Left Hand rifle vs adjusting to standard (right)

[pineoak]

At what point do you decide to go with a LEFT handed bolt gun?

As opposed to just shooting a right handed gun so you can run other people's guns?

 

[Gary/CO]

Raipd operation of the bolt. Dominant right hand remains on the pistol grip and non dominant left hand operates the bolt.

 

[alpine_troop]

Raipd operation of the bolt. Dominant right hand remains on the pistol grip and non dominant left hand operates the bolt.

Huh? This does not sound like you’re talking about a standard configuration left or right handed bolt action

 

[Gary/CO]

Think right hander using left handed bolt.

Faster shooting since you don't have to re-establish your grip. Since the grip isn't released, the gun also remains on target.

 

[StrayDog]

I'm Left handed and Left eye dominant--everything feels better with a LH rifle.
Prone is quicker, barricades are quicker, ease of movement is reduced and simplified.
And blowback gasses are less likely to harm me, as I know from experience with a low pressure .308 round that shot gas at me from my old RH FN SPR extractor channel (my own handload's fault).
My $0.02: If you are at all even curious about being a lefty and shooting a LH rifle, try one out or just take the plunge, it's worth it and today there are SO many more options that the days of old.

 

[One1Bravo]

I'm Left handed and Left eye dominant--everything feels better with a LH rifle.
Prone is quicker, barricades are quicker, ease of movement is reduced and simplified.
And blowback gasses are less likely to harm me, as I know from experience with a low pressure .308 round that shot gas at me from my old RH FN SPR extractor channel (my own handload's fault).
My $0.02: If you are at all even curious about being a lefty and shooting a LH rifle, try one out or just take the plunge, it's worth it and today there are SO many more options that the days of old.

Agreed. I'm a lefty and shot right handed rifles for years. I decided to build my first lefty in 2019. I immediately sold all my right handed rifles and started over. While what @Gary/CO is saying sounds good in theory, it just doesn't work...at least for me.

 

[k80titus]

What about left eye dominant, right hand?

 

[Badjujuu]

Agreed. I'm a lefty and shot right handed rifles for years. I decided to build my first lefty in 2019. I immediately sold all my right handed rifles and started over. While what @Gary/CO is saying sounds good in theory, it just doesn't work...at least for me.

Ditto.. life too short

 

[StrayDog]

What about left eye dominant, right hand?

HMFIC Frank is too, iirc, and he drives RH rifles, just trained his eyes to adjust.
YMMV.
I guess it all depends on what kind of and what level of shooting you aspire to?

 

[alpine_troop]

My situation: Left eye dominant; left hand fine motor skill dominant (like handwriting and such); right side musculature dominant, as in I kick and throw and drive off my hips faster and stronger in my right half.

My primary weapon side is my left, just always felt more natural. Started off with pistols and righty ARs shot from my left side. When it came time to buy my first bolt rifle, I chose right handed without hesitation. Couple reasons why: work issues a right handed bolt gun, period. I either adapt and work that issued platform or I don’t get to fill that role. Secondly, being one who likes to try out and upgrade somewhat frequently in my pursuits, I considered resale value of my first guns.

I do find some advantages to being a lefty working a right handed action: as Gary/CO was pointing out, my left firing hand always controls and drives the rifle. Works great on many positions. My right hand runs the bolt, reloads, works the scope, stabilizes the forend, etc. I can clearly see into the chamber with my right eye while barely breaking my cheek weld. I’ve found a manual of arms that is very fast and efficient for working a wrong-handed rifle, but then again I do feel the drawbacks.

All that to say, I have a spare barrel laying around and I have thought a lot about turning it into a lefty build for my next rifle…just to see what I’m missing.

 

[alpine_troop]

Think right hander using left handed bolt.

Faster shooting since you don't have to re-establish your grip. Since the grip isn't released, the gun also remains on target.

Tracking now. That’s what I figured you were saying. This is how I shoot, and I find it to be very speedy off tripod or barricades

 

[Badjujuu]

Right on, going from RH to dedicated LH i do see the points made above - certainly miss the ability to look inside the action with my right eye to ensure everything is working properly as well be able to run the bolt without letting grip. It was quick.

