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Recently blinded in one eye


gwv610

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I recently lost eyesight in my dominant eye (left) and have had to switch to my right side. This has not been a problem, but my question is- will I ever be able to shotgun (instinctively shoot) accurately with only one eye?

 

I'm certainly no doctor but I would think that over time your body and mind will allow the natural transformation to again become an instinctive shooter. This very thing happened to a guy at our skeet club and it took him less than six months to make the switch. He's now hunting and shooting skeet and five stand like he used to...we've nicknamed him "dead eye", not because of his loss but because of his ability.

Best of luck and good shooting.

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First of all please accept my sincere empathy for your loss. Loss of vision is horrible, but you certainly have a healthy attitude when asking about solutions.

 

You state losing vision in your dominant left eye, and that “ have had to switch to my right side.”, but did not mention if you are right of left handed shooter.

 

If you were a right-handed shooter with a left dominant eye that you lose, you may find that you actually shoot better now. Alignment is far more significant than depth perception when shooting targets (stationary or moving). Cross-dominance (“cross-sighting’) is a big problem when the dominant eye is different from the handedness (i.e., right handedness with left ocular dominance, or vice versa).

 

A much larger obstacle is switching to right-handed shooting if you were a left-handed shooter with a left dominant eye that you lose. Of course the same scenario applies to the opposite side shooter forced to change sides.

 

--Spike

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The human body is extremely resilient so you should easily adjust to the change.

 

I agree.. With healthy optimism, I'm certain you'll overcome your situation, gwv610. My experience comes from home.. my sister has lost both her central and most of her peripherial vision.. I am continually amazed at how well she has coped and adapted. Take care..

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The loss of sight from one eye will diminish stereoscopic ie 3D capability, cant change the physics, however the learned behavior of tracking a target will only be affected slightly as you brain compensates for this loss by reading the size of the object you are tracking. It gets smaller , it's farther away. The trick here would be to compensate for the loss of three dimensions by removing the need for that information. Might I suggest learning trap or skeet style shooting with a firm cheeklock on the comb and tracking the target. Now you have the ability to track well, line up the firearm and judge distance to some degree.

Just remember to take care of the good eye with quality protective optics.

By the by, it's a medical opinion though not a consult by any means.

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