I am left handed. Okay, I have used and owned right handed guns for 25 years. I am going to buy a new rifle and due to me having a really good knock around rifle I`ve decided to buy something fairly good, that will lead a pampered life and never be sold.
So, I thought, it`d best be a lefty, eh? Well I hadnt ever held a left handed rifle in my hands ever, amazing as that sounds. Today, I did. I inspected a couple Remington 700`s, one heavy barrel and one regular. Cycling the bolt with the rifle at my shoulder was quite easily the goofiest thing I`d ever attempted. Even dropping the rifle from my shoulder and cycling the bolt still felt like trying to ride a bicycle backwards. My question is this then, has anyone taken up a left handed rifle after many years of using right handed guns arse about and had success with it?
I must say, I was terribley dissappointed with how bloody awful it felt.
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
Hey Johnny, I shot right handed guns for 25 years, broke down & bought a left hand bolt. It took about two months of handling it every day to get used to it, now right handed guns just feel wrong. Deano
Thanks Deano. You know, I guess I was just so disappointed when I didnt just shoulder that left handed rifle and say: Hello! where have you been all my life? Or maybe how ordinary that $1500 Remington 700 CDL ( thats here prices ) felt when I cycled it. But! To be certain I should have asked for a right handed one to really know, as I have said, it was the first left handed rifle I`d ever held.
I am not in the least bit wealthy, so I really need to make the right choice. I`m worse than a woman when it comes to choosing, but with rifles aren`t we all?
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
It took a little to get used to but not much more then the switch to other action types. Maybe because I've alway shot a bunch of different types of guns it wasn't as much of a shock.
Posts: 2395 | Location: NE Ohio | Registered: 06 August 2005
My biggest problem is I shoot hanguns righthanded, rifles lefthanded and my dominant eye is my right. Fortunately I dont care too much if I shoot a rifle left or right. Feels almost the same but I prefer left if given the choice.
Whilst in the army I shot the L1A1 lefthanded but switched to righthanded for the Steyr-AUG. I could have modified it to l/h being I was the Bn armourer. It was just easier to shoot it righthanded with the optical sight.
I do have a lefthanded Remington 870 and you should see the righties try and come to terms with it.
What bugs me is the way the gun manufacturer`s screw with you with their left handed range! It`s like, yeah, yeah, looking good, I like this particular rifle, it has all the right things and then psssshhh, they don`t make the calibre you want...
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
I have used right handed bolts for over 20 years ,Lefty's just did not seem right but I borrowed a Remington in LH and I thought not bad! So now I have a LH Winchester M70, .30/06 and a Winchester M70 .375H&H and I was using mostly levers before anyway when I thought about it. Get a lefty you will appreciate it really quick! What calibre are you after?
Steve
Posts: 276 | Location: Victoria, Australia | Registered: 24 May 2004
Steve, I`m dithering between .308 cuase I know it, or 300 win mag cause it`d do anything here, I reckon. Trouble is finding an LH rifle in either calibre. Savage make them, but the range is limited here, I am thinking if you want a left hand savage its syn/ stainless only and I don`t want that, I want first choice synthetic / blued or a really nice piece of wood. I REALLY liked the LH remington CDL I tried, but the calibre choice is limited. I can get a Tikka RH syn/blued for under 900 bucks at a few shops around here, thats what I am comparing anything else too, if I can`t get exactly the LH gun I want, I`ll go with an RH tikka and be done with it.
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
RLI: I had a .30-`06 as a kid, I can get pretty nostalgic about that round. I devote about 10 minutes of each hour I`m awake torturing myself as to which way to go.
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
A .30/06 will do it all, I would get a Winchester M70 but depending on the dollars Savage, Remington, Tikka, and I think Sako make a LH also Weatherby and Ruger make a .30/06.
Steve
Posts: 276 | Location: Victoria, Australia | Registered: 24 May 2004
RLI: Tikka is rumoured to be introducing a LH line, whether we get it here will become apparent, and it will mirror the SAKO LH line in calibre range ( or lack of it ) I`d imagine. A left hand SAKO will set one back $1775 - $1800, thats a bit hot for me, sorry. I`ve not checked Winchester prices, I`d say ( guessing ) they`d be similar to Remington and be around the 1500 mark maybe. The Remington CDL I handled was a lovely thing, just quietly... Nice chuck on walnut with a black foreend cap, classy indeed. Plenty of time to decide..
Edit! Seems Winchester are a couple hundred or so cheaper than Team Green, this requires some more attention!
Posts: 131 | Location: South east Queensland Australia | Registered: 28 August 2005
Tikka has made left hand rifles in a variety of calibers and action lengths. The Whitetail Hunter series was made in 22-250, 243, 7-08and 308 on a short LH action. The long action guns were 25-06, 270, 30-06,7 Mag, 300 WM and 338. The stocks had a palm swell but were a bit clunky and the rifle did not sell well but the -06 I have (for sale,btw) has put three shots into a large hole at 100 yds. They are very accurate as a rule. Tikka/Sako quit the Whitetail series in the late '90's. Now we have the T3 series which is not available in LH.
Posts: 314 | Location: Pagosa Springs, Colorado | Registered: 21 January 2005
sbsmith, Are you sure they offered a short action? It was my understanding that SA calibers were produced in a standard action and a spacer was added to the magazine. I have never seen on of the LH Tikka's so I could be wrong.
****************************************************************** R. Lee Ermey: "The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle." ****************************************************************** We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, Which purportedly covers at least ten million more people, without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that didn't read it but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, for which we'll be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has already bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke!!!!! 'What the hell could possibly go wrong?'
Posts: 2122 | Location: Arkansas | Registered: 03 June 2000
