Anybody practice shooting with their weak hand?

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Never replied to the OP, yes I do practice weak hand fairly often. Both with faster paced drills and with static aimed fire.

Though, probably most often as the stage in the Dot Torture drill.
 
I didn't have a weak hand until I damaged my left at work, then it got weaker last summer with nerve damage. I still shoot with it, just not quite as fast or as good. I was actually better with the left, being left eye dominant.
"Weak hand" is just a figure of speech, it's not literal. I'm right handed but due to making my living with a chainsaw for twenty years, (for those not familiar, most of the weight of a saw is supported with the left hand) my left hand is actually stronger. My left would still be considered my "weak" hand for shooting purposes. I prefer the terms dominant and non dominant or support hand for that reason.

I think shooting standing on one leg would be hard. Maybe that means I should try it.
One of the games we'll play at the end of a range day is "PIG", played the same way as the basketball version. Each person in turn attempts to make a shot and the next person in line must make the same shot or they get a letter. Whoever lasts the longest without spelling "PIG", wins. It leads to some interesting challenges, including things like shooting while standing on one leg, shooting backwards while using a mirror to sight with, shooting backwards between the legs and all kinds of other variations, using both or either hand. Obviously there's not a lot of practical application of some of those things but it's fun and it gets you more used to using the weapon in awkward positions.

To answer the OP, yes, I shoot with my support hand regularly, at least 10-25% of each range session and sometimes more. Distances are anywhere from 1/2 to about 75 yards.
 
"Weak hand" is just a figure of speech, it's not literal.

I would say it's more a "term of art." It's a defined term in many of the competitive shooting games.

And the weakness refers not to grip pressure (when shooting freestyle, most people should be gripping harder with their weak hand), but to proficiency.

If someone says a man is a "strong poker player," that doesn't mean the guy hammers cards down on the table with enough force to buckle the legs.... it refers to proficiency. Your "strong hand" is the hand that is the hand that serves you better as the drawing/trigger-manipulating hand.
 
I practice it frequently both live and dry as well as working shoulder transitions with a carbine.

It's mostly due to having weak hand only stages or portions of stages in IDPA. Also the way stages utilize cover/barricades they force getting half way decent at shoulder transitions.
 
Regarding calling it something other than weak hand...“Non-Dominant Hand” perhaps...


I practiced shooting my Cowboy guns (Single action) for years with both hands but pretty much stopped shooting weak handed for practice years ago. A couple of years ago I decided I was making a mistake so I would dedicate some time to shooting left handed at each range session.

I found I was back to being a terrible shot left handed. Try as I might I remained a terrible left handed shot with my 2 Glocks. Then a former police officer friend of mine recommended I tilt the pistol at more of a 45 degree angle to help aim with my right eye. This really helped. It looks silly, kind of like a feeble attempt at being a “Gansta” but it does help me.

I have also found that while my left handed semi auto shooting is markedly improved I still need to really work on shooting my revolvers double action.

PIECE OF ADVICE: If you try shooting two handed with your non dominant hand try to emulate your dominant hand grip WITH BOTH HANDS. After all my years of shooting I pulled the most basic stupid two-handed shooting stunt. I put my right hand thumb over the back of my left hand and slide took a chunk of my thumb out when I pulled the trigger. It’s funny now, but boy was I embarrassed at the time. I had to go humbly ask the range staff for a band-aid. :confused: :rofl:
 
I didn't mention that I have a SIRT Glock version and I practice with my nondominant hand with that quite a bit. You can do that at home.

Crossing your fingers with your off hand is a very silly to do. Don't ask how I know - well, I'll tell you. In a shooting from a car scenario, under pressure I had to switch hands and OOPS.

This is an interesting point. When in a match, we usually shoot weak hand only, - not with a two handed grip.

Thinking about this some more, I would say practice non dominant hand primarily with one hand. The reason to switch is that your dominant hand is incapacitated or tied up with something. When I broke my wrist, my dominant hand was useless, so everything - loading, clearing, etc. was one handed. BTW, that few months convinced me that Israeli carry was not optimal, in fact - counterproductive.
 
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This thread has made me realize that I don’t do enough.

I shoot with my left hand, even if just a few rounds, every range trip. What I don’t do is practice reloading, manipulating the gun, etc., with my left hand.

I’m gonna need to fix that.
 
This thread has made me realize that I don’t do enough.

I shoot with my left hand, even if just a few rounds, every range trip. What I don’t do is practice reloading, manipulating the gun, etc., with my left hand.

I’m gonna need to fix that.
^^^^This is me!^^^^
 
I am right handed but left eye dominant. Although I try to shoot both eyes open , I find left hand is better . I also have shakes in dominant hand. Left it is.
 
I most always shoot with two hands. Anytime I go to the range I shoot at least one magazine or cylinder full of rounds with just my strong hand, and then weak hand. Never know when it might come in handy - or might be necessary.
 
Yes, I practice with my week hand. It makes no sense to me to ignore the possibility that your strong hand could get injured.
 
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Yes. Strong hand could be rendered unusable.

Also practice admin: drawing, loading, clearing, etc.
 
I'm kind of lucky on this subject. I'm pretty much ambidextrous. I can shoot lefty as well as righty. I have a laser on my carry gun. So it's pretty much get the dot on target and squeeze the trigger. Don't really have to aim just point. I practice every week at least once some times more.
 
I always practice with both hands equally as well as single handed shooting from both hands.

You never know when for whatever reason one arm and/or hand will become injured either prior to the time you need to use your gun in self defense, or even in the act of needing it for SD.

So its always good to practice.

What i find interesting though is i shoot my 380 sig p238 best left handed and the rest of my guns better right handed! Figure that one out. Now i carry my sig as a backup gun to be drawn by my left hand, and yes im right handed.
 
While these kinds of threads always end up at cross eye dominance, ambidexterity, and "I'm the best ever with both hands tied behind my back," it is an incredibly important skill to not only practice shooting weak handed to put shots on target, but also to drop the magazine, reload, and be able to drop the slide with your weak hand only. If you don't have an ambidextrous firearm, it may take some creativity (like a rear sight that you can use against your belt to drop the slide). It is very worthwhile to practice firearm operation with only your weak hand.

There is a one hand only drill out there where you transition strong to weak with both firing and reloading. Couldn't find a link, but it is basically a reload drill like the link, just using only one hand at a time to run the drill. http://pistol-training.com/drills/reload-drill
 
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