Eye dominance and picking a spot

[handirifle]

#2927

OK I will throw this out right off, so you can hit me with it. I am left handed, right eye dominant, but still shoot left handed. Partly cause I have been doing it that way for nearly 50 years.

I have tried shooting right handed, for a little bit. Seems every bit as frustrating. I can pick a spot (both eyes open) and usually do pretty well with hitting it. The problem is, on close up shots, say 10 yds, I tend to shoot 6″ or so, too high. Nothing I try seems to help. I have tried purposely aiming lower, no good, I have tried shooting 3 fingers under, instead of 2, no good. What gives?

Also, on occasion, when picking my spot, I’ll catch my eyes darting back and forth. It SEEMS like my dominant eye is trying to take control, so to test this I have switched to shooting one of my sons’ old right hand bows. Odd thing here, is the same thing happens right handed. I even tried to close one eye, and that just gets weird, with either eye.

AM I just going crazy or what? Maybe I already went:shock:

I would switch over, if I KNEW this eye wandering thing was NOT going to happen right handed too. It’s not a physical defect thing either, its a mental thing.

By the way, I shoot my compound (I know blaspheme) left handed and most of my rifles I shoot left handed as well, but I can shoot rifles and handguns just as well either way.

[Stephen Graf]

#14640

I know this will sound a bit far fetched, but give it a chance…

My guess is that there is something a little out in your setup. I have found that if my “shot feedback” is not consistent with my “shot placement” my brain goes a little crazy, and a symptom of that can be the eye wandering thing.

So what I mean is that if what I expect to happen doesn’t happen, my brain gets out of whack and creates symptoms I need to pay attention to.

The first thing I would look at is bare shaft tuning. Then I would look at the nocking point on the string. I don’t think it has to do with your dominant eye. Because it is a vertical problem, not a windage problem.

Maybe you are getting a nock high problem up close and not at a longer distance ’cause the arrow is correcting itself at longer ranges. There may be some “bump” off the rest due to a nock being too high or low on the string…

Just an improbable guess…

[handirifle]

#14921

Well that is a place to start. I use the method I saw on the Black Widow bow companies “Tour and Tuning” video. Is there a better method for bare shafting?

[david01]

#15124

:Dwell now i have thr same problem with consistensee i went to respecktible bowmakers back here in south africa they helped me with bareshaft tuning and knoking point as well as anchoring points and still the problem seems to grow i treid shooting my bow vertikal and tilted at varios angles even now i am shooting one eye closed and with a tilt at 2oclck and wala some cosistance is happening only today i shot one arrow so close to the other that i penetrated the first with the second not a robin hood but still maby a lukky shot but i will see what happens tomorrow greetings till next time:D

[Stephen Graf]

#15748

handirifle wrote: Well that is a place to start. I use the method I saw on the Black Widow bow companies “Tour and Tuning” video. Is there a better method for bare shafting?

I watched that video, and agree with everything they talked about, except adding weight to the back of the arrow. I have no experience with that, but it goes against the general goal of increasing front of center on an arrow. But this is beside the point…

If you are shooting high at close distances, and can’t correct this with practice (the obvious cause is that you haven’t learned these short trajectories), then there must be something else going on.

If you study your string nock and see that the arrow is just a little above center when nocked, then that should be ok.

You might want to try rotating your arrow around so that it is cock feather in. This will eliminate any jump from the hen feathers hitting the shelf.

You may want to practice 3 fingers under for a while and see if that helps. I know you said you tried it, but try it a little longer.

You may want to study your anchor point. If your fingers are getting too close to your eye, the pressure can affect your eye and change how your eye sees things. Press of the soft part under your eye, and you will see your world move… Keep away from the zygomatic ridge (I think that’s the fancy name for eye socket)

After you think about this stuff, and maybe make some changes, then try some bare shaft shooting at close distances. See how it compares to longer distance shooting.

One way to troubleshoot a problem is to try to change the outcome of your shooting by changing different aspects of your setup/form. Once you can change the outcome, you can go back and figure out why. This often leads to discovering the cause of the problem. Then you can go back to doing things the comfortable way, and get the problem fixed.

Keep notes. Make a diagram of your string, and record all component distances from the upper limb sting nock. This will allow you to fiddle with string components like the nock, but still be able to move them back later. And it helps if you break a string and need a new one…

[handirifle]

#16078

Steve
Thanks for the feedback. As far as I know I don’t intrude in the eye socket area, but will for sure pay attention to it in future sessions. A fellow I used to shoot with used three fingers under and he was unbelievably accurate. He is a BIG guy, 6’10” and I watched him cut a string that a golf ball was suspended from, at 20yds. It took 2 tries, but the first try nicked it.
Three fingers under seems really off, if I cant the bow much at all. but, like you said maybe I’ll give it more time.

I have given serious thought to buying one of those inexpensive (cheap?) take downs that are being made and just really buckling down to go that way, but being on a fixed income, a new bow, arrows and all the other costs of a new setup are kinda out of reach. Even starting with a $150 bow.

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