Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Advice for shooters that are left eye dominant

What are shooters doing or recommending for bolt action shooters that are right handed but left eye dominant? Should a person use a left handed rifle and aim with left eye. Or could a shooter use a right handed bolt action and close their left eye and aim with their right eye. I am looking for a rifle for my 12 year old grandson, and as far as left hand versions the selection is somewhat limited as far as wood stocks and lighter calibers, plus a compact rifle would be preferred for a starter. Any advice is appreciated.

I’m no writer but I am left eye dominate.
I’ve owned one left handed bolt gun, I sold it. And I won’t buy another.
Just buy him a right handed gun and let him shoot it left handed. I’ve been doing it for years.
If that’s what he’s trained to do he won’t know any different.

My son uses RH rifles from the left shoulder. Talks about a LH rifle, but options are limited. His bow is LH.

My youngest son is left eye dominant but right handed. My plan is to have him shoot guns left handed simply because I’m a lefty so now I have someone to leave my rifles to.

LH guns are safer and easier to use when shot left handed. Just commit to buying the correct equipment for your grandson. At one point, there were just three readily available LH bolt rifle options (WBY, Rem and Savage), now there are lots. As a left handed shooter, I have had rifles chambered from .17 HMR to .416 Remington, and always on lh actions. He would certainly need to shoot shotgun from the shoulder that matches his dominant eye, if he wants to be any good at it.

In order to understand what I mean, how about you borrow a LH rifle and shoot it for a day at the range and see if it is at all awkward. (I suspect you will.) Or try a round of skeet from the wrong shoulder with your master eye closed.

If you want him to enjoy the shooting sports, do everything you can to make them easy to learn, quickly enjoyable, and not frustrating.

Utah708 for the win!

My wife is right handed left eye dominant and shots left handed. No bolt gun though, over under shotgun and lever action rifles.

I am right handed right eye dominant and for a variety of reasons have shot left handed from time to time, those experiences just enforce the validity of my first sentence.

Maybe practice shooting right handed and closing the left eye.

Ron

Oldhunter49
Soon, cant say exactly how soon, but soon there will be a stock on the market that will allow a right hand shooter to use his left eye to shoot. And vise versa. And it can be configured either way in a matter of seconds without tools. Have the rifle on your right shoulder, and use use other eye. Have the rifle on your left shoulder, use your right eye. And it will be available for every shoulder fired weapon.....rifles, shotguns, crossbow, grenade launchers, etc. And you will be pleasantly surprised at the cost .
Charlie

Not A Gunwriter, but am left eye dominant and right handed. I use a RH rifle and shoot from the right shoulder. With a scope or iron sights I have never had a problem. Even shot expert with many different rifles in the military. Pistols I shoot either RH or LH, just as good both ways. My issue is a shotgun. That is where I see a difference in eye dominance.

Agreed, 1000%.

This topic comes up from time-to-time and there's always a mixture of advice and opinions. Teach that youngster to shoot properly with his dominate eye. He'll thank you when he's older and can run 100 straight on the skeet field shooting with both eyes open. I know this thread is about bolt action rifles, but you get my point. Left handed bolt guns are harder to find, but they're out there.

This.................. me too!

If you're pretty sure his shooting interest will be rifles only then shooting right handed and closing his left eye is a viable option. If he's going to take an interest in shotguns then I'd switch him to the port side while he's still in his formative years when the transition will be fairly easy, I'd encourage him to switch to the left side and learn to shoot with both eyes open. Left eye dominance with a right handed shotgunner is frustrating for a new shooter. There be a handful come along and tell you it doesn't matter but I've trained an lot of shotgunners and eye dominance is about the most common barrier to good, and confidence building shooting.

I know you're seeking rifle advice but looking long term, I'd get him switched over to shooting left handed as soon as possible and get him in a left handed rifle. Simply safer. Just ask kk Alaska. He'll back me up on the safety aspect. I've been fortunate to always have shooting glasses on at the range but have taken some gas and particles to the glasses when a primer pierced or case failed and I was shooting a right handed rifle from the left side.

Right-handed, blind in the right eye since birth. I shoot left-handed. Over the last 40 years, I have used both right and left-handed rifles. I am in the process of switching to all left-hand custom bolt rifles because it is the right tool for the job and more convenient.

