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travisc406

32 Cal.
Joined
Jan 23, 2005
Messages
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So, I am limited to what can shoot being left handed and I was woundering if it is safe to shoot a flintlock or percussion that is right handed? Can you swap barrels onto rifles of the same brand like put a .32 on a .54 frame? like on a GPR. thanx travis
 
I can't speak for your first question because I'm right handed, but I have heard of left handed people shooting right-hand rifles. It might be kind of hard to line up the sights though.

I believe that there are companies that sell drop in barrels for the Great Plains Rifle, so you should be able to put different caliber barrels onto the same stock.

One interesting thing about left hand rifles that I have noticed is that they are often quite a bit cheaper on the used market than right-handed rifles. Apparently there aren't as many left handed people, so maybe there isn't as big of a market for them. There should be some bargains out there.
 
Tavis, Of course it is safe to shoot right-handed rifles and shotgun from the left shoulder. Haven't you seen double barreled flintlocks or percussions? If it wasn't safe to shoot those, they'd ask shooter to trade shoulders just to shoot the other barrel.
 
I am right handed but shoot left handed because of eye sight and have no problem shooting my flint guns.
 
I fired my flintlock left handed when a buck locked up on the wrong side. Un nerving but no damage done.

Long way from Montana to the Texas hill country but believe I saw a left hand flintlock at the Cabela's S of Austin this week.

Good luck - and wear eye protection.

TC
 
travisc406 said:
So, I am limited to what can shoot being left handed and I was woundering if it is safe to shoot a flintlock or percussion that is right handed?

It can be done with percussion guns, but safety glasses should be employed because your eye is now much closer to the exploding percussion cap.

My friend "Possum" is left handed and shot my right handed flintlock only once, he set his beard on fire with the side blast from the vent. We were kind enough to put the fire on his face out with a barrage of snowballs after I took custody of my gun. (true story)
 
I am right hand dominant but shoot left hand because a couple of years ago when I was younger,I got stung by yellow jackets on my right side of my face and it swelled up for a month.When I learned to shoot I could not keep my right eye open to save my life so I switched shoulders.Left shoulder- - left eye open,right eye closed.Been shooting that way ever since.Taught my daughter and son how to shoot like that also.Both are right handed also.Found over the years that left handed guns are few and far between (I only own one that is a Custom Resley .50 cal with a Cochran Lock) and if you are trying to sell one because of hard times,you can not get any one to buy unless they are the FEW people that shoot left handed.99% of my guns are right hand and have shot them left hand and have not had any problems.
 
Tom,
That lefty flinter would make me a dandy early christmas present,if you was in the mood to get me an early christmas that is :thumbsup:
Greg
PS. How much were they asking off the shelf?
 
Travis: You will appreciate having that lock and percussion cap, or flashpan on the Other side of the barrel and stock from your face and eyes. I recommend using a LH gun.

Take much of what RH shooters with a big grain of salt: If what they want you to believe about a LH person shooting a RH gun were true, they would be running out to take advantage of those " bargains " on LH guns.

As to LH shooters who wax eloquent about shooting RH guns all their lives without problems, they are entitled to their opinions. However, we LHers are acclimated to living in a total RH world, where we have to adapt to all the RH things in modern society, from doorlocks, to phones, to keyboards. In fact, most of us cannot use LH tools as easily as we have learned to use RH tools, and gear. The point is, that ALL LH people have to learn to be ambidextrous, and some folks take great pride in having conquered those skills. Its shows in their comments about LH/RH guns. Most of them have never even held a LH gun, in my experience, much less shot one extensively enough to understand the advantages.

When I got into guns in the late 50s, the only LH guns were custom made models. No LH bolt action guns existed, and NO commercially made LH MLERS were being sold. LH shooters bought the H&A underhammer rifles, or put up with RH guns. By the mid 60s, there were two companies making LH bolt action rifles, Weatherby, and Savage. It was not until the late 80s that companies like Winchester, Remington, and Ruger began offering a few models in LH bolt Action rifles. LH MLers became available also in the 1980s, from commercial gunmakers.

So, find someone with a LH gun like you may be interested in shooting, and ask him to let you shoot it for a match or two, to get use to the feel. I think you will like the LH rifle bettern than the RH rifles we have all had to " make do with".

One of the reasons I got into shooting, and stopped my interest in Archery was that in the late 50s, those bows with training wheels came on the scene, and immediately, all stick and recurve bows disappeared from sporting goods store shelves. And, only RH compound bows were available. When I asked the clerk at my local store where the LH bows were, he acted like I wanted a guided tour of a cancer ward!

I was insulted. I had been discriminated against all my childhood because I am an identical Twin, and folks didn't want to bother learning how to tell us apart. I was simply not going to spend hard earned money in an industry that didn't even know I existed! Altho I had spent hours every day learning to shoot my bow and arrows,from age 6 to age 12, I left archery then, and have not taken it up seriously since. A friend gave me a LHed bow with wheels to use to hunt carp with him, because he was embarrassed that I could kill the fish just as easily with my old 25 lb pull fiberglass bow made by Fred Bear's company, using wood target arrows. He insisted that I use a fiberglass arrow, with a barbed point, and a trailing line that ran off a spool attached to the riser of the bow. We did kill some fish together, and I still consider it one of the cheapest "thrills" you can experience with your clothes on.

