Chapter 347
Kaley and the rest of my group already knew about it because I’ve never stopped teaching them about different theories and concepts though Ilya and Tatiana were already familiar with the subject. Looking at my new students’ reactions, I guess they learned how to shoot by themselves and the teachings from other people.
“The right question is which of your eyes is the dominant one?” I replied back with another question.
“Okay hermano, do tell me.” Mr. Cuervo replied.
“Okay, here is what you two should do. Create a triangle with your thumbs and index fingers then focus on that target far away. Focus on it while holding your hands up in the same position and remember to keep both of your eyes open.” I started.
“Then what?” they asked.
“Your fingers are blurry now, right?” I asked.
They both nodded.
“Okay, continue to focus on the target while slowly bringing your hands back right until you reach your face. Right, like that, slowly~ slowly~ slowly~ Then it’s as simple as that. Good thing you’re both right-handed and right-eye dominant. There are ways to cope with being cross-eye-dominant but being one of many is a good thing in this case.” I smiled.
What happened was when the two slowly retracted their hands, they both ended up in their right eye. I already confirmed that they were also right-handed so that’s a good thing in their situation.
“I see, but what does that have to do with closing our left eye? I also shoot with my left eye closed, why is that a problem if I could hit the targets accurately with my eyes closed?” Mr. Cuervo asked.
“Okay, let me explain my side first. I do both of those things depending on the situation. If I’m using a gun close range or middle range, I always keep both of my eyes open. I only close my other eye if I’m looking through a high-powered scope.” I started.
“But why?” Cynthia asked.
“Closing one of your eyes has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is, if you close your non-dominant eye, you could get the sight picture much faster compared to both of your eyes being open. However, doing that could leave you open to threats coming from the side in which you closed your eye. That is especially dangerous when you’re in a gunfight and bullets are flying left and right. Not to mention, while adrenaline is pumping to your body, it would be difficult to keep your non-dominant eye close while getting the sight picture. While your brain is in the fight or flight mode, it needs to gather every information it could and most of the information we take in is from our eyes. That’s why I only close my non-dominant eye when I’m looking through a high-powered scope and while in a relatively safe spot. I do it mostly when I’m sniping which I rarely do. Even Kaley, you saw her earlier with both eyes open but if she’s on her nest sniping targets which are far away, her non-dominant eye is closed.” I explained.
“B-but doing it with both eyes open makes looking at the sights blurry.” Cynthia added.
“Well, it’s good that you’re asking questions now. It’s just like that at the start if you don’t train yourself. I have a few ways to do that but what could really solve it is to practice every single day. When I was still new, someone from back home taught me a few tricky ways to solve it. The first one is to slightly blur the lens of your eye protection where your non-dominant eye is located. Lather it heavily with maybe a chapstick or something similar first until you get used to it and slowly apply less and less. After time passes, you’ll just suddenly notice that you’re shooting with both eyes open.” I replied.
“And the second one? I think that would take a bit of time.” Mr. Cuervo asked.
“Okay, raise your pistols and look at the sights. Open both of your eyes and I don’t care if it’s blurry. Focus on the front sight on your pistol and maintain that position for a moment.” I said.
The two followed what I ordered. Cynthia raised her M&P while Mr. Cuervo raised his Desert Eagle.
“Good, still blurry, right? Now, what I want you two to do is slowly turn your head on the left.” I added.
“The left?” Mr. Cuervo asked.
“Just do it real slow and stop when you notice the magic happening.” I replied.
The two still did as I asked and when they turned their heads for a few degrees, realization struck. The two almost smiled at the same time when I surmised is when the blurry sights became clear as day.
“Cool, huh? This position is gonna be a bit uncomfortable at first so I still suggest doing the arduous and boring way by practicing every single day.” I concluded.
“Opening the other eye is really that important huh?” Cynthia commented because she was still struggling to keep her other eye open. It would sometimes close when she would fire a couple of rounds.
“Okay, do your usual way and I’ll show you another example.” I replied.
“O-Okay…” she replied and raised her gun while closing her other eye.
While she was in position, I slowly drew my katana and placed it on her blindspot. That blindspot was created due to her closing her dominant eye. It should be several inches away but her eye being close allowed it.