That said, the rifle I use the most is the Savage 99 with the tang safety. A left-hand shooter's dream.

I am left eye dominant and right handed. I started shooting right handed but when I bought a Rem 722 I found I hand to shoot left handed.

It took about 1 year but the bonus was I was shooting better left handed than I did right handed.

Try it you may like it although it may not work that way for everyone.

I'm left-handed, and left-eye dominant. I learned to shoot right-handed bolt guns as a kid. My parents didn't want to go through the hassle of finding a lefty rifle for me.

My youngest daughter seems to be a bit more fluid as far as eye and hand dominance, but eventually through trial and error I recognized she is more comfortable shooting right-handed, though I had to get her to close her left eye for a while so she wouldn't try to look through the scope/sights with her left eye. If it would have gone the other way, I'd have gotten her left-handed rifles.

Safety is the biggest concern in my mind. I can and do shoot right-handed rifles just fine, even working the bolt fairly quickly in rapid-fire scenarios. But I know if a case lets go, my face is in the way of the ejecta. While I don't stress much about taking that risk for myself, there is no way I would subject my children to it if not required. I imagine the OP would feel the same about his grandson.

Let the kid decide. How does he shoot now, what shoulder does he naturally use without any outside coaching?

I'm right handed (mostly) and left eye dominant. When I first picked up a toy rifle I shouldered it on the left. Same with cap pistols, I picked it up with the left hand to aim with the left eye. Batting or throwing a ball I naturally used my right hand, catch with the left.

What utah708 said is excellent advice for anyone thinking of making a choice for someone else: "how about you borrow a LH rifle and shoot it for a day at the range and see if it is at all awkward." Walk a mile in their shoes, so to speak, and see what it's like.

Making him shoot any way than the one his natural tendencies choose is doing him a disservice.

Same with me. With a rifle, you just close your left eye. I shot NRA Expert in Highpower Rifle and the reason I didn't make Master had nothing to do with which eye was dominant... With pistols, I just shoot right handed but move the gun to the left a couple of inches and use my dominant eye.

I am right-handed but left eye dominant. I've used both LH and RH rifles but found my niche with the single shot TC Contenders and Encores. Plus, it is easy to get RH, LH and ambi stocks for them. That might be something to consider in your situation, especially considering you can add barrels as he grows and as his hunting needs change..

I'm right handed and "left eyed"...I shoot pistols, rifles and shotguns and bows, both recurve and compounds by just looking at or through if a peep sight and don't worry about which eye is doing what

I shoot as good or better than most because I'm a gun nut. With a scope it doesn't matter.

Leftt eye dominate right handed and I shoot right handed with all firearms'. Handguns you can swing over to use the left even right handed. Shotguns learn to squint the left eye a bit. Close the left with rifles and even do well with open sights and apertures. A bit of practice and with kids just get them one good group and let them at it. Kids usually figure it out pretty quick.

I probably break every rule but it works for me.

I agree with Utah708 and others who recommend using the correct LH equipment. My wife is right handed and left eye dominant. She has a LH bolt and a lever and shoots both naturally and well and i would term her an occasional hunter and shooter. My cousin, who has hunted and shot all of his life, shoots RH bolts and although well practiced, is never in a good shooting position, although he is well practiced enough to make it work. Practice can overcome...but why fight it, the right equipment is out there.

Yep.

Close the left eye or use an eye patch.

Keep the solutions simple.

Scoped or with peep sight, probably not much difference in how well he would shoot either handed. If he's right handed, he probably can work a right handed bolt better and faster. I'm fairly ambidextrous - hit a baseball or softball about the same from either side and comfortable shooting shotgun from either side, but I'm definitely a righty when working a bolt action, so I use right handed bolt rifles even though I'm left eye dominant.

For shotguns, handguns, and defense rifles that he might need to just point and pull the trigger instead of aim, definitely have him shoot left handed if left eye dominant. For bolt action rifles with scope or peep sight, let him try both left and right and see what his preference is.

