weak side carry

[wm]

I'm looking to perhaps borrow some experience from someone here. The relevant background is that I started having some issues with my right/dominant hand a couple years ago. Spasms, temporary weakness, etc. I dropped a lot of coffee cups among other things. I have some nerve damage and some bone, ligament, tendon issues. Essentially I mistreated my hand and its catching up with me. I'm working with my Doctor and resolving some issues but in the mean time I'm trying to be practical and may start carrying south paw or at least training to be prepared to do that if that becomes necessary even temporarily (like following a surgery or something).


Anyone made such a leap? What compounds it is that I am fundamentally a revolver guy ...… and S&W revolvers operated south paw are a whole different manual of arms. Not just a mirror image …… but entirely different.


Any advice or insight you can share would be appreciated.


Wm


P.S. Mas Ayoob stressfire demo of the lefty manual of arms of S&W revolver for those who want to see what I was referring to.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXUwI_d8JlA

[piller]

Not a lot of experience, but practice sure makes it easier to change over.

[Tycer]

I switched to my left side in 2007 or so. Was awkward at first. I treated it like I was a brand new shooter. Started with 22s....

[JimT]

Tycer is correct. Start like you are a new shooter.

My Dad got me started shooting "weak" hand when I was young. He shot with either hand or both and was an advocate of it because you never know. He was in Law Enforcement and shot in the department matches. He won so many matches that one time they asked him to not shoot, just to give someone else a chance to win. He asked if he could shoot if he shot weak hand only. They said ok. He came in 2nd, just a few seconds behind the winner.

He shot S&W revolvers and had worked everything out including the speed loads.

You can do it.

[Bill in Oregon]

The intensity of "handedness" varies from person to person. Had an uncle who could pitch right and left. Me, very right-handed. I, too, would start with a .22.

[Merle]

don't know if tou'd be interested, but Charter Arms makes a left handed revolver.

[marlinman93]

I have an 85% disability in my right wrist due to an on the job accident in 1971. The lunate bone in my wrist went dead, and now my wrist is almost fused. Very little movement left in that wrist. Back when I was younger it was extremely painful to use the wrist, so I was forced to do a lot of things left handed.
I taught myself to use my left hand to shoot, and thus carried left handed. All I can say is it took a fair amount of practice, but eventually over time I became more proficient left handed than i was with a bum right hand. Now my right wrist still has no mobility, but doesn't ache constantly, so I can use it. I've gone back to right hand carry, but I can switch back and forth when shooting with ease. Whenever I go out to shoot I always practice both hands so I wont lose what I taught myself and can go back if needed someday.

[guido4198]

I can't help you much with making the change to Left-handed shooting. I'm a natural born Lefty and shoot that way. I can tell you however that back when I had to use a Smith&Wesson M-19 for law enforcement qualification I had never seen Ayoob's video, but worked out a manual of arms on my own that is pretty much exactly as he shows at the end of that video. I shot a "possible" on my qualification, 350 x 350 with that M-19 so I can assure you that with practice, you're not going to be handicapped in any way.

[piller]

The one time I did shoot left handed was the last time I qualified for my License To Carry here in Texas. My right eye was messed up from a viral infection. For some reason I just decided to go left all the way. My Walther and Wesson model 99 was handy and I used that. I missed the bullseye once. The instructor said that I had shot well. I didn't say anything to him since a few people barely passed and I didn't want to sound like a braggart. I still carry that Smith and Walther and Wesson some. It is nice and accurate. Walther upper and Smith and Wesson lower.

[crs]

Yes, you can do it.
As a right handed teenager, I shot my M18 .22 revolver left handed as part of every shooting outing. I was slower, but just as accurate. Total switch to left handed shooting was required some years ago due to operations on my right eye; that was one reason for buying some of my lever action rifles as they are ambi- dexterous. After years of healing, I switched back to right handed on a running bison and lo and behold, it was like old times! Bang-flop!
Since then, another right eye operation has made me switch to shooting shotguns left handed again. With a peep or scope sight, I can still shoot rifles right handed. It is good to have left handed as a backup though - on a New Mexico pronghorn hunt, the buck came around the left side of the cedar bush that I was hiding behind, so I moved my 1895 .405 to my left shoulder and shot the buck as soon as he fed into view at about 20 yards.

So, go for it! It is much better than not being able to shoot at all.

[Tycer]

don't know if tou'd be interested, but Charter Arms makes a left handed revolver.

I don’t feel handicapped in any way reloading a revolver. I still carry the speed loaders right side and reload like a right hander would. I simply roll my thumbs across the backstrap.