Tips for a Lefty? Just bought my first handgun

[harmon rabb]

btw, a walther p1 / p38 ejects to the left. they're reasonable on the surplus market now. if you're going to shoot lefty, i'd suggest picking one up as a shooter. in a way, they're the grand daddy of the beretta 92.

 

[jeepnik]

best advice i can give, and i'm a lefty: LEARN TO SHOOT WITH YOUR RIGHT HAND. we live in a righty's world. adapt to it. 99% of guns are designed for righty's -- so learn to shoot right handed. simple as that.

when i first started shooting, shooting lefty would've felt more natural. but i knew the reality of the gun world, and just shot righty all the time. now, shooting righty feels natural, and my shooting ain't bad at all these days.

This is the attitude that results in very few left handed firearms. I'm a southpaw, it may be a "right handed world", but I can and have beat it into submission.

There are revolver options that work for lefties. Single action and top break revolvers are fine. And, Charter Arms makes a left handed small frame .38 spl.

Sadly in autos, no one makes a left handed one any more. But, one of the main reasons is the attitude above. If we as left handed shooter would purchase left handed guns, more would be made. But the few that were made suffered poor sales and ultimately failed.

Glocks and similar semi autos work pretty well, but you still have to deal with the case ejection. On those, just forget about the slide release and learn to rack the slide if you run dry. Your right hand is already off the grip, so manipulating the slide isn't a handicap. Just add an ambi mag release and your good to go.

 

[harmon rabb]

This is the attitude that results in very few left handed firearms. I'm a southpaw, it may be a "right handed world", but I can and have beat it into submission.

There are revolver options that work for lefties. Single action and top break revolvers are fine. And, Charter Arms makes a left handed small frame .38 spl.

Sadly in autos, no one makes a left handed one any more. But, one of the main reasons is the attitude above. If we as left handed shooter would purchase left handed guns, more would be made. But the few that were made suffered poor sales and ultimately failed.

Glocks and similar semi autos work pretty well, but you still have to deal with the case ejection. On those, just forget about the slide release and learn to rack the slide if you run dry. Your right hand is already off the grip, so manipulating the slide isn't a handicap. Just add an ambi mag release and your good to go.

Or just learn to shoot left handed when you learn to shoot. You'll feel awkward for your first few times shooting, and that's it, after that it will feel normal.

This is far less effort than constantly having to adapt to firearms designed for righty's.

I have a buddy like you. Refuses to adapt. He recently paid out the arse for a left handed AR (kind of cool that such a thing exists, really). He gets smacked in the face by shell casings of various guns. Has to learn odd ways of pushing mag releases and slide releases. He's always fighting something.

Just doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

edit: note that i suggested a walther p1 / p38 above. it ejects to the left, and you can get them for under $350 on the surplus market right now. definitely the best milsurp choice for a lefty shooter.

 

[87Theworld]

I'm a lefty and left eye dominant. Everything feels a little weird when your new and learning. I never use my slide stop on the m&p just slam in the mag and the slide closes. I have never been hit with brass in my head yet from shooting a rifle idk how that happens. I shoot my sks and ak-47 no problems. The only thing is taking off the safety and using the bolt action on the sks. but For shotguns the Mossberg 500 is very lefty friendly the safety and controls can all be used without ever taking your eyes off the target.

The hardest thing has been finding guns that fit my small hands. The beretta 92 is too large for my hands. 1911 are very customizable for lefties also everyone should have one

 

[Hangingrock]

I don’t like to make generalizations but I believe that with in reason that left-handed people or more adaptable than right-handed people. Left-handed people live in a right-handed world.

The right handed person is most likely never forced to adapt to a difference as their world is set up for them. People emulate their instructors. Since most instructors and students are right-handed the left-handed must either emulate or transpose.

I often hear stories of left-handed individuals claiming to operated right bolt action rifles better that right-handed individuals. Most likely the comparison is invalid because the right-handed person isn’t properly manipulating the bolt action and is withdrawing the rifle from their shoulder as they work the action.

 

[exavid]

I've owned a lot of firearms since I started shooting in 1955. All but two of them were right handed. All of the handguns were. The two left handed guns I owned were a Savage 110L 30-06 and my new Stag Arms AR15. (Stag makes most all of their rifles in left hand versions). I always shot lefty and was lucky in when I was drafted because in 1964 the Army didn't care which side you fired from. On bolt action rifles it's not all that much slower to reach over for the bolt handle, with levers there's no difference, and with auto loaders it doesn't make much difference. I rarely have problems with shells ejecting at me, most go to my right. I do shoot with handguns with my right now and then just to keep in practice but not for target work. If you look around you can find quite a lot of left handed long guns. Not as many as in days past but they're out there. As for adapting to a right handed world and trying to go righty, fuggetaboutit! A lefty should stay what they are. It's a mistake to go with the right handed tyranny! Rise up for your handed-ness, never give up!

 

[harmon rabb]

I don’t like to make generalizations but I believe that with in reason that left-handed people or more adaptable than right-handed people. Left-handed people live in a right-handed world.

The right handed person is most likely never forced to adapt to a difference as their world is set up for them. People emulate their instructors. Since most instructors and students are right-handed the left-handed must either emulate or transpose.

I often hear stories of left-handed individuals claiming to operated right bolt action rifles better that right-handed individuals. Most likely the comparison is invalid because the right-handed person isn’t properly manipulating the bolt action and is withdrawing the rifle from their shoulder as they work the action.

eh, there's more to it than that. and i can say this as a lefty with a bunch of lefty family members. there is pretty much no thing as a true lefty. there IS such a thing as a true righty.

most lefty's i know do some things with their right hand. me, i use a mouse, shoot, and use scissors with my right hand. the shooting was intentional; the mouse and scissions were something that just came naturally as a kid, and i'll just assume that's how i'm wired. heck, my left arm seems stronger, but my right bicep is noticeably larger. also, when doing a test to determine which eye is dominant, it always comes out as my right eye being dominant, which really makes no sense.

so, yeah, lefty's are more adaptable, but that's because at least most lefty's are to some degree ambidextrous. most righty's aren't the least bit ambidextrous. it's not an apples to apples comparison.

my step son is 16. he's a lefty. but he still can't quite figure out which hand to shoot with. for the most part, he shoots right handed, but he always tries doing everything left handed too. he's a pretty decent shot, and shooting with left or right doesn't seem to affect him much. just another example of crossed up lefty's and how we're a lot more adaptable. i make it a point to NOT share my views with him on this (that he should give up and not try to shoot lefty), but i'd say that 8 times out of 10 if you hand him a gun, he'll shoot righty. i try to treat him like a man in areas where he's earned it, and i trust him with guns more than 90% of the idiots at the range, so he's earned the right for me to **** and let him figure it out for himself