Luan,
You know Steve's never going to cut you any slack!!!!!! Infact he's telling everyone on the planet about it we laughed till we cried in Uganda talking about it.especial the part about me asking the total stranger at the airport ih he heard abiut the guy who lost brand new rod and reel

Funnily enough, I told two more people about it just today!

quote:

Originally posted by Esskay:
Folks,

Most of us left handers are not fortunate enough to have a LH bolt action rifle. I wanted to ask you gentlemen, if any of you are lefties, what is the best method you have found to recycle the bolt? There was a very useful thread sometime back about the various techniques to reload a double rifle....along those lines.

Regards

Esskay

quote:

Originally posted by David Culpepper:
I have tried using my right hand to cycle the bolt but for me it seems that I lose some stability in handling the rifle and a few times I jammed the bolt. The same seems to happen to a friend of mine that shoots right handed, when he shoots my left handed rifles using his left hand to work the bolt.

But we are all different and do what works best for you is the best advice I can give. Well except for getting a left handed rifle which you will have to look for but they are out there and not too expensive in some cases. Good luck.

All my kids are right handers, but my youngest son shoots left handed because of a left master eye. All the time he was growing up, I had to buy Ruger No1s to get any decent chamberings for him. Most of the left hand bolt rifles available, when he was growing up, were not well suited for for use on anything but deer, hence the Ruger No1.

In the case of dangerous game the best cure for the left hander is first, and foremost a good double rifle, followed closely by a good single shot in proper calibers. With the double the second aimed shot is assured without taking your eyes off the target, and with practice a Ruger No1 can be re-loaded very quickly for the second shot, IMO, faster than a lefty shooting a right handed bolt rifle.

I hated the fact that my son had this problem, but I may be in for the reverse of this myself. I have just been diagnosed with macular degeneration in my right eye so may have to learn to shoot lefthanded. Fortunately I have severl double rifles, and Ruger No1s, but I don't look forward to the change-over at age 73 yrs of age!

.........................................

quote:

with practice a Ruger No1 can be re-loaded very quickly for the second shot, IMO, faster than a lefty shooting a right handed bolt rifle.

Let's not get silly. While a single shot rifle can be manipulated with surprising rapidity, it won't be nearly as fast as even a one-handed man operating a magazine bolt rifle -- from either side.

And yes, double rifles do offer by far the quickest follow-up shot -- provided you're not particular about which county the shot lands in.

MacD37,

Having grown up shooting a 450/400 3 1/4 single shot Farquharson, I know what you mean. Have also shot doubles a lot.

Gentlemen, Thank you all..some very interesting new ideas..many many thanks.

Regards

Esskay

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

by MacD37
with practice a Ruger No1 can be re-loaded very quickly for the second shot, IMO, faster than a lefty shooting a right handed bolt rifle.

Talk about getting silly!

quote:

Let's not get silly. While a single shot rifle can be manipulated with surprising rapidity, it won't be nearly as fast as even a one-handed man operating a magazine bolt rifle -- from either side--. and yes, double rifles do offer by far the quickest follow-up shot provided you're not particular about which county the shot lands in.

..........

Stonecreek, sounds like you have some preconcieved notions about handleing bolt rifles, that several proficional hunters have not been able to demonstrate against single shot, and double rifle shooters! However I know a couple of guys who could put your mind at ease in the regard to how fast a single shot can be opperated, or how accurate a double rifle is, if you are not convenced!

Personally I don't find being a lefty using RH bolt rifles a big deal. I would not own a LH rifle as I prefer to standardise on one method when using any bolt gun. Obviously if you are only ever using your own LH rifles then no problem but if you travel and use other rifles, as I did in Europe some years ago, my idea of standardising comes into play.

I've never felt handicapped using RH bolts with all the game I've shot, including dangerous, and as any good sportsman should, you need to make your first shot the one that counts and not as the saying goes, "while there is lead in the air, there is hope".

The idea of 'losing the sight picture' I don't subscribe to, as any gun with reasonable recoil will cause you to lose it anyway in terms of keeping the open sights or scope on the target.

I have found that as a lefty, in taking the bolt rifle down to cycle the bolt you can survey the scene with both eyes open and with an unobstructed view.

From what I've seen on the videos available on this site, many of them fine ones from Saaed, I rarely see any where a lefty would be disadvantaged in cycling a RH bolt gun. My advice as always is to just concentrate on the shot in hand and don't concern yourself on what the next one will be, if at all needed.

Of course even rightys and leftys can cock it up completely sometimes, but sh..t happens occasionally.

quote:

Originally posted by eagle27:
Personally I don't find being a lefty using RH bolt rifles a big deal. I would not own a LH rifle as I prefer to standardise on one method when using any bolt gun. Obviously if you are only ever using your own LH rifles then no problem but if you travel and use other rifles, as I did in Europe some years ago, my idea of standardising comes into play.

