Left handed shooter and bolt action rifles

[Rugerboy50]

Doesn't appear to be to many left hand bolt action rifles out there.

Guy at local shop tol me lefty's by right hand bolt rifles all the time.

Would like to hear a lefty's opinion on this.

Thanks

[gringop]

I'm a lefty and I never shot a lefty rifle in all my life. The only issue is that you have to come off the sights to work the bolt with the support hand. On the plus side, your strong hand doesn't have to move.

Just buy a RH bolt gun.

Gringop

[The Annoyed Man]

I've owned a right handed bolt rifle—a Ruger M77 MkII in .308—and I now own a left handed Remington 700. I'll never buy another right handed bolt rifle as long as I live. Once you've had a chance to try one, you'll never want to go back. It is that big of a difference.

Yeah, lefties buy righty rifles.....because that's all the storekeepers will stock. We don't often get much choice in the matter. Call Sporting Arms, (972) 315-9086, and tell them that you want a left handed bolt action rifle. If they don't have one in stock, they'll get you one, and they won't rape and pillage on the price. I got my left handed Remington 700 VSF there for $831.00, when MSRP on that rifle was $1,187.00. I have since bought three or four other guns from them.

[threoh8]

One of the regulars at my old High Power Rifle club matches was a southpaw, shooting right handed bolt rifles and, later, AR's. On the bolt guns he reached over with the left hand to work the bolt, and did quite well in rapid fire. I believe he did put a short extension on one bolt handle to help, but he mostly used unmodified bolts. Awkward-looking, yes, but doable with practice.

[v-rog]

Tikka makes a "T3" model left-handed rifle.

http://www.tikka.fi/t3models.php?lite

[The Annoyed Man]

One of the regulars at my old High Power Rifle club matches was a southpaw, shooting right handed bolt rifles and, later, AR's. On the bolt guns he reached over with the left hand to work the bolt, and did quite well in rapid fire. I believe he did put a short extension on one bolt handle to help, but he mostly used unmodified bolts. Awkward-looking, yes, but doable with practice.

Doable with practice, yes. An inefficient compromise? That too. If you are left handed, you can shoot right handed rifles, but until you have had the chance to shoot a left handed rifle, you just don't know what you're missing. All I can say is, once you've tried it, you won't want to go back.

It's not at all like the difference between right and left handed ARs. The AR is like a semiautomatic pistol in that it can be made pretty much ambidextrous with the addition of a few inexpensive parts. Not so with a bolt rifle.

[MoJo]

Doable with practice, yes. An inefficient compromise? That too.

What ever you do don't tell Gary Anderson that, he won two Olympic Gold Medals numerous other international shooting events and three NRA Highpower championships shooting right hand rifles left handed. When asked why he didn't use a left handed rifle his answer was, "I shoot better with a right hand rifle."

[Carry-a-Kimber]

Doesn't appear to be to many left hand bolt action rifles out there.

Guy at local shop tol me lefty's by right hand bolt rifles all the time.

Would like to hear a lefty's opinion on this.

Thanks

I take it you are a Ruger fan. Their GS Scout 308 is available in a left handed model that is readily available, unlike the RH models.

[Rugerboy50]

Doesn't appear to be to many left hand bolt action rifles out there.

Guy at local shop tol me lefty's by right hand bolt rifles all the time.

Would like to hear a lefty's opinion on this.

Thanks

I take it you are a Ruger fan. Their GS Scout 308 is available in a left handed model that is readily available, unlike the RH models.

Mostly Smith & Browning fan. Have a .22 Mark III that's a solid shooter.

I like the look of the Scout. Wonder if Ruger will offer different calibers down the road?

[Rugerboy50]

Tikka makes a "T3" model left-handed rifle.

http://www.tikka.fi/t3models.php?lite

I've checked out a Tikka and didn't like the synthetic stock feel.

[canvasbck]

I have to agree with TAM on this one. Although us lefties can adapt and shoot a right handed bolt just fine, if you ever get a left handed one, you will wonder why you spend all that time shooting a backwards rifle.

[Jumping Frog]

Doable with practice, yes. An inefficient compromise? That too.

