MoJo wrote:The Annoyed Man wrote:threoh8 wrote: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]