Eye Dominance Issues 👁

Identify and address eye dominance issues with ShotKam. Learn to align the reticle, find your dominant eye, and improve shooting accuracy.

Addressing Eye Dominance Issues

Reviewing your ShotKam footage can help you identify common eye dominance issues, such as shooting to the left or consistent misses. When the ShotKam’s reticle is aligned properly to the bead of your gun, your videos will show exactly what the barrel is doing when you take your shots. 

Eye Alignment

When you look down the barrel (butt to bead), your line of sight and the line of the barrel should be in perfect alignment. Wherever your eye is looking, the front of the barrel is going to follow. If your eyes are not perfectly aligned, your ShotKam videos might reveal the following: 

• Missing high: your eye is high, so you’re lifting your head off of the stock. 
• Missing left: your eye is moving to the left, so your barrel is moving to the left. This can also indicate cross-dominance (right-handed with left-eye dominance) if you miss left consistently.

How to find your dominant eye

1. Extend your right arm out in front of you with your thumb in the upright position.
   
2. With both eyes open, focus on an object 10+ feet away, and place your thumb directly over the object.
   
3. Close your left eye. If your thumb is still centered with the object, you are right-eye dominant.
   
                                                          
   
   
4. Close your right eye. If your thumb is still centered with the object, you are left-eye dominant. 
   
   
                                                        
   

Using the ShotKam with eye dominance issues

We recommend aligning your ShotKam's reticle with your non-dominant eye closed so you use your eye with the best vision. Align your dominant eye directly down the line of the barrel and place the bead on the center of a target 30+ yards away. Aim hard at the target to ensure that the reticle accurately represents your barrel. Move the reticle until it is centered over the target on your ShotKam mobile app. Press “Save.” 

When it comes to shooting with eye dominance issues, follow these tips:

• Pull the trigger as soon as you see the target. Your dominant eye will start to take over, so your barrel will drift off-center the longer you wait to shoot. Use the Churchill Method: mount and swing the gun at the same time, then shoot when the gun touches your shoulder. 
• Draw black dots on the left eye of your shooting glasses with a dry-erase marker. This will discourage your subconscious brain from using your left eye. 
• If you're a casual shooter, shoot with your left eye closed as a last resort for extreme left-eye dominance. As Dr. Richard Colo, OD emphasizes, "If you dedicate the rest of your life to winning an Olympic medal, you can learn to shoot left-handed. Otherwise, just close your left eye."

For more on eye dominance, check out this new podcast episode featuring ShotKam creator David Stewart and Olympic trap shooter David Radoulavich: 

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1ENqmZ9jN6hwpfTm0EDGEc?si=HCuDn2crTwiYdS10HQlXgw