Need advice on teaching my daughter to shoot.

[Tobashadow]

My son was no issue at all when he was younger but my 9 year old daughter has settled down out of her rambunctious faze and wants to shoot with us this coming weekend. I'm planning on teaching her on my Mossberg AR style 22 rifle and if she does good and enjoys it then someone may be getting a rifle this Christmas. The issue I'm running into with early fitting and holding training is she wants to cross eyes, and it's not a eye dominant problem, when she holds it right handed she leans her head and looks left eyed, so I handed it back left handed and she leaned over and sighted with her right eye.

Her eyes are 20x20 and she's like a hawk spotting stuff so I know its not a vision issue either.

[McGarrett]

I ran into this with my daughter and after a while we determined she is left eye dominant. She shoots right handed but sights with her left eye. We have experimented a little with both eyes open also. That reminds me I need to get her out to shoot sometime. 

[Murgatroy]

Have you checked to see which eye is really dominant?

 

Do the thumb. Look at a door knob twenty feet away with both eyes open. Cover the knob with your thumb, close one eye, then the other. Whichever eye 'keeps' the thumb over the door knob is your winner.

 

I am left handed but right eye dominant. Simple, the majority of the world uses the wrong hand, so I just learned to do it. I have shot rifle right handed all my life. I don't have a weak hand with pistols, though I do carry on my right side.

 

My daughter is the opposite. She is a right hander with a dominant left eye. Guess what? Worked for me, works for her, she has been shooting left handed for a little over two years now.

 

This of course creates a bit of an issue with the guns, but as she is seven years old, she has been shooting my old bolt action single shot .22LR since she started. She is on paper at 100yd with open sights. I don't think it slows her down any.

[peejman]

Do the eye dominance check and then put a piece of masking tape over the non-dominant eye's lens on her shooting glasses.  Once she gets used to it, you should be able to take the tape off. 

[Jonnin]

Is the size of the gun awkward for her such that she is doing this to somehow try to find a more comfortable position or grip?   Or trying to tuck the gun into her body instead of her shoulder?  I have seen a little of this sort of thing when the gun was just too long for the shooter.  It has to be one of just a couple of things...  eye dominance as people said is a big one, or trying to get comfortable in an unfamiliar position,  or possibly in her mind she flipped something watching you show her (some kids and even many adults see something demonstrated and reverse it).   Can't think of too many other causes here. 

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Start out with the safety rules, pound them in, then show her how to handle the weapon and taking apart and putting

back together(field stripping). Lather, rinse, repeat. Then take her out to the range and make sure she does everything

you tell her. Same as any other little person. That's the way I did it with my two and they turned out just fine. Fine tune

from there. This eye dominance should be after the rest, but it is important, also.

 

If that's too elementary, and not what you were looking for, sorry for imposing, but my kids knew almost everything

about the weapon and being safe around others before they ever got to shoot it.

[JayC]

How do you know it's not a dominant eye problem?  Have you done the thumb test on her?

 

I'm a right handed but my left eye is dominant, I shoot rifles with my left hand, and pistols with my right (both eyes open).

 

Check her dominant eye with the thumb test, and then have her shoot with dominant eye hand...  I might have her use a more traditional bolt action rifle at first, it would have been very hard for me to learn on an AR platform with the raised sights as a kid, old style bolt action rifles were hard enough.

 

BTW, I'd run the eye dominance test a number of times over a couple of days, using both thumbs (left and right), make sure she isn't switching eye dominance back and forth - I've seen it in some shooters I've trained.  If that is the case, have her close both eyes then open only 1 to shoot, it should solve the issue.

 

My son was no issue at all when he was younger but my 9 year old daughter has settled down out of her rambunctious faze and wants to shoot with us this coming weekend. I'm planning on teaching her on my Mossberg AR style 22 rifle and if she does good and enjoys it then someone may be getting a rifle this Christmas. The issue I'm running into with early fitting and holding training is she wants to cross eyes, and it's not a eye dominant problem, when she holds it right handed she leans her head and looks left eyed, so I handed it back left handed and she leaned over and sighted with her right eye.

Her eyes are 20x20 and she's like a hawk spotting stuff so I know its not a vision issue either.

Edited November 6, 2013 by JayC