Eye Dominance & Sighting: The Basics For Better Accuracy

How’s your grouping these days? Are you looking for ways to improve your accuracy with your AR 15? Odds are pretty good that you’ve figured out just how many different elements can impact your accuracy. It could be your stance, your grip, where on your rail accessories are installed, or the overall weight of your AR setup in addition to any environmental factors that may play a role. But, if you’re new to the gun community as a whole, there may be a factor you haven’t figured out yet. Do you know which eye is your dominant one?

It’s pretty easy to figure out which of your hands and feet is dominant. After all, most of us tend to prefer one hand to write with as well as to take care of most detailed tasks. And the same generally goes for feet; when the soccer ball/kickball comes out, most of us tend to give preference to one side over the other with each kick. Unfortunately, figuring out your eye dominance isn’t quite as simple. But, if you’re looking to improve your accuracy, eye dominance is a good place to start.

 

An Introduction To Eye Dominance

Figuring out which eye is dominant probably seems like a small, innocuous step to take. After all, if you’re right handed, you’ll be right-eye dominant, right? Not necessarily. It’s not uncommon across the gun community as a whole to be what’s referred to as “cross-dominant.” That is, there are plenty of people who are right handed but left-eye dominant or vice-versa. Figuring out which eye is your dominant one plays a big role in choosing the right stance. With the exception of the isosceles stance used by some handgun owners, the idea is to opt for a stance that aligns your firearm with the dominant eye side of your body. Doing so will help make sighting in a bit easier.

 

How To Figure Out Eye Dominance

There are a couple different methods to help you figure out which eye is dominant, but most of them involve finding a focal point a few yards away and closing one eye then the other. An easy method is to pick a smaller focal point across the room like a lamp or a light switch. Stand directly opposite of your chosen focal point and make sure your shoulders/torso are squared to it. Raise your hands to eye level with arms fully extended and cross your fingers and thumbs to create a triangle of open space between your hands. Make sure your chosen focal point is centered within that triangle with both eyes open. Then close one eye and pay attention to whether that item has shifted in your view or not. Without moving your hands or head, the item should appear to shift fairly obviously when you close one eye but not the other. When the item stays put, the open eye is your dominant eye. If it shifts out of view, the open eye is your non-dominant eye. Want to see the technique in action? This video from Pew Pew Tactical breaks it down into easy-to-follow steps.

 

Improving Accuracy With Eye Dominance Tips

The whole point of figuring out your dominant eye is to eventually help you improve your accuracy as a whole. Fortunately, figuring out your dominant eye won’t just help with accuracy when firing your AR 15, it’s translatable to basically any firearm. Once you know which eye is your dominant one, choosing a ready stance that matches up will help with your accuracy. The idea is to make it easier for your dominant eye to line up with your sight or optic, and to do so without compromising the stability of your grip. With AR 15s in particular, a shooting stance with the buttstock tucked up next to your shoulder on the dominant eye side will help raise your sight/optic to roughly eye-level without much strain on your neck. It also means that you’ll be able to shift from standing to kneeling to prone without much variation in your ready position so you can build up better habits much more quickly.

Aiming Assistants and Accuracy

In the initial rounds of shooting after determining your dominant eye, it will probably be beneficial to close your non-dominant eye when sighting in. Don’t worry about looking too much like a neophyte — we’ve all been there at some point. Closing one eye will help you get used to what it looks like to focus specifically with your dominant eye and can ultimately help improve your grouping. As you get more comfortable, you’ll notice that you can aim with both eyes open and still focus well with your dominant eye.

 

Of course, once you get the hang of aiming with your dominant eye, you may need to adjust the accessories attached to your rail system — or change your rail system altogether! That standard Picatinny rail may be heavy enough to throw off your grip. Explore alternatives with Bootleg, Inc.’s custom AR parts and accessories, like our PicMod rail system, which incorporates both Picatinny and KMR handguard styles for more flexibility. Learn more about our specially designed handguard rail options as well as our other upper assembly custom AR parts. If you have questions about components or are looking for further suggestions to help improve your accuracy, contact the Bootleg team. Learn more with our knowledgeable team or explore our online store to get your AR kitted out properly!