With that being said, i am more comfortable on my LH rifle and my match scores reflect that. My right hand can support my rifle on positional shooting and let me stay on target and I've gotten quick with my bolt using my left hand.

Give me a LH bolt action with ability to see inside the action with my right eye and im all in.

 

[Txhillbilly]

Left eyed, Right handed here. Grew up shooting RH gun's left handed, never an issue. I learned to shoot RH almost as well in my late teens, but it's just natural to shoot LH for me. I still own a couple RH bolt actions, but 95% of all my bolt action rifles are LH.

 

[EJ1001]

Left eyed, right handed as well. Still have my RT handers, but every new rifle is LH. Yes, you can train yourself to shoot RH, but why? If LH is natural and easy, go with it. Spend the time and energy bettering your rifleman skills.

 

[Brym427]

Left eye, right handed. Right handed guns are most comfortable to me

 

[jakelly]

What about left eye dominant, right hand?

I’m left eye dominant, but RH. When I was a youngster I couldn’t even close my left and not right. Only one winker worked. I have always shot LH. I personally think that the eye dominance should make the determination (that’s how I voted). If the dominance is slight, maybe that’s different, but my kids shoot whichever way their eyes work. And they use appropriate handed weapons ARs, shotguns, etc, that’s a nonnegotiable safety factor, I could not live with myself if my RH daughter was blinded shooting my LH rifle.

Also, this conversation about lefties shooting RH rifles is nonsensical. It’s a large concession, as evidenced by the total number of RH shooters using LH rifles (0).

 

[Gary/CO]

Yeah that's great....until you have to shoot from any position other than a bench....

Try racking the bolt while kneeling, standing, or from a slung position.

You can't do it? The historical documentary Saving Ryan's Privates has the actor doing it.

To each his own. I'm a southpaw and left eye dominant. I've some left handed bolts but it doesn't bother me to use a right handed bolt on my left shoulder. It is what it is.

BTW, there's a WW 2 story of a Ghurka whose right hand was disabled by a grenade. Despite this, he challenged, "I am a Ghurka, come out and fight me!" He operated his SMLE with his left hand and slew a lot of the sons of land o' the rising sun.

 

[swampbuck]

It just depends what you shoot. My oldest son is left handed and shoots left handed and I am building him a left handed rifle. Is he left or right eyed dominant? I don't know. I never took the time to check because he is going to shoot left handed regardless. Fortunately with today's scopes eye dominance isn't as important as it used to be with iron sights. Most people can see plenty good through a scope with either eye and I have always closed my other eye. Sure there are some coaches out there that coach to keep both eyes open, but like I say With modern scopes I have no problem holding 1/3 MOA. So it is up to what dominant Hand in my opinion. I guess some people are ambidextrous and in that case shoot with your dominant eye but at least in my son's case he just won't do it. If his dominant eye happens to be left that just gravy but either way we is going to write, wipe and shoot lefty.

 

[shoots100]

If shooting a right hand action rifle is said to be so much easier for a left handed shooter, why don't you see a lot of right handed shooters shooting left hand rifles ?
When I was a teenager, I was seriously injured in a dirt bike accident and I lost vision in my right eye and had partial left side paralysis for awhile.
I had to learn to do everything right handed physically and left eye dominant.
As my vision improved in my right eye and the left side paralysis went away, I became ambidextrous.
My left eye has better vision than my right eye, so I prefer shooting left handed, with left handed rifles.

SJC

 

[Rudy Gonsior]

You can't do it? The historical documentary Saving Ryan's Privates has the actor doing it.

To each his own. I'm a southpaw and left eye dominant. I've some left handed bolts but it doesn't bother me to use a right handed bolt on my left shoulder. It is what it is.

BTW, there's a WW 2 story of a Ghurka whose right hand was disabled by a grenade. Despite this, he challenged, "I am a Ghurka, come out and fight me!" He operated his SMLE with his left hand and slew a lot of the sons of land o' the rising sun.

So you are citing Hollywood as a viable source?

