Left handed shooting right handed

I'm curious if anyone else is a lefty but shooting right hand guns. When I bought mine 30 odd years ago the gun shops didn't get left handed guns very often so both of my Thompson Centers are right handed. I just got used to reaching my thumb across to pull the hammer back. I've got to think it's nice to have the hammer and cap on the other side not to mention when one is fitted with a cheek piece stock. All but two of my modern rifles are right handed as well. Some inherited and some bought.

FWIW there are a lot of us here doing so!

Now I’ve been shootin’ BP right-handed matchlocks, wheellocks, flintlocks and percussion arms for years, although a lefty and left-eyed dominant. Luckily … I guess … I’m a daily eyeglass wearer, so I’d always advise that one also doing so should wear good eye protection. As of late, I have been building my own left-handed flint longrifles and matchlocks.

But I’ve never had an issue. And on the flintlocks or older type locks with a pan I never have even seen a pan flash!

You won’t either … provided that is, that you keep all your attention on that front sight as the trigger breaks !

Thanks for the reply. Surely if I get to build a rifle it will be left hand.
Yes I've always worn eye protection because I feared cap fragments coming my way.

I'm right handed but shoot left because of a bad eye. No big deal anymore. Right, left, it's all in what you get used to.

Rockflyer said:

I'm curious if anyone else is a lefty but shooting right hand guns. When I bought mine 30 odd years ago the gun shops didn't get left handed guns very often so both of my Thompson Centers are right handed. I just got used to reaching my thumb across to pull the hammer back. I've got to think it's nice to have the hammer and cap on the other side not to mention when one is fitted with a cheek piece stock. All but two of my modern rifles are right handed as well. Some inherited and some bought.

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I'm a lefty but as a child learned to "shoot" right-handed toy guns; Crockett flints, wooden '03 Springfields, etc. So now I shoulder left, aim left, but am used to the flint being on my right after 10 years Rev War enacting! I do have a lefty Lyman .54 GPR, shortened to suit my taste. Good luck! And, I can 'reach over" and work a bolt faster than the sniper in Pvt. Ryan!

When I was a kid growing up on our family farm all we had was right handed bolt action rifles. Yes got very used to reaching across and cycling that action.

I have several right-handed caplock rifles and that's all I shot for a couple years and it never mattered too much to me. I finally got a lefty .54 GPR percussion earlier this year and I love it but I got used to the lock bring on the right (wrong ha!) side so it's still kinda weird but much more comfortable to shoulder the rifle. I don't own any flintlocks yet but when I do get one it'll be a lefty for sure.

When I started out I used a right hand caplock renegade - no issues at all with a caplock. Then I bought a left hand flint Fowler. Built a right hand flint .40 for my wife and shot that quite a bit - no issues, then it was time to build my rifles, I built 2 left hand flinters 50&54. Then my father in law contracted me to build him a 45 flint which I have since inherited. I have no issues shooting any of them other than beard hairs getting caught in the brass patch box lids. Preference is a left hand because of better cheek weld but otherwise like Flint62smoothie says- I wear glasses .

I am RH but shoot LH, most of my guns are RH. In the last three years I've built two CF rifles and a .40 caliber muzzleloader, all LH. If I'm going to build them, they will be lefties.

Rockflyer said:

I'm curious if anyone else is a lefty but shooting right hand guns. When I bought mine 30 odd years ago the gun shops didn't get left handed guns very often so both of my Thompson Centers are right handed. I just got used to reaching my thumb across to pull the hammer back. I've got to think it's nice to have the hammer and cap on the other side not to mention when one is fitted with a cheek piece stock. All but two of my modern rifles are right handed as well. Some inherited and some bought.

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I've begun shooting a right handed gun. I wanted a French gun so badly I could taste it. After thinking it over I decided that it wouldn't matter since the gunstock was symmetrical. This, of course only applies to trade guns. Rifles with their cheek pieces, are another case altogether.

I have one lefty Invest arms hawken and 2 right handed flinter and a right handed T/C. I hardly shoot the Left handed one LOL . Locks going off don't really bother me.

After nearly 40 years of hunting with percussion and BPCR, I decided to hunt with a flintlock this fall. I found a Thompson Center Renegade in very good condition and have been practicing with it. Since they did not offer a left-hand flintlock, I'm shooting it from the left side with no problems so far.

I am enjoying it and looking forward to hunting with it. At 62, I'm done with two to three year waiting periods for a custom rifle.

I shoot a right handed flintlock off my left shoulder with no problem! Matter of fact I'd feel plumb bassackwards if it was a left handed flint rifle!

Shot right handed guns for so long that the first time I shot a left hander it felt awkward. RH cap locks never bothered me but I find for flinters I prefer lefty locks. Fortunately some of the makers figured out leftys mattered enough to configure some models for us.

I too am a lefty who was raised shooting right handed guns. I don’t make it a habit of shooting a right hand flint though.biggest difference I can see in owning a left hand gun is the improved sight after the shoot.

Rockflyer said:

I'm curious if anyone else is a lefty but shooting right hand guns. When I bought mine 30 odd years ago the gun shops didn't get left handed guns very often so both of my Thompson Centers are right handed. I just got used to reaching my thumb across to pull the hammer back. I've got to think it's nice to have the hammer and cap on the other side not to mention when one is fitted with a cheek piece stock. All but two of my modern rifles are right handed as well. Some inherited and some bought.

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Well..., if you think about it, a guy using a flintlock SxS is going to shoot a flintlock on the same side of his face at some point....,

LD

My "go to rifle" is a RH Sharon Hawken I built from a kit and in 40 years I have gotten used to using it as a left hander. I always wondered what it would be like to have it in LH. especially with the cheekpiece on the left side. I am pretty sure Sharon didn't make a LH Hawken at that time so like other left handers using right hand stuff, I had to adapt.

Loyalist Dave said:

Well..., if you think about it, a guy using a flintlock SxS is going to shoot a flintlock on the same side of his face at some point....,

LD

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I've made that same argument to many of my shooting friends, too. Some of them are left-handed as well.

I am left handed and shoot left handed flint's, cuz, I can. I got back into centerfire recently and made a left handed MSR, took it to the range and a fellow there, an ROTC instructor, asked if he could shoot it. Sure says I and enjoyed watching him fumble and figure out the safety, he looked back at me in frustration, I smiled and said, "how do you like it"!
Robby

I'm so left-handed I can't even pick my nose right-handed. All my guns are right-handed & I have zero problems shooting them. A couple years back I ran across a good deal on a lefty Renegade & thought I'd treat myself to one correct-sided gun. It was so totally foreign to me I never could get used to it so I sold it. Felt completely out of whack/unnatural somehow.