What Have They Got Against Southpaws?

[fiddleharp]

Being left-handed and left-eye dominant is a lifelong struggle I wouldn't wish on anybody. A long time ago, when I was young, I heard tales from oldtimers about their childhoods, when schoolteachers would beat any kid they caught trying to write with their left hands. At the time, I thought that was terribly brutal. Now, I can see those oldtime schoolmarms were right. Life as a southpaw is brutal and heartbreaking. Fortunately, us lefties have evolved to be pretty adaptable and persistent.
Don't get me wrong, I am grateful that a few gun companies throw lefties a handful of crumbs now and then. Savage has always been our friend. True, we don't get anything near the caliber and synthetic stock choices that righties get, but at least it's something! That's centerfire.
Rimfire is a whole 'nother story. Where are the left-handed .22 bolt guns? Shame on Marlin, especially!
For generations they've been putting out fine, affordable .22's, and never put out even one lefthanded bolt model.
Why must I go through life a lever shooter? :banghead:
The archery industry has always accomodated left-handed shooters. As far as I know, every hunting and target bow out there comes in a lefthand model. Do the bowmakers go broke doing this? Would it ruin Marlin to put out one lefthand bolt action .22 rifle?! :banghead:
Sorry about the rant. If a mod wants to delete this, go ahead. I just needed to get it off my chest.

 

[JonB]

I hear ya. I am also a left eye dominant shooter, but do almost everything else right handed (except shoot pool). I shoot bow right handed, write right handed etc. I own a few bolt action rifles - but they are my milsurps that I use for killing paper. No big deal.

For a .22 I went with a Marlin 60. AR works great left handed, same with a pump shotgun. But for larger caliber rifles for hunting where a quick follow-up shot may be necessary a right handed bolt just won't do. So I use a Savage 99 lever gun. Too bad you can't get them new anymore though....

At this point in life I probably wouldn't bother with a left handed bolt as I have never shot one and it would probably be less useful to me as I would have to re-learn how to shoot with one. Now if someone were to give me one....guess I would have to suck it up and hit the range

 

[doc2rn]

Lety when it soots me

I was a left handed kid that got smacked with the chalkboard pointer every time I picked up a Crayon with the Left hand. I remember it well, now I am ambidextrous and LOVE it. I do feel for you though.

 

[wally]

My dad was a true ambi -- he could throw a football a bit farther lefty but was a bit more accurate righty, was devestating running the option. Too bad this was back when pro football wasn't a respectable occupation.

After I broke my right arm I discovered I'm ambi enough to get by, bank returned my checks un-paid when I signed them lefty so I had to do new signature cards -- now days they never look at your signature. I learned this after my check re-order was stolen from my mail box.

Your blank checks are good as cash to an illeagal willing to cash all they can and then run back to Mexico. My checks came back with thumb prints of the perp that the check cashing places require, the cops didn't care, less than $50000 fraud losses won't cause them to do anything but take your report! Only happy ending is the Bank refunded all my money since the signatures clearly were not mine. Postal Inspector Scott who I contacted since it was theft from my mailbox, I don't think could find water if he fell out of a boat

I try to do at least 10-25% of my shooting lefty and set my guns up for ambi operation whenever practical. It freaks people out when I sit next to a lefty an a banquet and switch to eating lefty

--wally.

 

[jpwilly]

Me too, lefty! All my bolt guns are righty. I've learned to shoot them just fine but if I need to be cycling the bolt that fast I'll be using one of my autoloaders. I've do have a lefty bolt gun on my list but ordering one from Davidsons or something will be pretty easy.

 

[sacp81170a]

I've been shooting lefty for a long time even though I'm "semi-right-handed". I tried one of those lefty Stag AR's and quickly gave the idea up. I really don't want to relearn how to use a left handed receiver after all these years of learning how to use a right handed gun.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

Lefty who loves Milsurps, yeah, doesn't get much worse then that. I shoot them at the range, at paper, but I've recently been toying with the idea of hunting with them, so far the two candidates are my Mosin 91/30 with PU Scope or a newly acquire Trench Gun. Free standing shots with the Mosin I better make count because I'm done fo rif I need a quick follow up shot, the Trench Gun... Well only problem I forsee with that is the problem I have with most guns, hot cartridges on eject. Nothing like ejecting a mauser round and having it find that perfect gap in your glasses between forehead and top frame and have a hot piece of brass rest on your cheek just under your eye

 

[JWarren]

I suppose that because I grew up in a house full of Right-handed persons and all the guns were Right-handed, I grew up to shoot Right-handed.

Although I am a Lefty, I am a Right-hand Dominant shooter.


Funny thing with that however...


It feels exactly the same for me to shoot right-handed or left-handed-- with long guns AND handguns. As I think about it, I've actually killed more deer shooting left-handed than I have right-handed. Seems like I have poor assessment on where I need to put up my deer stands.


