Becoming competent left handed with a right handed bolt action

[AndLovingIt]

I am right handed, right eye dominant, shoot bolt actions with both eyes open. I want to get much better with using my left hand, left eye and shoulder, for reasons. Of course the answer is just do it and go shoot a lot. But.

Do you have any suggestions on techniques for getting positioned properly on a right handed rifle? Do I just mirror my right handed positions ? Trigger, eye relief, lop, left hand on trigger, right on bag, cycle the action with the right hand, etc. or is shooting left handed by a righty better done some other way?

I don’t want to buy a dedicated left handed rifle

Thanks for any tips from those that have done it.

 

[Nik H]

I shoot LH with an LH rifle and practice shooting it RH. I am left eye dominant. I also shoot with both eyes open.

I found that repetitive practice (dry firing) significantly improves your ability to shoot with the opposite hand. It is a muscle memory thing.

YMMV

 

[AndLovingIt]

I shoot LH with an LH rifle and practice shooting it RH. I am left eye dominant. I also shoot with both eyes open.

I found that repetitive practice (dry firing) significantly improves your ability to shoot with the opposite hand. It is a muscle memory thing.

YMMV

Is your position on the rifle when you are shooting right handed a direct mirror of the left NPA? Are you able to use the same lop and eye box? Or do you adjust the rifle/chassis. Yes shooting and dry firing is the way. Just don’t atm have a mentor to look at my position on the gun to adjust things, so I am going to have to wing it. All good.

Thanks

 

[Sheldon N]

I'm a righty but practice a lot shooting left hand/weak side since we encounter it from time to time in competition. Dry fire is 100% the answer.

For positional/barricade shooting I shoot pretty much exact mirror image of how I shoot right handed. Free hand on top of the scope, both eyes open. Only differences are how I run the bolt (using the non-trigger hand rather than the trigger hand), and how I transition from position to position. For strong side shooting transitions I keep my right trigger hand on the grip as I move the bag with the off hand. For weak side shooting transitions I move the gun with my right hand, grabbing it by the balance point in front of the mag well, pulling it across my body. In either scenario I'm still moving the bag with my left hand.

For weak sided prone shooting it's a bit more difficult since your non-trigger hand has to both run the bolt AND control the rear bag. That means if you let go of the rear bag to cycle the action the gun can very easily go off target. My approach to fix this is to try to stack the rear bag tall when I first build the position so that I'm smashing the bag down to get the reticle to come up onto the target. This way when I let go of the rear bag to cycle the bolt the bag/buttstock doesn't collapse and the reticle can stay on target better.

The most challenging things I found were 1) learning how to accurately point the rifle weak side and quickly acquire targets in the scope and 2) teaching my brain to pay attention to the scope image rather than what my right eye is seeing (forcing eye dominance rather than just closing the off eye).

Also don't poke yourself in the right eye with your thumb when running the bolt. That hurts, a lot.

 

[AndLovingIt]

I'm a righty but practice a lot shooting left hand/weak side since we encounter it from time to time in competition. Dry fire is 100% the answer.

For positional/barricade shooting I shoot pretty much exact mirror image of how I shoot right handed. Free hand on top of the scope, both eyes open. Only differences are how I run the bolt (using the non-trigger hand rather than the trigger hand), and how I transition from position to position. For strong side shooting transitions I keep my right trigger hand on the grip as I move the bag with the off hand. For weak side shooting transitions I move the gun with my right hand, grabbing it by the balance point in front of the mag well, pulling it across my body. In either scenario I'm still moving the bag with my left hand.

For weak sided prone shooting it's a bit more difficult since your non-trigger hand has to both run the bolt AND control the rear bag. That means if you let go of the rear bag to cycle the action the gun can very easily go off target. My approach to fix this is to try to stack the rear bag tall when I first build the position so that I'm smashing the bag down to get the reticle to come up onto the target. This way when I let go of the rear bag to cycle the bolt the bag/buttstock doesn't collapse and the reticle can stay on target better.

The most challenging things I found were 1) learning how to accurately point the rifle weak side and quickly acquire targets in the scope and 2) teaching my brain to pay attention to the scope image rather than what my right eye is seeing (forcing eye dominance rather than just closing the off eye).

Also don't poke yourself in the right eye with your thumb when running the bolt. That hurts, a lot.

Thank for the detailed reply. Not poking my eye out is a gem I was hoping for.

Reading through, it appears you make a decision real time to use your left hand and do not adjust the rifle at all, (cheek height/LOP, or whatever other adjustments you might have on your system) but adjust your body position to the rifle. Makes sense. Time would be a factor.

Does your POI shift significantly when doing this? have you found that after lots of dry fire and range time that your accuracy is much different between the two?

What shooting I have done left handed so far has surprised me in that on paper, I am still within an MOA on my POI up to 200. I have not gone further yet. Lots of dry fire and range time in front of me. Yea, threaten me with a good time. lol

Thanks again

 

[Sheldon N]

Thank for the detailed reply. Not poking my eye out is a gem I was hoping for.

Reading through, it appears you make a decision real time to use your left hand and do not adjust the rifle at all, (cheek height/LOP, or whatever other adjustments you might have on your system) but adjust your body position to the rifle. Makes sense. Time would be a factor.

Does your POI shift significantly when doing this? have you found that after lots of dry fire and range time that your accuracy is much different between the two?

What shooting I have done left handed so far has surprised me in that on paper, I am still within an MOA on my POI up to 200. I have not gone further yet. Lots of dry fire and range time in front of me. Yea, threaten me with a good time. lol

Thanks again

Correct, no adjustments to the rifle. It's set up pretty neutral so it works fine with either hand.

The choice of when I shoot left handed is usually dictated by the match director at a competition. They will either require it in the course of fire, or they will set up a shooting position where it's not physically possible to get your body behind the rifle and still shoot right handed.

I haven't noticed a POI shift, and accuracy doesn't seem much different. I'm just a bit slower and sometimes not as good with making a perfect trigger press or managing recoil and spotting my shots. Gotta keep practicing.

 

[Nik H]

Is your position on the rifle when you are shooting right handed a direct mirror of the left NPA? Are you able to use the same lop and eye box? Or do you adjust the rifle/chassis. Yes shooting and dry firing is the way. Just don’t atm have a mentor to look at my position on the gun to adjust things, so I am going to have to wing it. All good.

Thanks

No adjustments on the rifle