Ditto. Being 78 years old I have shot with my right eye for over 60 years.In hunting, competition (handgun and rifle), and plinking. Yep shot gunning gets tedious

I'm right-handed and have been shooting since I was 5 and I'm now 72. In those days not much was said about eye dominance and shooting. I couldn't hit the side of a barn until I finally figured out for myself that I was left eye dominant. I started shooting left-handed at about age 10 and it is so natural now that shooting right-handed is a handicap for me. For bolt actions, I leave the rifle at my left shoulder and work the bolt with my right hand (when shooting at game). When shooting shotguns I try to keep both eyes open and used to shoot sporting clays in the high 80s about 20 years ago. I do own an LH Mauser 3000L but I never use it. Handgun shooting is still problematic for me. A red dot sight works great for me on a handgun with both eyes open but that option is only for a certain few handguns.

I’ll take a hard pass on that.

There will be varying degrees of dominance. I'm visually ambidextrous. If a pistol is in my left hand I shoot with my left eye, if it's in my right hand, I use my right eye. The tests for eye dominance fail with me ... inconsistent results. I shoot rifles mostly right handed simply because most rifles are right handed and that's what I've practiced the most.

I'd suggest everyone should become somewhat proficient with their weak side / weak eye, don't just practice the stuff that works well, so that if you're somehow disabled / incapacitated, you have a practiced, familiar fallback. (I also taught myself to fly fish left handed.)

I'd find a left handed bolt action .. maybe you have a left handed friend .. and let him try that. And try a right handed setup. See if there's any difference for him. You might be looking for trouble where these is none.

Cross over stock?

EYEGLASSES

Kids are notorious-adults sometimes also-for screwing up the many often used eye dominance tests, which themselves are open to interpretation....Unless verified by someone who knows how, I wouldn't worry about it right now....

Eye dominance for most falls into a degree of eye dominance...and most are not 100% either way....

This ^

I am a lefty and started out with right handed bolt actions as their were no lefty bolt guns. My first lefty bolt gun was a Remington 700 FS in .270 and I never shot a righty again. My son fortunately is also a lefty so I started him out with T/C Pro hunter single shots and now he shoots a Tikka
'lefty" in 6.5 Creedmoor. During the last 40 years I have used Remington pump rifles, lever guns and mostly single shots so there are other choices out there for south paws.

If I was buying a lefty bolt gun for my grandson I would be on the hunt for used Ruger American RAR in left hand or a Savage lefty bolt gun. As a grandfather start your grandson out right....or I mean LEFT.

As I said before I am right handed and left eyed...............

AND, at 66, I am not going to pick up the most dangerous tools in my tool box and try to use them with the wrong hand......................

But that's just me......

My hats off to all you guys that can wipe your butt just as well with either hand..................

For safety and efficiency reasons, shoot with ones dominant eye. That way one can keep both eyes open. Lots of choices in actions. Pumps, levers, falling blocks, break actions, semi autos, etc go both ways.

Also, for sure assess eye dominance in ones kid before they ever shoulder a firearm.

Im right handed but left eye dominant. I've always used LH bolt rifles or levers.

This what I do as well. I know it's not ideal, but I get by.

A few comments:

Per usual, a lot of the comments here are how ONE person dealt with the problem personally, but in my experience that's very much like ONE person saying they have no problem handling the recoil of, say, a .330 Winchester or even.378 Weatherby Magnum, so therefore everybody else should be able to do the same thing.

Humans vary in many ways, and a couple of the ways involve both the degree of eye dominance, and the degree of "handedness." With many of us, especially in middle age, eye dominance can become erratic. And people can be strongly right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous--or anywhere in between.

Have talked to (and sometimes been trained by) a lot of professional shooting instructors, for both rifles and shotguns, and due to my work have observed quite a few other shooters (and even helped some) myself. In general, if the shooter's a beginner, they should try both sides and find what's most comfortable, though very young beginners can more easily adapt to shooting "with" their eye dominance, partly because they haven't been habituated to shooting from one side or the other. This is often more desirable is the shooter has any interest in shotgunning..