I've never felt handicapped using RH bolts with all the game I've shot, including dangerous, and as any good sportsman should, you need to make your first shot the one that counts and not as the saying goes, "while there is lead in the air, there is hope".

The idea of 'losing the sight picture' I don't subscribe to, as any gun with reasonable recoil will cause you to lose it anyway in terms of keeping the open sights or scope on the target.

I have found that as a lefty, in taking the bolt rifle down to cycle the bolt you can survey the scene with both eyes open and with an unobstructed view.

From what I've seen on the videos available on this site, many of them fine ones from Saaed, I rarely see any where a lefty would be disadvantaged in cycling a RH bolt gun. My advice as always is to just concentrate on the shot in hand and don't concern yourself on what the next one will be, if at all needed.

Of course even rightys and leftys can cock it up completely sometimes, but sh..t happens occasionally.

egal27, I agree with everything you just posted above! For you the right handed bolt rifle is no handicap, but for many it is, my 47 yr old youngest son included. It may be for me as well soon as I'm going blind in my right eye, but that is down the road.

The place where I think you have misunderstood, probably because it wasn't made clear, is the paragraph that I took the liberty of changing to bold print in your post quoted above. I think what was meant by "loosing the sight picture" was not phrased correctly. I think what was meant is taking your eyes off the target, and then shooting the wrong animal with the follow-up shot. You are correct as well that the first shot should be the most important but it isn't always the best shot you have ever made. On cape buffalo, no matter if the first shot was good or not, if the buff is still on his feet, follow-up shots are recommended, before he gets into the weeds where he is a real problem to follow-up. This happens more with bolt rifle or single shot shooters than with double rifles shooters. You are correct any rifle larger than a .22 lr is going to recoil you out of the "sight picture" but no necessarily taking the eye off the animal.

Being a lefty in a right-handed world, to most is a real drawback! I just went to the range yesterday, with a young guy so he could shoot my big bore double rifle. He is left handed, and wanted to see if the right hand double would be a problem for him, as he was thinking about buying a double of the same brand. It turned out the rifle was OK for him, and he shot it well, with the only recommended modification being having the trigger bent in opposite directions for him. For very quick shooting in a dire situation, the
unchanged right hand trigger would surely be a handicap, but other wise the rifle worked fine for him!

You guys should all have a DAD like me, and all your problems would be solved. I am left handed, and when I first started to use a rifle I use to put the rifle on my left shoulder,and every time I did that my dad would say you are holding it the wrong way,and he would place the rifle on my right shoulder.Problem solved for me. For those of you who are thinking, you did it while learning to shoot,well I have a left handed friend who in his 30s started shooting right from left.

White North

quote:

Originally posted by white north:
You guys should all have a DAD like me, and all your problems would be solved. I am left handed, and when I first started to use a rifle I use to put the rifle on my left shoulder,and every time I did that my dad would say you are holding it the wrong way,and he would place the rifle on my right shoulder.Problem solved for me. For those of you who are thinking, you did it while learning to shoot,well I have a left handed friend who in his 30s started shooting right from left.

White North

White North that worked for you and your dad, and that makes it a good way for you!

I started teaching all my kids to shoot at age six with a .22 single-shot! They all popped the target very quickly, and got fairly good out to about 75 yds very quickly. All my kids are right handed, so when it was time to start my youngest, we went to the Desert hills shooting range on the closed day so we had the range to ourselves. The range was owned by a friend of mine, and he let me train my kids on closed days, and real boon to learning for the kid.

Kevin, my youngest, now 47 yrs old, simply could not hit the target at all at 25 yards. We tried for two weeks closed days, but there was simply no change in his ability to shoot. I went inside to get us a coke, and talk to my friend, admitting that I was whipped with this one. My friend told me to look out the window at my son. He was sitting at the bench with his little Colt single-shot rifle, and was looking down the sights. He had no ammo, because when training I held all ammo handing it to them one round at a time. My friend said I thought you told me he was right handed. My son was shouldering the little rifle on his left shoulder aiming at the target down range. A light went on! This kid had a left master eye.

The next five rounds went into a 3" group on the 25 yard target. It was a simple matter of letting him shoot the way he needed to, rather than force him to shoot "MY" way! Today he can take the hair off the back of a horsefly with a 375 H&H Bolt rifle, or one of his many Ruger No1s, or my double rifles! To me the end result is what counts, and for him it works that way. Lately he has been talking about getting a left hand bolt 375 H&H rifle to speed his working of the bolt without taking the rifle down form his shoulder!

There is no one "right way" that works for everyone. Shooting left-handed is the fix for my son, though everything else is done right-handed!

What ever works for you is the right path to follow, IMO!

I was shooting dummy loads left handed this weekend with the right handed bigbore trying out all the options posted here. Short answer, it's a bitch...
I found shooting of hand doing a left handed manover more practical, using sticks the right handed manover is more practical.