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I prefer a RH bolt for LH shooting, and ironically a LH bolt for RH, off the bench only. (Don't own any LH bolts now, only surplus bolts, which Elkins45 points out, are all RH)
 
I'm with you 100%. I am right handed but left-eye dominant. I've always shot long guns left handed, but can use either hand with handguns. After being hit with brass for many years, I mananged to get a left handed 1911 and a left handed AR. They simply weren't comfortable!
 
Anybody who's broken their dominant arm at a young age is at least semi ambidextrous. Seems like the clerk at the store was being a little fussy. If you don't mind, why should it matter, to him ?
 
Friend of mine is a lefty but he shoots right hand guns. He is used to working the bolt of the right hand guns. So you are far from alone I think. My daughter is ambidextrous doing some things with one hand and other things with her other hand, Then again sometimes she switches doing a function with either hand. Just the way she is built.
 
If it works for you, I wouldn't worry about weird. My brother is left-handed, but he has always shot right-handed. (Probably because we didn't know anybody made left-handed guns when we were growing up.)
 
I learned to shoot rifles left-handed when I was 14. I was left-eye-dominant at the time. When I took up pistols much later, I always used them right-handed without thinking about it, and kept both eyes open as I was taught. Ten years ago, in my fifties, I got my first rifle as an adult. Sighting it seemed "off," somehow, so I checked my eye dominance and discovered that it had switched somewhere over the years. It's still more natural-feeling against my left shoulder, but I've retrained myself to do it right-handed instead. Physical habits are like, totally weird, maaan. Really hard to overcome.

I've picked up a left-handed guitar on occasion and couldn't make head nor tails of it. It shouldn't matter as much as it does, but there it is.
 
My younger brother does most everything right handed and started shooting rifles and shotguns from the right side. But he struggling to get proficient doing so. I figured out that he was left eye dominate and encouraged him to try shooting from the other side. He was awful at first, but fairly quickly improved far beyond what he'd been doing right handed.

Most shotguns are pretty easy to shoot from either side but there are few options for left handed bolt guns. Especially 40 years ago. He tried using lever gun and even a Remington 7600 pump but didn't like them as much as a bolt rifle. He even bought one left handed bolt rifle, used it for a couple of years and sold it. It wasn't that he didn't like the left handed rifle, he just didn't like THAT rifle.

All of the rifles he really liked were only available in right handed versions and he decided he'd rather have the rifle he wanted and shoot it from the wrong side than shoot a rifle he didn't like from the correct side. He has gotten pretty good doing this and is so used to it that he wouldn't buy a lefty bolt gun today if he had the option.

They actually make some target rifles designed for right handed shooters with the bolt handle and ejection port on the left side. It keeps the large adjustment knobs on target scopes away from the ejection port and makes it easier to load.
 
Depends on how it works. If you can shoot well, it won't be me telling you that you shoot weirdly ;-)


If he was my friend and ever shot better than me.... then it's clearly an unfair advantage at min and borderline cheat'n in my book. ;)


My wife is a lefty but does a lot right handed naturally too.

Very loosely speaking, she writes lefty and naturally does dexterity dominant tasks lefty and strength dominant tasks right handed.

However, a few things, like eating and sewing, she says is pretty equal using either hand.

Her parents tried to make her a righty by forcing :confused: her to use her right hand around the house so that could have something to do with it.


Its real convenient for me though. If we're bumping elbows at a crowded dinner table, she switches hands. :thumbup:
 
It's not that wierd or even that uncommon. I think your guy telling you that it's wierd may be newer to the shooting world.

I'm right handed, left eyed.

I've only shot a left handed bolt gun once.

I don't mind working the bolt with my right hand at all.
 
I've learned a lot and had good info passed to me from guys who know a lot working at local gun shops. Sometimes, and remember they are working a retail job, I've run into people who are nice and wanting to help, but you can tell their depth of knowledge isn't deep. Nothing wrong with that, everyone isn't an expert in everything. You probably just ran into someone who hadn't seen what you were doing yet, that's all.
 
If it isn't weird to you why worry about what bystanders think? Shoot the way that's comfortable to you. Pooey on the behind the counter expert

I'm one that started life left handed but the sudden stop when I fell out of one of grandpa's trees put a halt to that. I had learned to use my right hand by the time I had healed. I can do quite a few things quite well well left handed but shooting isn't one of them and I also had a big surprise after having rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder at trying to do a certain task left handed. My daughter is right handed, left eye dominant and shoots quite well right handed. I have a great grand daughter that appears to be completely ambidexterious. She's normally left handed but when shooting you never know it as she uses her right hand or the left with equal ease. She says she can't write left handed but draws with either hand.

