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Due to a hunting accident last December I'm now blind in my right eye. I'm right handed dominant as well. To those that had to switch to lefty halfway through their life, how did you do it? What guns did you buy? Any recommendations? Training exercises? What do you do with your rangefinder binoculars that only read in the right eye? So many questions.

I cast my Beneli M2 to lefty and added a bb halfway down the barrel as well as switched the safety. I shot a few times this summer and did ok but I'm struggling w doves now. Would an o/u work better?

All of my guns are right handed guns. Those will get passed down to the kids. Which rifles worked the best for you guys that had a similar experience as mine? I mainly shoot deer sized game and smaller but will be going back to Africa for buff and sable at some point. I'm looking for a couple of rifles from 22 to 300 and I'd rather buy once. I haven't shot my ar yet and only a few times with a centerfire. That was very awkward. Thanks for any input you might have.

Sorry to hear about your accident. Some thoughts on moving to LH shooting... I'm a right eye dominant lefty. It took some time, but the best advice I can give is get to a range and practice. I would have to close my right eye at first, but over time, my left eye came into sync when looking through a scope. Since you are used to shooting righty, I would suggest pulling the rifle up to shooting position and getting comfortable with the mechanics. It may take a bit to be comfortable.
As far as rifles, I have several different ones and can't suggest one over the other as most aren't manufactured any more. If you are looking for a build, I have a LH 700 long action and a McMillan Hunter's Edge stock in the safe. PM me if you'd like more info.
Good luck!

I've worked with a couple of shooters in your situation. One was due to the loss of an eye and the other a vision problem, essentially blind in the right eye due to an illness. Could see light and movement but and detail was lost. Both were strongly right handed.

It wasn't easy for either but we started them on left handed bolt 22's, 581 Remingtons to be exact. And shot a lot. I mean a lot. From the bench, sitting, kneeling, standing, prone. Improvised rests, bipod, everything we could think of. They used other 22's as well. Some right handed bolts and some lever guns, semi-autos and even a pump. Both preferred bolts.

After they began to feel confident with shooting left handed, they started shooting their centerfire rifles. At that point the left handed portion was pretty well established and it was more a matter of getting used to shooting left handed with a more recoil than the 22 generated. One of the guys kept his old 700 right handed 270 and continued to shoot it, just left handed. The other opted for a left handed model 70, 30-06 and got rid of his right handed rifles.

I wouldn't stress too much about getting left handed rifles yet. Shoot a 22 a lot. Dry fire your centerfire rifle a lot. Always left handed. And spend considerable time shooting standing with it. That's going to help you with the shotgun. I'm an O/U guy so regardless of left or right handed, I still prefer an O/U. That doesn't mean you have to go O/U. I would get with a shotgun instructor who can determine if your Benelli fits you correctly. Just because it fit well right handed doesn't mean, even though it's cast for a lefty, that it fits you properly.

I would shoot a lot of trap. Trap is boring compared to skeet and sporting clays but it is slower paced and will help you rebuild the fundamentals of wing shooting. Take your time, shoot 7/8 or 1 ounce loads. They'll break 16 yard targets all day long. It's tough to build good skills it you're getting beat up by 1 1/8 ounce handicap loads. After you begin to feel confident in your left handed trap shooting move up to skeet and sporting clays. There again, light loads.

An old friend of mine, a small mouth bass fishing fanatic, when referring to learning the art of bass fishing, was fond of saying, "nothing beats time on the water." Well, the same principle applies, nothing beats time on the trigger. It's just going to take time. I assume you had some fairly well established shooting skills before this accident. Apply what you know and shoot a lot.

Hope that helps.

I've been going through the same process over the last four years.

First, read what Mart said. it's almost exactly what I did, minus the formal shooting like trap. I have lost enough acuity in my remaining left eye that trap isn't a good game for me.

What I have done is shoot the crud out of starlings, both with 22's and with the 12 with 7/8 light target loads (about 1150 fps). I went 22 and shotgun first, then added a deer/elk rifle, and finally a 223 general varmint rifle this year.

