Right hand to left

[Banjoman]

Has anyone here ever swapped from shooting right handed to left handed or vice versa?  I'm right handed and have always shot that way however the last few years eyesight in my right eye is not as good as my left eye.  I'm considering swapping from right handed shooting to left handed because I can see the sights more clearly.  I've shot modern guns a few times this way but never a flintlock.

[axelp]

I went from left handed shooting all my life to shooting right handed about 6 years ago? It was not a hard transition for rifle from a rest, but it screwed with my shotgun clay shooting for a time. I used to be pretty good wing shooter but I have always been a sorry rifle shot.

[DGB]

Re,

Right to left for about 11 years now. No problem ,even with right hand flinters.
Just a little while to get used to recoil on that wimpy left shoulder!

Good luck,
Regards, Dave

[Clark Badgett]

Shooting is the only thing I am fully ambidextrous with.

[Banjoman]

So no trouble shooting right hand flintlock left handed?

[thelongrifle]

It seems that about half of the deer I shoot I wind up shooting left handed because they come from the wrong direction. Also turkeys. It’s not hard to swap up.

[Bob McBride]

I shot right handed flintlocks left handed until this year. I recently switched to shooting all my long guns right handed, contemporary or traditional. I did this because I'm cross eye dominant lefty and it was starting to become an issue. To make a change like that you have to seriously train yourself. I stood in my shop the day I decided to switch and shouldered and took a bead with my gun about 100x right handed. Same thing for the next few days. The hardest part of the switch was learning to shoulder from a left hand carry, which I still do. Repetition until your brain flips the switch. It was easier than I thought.

[Daniel Coats]

My optometrist tells me my dominant eye is trying to switch sides. Maybe I should stop fighting it and try shooting the same way? I'm buying new guns though just putting that out there.

[Carney Pace]

I have been shooting Right handed flintlocks for over 50 years .  Left handed flintlocks are backwards for me.
Only problem you will run into if the Right handed flintlock has cast off, It recoils into your cheek.
It also messes with photographers, They set up for a right handed shooter and then you present them with your best side.

Carney

[MuskratMike]

As a person who is strictly right handed (left only good for holding the forearm of my rifle) but left eye dominate I just can't make changing work for me so I don't shoot left handed. They tell me it's one of the reasons for my poor ability to shoot pistols of any kind. Too old to change and never been much of a belly-gun guy anyway.

[Old Salt]

I have shot with ether hand since I was ten years old. My dad told me to learn both ways, saying you never know when you may lose the hand on either side. Dad lost his right arm just below the elbow in the second WW2

[flintlock hunter]

I'm right handed but left eye dominant, so I have always shot left handed. I stopped building left hand flintlocks twenty or so years ago and only build and shot right handed rifles now. I didn't want to leave my kids and grandkids a bunch of left handed guns. It has never been a problem for me, and it will definitely teach you to keep your head down till the gun goes off!

[john bohan]

we had a guy at our bow club that we always laughed at his shooting skills,then he found that he was shooting with the wrong eye, he switched and that ended his problems.

[Daryl]

Some years back, a buddy of mine went blind in his right eye and had to change to left handed shooting.
There was quite a turmoil for a while, but he took up indoor air rifle shooting and now shooting left handed
feels right for him. I ended up with all of his Ron Fox (Oregon) yew and glass longbows.
Depending your age, the change can be painful or not. I would expect the older you are, the worse it would be.
He was in his late 50's when it happened & although he didn't like changing over, he didn't have a choice.

[Banjoman]

I've shot other types of guns both left and right handed just not a flintlock and then just for fun.  What got me thinking about this was the fact that I can see sights more clearly with my left eye.  Then I was watching the Folk Firearms Collective and saw a couple guys there shooting right handed muzzle loaders left handed.

I actually passed up a good deal a while back on a good left handed flintlock and now think maybe I should have bought it.

[Plainsman53]

Bob,

I'm not sure I followed correctly.  Are you left handed, or are you right handed with left dominant eye?  If the latter, that gives me hope I could switch eye dominance with enough work.

Bryan

[Bob McBride]

Bob,

I'm not sure I followed correctly.  Are you left handed, or are you right handed with left dominant eye?  If the latter, that gives me hope I could switch eye dominance with enough work.

Bryan

I’m a natural lefty with a dominant right eye. I’m pretty much cross dominant with everything. I kick a ball like a righty, etc. I still shoot pistols lefty as it’s not an issue to cock my head and shoot with the right eye. But yeah, I changed sides with long guns over to my dominant eye side. You can do it. Just takes repetition, which can be knocked out in your pajamas. 

[Clark Badgett]

So no trouble shooting right hand flintlock left handed?

Not a problem with me. I do have to close my right eye when I shoot lefty though. I shoot both eyes open right handed.

[oldtravler61]

  Always shot either way...until I had a pacemaker put in. Then Eye ( pun intended ) had to pick a side...So I went right eye...
 Even though I'm left eye dominant.  Always was a weird duck
so why change now...   Oldtravler

[smokinbuck]

I shot RH until 20 years ago and lost the use of my right eye. Was having difficulty switching to LH so while practicing I built a sight on one of my rifles that allowed me to shoot RH with my left eye. Eventually went lefty with little or no problem.

[JHB]

I am right handed and left eye dominant. Most of my life I shot rifles right handed. Because of an astigmatism and cataracts i had to switch. Funny thing I can see iron sights reasonably well but shooting from the left shoulder still feels odd after two years. Shooting handguns I didn't realize I was using my dominant eye all along.

[smylee grouch]

Went to one of those Rondezvos and range master had every one load up and step to the line to shoot at loly pops but said this was a trade gun match so every one had to trade guns with the shooter to their right. My trade was a lefty with a left hand flinter. My first attempt at left hand shooting a flinter but since then have shot two deer left handed with a right hand flinter because of conditions at the time. I got lucky and made the shots all three times. 

[axelp]

After a lifetime of shooting left-handed, I switched to right and it took time to adjust, but not bad.  I actually think that since left-handed folks live in a predominantly right handed world, we are used to adapting. I think many if not all left handed people lean ambidextrous. I know I do.

K

[Bob McBride]

After a lifetime of shooting left-handed, I switched to right and it took time to adjust, but not bad.  I actually think that since left-handed folks live in a predominantly right handed world, we are used to adapting. I think many if not all left handed people lean ambidextrous. I know I do.

K

Agree 100%. Doesnt take too many years of sitting at someone else's desk and using their mouse on the wrong side, etc. etc. etc. to get the right handed world figured out...

[Mike from OK]

I'm right handed, left eye dominant. I just do the best I can.

Mike