How much support side shooting do you do?

[Kimber Custom]

Dry practice goes a long way along with .22lr. No replacement for 9mm/.223 but it makes the center fire budget go a little further.

 

[boattail]

I'm 55 years old, been shooting my entire life, and just this year started to shoot with my off hand. I never thought I could do it as doing anything lefty felt so wrong. I can now get a good grip with the support hand as that hand wanted to take the main grip for a long time. I did a bunch of dry fire and drawing practice with two guns on me. I first got the left hand movements down then would switch back and forth to get some muscle memory built up. Yesterday I put 75 rounds of 45 acp through my Blackhawk revolver left handed. I have good days and bad days and yesterday was a bad day shooting leftie. I was on paper but no groups were forming. Right handed I was chewing up the bullseye.

I have only been practicing for a few months weak side and I am really happy with my progress. I have torn muscles in my shoulders that make things interesting at times. I decided I needed to get both hands shooting in case one shoulder gives out completely.

 

[CIBKais]

I try to do as much strong as support. I am a pistol rifle shotgun instructor where I work and we do very few courses of fire support side. I encourage students to train support (or whatever flavor of term you want to use for non dominant) side as much as they can. Lots of folks will say you're not sacrificing too much cover by leaning over the extra bit to fire dominant. I have been in my fair share of "issues" where if I could have returned fire by exposing only my earlobe I would have, unfortunately even shooting correct side for your cover it takes a little more than that If you're leaning or ever extending because you don't want to switch not only are you putting a lot more of your body out there but you're also sacrificing body mechanics and posture which is going to make shooting from your dominate side even more inaccurate than the adrenaline is already making it.

 

[gmerkt]

I've practiced pistol and revolver off-side shooting, not regularly. Only to familiarize myself with the technique so it wouldn't seem so strange if by some chance I had to do it. As I've practiced firing double action with revolvers, but not extensively. At this point in my life, I don't expect to do emergency shooting at anything but closer ranges if at all. I can't say that I've seriously practiced shooting rifle off-sided, it just felt too awkward. Then there's the thing with eye dominance. Normally, I shoot with both eyes open. But no way does that work for me trying to shoot a long gun off-side. Then there's the fact that mechanical differences between right and left handed rifle actions are much more of a consideration than with handguns.

 

[dangerranger60]

I'm 55 years old, been shooting my entire life, and just this year started to shoot with my off hand. I never thought I could do it as doing anything lefty felt so wrong. I can now get a good grip with the support hand as that hand wanted to take the main grip for a long time. I did a bunch of dry fire and drawing practice with two guns on me. I first got the left hand movements down then would switch back and forth to get some muscle memory built up. Yesterday I put 75 rounds of 45 acp through my Blackhawk revolver left handed. I have good days and bad days and yesterday was a bad day shooting leftie. I was on paper but no groups were forming. Right handed I was chewing up the bullseye.

I have only been practicing for a few months weak side and I am really happy with my progress. I have torn muscles in my shoulders that make things interesting at times. I decided I needed to get both hands shooting in case one shoulder gives out completely.

I went through the same thing! When I wanted to learn to shoot offside I started with a 38 that was shooting 100 gr bullets at around 600 fps. They recoil like a 22! Once I could shoot well with those I moved to 130 gr and then 148 gr. Then increased the velocity until I could nearly match right or left hand! I also found that those heavy padded slings they put you in after shoulder surgery make a great place to keep your gun! DR

 

[wired]

I shoot better left handed although I hardly ever do it. . I have a big gnarly scar on my right hand where the bottle broke over my brothers shoulder when was 16 and he was being a dick. Killed my index finger for a few years and I can barely feel trigger breaks . That and the astigmatism i the right eye is greater. Anyway I shoot significantly better left handed. I just dont do it often because its not a natural stance for me.

 

[slimmer13]

Does it feel different if you use your other hand?

 

[titsonritz]

I've practiced pistol and revolver off-side shooting, not regularly. Only to familiarize myself with the technique so it wouldn't seem so strange if by some chance I had to do it. As I've practiced firing double action with revolvers, but not extensively. At this point in my life, I don't expect to do emergency shooting at anything but closer ranges if at all. I can't say that I've seriously practiced shooting rifle off-sided, it just felt too awkward. Then there's the thing with eye dominance. Normally, I shoot with both eyes open. But no way does that work for me trying to shoot a long gun off-side. Then there's the fact that mechanical differences between right and left handed rifle actions are much more of a consideration than with handguns.

I have found the best way to get use to shooting a rifle on the non-dominant eye side is using a red dot sight forward on the receiver. Once the brain get use to it, iron sights and then scopes become easier to make the transition. I set my rifles up to be as mirror image as possible.