Left Hand/Eye Dominant - Shooting Revolver Right Hand

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Corvette933

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New to forums, looking at buying a Colt Cobra as my first revolver for concealed carry (From Texas, yee-haw!). I am left hand and eye dominant, and I shoot my Walther PPQ left handed. I decided to try out a revolver at my local gun range to see how it feels shooting, and I had the most difficult time shooting it with my left hand. I understood the trigger is heavier, but every pull of the trigger was awful. My grip kept slipping, my hand was hurting, and my group was a foot apart. Finally, I decided to shoot the remaining bullets with my right hand, and everything felt so natural shooting. The trigger pull was smooth, groupings were more accurate and tight, and my grip remained the same place after every shot. All that being said, should I train my self to shoot right handed with a revolver, using my left eye dominant? Or what would the best course of action be for shooting revolvers?
 
My dad was right handed, left eye dominant. He shot rifles and shotguns left handed, handguns right hand. One of the finest shots I've known.

In your case, go with what works for you. Mastering the DA pull of a revolver does require more effort than manipulating a single action or light striker trigger. Dry fire practice helps a lot and often a change of grips that provide a better fit to your hand.
 
"My dad was right handed, left eye dominant. He shot rifles and shotguns left handed, handguns right hand."

I'm not your dad but its OK for you to describe me so accurately TLM! ;)
 
You need to try the different combinations and figure out what works for you.

I'm cross hand-eyed ??? :) I used to shoot left handed / right eyed, but after getting a few shells in the face decided to go right / right.
It took a while to get used to shooting right / right and now I can shoot either hand, but prefer right as a couple of the guns flip the empties back a little too close when shooting left handed.

Try it, you can get used to and excel at any combination with enough rounds downrange.
 
I'd stick with the left hand and learn the revolver before I attempted to shoot it right handed.

I know a revolver is a different critter, but shoot it in single action first, get the hang of it.

I'm a lefty, left eye dom and other than the guns being set up for right handed folks, I've not had any issues shooting one over the other.
 
"My dad was right handed, left eye dominant. He shot rifles and shotguns left handed, handguns right hand."
Click to expand...

Same story with my brother. He started out trying to shoot everything right handed and really struggled. In his late teens I suggested he learn to shoot left handed. It took some time, but he is a very good shot today.

With long guns you only really use one eye even though both should be open. It is important that the dominate eye be the one lined up with the sights.

With a handgun it is normally held in the middle and if both eyes are open it isn't hard to make it work regardless of which eye is dominate.
 
If you are going to use your left eye regardless of the hand, I'd use the hand that works best, but you should practice weak-hand shooting, either way.
 
RickB said:
If you are going to use your left eye regardless of the hand, I'd use the hand that works best, but you should practice weak-hand shooting, either way.
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I am "cross dominant." Sounds sexy, eh? No. I am right handed with dominant left eye. It is my understanding that a great many highly successful athletes share the same issue.

I mean, my hand/eye coordination astonishes even me. I've seen 308 cases fall off a bench, and I just rip them out of clean air w/o even a thought.

I kill flies with a swatter much better if they are in flight than if they are on a surface? Sounds like BS to me, but welcome to my life?

This completely explains why the last trap session I shot, I got two of 25 birds shooting right handed? Duh?

This only came to light when an old timer bullseye shooter saw how far left I was holding my 1911 with a right hand grip. The simple test he gave me told me I was cross dominant.

So, when target shooting I put a flip up occluder on my baseball hat that blocks my left eye.

Shooting a rifle with iron sights, I just close my left eye if the occluder is not handy. With a scope on the right eye, it does not matter, nor does it with a red dot (I think????)

In a critical situation I don't think it would matter much which eye I was sighting with w/o my occluder.

And, yeppers. Can't wait to try trap shooting again, left handed????

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dominance

My brother is left handed by nature. But he was screwed down into writing right handed in our 1960s Indiana school system. You never know which hand he will use at any given time, because he has sort of become ambidextrous, except for writing.

I surely would not want to get into personal combat with a person of his skills?
 
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I'm left-eyed, shoot righty

I think you should practice a lot ;) I don't mean to over-simply, but there is no substitute for practice. Shoot left-handed. Shoot right-handed. Shoot one-handed. Shoot two-handed.

I shoot revolver a lot. I'm a revolver guy. I primarily shoot right handed and am left-eyed dominate. But I practice all scenarios. I however, am NOT cross-dominate. I am left-handed and my left eye is dominate. I just choose to shoot right-handed (I carry right-handed). I actually learned shooting left-handed; then switched just for fun. After a single trip to the range, I became a right-handed shooter. I show lots of ambidextrous tendencies throughout my life endeavors.

Pardoning the subject drift, but learning to shoot double-action revolver (whichever hand) is a great tool for trigger discipline. Every good double-action revolver shooter I know is also a good semi-auto shooter. But I know lots of good semi-auto shooters that struggle with revolver.
 
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