Thursday, July 02, 2015

Left or Right?

Should I go left, or right?  We're not talking politics here, we're talking about something much more interesting.

I'm nominally left-handed.  I write with my left hand, hold a wrench in my left hand, If I'm throwing a punch, it will normally come from my left hand.  However, when I was a mere youth, my Dad conducted an eye-dominance test and we discovered I was right-eye dominant.  So, he taught me to shoot long guns from my right side.  For me, putting a shotgun or rifle on my right shoulder is the most natural thing in the world.  That proclivity moved over to handguns, and as a police officer I've always carried my handgun on my right hip.  It works well for me.  I shoot a handgun just fine from my right hand.  And, because my dominant eye is on the right side, I pick up the front sight very well.

Milady wonders why I don't shoot left-handed, and I've tried to explain to her the dominant eye theory, and forty years of right-handed shooting, but her argument is simple.  I don't use my sights in this fast-draw game.  It's point-and-shoot, pure reactive shooting, and sights are superfluous.  Indeed, if I took a grinder to my revolver and shaved off the front sight I'd still be within the rules of the game.  I'm naturally left-handed, she argues, so it stands to reason that I'd be just a bit faster on my southpaw side.

The other day, I strapped on a left-side holster.  I bought one a couple of months ago to accommodate a left-hand son and grandson who shoot from the south-side.  It didn't feel odd, just different, and if anything, I was a bit more accurate.  We've got a major shoot coming up in three weeks, and while I have no pretensions of winning it, I'd like to do the best that I can.  Speed is fine, as Wyatt Earp famously said, but accuracy is final.

I'm faced with a quandary, and I need to settle down and pick a side so that I can focus on the peculiarities of my draw, get consistent, and fine tune my stance and speed.

Decisions, decisions.

4 comments:

North Texan said...

You have obviously trained well with your right hand. I (and most others I know) don't train as much as they should with their "off" hand. This would be an excellent opportunity to do just that.

Anonymous said...

I would stick to my right hand at least through the next match.
I made changes ahead of matches in Bullseye, NRA Highpower, Bowling Pin, and
other types of shooting. Usually not a real great idea.

6ShotsOr5? said...

Anytime you try leftie will be "before your next match". The best time to find out if you have some extra natural speed on the left is before you train too much longer on the right. The longer you're on the right road, the greater the chance you'll stay there, even if it's not really "right". Plus you'll please your wife for trying her suggestion, and that is usually a good thing.. Plus your theory is that Sam designed those things to be shot with the left hand, remember?

DoninSacto said...

How about Two Gun Paw Paw? Smoke 'em real fast.