As far as rangefinders, my old Leica works fine left eyed. Binoculars are kinda a pain using one eyed, but it works out ok. Using one eye is unfortunately much less efficient glassing that using two. But one eye sure beats none, so I'm good......

It's just about rebuilding muscle memory. I was out sneaking up on some varmints at the farm this week, and when I cycled the 223 bolt for a followup shot, i short stroked it, much to my chagrin. There's still more practice required.

Good luck. Try to enjoy the process and reward yourself when you reach the milestones.

Thanks guys! I appreciate the comments. Keep em coming.

Wingshooting with one eye is going to be tough because of depth perception. I can't shoot dove with an eye closed even though I have an issue with a ghost barrel showing depending on lighting. You really need them to be the same distance over and over. Doable on a hot field. You can just mark 20 yards and shoot a skeet choke. In your situation I'd want a LH auto.

If you know what you like in RH, just get a set in LH. You can get pretty much anything you want LH. People tend to wrongly assume that is not the case. There is no need to settle if you're willing to put in a little effort.

I shoot my LH rifles RH some for practice because I've often enough shot game off the other shoulder. Not really a big deal except running the bolt will never feel right. You could avoid that issue with automatics or levers. Browning and Henry sell centerfire lever actions in bolt action cartridges. Browning or an old Winchester for 22lr lever action if you want finer accuracy.

Sorry about your accident. My best suggestion is to buy a true left handed shotgun. I've had more issues with shooting a right handed semi auto shotgun left handed. They are terrible for spitting burnt powder and other crap back in your eyes/face. One major incident from a weapon like that could hurt your eye and since you are blind in one, you need to make sure you protect the one you have and use right now. Go to a true left handed shotgun and even left handed rifles. They even make true left handed AR's that you could look at. As far as making the switch, all that takes is practice. After a while it will feel natural, if you practice enough. It may end up taking a while though and you'll feel like a monkey humping a football for a while. Good luck with making the switch. Also, Mart makes some great points. Read his advice, as it is spot on. Especially the practicing part..

@OP, also sorry to hear about your accident. Have shot long guns from the Left side all of my life. Only found out in the past 5-8 years that I am Left Hand / Right Eye cross dominant. As above, practice, practice, practice. Especially from field positions. Having fired many Right Hand rifles and shotguns from the Left side over the years, it is much easier to operate a true Left Hand long gun from the Left side.

For me personally, a Left Hand Benelli SBE is my only shotgun. A Left Hand Remington 581 is my only rimfire rifle. Both are accurate and reliable. Both can be had without breaking the bank if you are patient and keep your eyes open. I tend toward Left Hand Remington 700's for centerfire rifles because I like to "tinker". And there are far more aftermarket parts for Left Hand Remington's than any other brand of rifle offered in a left hand configuration.

As always, JMO. YMMV...

Right Handed, Blind in Right eye. I have been fooling around looking for the optimum left-hand solutions for over 40 years. This is my 2 cents:

I have never had any issue shooting a right-hand gun left-handed. This includes bolts and semi-auto's. There is no shot I would have missed shooting a right-hand gun left-handed. Left-hand guns are more convenient but not a necessity.

My go-to for most hunting in South Texas is the Savage 99 lever-action rifle. I have both the tang safety and lever safety left-hand conversions in the pre-mill and post mil models. For hunting, I like the tang safety model the best but the pre-mill models are clearly and without a doubt much higher quality guns. That said, the post mill tang safety models hunt just as well in the field and the tang safety is optimum. You'll find a lot of left-handers who have gravitated to the Savage 99. I have them in 300 Savage, .308 Winchester, but have recently had 2 re-barreled in 450 Bushmaster and those will be my go-to's. If you have never handled a Savage 99, try them, they may be a rifle solution for you.

For Africa and Bigger North American Game, I used to have left-handed Winchester Model 70's which did everything I could ask of them and you can't go wrong with one of those. This year I have sold the Winchester Model 70's and have switched to the left-handed Zastava Mauser action platform not because it is better than the Winchester, because it is not,
but because the Winchester Left Handed Model 70's have become so valuable I started being afraid of scratching them and I wanted to make modifications that would have killed the value. So sold them and am having fun building the Zastava Mauser rifles at this time with zero worries about hurting their value. The Zastava's can be made into wonderfully smooth and beautiful rifles with the advantage of being able to easily field strip the bolt with no tools. Next to the Ak-47, the Standard Model Mauser 98 was the second most manufactured rifle in the world. Many of these parts work in the Zastava Mauser and you would have a better chance of finding parts for this rifle than any other hunting rifle in the world.

