Cross dominant ?

[Joe13]

"(I rarely share my ambidextrous abilities because I get one of two reactions 99% of the time:
1. I'm lying
2. I'm bragging)"

Why can't it be both? Just screwing with you.

A buddy of mine and I were shooting a bunch of different pistols the other day and I brought up the maybe we should practice single weak hand thing. He's RH RE. He picked up his favorite pistol left handed, remarked about how he didn't think he'd ever tried left handed, and promptly shot a smaller group than the one he'd just been bragging about. Kinda ticked me off.

I left out number 3: Jelousy.

The story about your friend is funny and probably pretty rare.

Maybe switching it up had him concentrating on his fundamentals instead of relying on muscle memory. Interesting either way.

 

[Flopsweat]

Google "Bill McMillan" or "McMillan Tilt" aka "McMillan Rotate".

Bill McMillan was a cross-dominant Olympic gold medalist and Marine pistol ace, who found that if he tilted his weapon around 35-45 degrees (not the all-the-way-over gangbanger bull) it brought the sights from his right-handed 1911 over in front of his left eye.

I use this myself when I'm training on unsupported weak-hand-only techniques, and all I can say is "try it, you might like it"--though I've also adapted to a point where if I slightly squint one eye, I seem to be able to shift "master eye" at will while still retaining peripheral vision to the other side.

The cheek rest on my Scorpion is like that with certain optics. I'm not cross-dominant, but I have a pretty wide pad on the tube, so I tilt the top of the gun back in to keep from moving my neck around. I'm always telling my students "move the gun to you, not yourself to the gun" so at least I'm following my own advice. I like when I do that.

 

[Diamondback]

TBH, I actually use about a 10-15 degree inboard cant even strong-side--I find it gives me a stronger "lock-up" in my arm bones to better resist recoil.

 

[Lange22250]

I'm cross dominant and have been shooting long guns off my non dominant side since I was 6 or so.
It's an advantage in 2 ways as far as I'm concerned. First the remedial actions take the most manual dexterity and you can do them with your strong hand without removing your weak hand from the firing grip. Second, it helps with transitions because you are again using the stronger arm/hand to move the long gun at the point where the weight makes the most difference, away from your body.

 

[boogerhook]

Google "Bill McMillan" or "McMillan Tilt" aka "McMillan Rotate".

Bill McMillan was a cross-dominant Olympic gold medalist and Marine pistol ace, who found that if he tilted his weapon around 35-45 degrees (not the all-the-way-over gangbanger bull) it brought the sights from his right-handed 1911 over in front of his left eye.

I use this myself when I'm training on unsupported weak-hand-only techniques, and all I can say is "try it, you might like it"--though I've also adapted to a point where if I slightly squint one eye, I seem to be able to shift "master eye" at will while still retaining peripheral vision to the other side.

The gang banger tilt is probably a technique to counter cross-eyed double vision - very different from cross-dominant ;-) Kidding aside, considering the human heart is canted at some 20 degrees, tilting your weapon in parallel would provide for the most tolerance in vertical error.

 

[bearnut]

I tend to really concentrate on the sight picture and try harder when I'm shooting with my weak hand. This seems to give results that are surprisingly accurate. Always good to change things up now and then for some well rounded training.