advise appreciated,long thread

[berryu42]

i've shot a bow right handed my whole life,i'm 43.i've always shot a gun left handed which i never thought about until finding out about eye dominance.i never had any issues either way.i've taken many deer with bow and shot respectively in very minor 3d shooting.by the way i'm also right handed but left eye dominant,the way i tell is i put my hands together to make a small triangle or circle straight in front of my face and it comes up left eye everytime.but i never could tell it caused me any issues.well a few years ago i was talking to someone and he brought up how he use to shoot right handed and found out he was left eye dominant and switched to left handed and was shooting alot better and was glad he switched.it kinda planted a seed in me and i asked a few people about it and they said if it aint broke dont fix it as long as it aint causing you any problems.well last year i hardly practiced shooting between work and not thinking i was going to have a decent place to hunt.i ended up getting in on a late lease and shot my bow a little.i then proceeded to miss 2 shots at some nice bucks,my arrow did deflect off a limb on one of them but it definetly played with my head.i got to thinking after the season was over about getting a new bow and putting in a lot more practice,my previous bow was 10 years old.well i figured now would be the time to make the switch to left hand if i ever was so i shot a left handed bow a few times at my local archery shop and it was a little awkward but i managed to get a little more comfortable with it and decided to give it a shot and bought a new package bow,nothing real expensive but a good outfit and practiced quite a bit with it thinking i might eventually feel great about it.well it seems like i've had bad luck ever since,first right before bow season it got stolen out of my truck and i was able to get it back and then i missed the buck of my dreams on thanksgiving,granted buck fever played a role in it.i kept practicing when i could and decided i'd like to try and take a gobbler with bow and i missed it to at less than 25 yards.now its really playing with my head i'm very seriously thinking about going back to right handed as i'm not seeing that i'm any better in fact i feel more confident right handed as i've taken quite a few deer and made some great shots on them.thanks for reading such a long post but i wanted you to have a good idea about what i'm going thru,and i've posted here before and you guys seem pretty knowledgable.any good sound wisdom would be appreciated.

[cokepelli]

I too am left eye dominant but right handed. I started out bowhunting right handed and toyed with the idea of switching after years of bowhunting. I made the decision to try it and went with an Elite Synergy. It took a while to get used to but I stuck with it and am glad I did. First, I now am able to keep both eyes open increasing my field of view. Second, I am now holding the bows weight with my strong arm and am able to hold much better on target. I will say that I had to really commit myself and practice a lot but looking back at when I first started bowhunting right handed I did the same. Now I am proficient with both. It may not be the same for everyone in our situation but I am very glad I did. It sounds as if you are putting too much pressure on yourself to make it work. Everybody has some bad luck every now and then but you just have to relax and not put some much pressure on yourself because that definitely has an effect on your shooting. You did say that you are more confident right handed though and if this is the case that may be how you need to shoot.

[IRISH66]

what is the test you do to determine the dominance?

[mountbkr]

http://www.usaeyes.org/lasik/faq/las...minant-eye.htm

[retrieverfishin]

I am truly not trying to be a you know what, but it sounds to me more like you need to work on getting control of nerves, developing a system for shot sequence, and shooting a well tuned bow enough so that the shot is automatic. I doubt that eye dominance is your biggest issue here. That being said, pick a hand and stick with it.

[Roland]

I'm left handed and shoot a bow right handed and rifle left handed. I'm not really sure how eye dominance plays out in my case because being comfortable seems more important. Sometimes we over think things and once you have that in your head it makes things worse. One key to archery that I've learned over the years is; practice, practice and then practice some more.

[berryu42]

doing the test i come up left eye dominant but i'm thinking maybe i've let things get in my head and i should have just stayed with what i had been doing all my life.i was thinking if i gave it a good shot and practiced quite a bit i would maybe see some big improvement but i'm not seeing i'm any better off so far,couple that with some misses and it really screws with ya.

[Throw-N-Sticks]

Over the years I have learned that archery is about muscle memory, just like other sports(baseball, basketball, football, etc). When you are in a pressure situation, like taking the shot on a turkey or deer your body will naturally do what you have practiced. When I have people new to archery, I tell them they have to practice the same thing every time. If you dont, you take a risk of not executing the shot properly. when I have a shot on an animal, I can rarely remember the process I took from draw to shot, it is a natural instict that takes over from the breath before, the draw, the anchor, and squeezing the trigger. I say all of that to say this. You have been shooting right handed for a long time. It will most likely take A LOT of practice to get your body to a place where it naturaly executes a shot left handed. My advise would be to commit to one and stick with it and practice it as often as your can, even if it is just 12-15 arrows a few days a week. Make sure you take the same steps every shot and you should see success in the field! Good Luck!

[CATrapper]

Were you having more FUN before you switched?

[berryu42]

i guess i thought if i could shoot pretty good with my non dominant eye i might shoot a whole lot better with my dominant eye but so far i'm not seeing i'm any better off.it would have bugged me if i never tried it though because taking a few shots left handed wont tell you anything you have to give it a good shot which i feel i have but i'm not convinced.and i dont know if i want to keep going with it though.like the one poster said i believe i'm over thinking the situation but you always hear you should shoot with your dominant eye so what's a guy supposed to do.do you think it makes that big a deal.the archery industry is a right hand industry,if you go to any shop to check out and draw the new bows on the market it's going to be right handed along with most all accessories.what i'm saying is if i could already shoot proficient right handed would'nt it make sence to stick with it.