One interesting example is a cousin of mine, six years younger than I am, who's strongly left-eye dominant but close to ambidextrous--though in training closer to right-handed, because before he even started shooting he used a lot of tools designed for right-handers for wood-working. He made do with one of the family bolt-actions when he started hunting big game at 12, naturally a right-hand rifle, since nobody else in the family was left-eye dominant (or even left-handed). He didn't do to well, and quit hunting in his mid-teens until his late 20s, largely due to that problem.

Then he started to hunt again, partly because I moved near him. He used a right-hand bolt rifle, but practiced more with it, and killed a deer with me. He decided he liked hunting then, but still preferred shooting shooting left-handed due his strong eye dominance. I found a used left-hand Remington 700 .30-06 for him, and he's been very happy with it, because it's more comfortable to shoot with. And he shoots it well.

And that's just one example of why we shouldn't make any firm conclusions of what's "better" for a cross-dominant. Instead, we should be open to what feels and works best for the individual shooter. Right now I'm helping a friend with his 10-year-old daughter, who'll start hunting this coming fall. She's left-eyed and right-handed, and we're going to start her with a .243 Winchester H&H Handi-Rifle that Eileen used a little around 15 years ago. Obviously it can be used from either side, and we'll find out which side his daughter prefers, instead of assuming which side she should shoot from.

Agree completely....and then some.

In addition, eye dominance with shotguns is often an issue because the barrel gets in the way....Have a bird fly across the sky, with no shotgun in hand, point at it and the brain will figure out where to point and almost perfectly. With no barrel eye dominance is not an issue..

Which is why you are seeing some of today's top shotgunners shooting with their head almost off the stock...It helps get the barrel out of the way and eye dominance becomes less of an issue. The are shooting over the barrel rather than down it..

And some--often hunters--are using red-dot or other optically aligned sights, rather than looking along the barrel. This has worked for a long time, as Bill Weaver proved with 1x (non-magnifying) scopes decades ago.

Which is one reason I prefer variables of 1x to 1.5x on the bottom end for my drillings. When hunting big game the scope's on the lowest magnification, and if a bird flushes at close range the scope works fine. And if a longer-range shot occurs on big game, there's usually time to crank the scope up.

Something I didn't think to mention in my earlier post is that, at least for me, when using a rifle scope (with magnification) with both eyes open the eye looking through the scope becomes the "dominant" eye.

I'm another cross-dominant shooter. Rifles and pistols I shoot right handed, just close my left eye. Shotguns, now that's where things are messy. I started shotgunning right handed and was pretty inconsistent. Occasionally I would have to shoot left handed due to the way birds were coming in (geese) and I noticed my shooting improved. Bought my wife a LH 20 ga. and started using it (on upland birds) as she wasn't. I definitely am more consistent shooting birds lefty.

So here's my take. IF the boy is truly left eye dominant, teach him to shoot lefty with left handed equipment, in the long run he'll be a more consistent shooter. For a right handed person it's a bit awkward at first, but with practice, running a lefty gun becomes natural.

That's really user-specific. I can't force my dominant eye not to be dominant without closing or covering it. Everyone is wired a little different. My son is the same way. My brother is the same way. My daughter is the outlier, and she is more like what you describe than she is like me. It's really an individual thing, and to some extent (again individual) you may be able to "train" yourself. But not everyone can.

I had both my shoulders replaced three years ago. When you're in a sling for three weeks with no behind-the-back movement allowed, you get good at it really quick. There's just some things a wife won't do for you...

I'll give my answer based on the science and research. I will also say that I'm a hunter and competitive shooter and my experiences also support what I will offer. Similar to JB, I don't doubt that folk have had success doing it "the other way" (following the handedness, or just closing or blinding the dominant eye). But on the whole the evidence is pretty strong for the following; results are best when you follow eye dominance instead of hand dominance.

When it was studied, shooters in an intramural shooting program were found to do better (score, enjoyment and comfort) following eye dominance instead of following handedness.

When competitive rifle shooters of various abilities were studied, the prevalence of contralateral (shooting off the shoulder that was different than the dominant eye) grew smaller and smaller the higher the level of competitive until at the Olympic level, there were no contralateral shooters.

I have been fortunate to coach hundreds of junior shooters including more than a few collegiate team shooters and a national team shooter, and our experience mirrors the above We for the most part applied the above methodology. The exceptions where we didn't was related to availability of equipment. We had only so many left handed rifles in our program and there were a couple of times where we had too many left eye dominant kids.

