Wheelguns for lefties?

[Nightcrawler]

I'm interested in a revolver, specifically, a Taurus Tracker 7-shot .357 Magnum. However, I'm a "south paw" as you righties like to call it, and the swing-out cyllinders on most revolvers are designed for a right-hand reload. Are there any techniques for a lefty to quckly reload a revolver? I may as well admit that I've never shot a revolver before, so I don't know much about them.

 

[M58]

I am Lefty/ambi because when I attended the academy in the 60s they only had right side duty stuff on hand. There are a number of contortions for Lefties; honestly I have used the right hand reload system for years and made the gun hand change after the load; for me this is faster than trying to keep the gun in the left hand.
As a side note, I prefer a right hand draw for speed and switch to left for distance. Few range officers ever paid attention to the fact that I did not have a weak side firing position! They usually said something like you really worked on your weak hand and your groups are better on that side?

 

[burrhead]

Wheel guns are very lefty friendly. To reload, open the cylinder latch with your trigger finger then push open the cylinder with your right thumb. The right thumb goes through the frame window and right fingers wrap around the frame to hold the cylinder open and support the rest of the gun. Right index finger pushes the ejector rod. Reload with the left hand, snap her shut while with the right fingers while transfering back to the left hand and your good to go. Never tried a reload from a right hander's perspective but I don't see how it could be any faster.

 

[4V50 Gary]

It may not be the best, but here's how I do it...

1) Upon firing the last shot, my left hand is repositioned such that the trigger guard now sits on the palm of my left hand, my middle finger and ring finger are positioned at the top of the cylinder and are ready to apply pressure to open the cylinder. The left index finger is atop of the barrel and the pinky in the area between the frame and hammer. The right thumb releases the cylinder release and the middle and ring finger apply pressure to open the cylinder.

2) Once the cylinder is opened, the middle finger and ring finger are used to keep the action fully opened such that the cylinder bears against the left palm. The forefinger stabilzes the top of the barrel and the pinky stabilizes the area between the frame and hammer. The left thumb slips atop of the ejector rod.

3) Thus positioned, the thumb forcefully pushes down on the ejector rod. This is accompanined by a short upwards and then violent downwards thrust (to help eject the spent shells) by the left arm. Simultaneously, my weak (right) hand reaches for a speedloader.

4) By bending/twisting the wrist, the gun is rotated such that it is muzzle down (at this point, the left hand does not change from the unloading). This offers the empty cylinder in a "up" position ready to receive the speedloader. The right hand guides the speedloader into position and the middle finger and ring finger rotate the cylinder as necessary for proper alignment. After loading the cartridges, the speedloader is dropped and the right thumb and forefinger grasp the grip (near where the medallion would be on the older Colt Detective stocks).

5) Once the cartridges are deposited into the cylinder, the middle and ring finger are withdrawn, allowing the left thumb (and to some extent, the palm) to close the action. The left hand slides back to grip the gun while the right hand slides away. Once the left grip is secured, the right hand wraps around it for the two handed support.

6) Practice, practice, practice and it'll be natural.

(Darn if I didn't have to pull out a revolver to see how I do this).

 

[AR-10]

I'm left handed and I do it just as burrhead describes. It seems very natural to me. It may be a split second slower, but in a high stress situation it's probably the most fumble-free for me. The downside...If I were to shoot wheelguns competatively I would have to figure out how to carry a holster AND five or six speedloaders on the left side of my body.I'm a Newbie, so take it for what it's worth.

 

[Kalvan]

While I am a right-handed shooter I am also a personal protection instructor, so I have to be able to show left-handed shooters how to do things. I teach them burrhead's method, which I learned years ago from one of the best left-handed revolver shooters I know, and that's what I practice and would use myself. 4V50 Gary is describing, in excellent detail, the right-handed way to do it, down to the end of the first sentence in # "5)". Carry the speedloaders on the same side was the gun. BTW, I index the cylinder by using the flutes. For a left-handed shooter, I would teach to have the right thumb in one flute (closest to the frame), skip a flute, then put the middle finger in the next one (farthest from the frame)(for right handed operation it's reversed, with the thumb farthest from the frame). In between my thumb and middle finger across the top of the cylinder there should then be two chambers in a straight line. When you grab the speedloader or speedstrip with your left hand, put your left index finger tip on the tips of two of the bullets. You can then move those two bullet tips to where you know the two chambers are. Doing this you can reload without looking, either because you are trying to keep track of a threat or because it's dark. Another revolver reloading tip is to make sure the MUZZLE is UP when you hit the ejection rod. If the muzzle is pointed down, one of the rounds/empty cases can rock off of the ejector star and get underneath it. That is a malfunction that cannot be cleared quickly under stress, and the gun is useless until you do.

AR-10:

I shoot a 625 in competition. For IPSC I carry 3 moonclips in front of the gun and 3 behind, although I've seen a number of shooters carry 5 or 6 right across their front. IDPA only allows 2 in front of the hip, but then IDPA stages cannot require more than 18 rds, so I carry two in front and one "Hail Mary" behind the gun.

 

[Frosty]

I`m a lefty and burrhead`s way of doing it is pretty much the same way I reload....it`s easy! Even getting proficient with speedloaders, holding cylinder steady with right hand, loading speedloader and turning knob with left hand and my GP-141 is ready to go again!

 

[Badger Arms]

Bill Ruger and Sam Colt were both Lefties. Note that almost all single-acitons are Left Handed. Righties just never caught on to this. I realized that when I was reloading... I always reloaded by switching the gun to my left hand.