Thread: Left eye dominant shooter, left handed rifle?

Originally Posted by 223nut

Left handed and use tikkas with left hand bolts.

Will add that if using a rh bolt on the left shoulder try and make use of bipod / tree branch / truck bonnet etc to rest foreend on. With right hand on bolt and left hand on trigger, sight picture is maintained.... bunnies are in trouble with my cz455

Yeah, those Tikka T3x in left hook look like a good bit of kit! Cheers mate, think i'll need to give both left handed and right handed bolts a try before I buy.

Originally Posted by kbrebs

If you shoot left handed pay the extra couple hundy and get a left handed bolty, you will never look back. I started with a right handed rifle which worked fine but having gear that actually fits makes life alot easier.

Good to know you like the lefty mate, think that's the way i'll go too.

One of the more unusual shooting positions I've seen was a bloke who was left handed but had a bung left eye, he used a lefty rifle on his left shoulder but with his head turned sideways to use his right eye. Looked bloody awkward to me.

Having a leftie bolt gives a good excuse not to lend it to your right handed mates in the future as well (if you dont see spending rifles the same as lending out wives)

I'm right handed, but my right eye went blind.

Sooo, now i shoot everything left handed, and bought a slug gun to learn - I'd shot right handed until then. Took a couple of thousand slugs, but perfectly fine now.
Shooting a right handed rifle left handed is not great, especially when you are looking to get a quick second shot away. With the number of left handed rifles available there is no real need to handicap yourself with a handle on the wrong side.

I'm blind in my right eye so have to shoot with my left eye and I'm right handed.

I share my (FTR target) rifles with my right eyed, right handed son.

It works for me.
I can shoot as fast as I need to with the left hand on the trigger and the right hand on the bolt and reloading.
In competition in ideal wind conditions I can fire ten counting shots in less than 3 1/2 minutes.

Originally Posted by Cyclops

I'm blind in my right eye so have to shoot with my left eye and I'm right handed.

I share my (FTR target) rifles with my right eyed, right handed son.

It works for me.
I can shoot as fast as I need to with the left hand on the trigger and the right hand on the bolt and reloading.
In competition in ideal wind conditions I can fire ten counting shots in less than 3 1/2 minutes.

In that style of prone shooting, and BR, some right hand shooters prefer left hand bolts left hand ports, right hand eject. The right hand doesn't get lifted and position lost. Left hand shooters would have everything the opposite. As you point out it makes for quick shooting.

So, your shooting style in FTR may actually give you an advantage particular with quick electronic marking and a constant wind condition. The Ozies call it machine gunning.

Originally Posted by zimmer

In that style of prone shooting, and BR, some right hand shooters prefer left hand bolts left hand ports, right hand eject. The right hand doesn't get lifted and position lost. Left hand shooters would have everything the opposite. As you point out it makes for quick shooting.

So, your shooting style in FTR may actually give you an advantage particular with quick electronic marking and a constant wind condition. The Ozies call it machine gunning.

The fastest I've shot in competition was on a manually marked target at Trentham in the 2020 300 metre competition.
10 shots on each target face, 6 times, in a 75 minute time limit.

I shot the 6 targets in 42 minutes, with 22 minutes being spent letting the barrel cool between target faces.

That's 60 counting shots in 20 minutes, an average of 20 seconds per shot. Had the best marker on the day.

Scored 598/600, using a barrel with a round count of over 5500.

Originally Posted by NRT

I have over the years got left bolts ,but I carry on right shoulder so the bolt digs into back .Just got a 308 BLR and it feels dam good to carry and work the bolt ,I went ok using a right handed bolt in my younger days ,each to there own do what feels the best.

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I was going to say that with lefty rifles being harder to find, try a lever (or would in the past have suggested a pump but that is not practical any more)

I worked in an industry for 20 years where we taught our staff to do thing with both hands. It was a new skill that they would not have used before so teaching both hands is just practise, practise and a bit more practise. I would suggest that you shoot whatever feels most comfortable for you.

And yes, the BLR is a great rifle......

Originally Posted by Cyclops

The fastest I've shot in competition was on a manually marked target at Trentham in the 2020 300 metre competition.
10 shots on each target face, 6 times, in a 75 minute time limit.

I shot the 6 targets in 42 minutes, with 22 minutes being spent letting the barrel cool between target faces.

That's 60 counting shots in 20 minutes, an average of 20 seconds per shot. Had the best marker on the day.

Scored 598/600, using a barrel with a round count of over 5500.

6mmBR?

I am right handed but my right eye isn't too crash hot so I shoot right handed rifles on the left side of my body. Occasionally I'll run into a problem like some Mausers can be tricky to reload prone, but I have never done more than hold a left handed rifle, I am so used so doing it the way I do it that leftie rifles feel very very odd.

If you are left handed/left eyed and looking at buying a rifle get a left hand bolt. No question.

Kinda depends on the style of shooting you do.

If you are a belly flopper like Cyclops, and always shoot (slow) prone, then right bolt works well for lefties.

If you do hunting, or any form of practical shooting, do yourself a favor and invest in a left bolt rifle. You will not look back. It is a lot easier getting quality left bolt rifles these days.

if you cant use right eye...yeah you pretty much have to shoot off left shoulder....the BLR is a awesome rifle but many have trigger that sucks and blows at same time...loved the one we had..... bro in law is cack handed.... we tried to retrain him with no joy...single bakail break open sorted any issue...they dont care which shoulder they are shot off.....

left handed. go left handed. cant imagine many right handers putting up with a left hand rifle. its easier to hold a position while running the bolt ect.