My point is people can adapt but if you don't need to why do so because someone that probably isn't as capable as you thinks you are doing things wrong.
 
Anybody who's broken their dominant arm at a young age is at least semi ambidextrous. Seems like the clerk at the store was being a little fussy. If you don't mind, why should it matter, to him ?
I have broken the same arm twice at a young age so that’s a wild fact lol
 
I am semi-ambidextrious but primarily right-dominant. I shoot pump-shotguns from left shoulder. I can do it from right shoulder too but it just feels so so so weird. Anything else I can do with either shoulder and generally prefer right. I think on the pump it's because I like using my stronger side to rack the slide and I can see that the shell is being chambered.
 
This going to be kind of a long post. I went today to look at some rifles as I wanted to Expand the arsenal. A Tikka t3 in 270 caught my eye and I asked to handle it real quick.
He politely handed it to me and he noticed I was left handed and he said “oh well you don’t want that let me get you a left handed rifle just as good”, now never hearing that from someone before I didn’t know what to say. I responded “I prefer right handed bolts over left anyway” so now this is where I guess he thought I was weird.
A lot of it is how you learned, chances are really good your first gun teacher was right handed, since most people are right handed. It's natural and comfortable for you, don't give it a second thought.
Quick story, I'm right handed, my Dad was a lefty. He spent hours in front of a mirror to unlearn how he tied a necktie so he could teach his son (me, in case you weren't following) how to tie a necktie correctly, aka right handed.
He never stopped to think that Grandad was a riighty and taught ol' southpaw Dad to just tie it right handed. So, I now tie my ties lefty. Go figger...

I was explaining to him that when I slide the bolt it doesn’t feel right and I’m horrible doing it with my left hand that’s why I don’t like left handed rifles. It’s natural to hold it left handed and slide it with my right hand so any right handed rifle would be fine for me. He started saying how that’s very rare that someone who holds it left handed to slide the bolt with the right hand. He asked how I handle a handgun and I said well if I’m aiming it with both hands I aim with my left ya know just the same. But if I aim it with one hand then it’ll be right hand.

That's something I wondered about every time I looked at pictures or advertisements for the Remington XP-100. The gun I would be shooting with my right hand and it seemed natural in that case, as it didn't have 28 or so inches of gun forward of the bolt lug to need a hand on the forestock once it was fired to prevent the muzzle from toppling forward. Therefore it would be easier to work the bolt with my supporting hand close to the balance point of the gun instead of way forward of it. I never did shoot an XP-100 so I have no idea which way would feel more natural to me in reality.

He insisted to keep telling me how weird my gun handling style was. I am just wondering because I’ve never had anyone say too much about it until now. Anyone else do it like this or is this just weird? Btw it feels very awkward and not right to hold a rifle right handed.

Like I said up above, if it works for you it's fine. I would never tell a customer their way of doing something was weird no matter how much I thought it was. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
 
My dad is left-handed. He's always used a right-handed bolt. I watched him get two hits on a deer awful quickly once. It never seemed awkward or slow in his hands (shooting left-handed and working the bolt with his right hand).

Pudge, can you answer something? If your Dad was left-handed and shot the way you mention, ON WHICH SHOULDER did he place the stock? Left or right? If left, wouldn't that put the bolt handle right in front of his face?
 
If you are left handed, and left eye dominant, and shoot from the left shoulder, it is better to buy a left handed bolt gun.

I used to practice bolt manipulation for hours, because I shot the rapid fire sequences in NRA across the course competition. I kept the rifle in my shoulder and I racked the bolt smoothly and fast. In sitting rapid fire I would have a case in the chamber before the ejected round hit the ground. I learned with my AR15, which has the bolt release on the left side, that every so often, reaching over a gun, your sleeve will catch on something, and therefore reaching over, is something to be avoided. Modern hunting rifles have these tall, huge scopes with spiky knobs, and I am absolutely certain to reach over those things, you will have to drop the rifle down to your waist, and then, you might as well have a single shot rifle, because your firing rate will be little different.

This works well left or right handed.

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I am 100% left-handed and left-eyed. My passion for mil surp bolt guns started at age 14, so I learned the reach-over technique early in life. I didn't get a left-handed bolt hunting rifle until I was almost 40.
 
Pudge, can you answer something? If your Dad was left-handed and shot the way you mention, ON WHICH SHOULDER did he place the stock? Left or right? If left, wouldn't that put the bolt handle right in front of his face?
I wager left shoulder. Like this: go to 5:43
 
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