Many shooters suffer what is called a " lazy eye", when in fact, its simply a failure of the brain to focus intently on the vision through one eye. Using some kind of blurring device on the non-dominant eye glass, such as a piece of scotch tape, allows the shooter to see peripherally, but does not allow the eye to look down the barrel at the sight.
This practice, used regularly, with lots of "dry-firing practice at home", will usually cure the problem for the shooter after about 2,000 correct repetitions. The Reason for such a high number is that the Brain got lazy in how it uses the Dominant Eye from other reasons, long before the person became a shooter.
Closing the non-dominant eye causes vision to blur, and tricks the brain into looking through the Dominant eye, also, because when we close the eye part way, the eye lashes come together to interfere with vision.
Shooting a pistol or revolver one handed is also a good way that any rifle or shotgun shooter with a "lazy eye " problem can retrain his dominant eye( and brain) to concentrate on that eye's vision of the sights and target, rather than changing over to the non-dominant eye at the last instance. One-hand pistol shooting puts the rear of the gun far away from the dominant eye, and lets the brain accept the sound of the gunshot, without being afraid that the gun is going to injure the eye.
Most of this problem occurs because the shooter has developed a "flinch" and is mentally afraid to fire the shot, when shooting a shotgun or rifle.
The Dominant eye closes at the last instance before the gun is fired, and the brain turns to the non-dominant eye to see the sights. The non-dominant eye is well away from the stock of the shotgun or rifle, so it does not see that sudden jolt backward of the barrel and stock towards the eye. It doesn't see the knuckle on the hand, wrapped incorrectly over the wrist of the stock, coming back at both the eye and cheek under the dominant eye.
Shooting Coaches and instructors will have the shooter mount an unloaded gun to their face, point it at the instructor's eye, and pull the trigger. This allows the instructor to see when the dominant eye closes. He can also stand to the side of the gun and watch where the shooter's face is in relation to the comb, and the wrist, what the shooter does with his thumb( it should NOT wrap over the wrist, but instead should lay down along the side of the stock, parallel to the index finger on the trigger below).
A short LOP, and a thumb wrapped over the wrist of the stock, can lead to the thumb striking the cheek below the dominant eye, hard enough to hurt, and leave a bruise after several such shots. Some people will " choke up" on a stock that has too long a LOP for them, causing the face to get to far forward on the comb.
A Stock with too much pitch can also place the face too far forward on the comb, allowing the knuckle to strike the cheek.
All these things can be easily observed by the coach or instructor, if he knows what to look for, and what it means when he sees it. He doesn't have to have the shooter shoot a box of shells, or swing at a dozen birds with his MLers to figure out where the Eye-Switch problem originates. It is not unusual to find a combination of sources behind the problem. :hmm:
If you don't have a shooting coach or instructor available near you, ask an experienced, and successful shooter you know to watch how you mount the gun, and watch your eye to see when you close it before the shot is fired. This can be done with live fire, if the instructor stands slightly forward of the shooter, but behind the muzzle for safety, on the dominant side of the shooter, so that he can see clearly the movement of the dominant eye lid when the gun is fired. Simply moving further away from the side of the gun will will let the observer see how the shooter mounts the gun, and what he does with that thumb. :shocked2: :hmm: :thumbsup:
