My son is 8 and has slightly better vision in his left eye. When he picks up his nerf gun he naturally tries to sight with his left eye and closes his right. He is right handed.

He is a stubborn kid and resists trying closing his left to shoot-evidently it is at least somewhat unnatural for him. I'm ready to get a pellet rifle and get him started in shooting but not quite sure how to approach it with him.

I believe that with his glasses he could learn to shoot fine right handed, but first and foremost I am his dad which means I don't know anything. I'm not sure what would be more difficult-him learning to close his left eye or developing good trigger control with his left hand.

I bought a nice .243 for him to grow into that just might have to become mine.

Try both eyes open.

I am the same way as is my 9 yr old son. Because he is right handed I opted for him to learn to shoot right handed. It takes patience but he has been successful. One shot one kill on everything he shot this past season. Hasn't missed yet.
Can't get the darn pic to rotate. It's upright on my phone but when it loaded it turns it

I'm right handed and left eye dominant. Wish I'd known this earlier in life to adjust then but didn't figure it out til I was probably 28. I shoot shotguns way better left handed than I do right unless I keep both eyes open. Rifle I shoot right handed better but because I close my left eye. If I could do it over I'd learn to shoot left handed solely. Can always get a pair of shooting glasses and put tape over the left eye forcing him to use his right.

My son was right eye dominate and right handed but lost some vision in his right eye due to a sports injury.
He soon noticed he was left eye dominate even though a contact would correct his vision in the injured eye.
He just made an effort to go left handed and now just shoots lefty most of the time even though he recently had lasick and again has good vision in both eyes.
I am left eye dominate and do most things right handed but shoot lefty.
I say let him go whichever way he is comfortable.

Dated a girl once who tried to get into shooting with this issue. The more I asked around the solution that seemed to make the most sense was changing shooting hands. A shtgun instructor, which is what she was trying to learn for work functions, told us IF you're gonna change something then it's easier to retrain muscle memory than eye preference.

It's easier to change hands than it is to change eyes.

I shoot hand guns left or right (both eyes open), throw right, kick right, write left, eat left. Left eye dominate but mom & dad DECIDED I should be a right hander....After going through the early years "I" decided to shoot with the dominant eye and never looked back. All of my bolt guns are lefties....just makes things easier!

Plus if just learning to shoot starting out left handed shouldn't be that hard to adjust to.

Is his vision only slightly better in the left eye? If so, then stick with RH stuff. If his vision is heavily left-dominant, then it's a tougher call. I'm heavily right-side dominant physically but slightly left-dominant visually. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to shoot accurate with a LH bolt gun.

My wife use to write left handed and in elementary school they made her change. She does a lot of things left handed or right handed. I ask her to hold my sons BB gun and show me how she would shoot it and she naturally held it right handed but closed her right eye. It was funny to see her trying to line things up like that but her dominant eye is her left. With practice you can learn to shoot either way. I would prob have him shoot left handed.

I'm right handed left eye dominant . I shoot and bat left handed and that's it. I suppose I'm kinda odd.

Haha, is your wife Asian?!?!
Most Americans don't now but most Asian cultures has an old belief that the left hand is the wicked hand. So much so that it used to be very common for parent to force their kids to switch hands. I had a Korean friend growing up that she was able to write simultaneously write with both hands because of this.

no she isn't, I think her teacher made her write right handed not sure why

Aim with the dominate eye, so teach him left handed shooting.

I am left eye dominate, right handed. After struggling with it for years I learned to cope and am pretty much ambidextrous shooting but took lots of work to get there.

My son is right handed everything and left eye dominant. I told him left eye, left shoulder or right eye, right shoulder - you choose. So he shoots left handed.

My dad, me, and my son all shoot lefty though I'm the only lefty.

Left handed, where he is comfortable.

I agree with those that say teach him to shoot with the dominant eye. It will be the only way to shoot accurately with both eyes open. I also like having my strong arm controlling the aiming.

Like the majority here - let him shoot left-handed. My dad figured it out when I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn due to creeping over the stock and trying to get my left eye on the sight. Some of the greatest marksmen in the world shoot left-handed. Not me, but some of the greatest.

Thanks for all the replies. Will give it a go left handed. If my younger one ends up shooting right handed it will make splitting the gun collection easier-the little guy will get the bolt guns and his older brother can have the lever action.

give the kid a bb gun and let him figgure it out --------------- you are waaaaayyyyyyyy over-thinking this one .
ps.---take the sights off the gun,,,,

I'm RH-Left eyed,and have always shot left handed,but also taught myself to shoot right handed. I'd say let him try shooting left handed,and see if it is easier and more natural for him.
Down the road he can decide if he wants to learn to train his right eye/hand to shoot just as well. It's handy when hunting or shooting to being able to shoot from either shoulder.

I also shoot pistols with either hand.

Whoa on the Bolt v Lever gun thing. While a left handed bolt for a lefty may be "better". None of the long guns in our family of three lefty shooters are Left Handed - Bolt, pump or semi. Also, though none of us have ever fired a left handed long gun, I've never perceived it to be an issue for me, my dad, or my son. It may be a case of me not knowing what I don't know, but things sure go flop... Again my

Rifle it doesn't make a hold of beans difference, close the off hand eye. Shotgun, it's a big deal to make sure you shoot with your dominate eye.

This shouldn't even be a discussion. Everyone should be shooting using their dominant eye.