I will add a couple of points. It was harder to get boys to switch off the right shoulder to the left. My theory was that they had a decade of running around with toy guns ingrained with their right shoulder (hard to undo a decade of ingraining) The girls generally had no problem shooting off a shoulder that didn't match handedness.

Last point. Closing the off eye (whether it's your dominant or non-dominant eye) is not a good idea. Closing an eye causes a phenomenon called sympathetic dilation where your open eye's iris opens in response to the opposite closure. It seems your brain expects a certain amount of light and will open up the remaining eye's iris to get it. Wider open iris means poorer acuity. Bad if you're shooting iron's. I haven't experimented with glass. But at my age and optical capabilities, I care not to sacrifice any of my visual acuity.

I'm left handed and all my guns are right handed. A left handed gun is the most awkward thing I have ever tried to shoot.

https://www.trapshooters.com/threads/clear-tape-on-glasses-vs-one-eye-shooting.828843/

Interesting read................. a quick review and NOONE suggested switching from right hand to left!

Trapshooters...all going away targets, premounted gun and they see the same targets over and over.

The fact that these few didn’t switch doesn’t mean some didn’t and were better for it.

Switching is extremely difficult...know one guy who quit sporting two times trying....then went back and dedicated himself and his wallet to sticking with it. It takes effort and being willing to work thru the frustration. Most are not completely committed to making the effort.

Now he is constantly in the high 80to low 90,s.

Close that eye!

I know of no eye/hand sports were closing an eye is an advantage. Yet it is often the first suggestion for shooting.

Wife, son, daughter and I are all cross dominant, the joy. Anyway, we all now shoot lefthanded rifles. They all shoot lefthanded shotgun as well as archery. I shoot a shotgun closing left eye and shooting righthanded cause at age 10 I was taught that. As a result I am an average shotgunner. I simply can't get it together shooting a shotgun lefthanded after all those decades. But very glad I taught the kids to follow their eye dominance.

Have a safe full of lefties now. Much safer using a lefthanded bolt with a lefthanded shooter. For that reason alone I took the extra effort to source lefthanded rigs for the kids. So after all that, just listen to UTAH708 as he is on the money again.

While I don't have Chris's experience coaching shooters, I am familiar with the research study to which he may be referring and want to offer a bit more detail. It was conducted using students in a Basic Marksmanship course at Penn State University (back when such a course was on the books.) They took a large number of students taking the course, and randomly assigned them to two experimental conditions--they were either taught to shoot the rifle based on handedness or taught based on eye dominance. The results were statistically significant that the group taught based on eye dominance made more early progress and in the end were more accurate shots.

Mule Deer is correct in his comment above that most of our beliefs about this issue are personal/anecdotal (and I would contend that even some of his points in a post above are subject to that criticism.) This experiment is one of the few rigorous examinations of the topic that I know of. It is part of the reason I started informally testing my sons for "eyedness" when they were just toddlers. One ended up being left eyed, and the other right eyed, and that gave me double the reason to buy guns for them.

Thanks Utah708, the research was done by Daniel Landers in the 1970's IIRC. I don't recall which University, but I tracked Landers down to Arizona State U a few years back (I had hopes of asking him questions about some of his other research). The military has tons of research available on-line if anyone cares to search for this topic and share.

I'll go thru the military article data base on occasion when I'm looking for research. I checked my computer folder when I keep these articles and ran across this;

This was published by the Army Research Institute in an article; "Rifle Marksmanship Diagnostic and Training Guide"
by David R. James, Northrop Grumman Corporation and Jean L. Dyer, U.S. Army Research Institute

All I know is you can buy a lot of LH rifles for the cost of one eye. Shooting a RH rifle from the LH side leaves your face exposed if you have a primer or case failure. I cringe
when I see a kid shooting a RH rifle LH.

Utah708,

Actually, I didn't criticize some of the posts due to being personal/anecdotal so much as being "examples of one," all implying that since THAT person had THAT result, anybody else will.