-- John

 

[Heavy Metal Hero]

Left handed people are weird, even the gun companies know that.

 

[JWarren]

I've heard that at one time, people believed that being Left-handed was a sign that you were "In liege with the Devil."


Go Figure.


-- John

 

[Rob1035]

I'm a lefty, but even I can admit that when ~15% of the population is lefthanded (the statistic varies depending on source), then it makes good business sense to focus on the 85%.....

I've heard that at one time, people believed that being Left-handed was a sign that you were "In liege with the Devil."

I think that had to do with the fact us lefties can shake hands and stab someone at the same time

 

[BigG]

What Have They Got Against Southpaws?

I think it's just a numbers game. If you manufacture rifles say you have one model and ten calibers, or ten styles. That's for right handers. If you make it in all ten calibers for lefties, that doubles the number of styles 20 for about 10% of the market. Most sellers do not have enough money to cater to 10% of the market. They go for the low hanging fruit (easy sales).

Put it another way: You are an investor. Your company has a chance to make many sales to a product 90% of the market can use or some sales to a 10% segment? Which is your preferred market segment?

Hope this makes sense.

 

[Ian]

I'm left-handed and left-eyed, and I actually prefer using right-handed bolt rifles, as long as I'm not strapped into a sling. Keep a firing grip, and use your support (right) hand to work the bolt - it's faster than the "normal" method. Grab an Enfield sometime and try it...you might be surprised.

What does bug me from time to time are the lack of ambi safeties on many handguns. The new production stuff is pretty good about being lefty-friendly, but lots of older pistols only have right-handed safeties.

 

[Zak Smith]

What Ian said.

Retain the firing grip with your strong-hand and run the bolt with your weak hand. It's actually faster. Only downside is if you're slung-up.

-z

 

[dm1333]

If you are looking for a left handed .22 bolt take a look at CZ USA.

JWarren, you are correct. My Slavic grandfather was hit by the school teachers back when he was a kid because Jesus sat at the right hand of God, Satan sat at his left.

 

[mainebear]

I'm also a lefty and left eye dominant. It is indeed a hellish situation. Saw Craig Boddington on the African hunting show and he mentioned that none of the big African hunting rifles are left handed so he built one by rechambering a something or other (can't remember what it was, and wasn't familiar with it anyway). At least we have him for an advocate.
Never could get the hand of trying to be ambitextrous so I gave up and became omnivorous.

 

[Deer Hunter]

I'm left eye dominant.

I shoot right handed.

So no, I don't have any pity for left handed people.

(No offense, my brother in law is a south-paw and he shoots a mosin just fine!)

 

[Special_K]

I'm left eye dominant, right handed.

They taught me in the millitary to shoot right handed. When I couldn't do very well qualifying I decided to try left handed shooting!

Scores went WAY up.

Now I shoot Iron sights lefty and scoped sights righty!

I know. . . .very strange right?!

 

[foghornl]

Same thing in other sports, too.

F'rinstance, how many "Lefty" golfers do you see? Phil Mickleson is the only Lefty pro I can think of, off the top of my head. A lot more Righty than Lefty baseball guys, too.

So, once again, the supply-n-demand thing, with the economy-of-scale manufacturing quantity factors tossed in, too.

 

[Cougfan2]

Put it another way: You are an investor. Your company has a chance to make many sales to a product 90% of the market can use or some sales to a 10% segment? Which is your preferred market segment?

BigG is dead spot on accurate! It is strictly a numbers game. The costs for tooling and production set up have to be spread over so many fewer marketable products that the ROI isn't worth it to expand the number of left handed offerings.

 

[MilsurpShooter]

I had toyed with the idea of starting my own company a loooong time ago, before I actually learned the difference of dreams and reality. Always thought if you could capture most of the left handed market with a diverse product line, options, and cater it only to the lefties, get a good customer base and some loyal customers, you wouldn't be doing too bad. 10% of all gun owners in America, you won't be the next Benelli or Berretta, but you wouldn't do too badly I don't think lol

 

[BigG]

My dad and my brother were both left handers. You would be surprised how well they adapted to shooting righthanded rifles. No big deal. Mainly liked autoloaders. My dad actually wrote left handed but shot right handed.

 

[BridgeWalker]

Concur that it is a numbers, but the numbers are even more heavily weighted to the righty side. Lots of left-handers shoot righty, as evidenced by this thread. I'm a lefty, but lucky enough to be right eye dominant, so I've always shot righty. Tried lefty once or twice and right just works better with teh eye dominance. And proably a couple people are just turned off from learning to shoot by the lefty thing. My guess is that less than 5% of gun buyers shoot lefty.

 

[Dave Markowitz]

Quit yer whinin'!

Savage has long been southpaw-friendly. I have two left handed rimfires from them - a Mark IIGL and a 93 GL.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

I'm left handed but get through the world just fine. I am very tolerant of the rest of you

I just don't own any bolt action guns