I turned to guns because there were lever action, and slide action rifles, and some LH bolt guns, if NO Semi-auto LH guns. And there were single shot, break open rifles that didn't discriminate against anyone. Today, there are LH semi-auto pistols and rifles in some calibers, as well as LH pumps, and Bolt action rifles. And, thanks to better thought by commercial gunmakers, we have a variety of LH BP guns available, although not in any small calibers.

My first rifle was a RH percussion. I shot it well, after a fashion. But, it did not compare to my new LH percussion action rifle that I had made, and later converted to flint. Yeah, I have a DB shotgun in percussion, and I shoot it. But, I would be more reluctant to shoot a DB flinter, without a better fence behind the flashpan than I have now on my percussion gun. For safety, You do want a good deflector behind the pan or nipple, to deflect debris from your face, and eyes. I picked shards of percussion cap out of my cheek on more than one occasion when I shot that RH rifle. That never happened with My LH percussion rifle.
 
travisc406 said:
So, I am limited to what can shoot being left handed and I was woundering if it is safe to shoot a flintlock or percussion that is right handed? Can you swap barrels onto rifles of the same brand like put a .32 on a .54 frame? like on a GPR. thanx travis
You got a lot of replies to your first question and none to the second, so I'll answer that second one first.

Maybe. It really depends on the gun and the barrel. In general, if a company produced a given model in several calibers the barrels will be interchangeable, but that's not always true. For instance, T/C's Hawkens in .50 cal use a 15/16" barrel while the .54 cal uses a 1" barrel. As far as I know, the GPR barrels of different calibers do interchange. The good news is that barrel specifications almost always include the exterior dimensions that allow you to decide in advance. If it's not included, you need to ask.

As for LH vs RH, I have a unique perspective on that. As a youngster growing up in northern Michigan I was fascinated by the fact that the legendary Detroit Red Wings hockey player Gordie Howe was ambidextrous. A natural right hander I decided to try to train myself to be that way also, and have had some success. I don't write with either hand, but I can do most other learned tasks either left or right handed.

In addition I have a congenital eye control problem which has resulted in monocular vision; I can instantaneously select either eye as dominant, and even focus on two objects at different distances a the same time.

What all this boils down to is that I can shoot left or right handed with almost the same ease; I am slightly more accurate right handed than left handed, but on a good day it's difficult to tell if it's me or the gun.

When I shoot left handed with a right hand gun, or right handed with a left hand gun, I do not do nearly as well as when shooting a same-handed gun. Bottom line: you can shoot an off-handed gun, but you will do much better sticking to your natural hand, and getting good results is most of the fun, after all.
 
I'm a lefty and out of the 15 or so muzzleloaders I've owned all of them have been right handed, flint or percussion. I'm having my first lefty built right now, but I do fine with righthanded weapons. I'm getting ready to start building a rifle in my shop and it will be righthanded for authenticity sake, there were very few left-handed muzzleloaders made originally.
 
There are two lefty's in the classifieds here on the forum. I don't know what your looking for or how much you want to spend, but it might be worth a look.
 
apache 130 said:
There are two lefty's in the classifieds here on the forum. I don't know what your looking for or how much you want to spend, but it might be worth a look.

travisc406 Said he was a left handed shooter and he maybe looking for one. :thumbsup:
 
As a lefty have always shot right handed guns without any trouble at all and my only worry has been "flying brass" if any of you know what that stuff is. I have always wondered about shooting a flintlock and if it would create a flinch for me. Well I solved that question without shooting a righthanded flintlock. I bought a "new" CVA left handed 50 cal flintlock from Deer Creek and could not be happier. I don't have a fortune invested. It has only been shot a few times so far but I got it shooting and have been stocking up on Rich Pierce flints and other accessories.

If you invest $1,000 in a custom gun you could buy 4 of these and they would be delivered to your door and that includes the shipping costs. I have been thrilled with the knowledge I have gained from you all and would never have gotten this rifle without this site.

If you are lefthanded, shoot the percussion guns, the hammer helps block out the front sight making your left eye work as it should. Wear shooting glasses as we all should and fire away. I got me a lefthanded flintlock to solve my other curiousity.

As to barrels I will leave that to the experts on here.
 
thanx for all the info!!!! I might contact Great Plains and see if any interchange. I guess when i was young and knew no different right handed guns worked great but when you know there is something specifically designed for you you gotta have it. I guess to put it in perspective imagine if it was a left handers world. anyhow what is a sxs shotty? thanx again guys
 
"sxs shotty" is a double barrel side by side smoothbore long gun, also known by some as a shotgun.
 
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