The two examples I gave are also examples of one, but so are the individual results in any large study--and are just a couple from a much longer list of my personal "study" of cross-dominance..

Posted this before, wade thru it and take what you want, however when it comes to eye dominance and shotguns,
this is the guy many of the top “shooters” go to for advice.




More than a little eye dominance issues can be traced back to not really looking at the target/bird, knowing how to look and letting the barrel get in the way.

How many have had a Bird show up unexpectedly, reacted instinctively, shot and the Bird came down....and eye dominance issues magically went away.

I've shot against a lot of guys for money and I've seen a lot of guys trying to mask their eye dominance issues with tape over one lens. One guy even smeared vasaline on one lens, so the dominant eye wouldn't take over and cause cross sighting. I felt sorry for a lot of those guys, not being started off on the correct shoulder when they were young. Shooting a shotgun is entirely instinctive and you should be shooting from the dominant eye side and with both eyes open, regardless of which hand you use most. I read through these posts on eye dominance and can see guys' points and respect their views, but Iv'e BTDT when it comes to eye dominance. Seen guys really struggle. Those guys generally give up on shooting for money and go to something like registered targets and let the big boys shoot for money... Just sayin... As for the OP's question on rifle shooting. Guys making good points for both right and left handed bolt actions. Its all good, but if you want to see some fast shooting, give a lefty a right hand bolt action to shoot off the bench or other supported position. A right hander has no chance keeping up. For fun, I shoot against guys in our local golf ball shoots with my bolt gun, while they use their Ruger 10-22's. Lets just say on our last turkey shoot, I walked away with 4 out of the 5 turkeys. Gave the 1 away because I'm a generous person....

Yep, closing one eye is a mistake. When you use both eyes open in any shooting sport, it is advantageous. Especially in the trap fields. So much faster reaction times. Guys that don't shoot shotguns competitively don't get it or understand it. I grew up shooting jackrabbits on the run, even with scoped rifles I shoot both eyes open.

Right eye dominant. Left hand dominant/ambidextrous. Shoot LH rifles from LH side with right eye closed. Passable rifle shot. Shoot hand guns right handed (more major muscle strength right hand/arm). Passable hand gun shot. Shoot LH shotguns from left side. Suck with a shotgun...

With 50 years of muscle memory shooting from the left side, I am not going to invest the time and effort in my remaining years to learn to shoot from the right. As stated multiple times above, I really, really wish someone had started me on long guns, especially shotguns, from the eye dominant side 50 years ago... If the boy is amenable, try him out on a proper LH shotgun.

Go with what the kid likes best. But I would strongly encourage shooting from the dominant eye side for rifles and especially shotguns. Pistols can be either. What I would do is encourage the shooter to be ambidextrous, might be easier when just starting out.Eye dominance can change and even though I am strongly left eye dominant might right eye is becoming sharper for close images.

In the field it occasionally it is necessary to shoot off the off shoulder and quickly, so being comfortable with it could help.

I agree with the advice to follow the eyes. Both of my boys are RH and L-eyed. NERF guns were a great way to get them used to shoot from the left side. Cheap, easy, fun practice.

I just got a true left hand stock for my 101 shotgun. What a revelation, it reduced the fringe hits and most birds were bouncing they were hit so hard. I was using the center of the pattern instead of the fringes. The difference in a rifle is less dramatic but is still significant.

Like others have said, closing the left eye and shooting right handed is no big deal. That’s what I did growing up and had no issues with archery, shotgun, pistol, rifles with open sights or scopes.

Also, eye dominance can change over time. My right eye is stronger than my left, both have the same prescription though. I wouldn’t force it either way.

What Utah708 said. Do what the eye wants, and please stop trying to justify otherwise. There are plenty of left-handed rifles and shotguns available, and if all lefties spoke up, there would be more.

Go with the dominant eye. I did this with my daughter. When she was 3 or 4 and I started her shooting right handed she was clearly right handed. However, she instinctively "crawled over the stock to align her left eye". At first I kept trying to correct her form until I realized, she was left eye dominant. I switched her around to the other side of the rifle. Problem solved. She has been shooting left handed rifles her whole life. As to both eyes open, I agree, it is best. However, I disagree with those who say that "everyone can do it". Well, I can't. I've always believed it was the proper way to shoot and I've tried everything. Frankly, I get double vision and can not focus trying to keep both eyes open. The best I can do is squint through my off eye. Even as an instructor for years and years, I instructed shooters to keep both eyes open, if they could.