What ever you do don't tell Gary Anderson that, he won two Olympic Gold Medals numerous other international shooting events and three NRA Highpower championships shooting right hand rifles left handed. When asked why he didn't use a left handed rifle his answer was, "I shoot better with a right hand rifle."

Sure, but virtually by definition, if he is a winner at that level of competition, then he is a freak of nature. Just like Jimi Hendrix was a freak of nature who played right-handed guitars strung backwards. I'd still rather play my left-handed guitars that were made to accommodate lefties. What works for a freak of nature does not necessarily translate into a generalized rule applicable to mere mortals,

[The Annoyed Man]

Doable with practice, yes. An inefficient compromise? That too.

What ever you do don't tell Gary Anderson that, he won two Olympic Gold Medals numerous other international shooting events and three NRA Highpower championships shooting right hand rifles left handed. When asked why he didn't use a left handed rifle his answer was, "I shoot better with a right hand rifle."

I'm sure that happens, but honestly, that is going to be the exception rather than the rule. And, his preference is easily explained: a lack of available left handed rifles in the nacent years of his career, forcing him to become proficient with a right handed rifle. By the time his competition career was taking off, he probably figured, "this works, so don't fix what ain't broke." But I'll bet you that if he had started on a left handed rifle, he would think differently about it today. BTW, I shoot just as accurately using a right handed rifle as I do a left handed rifle. Shooting ability isn't the issue; but cycling the action on a left handed rifle is more comfortable and "natural." It just is, and unless you're a left handed person who has owned a shot a left handed rifle, you're just not going to see the advantages of it. So I discount the opinions of right handed shooters on this topic because those opinions have no bearing on the realities for a left handed person. I'm sort of a "leftist" in this regard in that right handers' opinions don't matter until they have to walk a mile in my shoes. Switch the roles, and there would be a howling and gnashing of teeth.

[rant]
There is no real reason for most left-handed shooters to buy a right handed rifle if they have the available option of a left handed rifle in the same model for roughly the same price at the time of purchase. Unless you can demonstrably shoot better with a right handed rifle, which would be the exception rather than the rule, there is no logical reason for the left handed person to choose one over a left handed rifle.

Here's the thing.... Approximately 15% of the population is left handed. That is a significant percentage of the market for any product where "handedness" is an issue. Yet, manufacturers routinely ignore that in their manufacturing. I understand the reason..... it's cheaper and easier to manufacture 10,000 right handed actions and right handed rifle stocks than it is to manufacture 8,500 right handed components and 1,500 left handed components. In fact, this explains why the left handed version of a given model usually costs a few bucks more than the right handed version. My left handed Remington's MSRP (at the time) was $1,187.00. The right handed version MSRP was $1,137.00, or $50 less. If left handedness were considered a disability, this would be cause for a federal lawsuit. Even so, the economics of it make sense, and while I resent having to pay a premium for buying a product which is ergonomically designed to suit me, I would not be inclined to protest it, and a $50 difference for an item priced over $1,100 is not enough to deter me from making such a purchase.

However, in practical application, left handed pricing actually works out OK, and sometimes even better than right handed pricing. I only paid $831 for my $1,187 rifle, NIB. I personally saw right handed samples of the same rifle in the same caliber for sale at Sportsmans Warehouse in Lewisville for the same price as I paid for mine. And the left handed version of the Ruger Gunsite Scout Rifle is being offered in stores for less than what they're charging for the right handed version because they had some kind of a promotion on the left handed version. The issue for those wanting to buy a left handed rifle really isn't price. It's availability.

It is my observation that right handed people tend to be dismissive of the concerns of left handed people in the market place. That's easy to explain.....they don't have to be a left handed person living in a world in which most products are ergonomically designed for a right handed person. Here's a simple example: scissors. Plain old scissors. The handles on most scissors are contoured to be comfortable for a right handed person, but the edges of those contours actually dig into fingers of a left handed person, making it uncomfortable to hold and use them. If a left handed person has to use a pair of right handed scissors repetitively and for long enough, it actually becomes painful......not majorly so, but enough to make using the scissors an unpleasant experience. Right handed people never have to deal with that, and it is such a simple thing that would just not occur to most people unless they were confronted with it. You can actually buy left-handed scissors, but most stores don't carry them. You have to go to specialty websites and the occasional but rare store that specializes in left-handed products. Or, you have to go through the trouble of special-ordering them from the regular stores.

