Teach 13 YO son to shoot RH or LH?

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Batty67

Batty67

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My 13 YO son, I just discovered, is left-eye dominant but right-handed. I suppose this makes some sense given he's batted left-handed since tee ball (he plays on the big diamond now) and does all two-handed sports like a lefty...and very well. My Dad and both brothers are all LH. I'm a confirmed righty.

Anyhow, I'm ready to start him on the Ruger 10-22, but should I have him shoot left-handed or right-handed? Is it really even a choice? Pros and cons? He's very coordinated and strong, and I suspect when I teach him how to shoot a pistol he'll shoot right-handed and just cock his head over further.

Thanks.
 
on a rifle, he really ought to shoot with his dominant eye, especially if he is going to be using iron sights. If he MUST shoot strong body side/ weak eye side, he might need an eye patch over his strong eye
 
Speaking as a LE/RH, left-handed shooting is definitely the way to go, even with handguns.
 
I agree completely with skribs. I can shoot right handed, but nowhere near as well. Still probably good to let the kid try it out and see what works for him, though.
 
My step daughter is right handed / left eye dominant, and she shoots left handed. I'm a lefty, but that had nothing to do with it, she got behind the rifle, Anderson handed shooting was more comfortable.

Put him behind the rifle and see where he is comfortable.
 
I'd say left-handed. He's already used to doing most stuff as a lefty, so he's effectively ambidextrous by now. He should have little to no trouble handling it left-handed. That said, it's ultimately whatever he feels most comfortable with. I'm left-handed, and only shoot rifles left-handed, but I'm fully ambidextrous with pistols. I usually shoot pistols right-handed, though, simply because most pistols' controls are only set up for right-handed use.
 
If it is any help i am left handed/right eye dominant and have always shot a rifle right handed and never had a problem. I just recently switched to righty with handguns without any trouble.
 
I am right handed and left eyed, I shoot rifles and shotguns left handed and pistols right handed.
 
I shoot everythng right handed except for longuns, when in basic training many years ago they tried making me shoot righthanded and I just could not accuratly do it, once they let me do it my way I was able to hit everything I aimed at. Back then the AR's (initial release) did not have the brass deflectors that they have today and many a hot round ended up down my back. The bottom line is that if shooting from the left side feels natural to him let it go, it is more important for the rifle to feel natural to him and be accurate with it than it is from what side he is shooting from. Last year I bought my first left handed rifle, a Tikka 30-06, to hunt with so I could operate the bolt faster otherwise everythig has ben right handed. My 10/22 has yet tosend any hot brass down my back so you should be good to go......... enjoy and have fun...............
 
Two schools of thought -
Long guns are predominantly designed for RH shooters so effort should be put in starting out to shoot a long gun right handed even of Left Eye dominant. Acquiring LH firearms can be challenging and expensive so the motivation is more about adapting to what is readily and less expensively available. Brass ejection, bolt handles, etc.

Shooting to accommodate dominant eye or hand makes for greater accuracy and comfort in learning to shoot well. If you're cross dominate then the need is to find out whether you shoot "better" from left or right depending upon what is less difficult to do. Long guns usually are shot to the dominant eye, but not everyone has a problem shooting to the other eye when using a long gun.

Shooting a handgun is easier to address for cross dominate shooters since the handgun can be fired strong hand index knuckle top instead of horizontal (not gangster sideways, but the index knuckle at "12 o'clock") to roll the sights in line with the dominate eye.
 
Two schools of thought -
Long guns are predominantly designed for RH shooters so effort should be put in starting out to shoot a long gun right handed even of Left Eye dominant. Acquiring LH firearms can be challenging and expensive so the motivation is more about adapting to what is readily and less expensively available. Brass ejection, bolt handles, etc.

Shooting to accommodate dominant eye or hand makes for greater accuracy and comfort in learning to shoot well. If you're cross dominate then the need is to find out whether you shoot "better" from left or right depending upon what is less difficult to do. Long guns usually are shot to the dominant eye, but not everyone has a problem shooting to the other eye when using a long gun.

