are mounting the gun and then close the left eye before shooting. By FAR the easiest solution. I have a friend who has the same eye dominance issue you do, and it works for him. I have a burst blood vessel in the back of my right eye so I cannot see the bullseye sharply with my right eye anymore. I now shoot handguns right handed with with my left eye, and with the shotgun I close the left eye just before shooting. With rifles I have a time.