“Okay, this is one more example you should open your eye while using that kind of gun. Slowly open it but no sudden moves.” I said.
“…!” Cynthia flinched when she saw my katana a few centimeters from her other eye so I quickly retracted it and ended my example.
“See? Pun intended.” I chuckled.
Mr. Cuervo started cackling while the others were shaking their head in disappointment.
“Okay, enough joking. That little blindspot you made for yourself would’ve cost you your life already. What more if that’s a person holding a gun? So, I want you to practice that until you could do it without thinking about it.” I explained.
“I see… you said something earlier about being c-cross-eye-dominant? How does that work?” Cynthia asked.
“Well, being cross-eye-dominant means that your dominant eye is on the other side from where your dominant arm is. In their case, they could do a few adjustments from turning their head on the opposite side from where the regular ones do or just train their non-dominant eye to do the same job as to what their dominant eye was supposed to do.” I explained a few things.
“So it would be harder for them?” Cynthia asked.
“You could say that but they would still have advantages. For example, they wouldn’t have as much trouble as you opening their left eye if that’s their dominant eye and the person was right-handed. The problem lies is when they start to use guns with high-powered scopes. Like I said earlier, like myself, I only close my eyes when I use high-powered scopes. When a cross-eye-dominant person closes their dominant-eye while using their non-dominant eye, there could be a few problems.” I explained.
“B-but…” Cynthia trailed.
“Question?” I said.
“Why don’t they just use their other hand?” Mr. Cuervo asked with a furrowed brow.
“Well, this is another example. Watch what I’ll do, okay?” I said as I readied my own pistol.
*psshew*
I fired a shot while keeping my grip steady with two hands but I was mainly holding the gun with my right hand.
Head dead-center.
“Wow…” Cynthia muttered.
“Wait, the example’s not over.” I said before changing my grip much to their surprise.
*psshew*
I fired another shot through a new target while keeping my grip steady with two hands but this time, I changed my grip and I was now mainly holding the gun with my left hand.
Still on the head, dead-center.
“Ummm… What’s the difference?” Cynthia was confused and Kaley was already shaking her head.
“Wait- I can do it right. Hold on, one more shot.” I once again aimed at my sights.
*psshew*
I almost hit the same spot.
Everyone else was losing their minds.
“Okay, that’ll do. I thought I wouldn’t miss- Ack! Kaley! Stop!” I exclaimed while Kaley kicked my shin.
“Show off!” Kaley exclaimed.
“Ahaha… back on topic. That was a bad example because I have control of both my hands. I’m not sure about the exact difficulty of using your non-dominant eye compared to using your non-dominant arm but I think it would be harder to use your non-dominant arm instead if you don’t have control over it. I already know how to use both of my arms before I even managed to start holding guns so I’ll never know.” I explained.
“Wait, you’re ambidextrous?!” Ilya interjected.
“Well, yes. I’m not born with it though. Just trained really hard for it. It involved a lot of free time and a lot of rope.” I replied while making my knuckled crack as I pushed against them one by one.
“Shit, f.u.c.k me, I’m jealous.” Ilya was shaking his head.
“Well, it’s not late to train for it. Kaley is slowly making progress with her left hand and I have no idea about Tatiana because she’s not showing me clues. Kaley could shoot with her left hand but the time for each shot is several times longer.” I replied.
“I’m still trying to make Hexa-loading smooth.” Tatiana chuckled.
“Wait. Kaley, you’re right-eye dominant like me, right?” Cynthia asked.
“Yeah, why do you ask?” Kaley replied.
“Sky said that you could shoot with your other hand. Does that mean you trained your non-dominant hand and your non-dominant arm at the same time? That’s what you did right? How-” Cynthia was about to finish her sentence but Kaley cut her off.
“No, I just trained on my non-dominant arm while still using my dominant eye. It would be too hard to train both at the same time with all the things we do every day.” Kaley explained while showing her left hand then pointing to her right eye.
“W-w-wait, I’m confused now.” Cynthia closed her eyes to think.
“It’s really simple. To be able to shoot with her non-dominant arm while using her dominant eye, she just did the adjustments a cross-eye-dominant shooter would do normally. Simple, right? Well, if you followed what we talked about earlier.” I explained with a smile.