Shotguns: I worked my way up to a Benelli Left-Hand semi but didn't even finish out the dove season without going back to a Winchester Model 12 Pump with a large head left-hand safety swapped in. This is my go-to from now on for as long as I can hunt.

Most important thing for you is to practice and building your muscle memory shooting left-handed, That is more important than the gun itself.

Lost Vision in my right eye 11 years ago. Strongly right handed. Solution was a mind numbing amount of practice in the living room, range & field.

I have been thru about all bolt action options when I made the SWITCH. From Blaser to Remington. Tried one LH Blaser R93 and a LH Browning T-bolt straight pulls are fun, but spendy! Still have the Browning.

Shotguns I was ok as I had a 20 & 12ga BPS- both bottom feed/bootom eject tang safety. and a couple O/U's.

Hand guns.... I shoot right handed and sight with my left eye.

Don't forget about the lever action alternatives as well.

Be patient, But if you do nothing else buy a quality true left hand 22LR.

Swarovski’s range finder display is in the left eye of their binoculars.

I shot right handed until i was 21. A farm accident took my right hand. I struggled at first, anger, depression, frustration and then determination. In all honesty there is no magic pill. I tried and failed a lot. Then I realized I the only way to beat this was to to keep trying and that s what I did. I now own and shoot just about anything I want to. I favor some LH rifles like Remingtons and Savages. Same with shotguns. Love over and unders mainly citories. Just keep trying.

I shoot lefty.
Savage 17R LH
Sauer 202 30/06 LH
Remington 11-87 12 ga LH
Benelli SBEII 12ga LH

All my other rifles and shotguns are right hand.

I'm right-handed and left-eye dominant - have a brother and two sisters similarly "afflicted" and another sister who's left-handed and right-eye dominant (Yeah, I know a screwed up gene pool.) Anyway, don't rush to change out your long guns. Because of my years working with other's rifles and shotguns, I've adapted quite well to right-handed weapons and at this point it's difficult and uncomfortable for me to shoot left-handed rifles. The absolute best "therapy" that I recommend is to shoot conventional skeet - taking time to work through each station so you can determine what types of shots or site-pictures present the most problems. If you attempt this first with ever-changing situations such as in sporting clays, crazy quail, or actual hunting it will take you much longer to determine this; the constant repetition of each type of shot that you have at the skeet range will develop the hand-eye coordination and muscle memory much faster than any other method. For instance, say you continually miss the station-2 high-house; well, you can just shoot it over and over again until you find that 'notch' so to speak. Of course, you need to belong to or find a club that has a spare field where you can do this. Also, find an experienced wing or target shooter who can stand behind you and call your missed shots for you so (behind, below, ahead, etc.) Hope this helps.

I would just add that as a lefty I shoot SxS’s and O/U’s, but in SA’s I buy those right-handed ones (currently two Benelli Ultalights) with reversible safeties. I have never experienced what bsa- mentions — gas, particles, or shells either hitting me or bothering me.

When and if you ever do, you'll understand.. and since the op only has 1 eye left, that is nothing to fu ck around with. I have, however, shot a little bit competitively/money shoots. As far as schidt hitting my eyes, it happened with both pump action and semi auto shotguns. It was rare, but it did happen. I finally had to make a switch to left handed pumps and autos and of course the trusty bt99 and Citori. If the op is safety conscious, he'll be protecting that eye.

I’m sure, but like I presume the OP does, I also wear safety glasses which should mitigate any debris being ejected. I’ve had mine turn away #6 shot from 50-60 yards away.

As a lefty, I mention buying righty SA/pumps with reversible safeties, because in the region I live there is a definite hesitancy in gun shops to take a lefty in trade, and of course selling/trading on your own presents the same problem of a small market.