Don't force him, but by all means try to teach your grandson to shoot from the same shoulder as his dominant eye. [Both my sons are right handed but left eye dominant. I caught that at a young age when they were playing with an old Fisher-Price toy camera. It's easy to check eye dominance, even with young children.]

I am 100% lefty shooter. I have shot virtually every gauge, action and caliber of right handed long gun from my left shoulder - that includes flintlock rifles. Of course, handguns are a different animal. I still prefer and am much more comfortable with a left handed firearm.

For the most part, it doesn't matter in terms of function whether it's a right or left handed long gun. I've learned to overcome the right hand safety, bolt releases, and other controls. Levers and break opens are almost ambidextrous. Bolts actions, and to some extent semi-autos, are another issue. Shooting a RH bolt from the lefty side does put the shooter at some risk. I have never witnessed it, but should a catastrophic case failure occur (chamber obstruction, case rupture, etc.), a RH bolt rifle vents gases on the right side which is directly in front a left's face. Obviously, we should all be wearing safety glasses at all times.

It's very difficult for a lefty to complete a follow-up shot from the shoulder while using a RH rifle. For me, the reach-over bolt action technique never worked. As you could imagine, a lefty hunting dangerous game with RH rifle would not be recommended.

Believe me, I feel your pain in searching for a left hand bolt action rifle. Supposedly 16% of the population is sinistral. You surely wouldn't know it when it comes to left handed firearms. However (current gun buying issues aside), the selection has improved in the past 50 years. We all pray things get back to normal soon. When they do, Savage and Ruger both offer some great choices in relatively affordable true left hand action RF and CF rifles. Not knowing the level of interest for my boys when they were young, I purchased a T/C Contender, a youth stock and carbine barrels in .22LR, 7/30 Waters and .45 cal muzzleloader chamberings. The Contender is still going strong and will likely be my old man rifle. There are other single shot, break-open options available.

For the most part, those of us in the shooting fraternity want shooters, especially new ones, to enjoy and perpetuate our sport. Without new shooters - our sport and rights will die. Talk to other shooters. Often they'll let you borrow different firearms to try. See what works for your grandson.

Further, if at all possible, teach new shooters to shoot both eyes open, even with a scoped rifle. It's most important for instinctive archery and moving targets (i.e., shotgun games). There are many terrific one-eyed shooters but it's much easier to use your God given binocular vision - with less eye strain - for tracking targets.

Good luck, good shooting and be well. DJB

My son is left handed and probably left eye dominant but I never cared. Most firearms are designed to be used more easily by a person using their right hand as the dominant hand. With this in mind I taught my son to shoot right handed, and it hasn't caused any issues.

I have seen instructors try and change a left eye dominant person who is right handed to a left handed shooter, it does not go well. Manipulation of the firearm is easier when done with the hand that the person naturally uses or has learned to use.

Eye dominance is over rated, most people do not shoot with both eyes open. Regardless of what eye is dominant it does not come naturally to shoot with irons or a magnified optic with both eyes open. It is a skill that has to be learned, a good place to start is a non magnified red dot. When teaching a child to shoot eliminating this confusing factor makes the basics of marksmanship easier for them to learn.

I shot right-handed until I was twenty-five years old and shot with both eyes open. I was a good shooter too. Do to an injury, I was forced to switch to shooting left handed. I would say it took me about two years to get really comfortable left-handed and was, again, able to shoot with both eyes open. I don't think I ever got to the point I was quite as good as I had been but I was OK. Fast forward 46 years and I have had lens replacement in both eyes and my left eye is screwed up. I can barely see well enough to see the reticles in my scopes. I am now faced with the choice of getting some more surgery on my right hand to see if I can go back to right handed shooting or hope they can fix my damned eye. I've built left handed stocks for some of my rifles so I would have to replace them. I have left hand shooting jacket and vests. The bottom line? every shooter should do what is comfortable but everyone should work at being ambidextrous. GD