should I shoot right handed or left.

[bullfrog99]

I do alright for myself at ranges under 35 yards off the bench with a sidearm, but when I practice offhand my groups are usually hit or miss (no pun intended). I have put quite a few rounds(meaning a dozen or so 550 round packs of 22 rimfire) down range out of several different handguns but I don't seem to be improving. oddly enough I seem to actually double my accuracy when I aim at cans or other targets placed on the backstop instead of a paper target(can hit a pop can 3 out of 5 times but may perhaps get only one or two hits on a paper plate sized bullseye). I want to ask your opinion as to if you think I shoud start shooting left handed. I am a right handed person but I am blind in my right eye so when I shoot rifles I shoot from the left shoulder. I never really thought to shoot handguns with my left however until I noticed in a mirror that when i present my gun my head is tilted quite a bit to the right to get my left eye over to the sight plane. Could this be hurting my aim somehow?

 

[10-Ring]

I'm left eye dominant & shoot right handed w/ handguns, left handed long guns. Stick w/ shooting w/ your strong hand
Now, as for your situation. Hitting the cans is easier because all you're after is hitting it, while on paper, you're after printing a particular group w/ the shots you put down range.
35 yards is a pretty long distance to shoot a handgun (at least while you're learning.) Bring your paper targets in to about 25 FEET and then start practice your off hand shooting. Put ALOT of rounds in at that distance & make sure you master all the basics before the target moves farther away.
Good luck!

 

[C.R.Sam]

What 10 ring said.

Plus....I don't think it matters which hand/eye combo you use as long as you consistantly have a good sight picture through the trigger pull.

A few world class shooters have been "wrong eyed" shooters.

You don't indicate your area; likely there is at least one good coach type on this board near you and willing to work with you a bit.

Sam

 

[happy old sailor]

10 ring told you straight about the difference in popping cans off a fence post or whatever and shooting paper. you are satisfied with an anywhere hit on the can and want a one hole group on the paper. hit one, miss the other, it is all in your head, not in your left or right hand.

cr sam mentions consistancy in sight alignment and trigger control. absolutely. master this and you become a master shooter.

back to the paper plate. a gun shoots where you point it. if you shoot at the plate and hit the dirt, the gun was pointed in the dirt when it went off. make sense? maintain sight alignment and accept your wobble. work on trigger control. everything can be perfect until you mess up on the trigger. another dirt shot.

if you are hitting pop cans at 35 yards, you already know quite a bit about shooting a handgun. all you need do is perfect what you know.

 

[WT]

right handed.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I'd guess you should probably shoot right-handed, but it may well prove worth your while to learn to shoot with both hands, right, and left.

Here's a trick that helped me enormously: instead of sighting in your pistol at the center of the bullseye, adjust your sights so the front and rear line up with the bottom of the black circle in the center. This "six o'clock hold," as it's known in bullseye shooting circles, is an aid to accuracy for most shooters.

A friend suggested shooting at blank sheets of paper. The idea made absolutely no sense to me, but once I got around to trying it, it helped.

Dry-shooting fifty rounds every day will make a noticeable difference in a month's time.

It may be worth your while to have your eyes checked.

 

[larryw]

Keep shooting how you are, just change how you aim at the paper targts.

I'll bet the reason you hit the cans so well is you're aiming at a specific small target, but when shooting at paper, you're shooting at a rather large area. Try putting a small bright red or yellow sticker in the middle of the target and aim at nothing but that.

Aim small, miss small.

 

[bullfrog99]

thanks for the advice everyone, I'll shorten my range and try the other suggestions everyone gave.

 

[243_shooter]

bullfrog, don't feel to bad..

Give me a big target (say IPSC target) and I can shoot silver dollar sized groups all day long...

Give me a soda can, I can dance it all over the yard...

Give me a standard size paper target, and it looks like it was shot with a shotgun, with at least 10% rounds not even hitting the target

I figure it must be something to do with my sight alignment, but haven't quite been able to figure it out.. Gives me a good excuse to go shooting to try and figure it out though.

Leo

 

[Delmar]

I'm right eye dominant and left handed. I shoot right handed and there is one advantage....as my right hand is weaker than my left, I seem to get a more sensitive feeling for the trigger. When I'm shooting double action revolvers, its easy for me to bring the hammer up just short of release and hold it there prior to pressing the trigger through.
The disadvantage is holding a heavy pistol one handed-I do much better with my left hand.

 

[geekWithA.45]

Cant your pistol about 15 degrees...

Try shooting right handed, but cant your pistol about 15 degrees towards your dominant eye. This did wonders for my right handed wife, who is also blind in her right eye.

In fact, everyone should do this when shooting "weak" handed.

 

[kmays]

The shooting world is no friend of the left handed shooter.

You will be asking for a lot of grief if you want to shoot left handed. Most guns are set up for right handed users.

I am left eye dominant but right handed. I have managed to overcome this by shooting with an isoceles stance and both eyes open. I believe you will likely see an improvement as well with this technique.

 

[Lennyjoe]

I am a left hand shooter. Left eye dominant. Shoot everything left handed. Im right handed doing everything else.

So I was out at the range last week and shot quite a few rounds out of my handguns right handed just to see if there was any difference.

My accuracy was better shooting left handed but I did feel a little better with control using my right hand. So now I got myself thinking that maybe I should stick to right handed with handguns. Gonna keep practicing right handed too to see if my accuracy comes in. If it does I just might start carrying right handed.

Your right about one thing. Most shooting sports are geared to right hand users. Just gotta shop around. I do alot of special ordering for holsters and such for left handed items.

Both of my handguns arent left handed models. Just learn to use other fingers to do the work. Ambi Safeties and such are a plus.

 

[TamThompson]

Lennyjoe,
Me, too--left-handed and left-eye-dominant. Hosters usually have to be special ordered. Last IDPA match I shot in, we started inside an old junked car and had to immediately draw and fire 3 shots into a carjacker target that was just outside the passenger window. I was worried about getting hot brass thrown in my face, but I had the presence of mind to stick my left hand WAY over across my body so that hot brass didn't fly in my face.

On the positive side, when we carry under a vest, a BG looking to grab our gun will most likely grab the wrong side, thus giving us warning.

 

[gconan]

Left eye, right handed. Shoot with both @ the Range. Have become more accurate shooting left handed with both eyes open. Feels unnatural shooting rifles and shotguns lefty, but have succesfully transitioned with pistols.