Thread: Starting out slow... places for beginners

Good on yah for getting the kids out.

I suspect you have already heard the following so feel free to ignore it.
Left handed, right eye dominant - Enjoyment at his age is important, and they can be quite competitive as well. Shooting left handed with his right eye will work ok at this age but as he gets older / bigger it will become harder to do with standard firearms and damn near impossible on clay targets with a shotgun. You can train your body out of the right eye dominance though or simply learn to shoot right handed.

Training to change eye dominance - this takes time, practice and technique.
Start with a full black eye patch - looks funny but effectively stops him using his right eye, forcing his brain to use the left. Use this for a while then shift on to shooting glasses with a sticker/patch of the right lens, in front of the right eye. This will give him back his peripheral vision but still force his brain to use the left eye. After some time of this he should be able to remove the glasses and the brain will focus through the left eye. Because he is not shooting the whole time he may find his right eye will still be dominant for everything but shooting - with training though he will be able to switch eyes seamlessly. This technique worked with a couple of competition shooters I know - it takes a long time and a lot of practice though. I would not recommend you train to simply shut the right eye.

Learning to shoot right handed is simply practice and technique.
Of course he will start off not shooting as well but he will get much better with practice.

Shooting is all about sight alignment and trigger control. It is not about holding the rifle steady - it is about having the patience and control to squeeze the trigger when the sight alignment is correct. Trigger control should be practiced to the point it is subconscious, so you want all your focus on sight alignment - not on trying to work out which eye to use.