This is a about the worst advice I’ve seen all day and falls flat on it’s face the moment you get of the bench and need to shoot and move with any quickness. The support hand drives the gun, not the firing hand. To constantly have the support hand manipulating the action means you’re having to break the position between each shot and then rebuild the position, which is incredibly inefficient to say the least. Which is why nobody who’s serious about it actually does it unless for to by extreme circumstances.

As to the solution, eye dominance can be over come fairly easy, and in some studies it suggests cross dominance actually seems improves processing speeds. But when it comes to hand dominance it’s best to stick with a matching action.

 

[Gary/CO]

Not Hollywood for left handed bolt guns. They were discussed quite a bit back when The Tactical Rifle magazine was still around.

 

[EKane]

So you are citing Hollywood as a viable source?

This is a about the worst advice I’ve seen all day and falls flat on it’s face the moment you get of the bench and need to shoot and move with any quickness. The support hand drives the gun, not the firing hand. To constantly have the support hand manipulating the action means you’re having to break the position between each shot and then rebuild the position, which is incredibly inefficient to say the least. Which is why nobody who’s serious about it actually does it unless for to by extreme circumstances.

As to the solution, eye dominance can be over come fairly easy, and in some studies it suggests cross dominance actually seems improves processing speeds. But when it comes to hand dominance it’s best to stick with a matching action.

 

[EKane]

Lot of confusion out there but from a guy who learned the hard way eye dominance ALWAYS dictates shoulder when shooting shotgun or rifle. Anything less is sacrificing accuracy. Army did alot of studies on cross eye dominance back in the 90s. Long story short shooters who shoot cross dominant suck by a statistically significant margin. Can it be done, yes. Would I start a new shooter out at such a disadvantage HELL NO.
To put is simply cross eye dominant shooters that want to win move the gun to the weakside shoulder.
Furthermore, while shooting supported, you can run the rifle faster weakside bolt. That logically makes sense as cheek weld and trigger hand remain in contact with the rifle and drive while the weak side runs the bolt.
The King of 2 Miles runs weak side bolt.

Weakside Bolt Placement — When and Why It Works « Daily Bulletin

Most bolt-action rifle shooters work the bolt with their trigger-pulling hand. This is because most rifles sold to right-handed shooters come with right-side bolts, while lefty rifles come with left-side bolts.

bulletin.accurateshooter.com

Hopefully between the video and the article we can all become better shooters
Good day

 

[22lfb]

I went with what felt natural for me... When I picked up guns, I always put them on the left shoulder, since my left eye is (very) dominant. You could say it's almost dictatoric. If that's a word I didn't just make up... Anyway, I never questioned what's "better" or "right". I consider myself right handed, yet I do a lot of stuff with both hands. But shooting always felt better using my left shoulder, so that's what I went with. And these days there's a LOT of stuff being done to help out lefty shooters. And even shooting right handed guns is usually no big problem. En contraire; I like being able to immediately look into the ejection port of my AR, p.e.

tl;dr - go with what feels right correct to YOU!

 

[Pete B]

Agreed. I'm a lefty and shot right handed rifles for years. I decided to build my first lefty in 2019. I immediately sold all my right handed rifles and started over. While what @Gary/CO is saying sounds good in theory, it just doesn't work...at least for me.

100% solid theory, shame it didn't work for me either. Your non dominant hand is far better of maintaining you rear bag or rifle balance on a prop, than the dominant hand remaining on the pistol grip.
Don't waste your time or we would all be doing it.
Pete

 

[Vodoun daVinci]

I am left eye dominant/right handed. Shooting right handed long guns works well foe me as being right handed, a left hand setup is just plain awkward.

Years ago my older brother, also left eye dominant, retrained his eye dominance and encouraged me to do it. In the process I began having depth perception issues, migraines, difficulty concentrating and sleeping etc.

Brain side dominance follows eye dominance. Right brain dominant people process visual information differently than left brain dominant people. Fucking with it especially after your brain has finished hard wiring itself doesn't always work out for everyone/easily.

Take care when screwing with eye dominance. It's not always a good idea.

VooDoo

 

[mike278]

Raipd operation of the bolt. Dominant right hand remains on the pistol grip and non dominant left hand operates the bolt.

I've wondered about that for a while, so now I'm building a left handed rifle to try that. My son is a lefty, so it won't be a total loss if it doesn't work out for me.