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Change to left handed?
- Thread starter JBoomhauer
- Start date
Can't do tommorow's event, but will make the 15th for the March COF.
Serious about the lefties, but you'll have to shoot a .308 ?
Serious about the lefties, but you'll have to shoot a .308 ?
I'm finding this to be very true. I'm right handed right eye dominant shooter switching to a LH action this season. The only problem i've discovered so far is some barricade/tank trap stages are RH shooter biased.
Did some left handed shooting today. It did not seem to hurt my impacts any And the reticle was a lot easier to focus on.
The positions felt a little bit odd compared to normal, but a few hours of practice should get rid of that feeling. They were also slightly slower to build, being left hand right bolt the action was a little slower to run and I had to rebuild a little after each shot.
Overall it wasn’t bad and I will continue to shoot lefty for a bit.
The positions felt a little bit odd compared to normal, but a few hours of practice should get rid of that feeling. They were also slightly slower to build, being left hand right bolt the action was a little slower to run and I had to rebuild a little after each shot.
Overall it wasn’t bad and I will continue to shoot lefty for a bit.
I am left handed, and left eye dominant. I have both right hand and left hand bolt rifles. I see very little reason if you have a bunch of right hand rifles to switch to left bolt rifles, just shoot the right hand rifles from the left side, it works great. Most shoots are support off of bags, backpacks, barricades or bi-pod, keep your left hand on the grip, finger in the trigger guard and crank the bolt with your right hand it is very fast, the only reason a left hand person needs a left bolt is to shoot off hand. The only time I use my left bolt rifles are dangerous game hunting in Africa. Shooting steel or deer hunting I use right bolt rifles from the left side.
Every firearm I own, I shoot it left and right handed. Handguns, shotguns, rifles, all of them. My kids get made at me because I bet them I can outshoot them off handed. I always thought it would be a good idea to be able to shoot with either hand.
YMMV
YMMV
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I looked her up. You’ve searched this long to find a single amateur trap shooter that says you can can shoot with one eye closed? You do have some tenacity. Not taking away anything from the lady, but trap is by far the easiest shotgun sport out there. You will routinely see a 30-40 people shoot a perfect score then have to shoot several hundred more before a winner is crowned. Find me a professional shooter in sporting clays to international skeet that agrees to that theory you can shoot one eyed and be the best of the best.
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So as an update I have been shooting lefty since the above post. It really has not been a handicap at all. I feel like I have a lot more relaxed focus on the reticle.
The right bolt, left handed thing has been a small issue mostly rebuilding position. Eventually I will probably purchase a left bolt action and trigger.
The right bolt, left handed thing has been a small issue mostly rebuilding position. Eventually I will probably purchase a left bolt action and trigger.
I’m in the same boat. I made the switch to LH shooting and love it. It feels better/more natural
Yup, safety’s on the wrong side. If it had a bolt release that would be on the wrong side too.
That ain't how it works bro.
Dominant eye looks straight ahead, the other one is crooked. It's necessary for stereo vision otherwise shit would always look flat and you wouldn't have depth perception. Portrait painters notice every detail, look at some old paintings and you'll notice that one eye is almost always a bit crooked. Some folks it's more pronounced, I used to know a guy that could see around corners without turning his head (that's a joke, not one he liked, in case you didn't get that).
In SDM school (the real one before AMU cannibalized the real one) we taught using the dominant eye. We told 'em right up front that they wouldn't be top gun in that class or score all that well, but that they would come out the other end being able to manage it. We gave 'em pirate eye patches to help. Boy did some of them have a hard time. These young men deployed to Iraq and employed what they were taught and they did well.
But fact is when they mastered the M4 to it's limits and tried to go back to the other eye, they couldn't do nearly as well. They realized that they could be better. Mind you all these guys shot 40/40 just to get a slot in the school. But popup targets at 300 ain't the same as firing group for score at 600 or hostage targets at 200 or movers at whatever.
If you don't care about using the dominant eye, you'd be better off saving money and picking the cheapest shit scope and slapping that on a Walmart Savage and calling it good because you'll never be able to master quality gear to it's limits. You don't need to concern yourself with things like parallax and bending light since that'll already be bent for 'ya.
Has nothing to do with the hands. That can be learned, the eyes are hardwired.
yea that was the whole point....but u missed it...should have used your dominant eye
I closed one eye to test your theory, everything didn't look FLAT. So "that ain't how it works bro" and if you really think you look through a scope with both eyes maybe you should mount some binoculars on your rifle. Like I said it's called weak side for a reason. New student maybe, having a guy switch 20 years of muscle memory, trade rifles, relearn fundamentals, burn up thousands of dollars in ammo just so they can shoot with both eyes open???? Switch to your weak side for your next match and let us all know.
I switched after 30 years and followed my dominant eye. Shooting better than ever now. And can keep both eyes open behind the scope. I have struggled making the shotgun switch. Shooting archery became much easier shooting with dominant eye vs dominant hand. In the end, do whatever works for you. Wish I had switched decades earlier though.
So something that you have been doing for years right handed feels more natural now that your doing it left handed and this is because you now keep both eyes open?
Reticle focus and the actual shot process yes.
Much more relaxed mentally.
The getting into position and having to rebuild my position due to shooting left hand and right bolt is not natural at all.
I suspect in a few more practice sessions/nrl22 matches things will be quite natural except for the rebuilding after running the bolt.
Worse case scenario I have practiced something that I was not very good at and have another skill.
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Yes sir. I say that as an ex college basketball athlete I understand all about hand dominance. The ability to utilize my dominant eye far outweighed hand dominance. And shooting a lot of 22 LR lefthanded really made the transition quite easy. Worked for me. If I would shoot a few thousand rounds of shotgun lefty I am sure in the end that would be better too.
Side note, both kids are left eye dominant and right handed. I started them out shotgunning and rifle shooting lefthanded. They are quite good at it. Really doesn't matter what other people do, just saying I never shot a rifle great till I made the switch to dominant eye.
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