A seemingly small annoyance.....but it's just one example, and they do add up. I've had 59 years of this crap, and I'm just not going to do it anymore. So my advice to any left-handed person is to take advantage of the availability of left-handed products wherever possible, and the motives are greater than just self. The more left-handed people who insist on the availability of left handed products, the more left handed products will be easily available in the marketplace. Manufacturers are going to always follow the path of least resistance, and the only reason they aren't stepping up is because we left handers have let them get away with it.

Power to the people, left on.
[/rant]

[The Annoyed Man]

Doable with practice, yes. An inefficient compromise? That too.

What ever you do don't tell Gary Anderson that, he won two Olympic Gold Medals numerous other international shooting events and three NRA Highpower championships shooting right hand rifles left handed. When asked why he didn't use a left handed rifle his answer was, "I shoot better with a right hand rifle."

Sure, but virtually by definition, if he is a winner at that level of competition, then he is a freak of nature. Just like Jimi Hendrix was a freak of nature who played right-handed guitars strung backwards. I'd still rather play my left-handed guitars that were made to accommodate lefties. What works for a freak of nature does not necessarily translate into a generalized rule applicable to mere mortals,

THANK you. And I'm a guitarist too, BTW, and I haven't bought and "converted" a right handed guitar in 35 years. Not only are they harder to play that way, but they don't intonate correctly. Hendrix was a genius. One wonders what he could have done if he had had the wherewithal to play left handed guitars from the beginning.

[jimlongley]

Here's a simple example: scissors. Plain old scissors. The handles on most scissors are contoured to be comfortable for a right handed person, but the edges of those contours actually dig into fingers of a left handed person, making it uncomfortable to hold and use them. If a left handed person has to use a pair of right handed scissors repetitively and for long enough, it actually becomes painful......not majorly so, but enough to make using the scissors an unpleasant experience. Right handed people never have to deal with that, and it is such a simple thing that would just not occur to most people unless they were confronted with it. You can actually buy left-handed scissors, but most stores don't carry them. You have to go to specialty websites and the occasional but rare store that specializes in left-handed products. Or, you have to go through the trouble of special-ordering them from the regular stores.

A seemingly small annoyance.....but it's just one example, and they do add up. I've had 59 years of this crap, and I'm just not going to do it anymore. So my advice to any left-handed person is to take advantage of the availability of left-handed products wherever possible, and the motives are greater than just self. The more left-handed people who insist on the availability of left handed products, the more left handed products will be easily available in the marketplace. Manufacturers are going to always follow the path of least resistance, and the only reason they aren't stepping up is because we left handers have let them get away with it.

Power to the people, left on.
[/rant]

Left handed people are in their right minds.

My late wife's mantra.

My late wife shot in competition for years, left handed with a righty rifle, and was an NRA Expert working on her Distinguished (something neither of us ever finished) about the time other issues led us to cut back on our participation in the team. I was on the verge of purchasing a lefty target rifle for her (Remington I think) when I was hospitalized and priorities changed.

BYW, right hand scissors are also just plain engineered wrong from a cutting standpoint, besides the ergonomics. Look at the blades of scissors and note that when they close, the shearing action is supported by the force of the fingers on the handles, and then cut something left handed and look at where the forces are going - exactly the opposite direction. The very best left handed scissors have their blades reversed to counter this, and these are the ones I used to buy for my wife.

I hate to tell you how hard it is to find left handed pinking shears.

Funny, after my first wife passed away I got rid of a lot of her stuff, but since she had encouraged me to learn to sew, I kept the machine and various accoutrements. Fast forward a bunch of years and my current wife and I are doing a sewing project together and she is complaining that the scissors hurt her hand and were not cutting very well, and I suddenly realized she was using the left handed scissors, right handed.

As a telephone man I used my lineman's snips with whatever hand was free, and could tell the difference there too.