How many people can shoot well both right-handed and left-handed?

[Frank in Fairfield]

I shoot exactly the same with both hands and both eyes.
Which means I do not shoot well at all.

 

[ba49]

I grew up a natural lefty in the 1950s so I had to do a lot of things right handed like writing. I basically taught myself to be ambidextrious. Since most rifles are for right handers I taught myself to shoot rifles on either side even though I'm left eye dominant. I also have adapted myself to shoot right handed rifles left handed without many issues. I find that most people raised in the 50s were taught how to do things lake golf, batting a ball and most sports because of the lack of left handed equipment then.

 

[.20calguy]

I dont know how good l am at it, but I know some squirrels wish I would have been worse.

 

[.20calguy]

I have used it as a handicap, when shooting with my family so they think its all fair.
Lol

 

[Metalmaniac]

Born left handed in a right handed world . So I forced myself to learn to do most everything both handed. No dominate eye.

 

[HogKiller]

I've learned to shoot handguns left handed, just in case. Naturally right/right, especially fun with astigmatism and mild Lysdexia.

 

[jetpopt]

Thank you to everyone who described their experience. It looks like any combination of hand and eye dominance is possible, even with a rifle, which I think is physically harder to position for cross-dominant mode.

I'm especially impressed with those who had to learn to shoot "unnaturally", either because of injury to the dominant side or because of the (hopefully diminishing) bias towards the RH/RE combination. I'm old enough to remember when LH people felt almost ashamed of it, which is a ridiculous effect of the bad old days. I read that the word "sinister" derives from the Latin (?) word for left!

I never suffered from that bias because I am RH and RE dominant...but often I shoot my handgun better with LH and RE. I thought that was weird, but now I think maybe there is a lot of variation in what works well for individuals. That's a good thing.

 

[elh0102]

these 3 words are the key self-defense situation and back in the day shooting .45acp there would be a course of fire that required weak hand shooting and it was hard as hell
can all of do it, sure, could we hit anything not standing in front of us, well maybe
you go from shooting weaver stance, to weak hand, is as i said hard as hell
i sucked at it

One of my best friends is retired law enforcement, and we grew up shooting together. We're both RH and RE dominant. He had to practice weak side shooting in training, and with practice he became quite good. With a hand gun he's probably better with his weak side than I am RH, but then he's a heck of a good shot, winning several state championships. It sounds counterintuitive, but for me, the hardest weak side shooting for me is with a shotgun, where I'm using both eyes open. The dominant right eye controls the swing, which really screws up connecting with a flying target.
Getting back to the OP's question, I believe with a rifle, you almost have to use the same-side shoulder/eye combination. But unlike a shotgun, you can close the opposite eye for sight/scope alignment. With a handgun, the sight alignment is a more fluid thing, and is kind of self-correcting. As with most things, with enough practice almost any shooting style can be accomplished, but for typical recreational shooting, I don't see the need. I think that some folks enjoy the challenge.

 

[jetpopt]

One difference is that I like to switch sides with the handgun because the trigger pull (in DA) is more than my air rifle’s. Switching gives my hands and wrists/forearms a break, as the person with the shoulder injury mentioned. Another difference is that though they both weigh the same, the rifle has multiple support points as opposed to the whole mass being held in two hands at the same location.

The ergonomic package is so different, and that isn’t even including sight radius. Still, I’ll try holding the rifle as if I were shooting LH and RE combo; I only tried it once.

 

[jetpopt]

I'm right.handed.
But I've learned to do many things with either hand/arm/way. Shooting I do mainly right handed...but I train both sides
PB pistols: dual weild is where its at on ultimate fun factor for me

YoSam, BACK OFF!!!

 

[MikeVV]

Ha...I lied..!

I very recently bought a LASER (red) sight, for the hell of it. Just a few minutes ago, I finally did some shooting with it.
The Holosun LASER is attached to one of my Caimans, .22 . I did a few clicks here and there to square it up with the red dot sight, and...

First thing, you don't look through the red dot with the LASER. So I looked over the top of the dot sight. Then I looked beside the dot sight. Then...I did some "hip" shooting...THEN...yeah, I did some "left" hand shooting !
Since I don't hunt anything, but little black dots on paper, No one's coming after me for cheating.

I had no preconceived notions about what was going to happen here, but yeah, it was fun shooting...more accurate than ever, in ALL positions, including the left handed shooting. It's not very often (hardly ever !) that I can put three magazines (10 shot) through a gun, offhand...and have all of the pellet holes touching each other...THREE times.

Now I see why you can't hunt with a LASER sight...much...too easy to hit the target.

Mike

 

[Squack]

I can shoot both left and right-handed equally, but I'm right dominant.
I learned to shoot lefty after numerous game animals chose to walk up on my right side.