Tried a red dot...have a few questions

Slapped a dot on my 41 and shot 25 yards with it last night. I did not have my glasses on because I did not feel I needed them with the optic. Without my glasses I also did not have my blinder on for my left eye dominance. I guess I did not notice that I was shooting with both eyes open.

Is it OK to shoot right handed with my left eye? is this a dumb idea? I placed my glasses on and noticed a zero shift once my blinder was in place.

I can't help with any answers to your query but will be following this thread closely as I am & have always been right handed & right eye dominant but lost my right eye to glaucoma 2 yrs ago. I am now shooting right handed 2 hand hold with glasses with my left eye. I haven't gone to blinder yet but will have to in the near future. I just had a Red Dot Ultradot II slide mounted on my TGO1 but have not had a chance to play with it much yet.

With a red dot that has good glass and doesn’t cause any odd imagery I shoot both eyes open no blinder. I am however right handed and right eye dominate so I can’t add anything to helpnyour situation I feel.

Baydawg wrote:Slapped a dot on my 41 and shot 25 yards with it last night. I did not have my glasses on because I did not feel I needed them with the optic. Without my glasses I also did not have my blinder on for my left eye dominance. I guess I did not notice that I was shooting with both eyes open.

Is it OK to shoot right handed with my left eye? is this a dumb idea? I placed my glasses on and noticed a zero shift once my blinder was in place.

I'm right handed and left eye dominant.  I have always shot with both eyes open with a blinder over my right eye, both with iron sights and the dot.  My stance has evolved over the years.  When I first started, I shot facing the target, but now shoot with my feet at an angle to the firing line and I just move my head to keep the dot in line.

From reading lots of articles on the internet, I thought keeping both eyes open was generally preferred. A blinder is only used if necessary to stop “ghosting”.  If you can see consistently using dominat left eye, with no blinders then I’d use it, particularly of it feels natural.  I think what’s “ok” is what works best for you. Everyone’s eyes are different.

I'm also very interested in this subject and thread.  I don't know if my experience is unique, and would be interested to learn if anyone else experience something like I do.  I am ambidextrous and have no eye dominance!  As such while shooting two handed hold with red dot with both eyes open, I at times catch myself using right shooting arm with left eye, left arm with right eye or left-left / right-right.  Everything depends on position of my body respective to the target, and crossing arm/eye is prevalent when my body is in parallel to the target.  I CANNOT shoot iron sights with both eyes open without making concerned effort to focus one eye or another, - in short, it just easier to close one eye.  One handed hold is a bit easier, because position of body kind of dictates using one side arm/eye combination versus another.  However recently I caught myself using left arm with right eye even with one hand holding.  Further more, I shoot in prescription glasses.  So in order to aid with above, my eye doctor came up with idea of making glasses that will have one side setup for red dot, and another for irons based on focus points.  That confused a heck out of me, as I have to remember what each glasses are for.  I just selected one pair, and shoot in it.

So, answering OP, - I see no problems with shooting while using right arm and left eye.  Adjustment in stance, and proper sighting of the firearm must be done based on individual's needs, and that would be "all she wrote", IMHO.
AP

I find that shooting with both eyes open is easier with a dot since my off eye can't see down the tube at the same time. I also shoot both eyes open with open sight but "filter" out in my brain the view coming from my left eye. I have thought of going to a blinder though to remove that need while shooting.

Incidently I trained myself to shoot with both eyes open when I was going to my carry classes in anticipation of getting my license since I would not be closing my off eye if I was ever in a situation of needing to draw my gun. Decided that shooting that way all the time every time should become a natural thing.

I'm right-handed and right-eye dominate.  But for several months, I shot left-handed due to issues with my right elbow.  I continued using my right eye, and basically discovered by trial-and-error that what worked best for me was simply adjusting my grip (to more of a Zins-style grip) so that the gun was lined up with my right eye.  It worked fine, and within a couple months I was shooting low expert level scores lefty (my wobble area was never as good as righty, though).  

Around the time I was switching back to using my right hand again, I discussed it with my eye doctor, and he said if I ever need to shoot lefty again, I could just use my left eye instead (with a blinder over my right eye), and my brain would adjust to using my non-dominant eye without much issue (but I never seriously tried it).

FWIW, I close my left eye when I shoot, mostly because 40 years of habit is hard to break, and I have not perceived it to be causing me problems.  When I first started shooting bullseye 4 years ago, I seriously tried switching to shooting with both eyes open with iron sights, but found that sometimes my left eye would influence my view of the sights (even though every test confirms that I'm right-eye dominant), and I ended up with some shots straying off to the side. It was pretty weird because the sights would look perfectly lined up, then, without moving the gun, I could close either eye, and it would appear that the sights magically shifted.  I never tried both eyes open with a red dot.

Dave

I'm a lefty and left eye-dominant.  Before my exam and prescription last year I was using my right eye as my left gave me double vision; the right improving my shot groups.   Now with the left corrected the dot and target are crisp images and makes no difference which eye is used but i still need to close the right eye or wear the cap-bill occluder.  I could never shoot with both eyes open although I tried to acclimate but never succeeded.  FWIW