Shooting a handgun is easier to address for cross dominate shooters since the handgun can be fired strong hand index knuckle top instead of horizontal (not gangster sideways, but the index knuckle at "12 o'clock") to roll the sights in line with the dominate eye.
 
I'm a lefty but right eye dominant so I shoot RH however, I shoot vintage rifle matches with a guy that is left eye dominant and shoots all the service rifles lefty and well. He shoots the rapid stages (10 shots in 80 seconds with a reload) without issue. With a bolt gun He does shoot a 1903 rather than an '03-A3 because the A3 rear sight interferes with lefty bolt operation; the '03 rear sight is far enough forward to be out of the way. From that, I infer that operating a bolt gun with a scope may present a challenge. Still, a left handed rifle is like a left handed guitar: hard to find and hard to sell.
I guess there might be a use for Col. Cooper's Scout Rifle after all...
 
Acquiring LH firearms can be challenging and expensive...
Click to expand...
...operating a bolt gun with a scope may present a challenge.
Click to expand...
Not to derail entirely...

Difficulty/expense of obtaining southpaw guns aside...

My boy is likely going to be RE/LH from the looks of things. If he ends up shooting RH due to the sight dominance, do you guys think he might still benefit from a left hand action on say, a bolt action rifle so that he can manipulate the action with his strong hand?

I guess what I'm asking is: Would a RE/LH shooter prefer a LH action? (regardless of which shoulder they use)
 
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I've gotta agree completely with Skribs, teach him LH shooting!

I'm RE/RH, but my girlfriend is LE/RH. She'd been shooting for a while before we met (and is a darn good pistol shooter!), but hated shooting rifles to the point where she'd shoot a magazine out of something, then switch back to one of my pistols.

She got the idea (on her own) of switching to LH, and now shoots my Henry Lever .22 everytime we are out (barely shoots pistol anymore!), extremely accurately. She enjoys it now (whereas she used to nearly hate it!) and is really good at it.

Heck, after I'm finished shooting and ready to go home, she still gives me the old "5 more minutes!" bit on that .22 :)
 
HSO, if you have a rifle with a brass deflector, it *shouldn't* affect lefties too much. I have no problems with either of my shotguns.

CoRoMo, I don't use bolt-actions, and that is a primary reason. I am severely left eye dominant, and not too particularly dextrous with my left hand (although I could probably learn). It requires an entirely different grip to cycle the bolt with your support hand.
 
I'll disagree with hso - have him shoot from his dominant side for rifles and shotguns - guns aren't any harder to get. I am LH and use both LH and RH rifles and shotguns with no issues.

Actually, as a LH I find RH bolt guns easier to operate
 
My left eye - right handed daughter was completely frustrated with a rifle until the light bulb went on and I switched her to lefty shooting.

I'm a lefty myself, she embarrassed me.


.
 
Teach him to shoot a handgun with both hands and teach him to keep his head straight up and not cocked over to see the sights, move the gun to line up the sights not your head.
For long gun shooting learn with the best eye.
 
I'm going through this with my 8 y.o. son right now. He's right handed and left eye domonant. Right about the time I was getting frustrated with him for "not paying attention" because the sights are way off line, the lightbulb went off in my head. I showed him a left handed stance and he started hitting the target. Then I showed him how to work the bolt shooting off hand.
 
I'm very much a left hander and have only owned two rifles in the past 55 years that were left handed. I fired thousands of rounds through my old 1903 Springfield by reaching over the action to operate the bolt. Worked fine for me. Best bet is to let your son try both and see what works best for him.
 
Both!

Never hurts to learn how to shoot with either hand and off either shoulder.

I always practice pistol shooting with both left and right hands (I'm right-eyed). I shoot long guns right hand but I've tried my Mossburg 590 off my left shoulder too. Didn't feel too good because I can't square up behind it as well off the left, but nice to try it now and then to keep the feel.


I keep meaning to work on shooting with my left eye but I always forget to try it when I'm at the range!
 
My son is left eye/right hand also. He shoots handguns with right hand, shifting it slightly to left eye, but shoots rifle left side. They encouraged left side shooting at Parris Island. He can shoot shotgun from either shoulder (slightly better left than right). It comes in handy when ducks blind side him from an unexpected direction while sitting in boat or canoe.
 
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