Right Handed Shooter/Left Handed Rifle

S

Slowshot

Member
On Another website where I am active, I described the technique and advantages of shooting from the "wrong side". Another member challenged me to name a single right handed competition shooter who shoots a left handed rifle in BR competition. As some of you know, I am not an experienced competitor. My shooting instructor is left handed and shoots a right handed rifle but she is the only shooter I know who shoots that way.

Could someone give me a few examples of experienced well known right handed BR competitors who shoot with left handed bolt action rifles? Any assistance would be appreciated.
 
If they are doing it, they aren't doing it by choice. Usually, it will be someone who has had an eye problem and has to switch sides. They'll use the rifle that they have and have to learn to shoot from the other side. Lowell Hottenstein comes to mind. Most of the left hand shooters that I know, use left bolt guns. Mike Conry, Larry Scharnhorst, Tim Oltersdorf. Tim was trying to sell a left handed Scoville or Scarborough stocked rifle at the nationals in St. Louis. It was a good price, but the bolt handle was on the wrong side for me and my son didn't need another left handed rifle to sit in the vault until he would have the time to get back into shooting benchrest.
 
Mike Bryant said:
If they are doing it, they aren't doing it by choice. Usually, it will be someone who has had an eye problem and has to switch sides. They'll use the rifle that they have and have to learn to shoot from the other side. Lowell Hottenstein comes to mind. Most of the left hand shooters that I know, use left bolt guns. Mike Conry, Larry Scharnhorst, Tim Oltersdorf. Tim was trying to sell a left handed Scoville or Scarborough stocked rifle at the nationals in St. Louis. It was a good price, but the bolt handle was on the wrong side for me and my son didn't need another left handed rifle to sit in the vault until he would have the time to get back into shooting benchrest.
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Then, I do not understand this:

The Lefty AR Upper from Keystone Accuracy by German Salazar, RiflemansJournal.com

"This upper would be a good choice for many right-handed shooters using the AR for F-Class as it allows loading with the left hand while the right hand remains on the pistol grip and ready to fire when the target appears. In light of the fact that the bolt release is on the left side, that makes life a lot simpler than using the right hand! So if you’re a left-handed shooter or even a right-handed F-Class shooter, give this some thought, it might be just what you’ve been waiting for and didn’t even know it!"

Here is the complete article as reprinted in Accurate Shooter.com:

http://www.accurateshooter.com/techn...for-southpaws/

I guess I need to attend a few high power BR and F Class competitions to gather more information. I have read about and seen the advantage described in the above article. My friend Russ Haydon has told me it is very common. When he built my BAT action Short Range BR rifle, he was disappointed to realize my right hand disabilities would not let him build a rifle intended to be fired that way.
 
I am right handed and left eyed, and shoot left handed. My experience with right bolt, right port rifles, shooting left handed would be similar to what you are talking about. I have a non state of the art bench gun that is built on a RH Remington action. Having shot left handed actions from a bench, I prefer the right hand action. Having said all of that, benchrest has changed in the last few decades, and if you are considering a build for competition using a custom action, I think that you would be making a mistake to order anything but a Left bolt, right port, left eject action. Being able to shoot fast, free recoil is an advantage, and although my custom action based bench rifle does not have an ejector or ejector port, If I were building a new rifle from scratch it would. On the other hand, for a factory action build, of a rifle that will never be shot off hand, I think that left left would be an enlightened choice, having shot many right rights left handed. I like being able to leave my trigger hand on the stock and do all of my bolt and loading work with the other hand. The only downside might be resale.
 
What you'll see the most of in benchrest is a right handed shooter using a rifle that has the bolt handle on the right side of the action with the loading port on the left hand side of the action. Now days it will probably have a small ejection port on the right hand side. It's single shot, loads on the left hand side while the operator runs the bolt with his right hand. The empty kicks out on the middle of the bench. Works very well with a T shaped bench top, not so well with a U shaped bench top. For a left handed shooter, the majority are using a left handed bolt with a right side loading port and may or may not have a left side ejection port. And there are still quite a few right bolt right port with or without right ejection. Using windage and elevation adjustable front rests has changed a lot of what is popular. The way it used to be where a right handed shooter squeezed the rear bag with his left hand, the right bolt, right port action was more popular as your left hand never left the rear sandbag and you worked the bolt with your right hand and loaded with your right hand. What is popular and works well for other shooting disciplines may not even be suitable for benchrest competition. For instance, you won't find an AR rifle being shot in benchrest competitively. For one thing, it's against the NBRSA and IBS rules which are the two sanctioning bodies for benchrest competition to use a magazine.
 
I remember a guy, can't think of his name, in the early years, shot right handed with his left eye, with a right handed rifle, and what it said was, that his right eye went for and he cut out the stock so that he could shoot with his left eye. The stock was made of wood. This back in the late 70's, not that I remember EH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bill
 
F Class

Dusty Stevens said:
An ar slinged up laying prone is not a br gun. Youre in a complete different position to work the gun
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F Class is shot from a rest or a bipod, not with a sling:

"What is F-Class competition? Well, it is sort of a cross between Palma-style shooting and conventional benchrest. You shoot from the ground, like Palma, but you use a high-power scope, front rest (or bipod) and rear bag, like Benchrest. Most matches are scored by hit value like Palma, rather than group size like 1000 yd Benchrest. F-class is one of the fastest growing forms of rifle competition. Scopes allow the shooters to wring the full accuracy out of their guns at long range. Shooting from the ground allows matches to be conducted at ranges that don't have benches for long distances. Being so new, F-class rules are still evolving, but here in the United States, two classes are recognized: F-Class Open with a 10kg (22 pound) weight limit and F/TR (F-Class/Target Rifle) with is restricted to .223Rem. and .308Win. caliber rifles fired off of bipods, with a 18.15 pound weight limit or 16 pound weight limit if a front rest is used. A rear rest (sandbag or sock) is permitted if wanted.

While F-class rifles are similar in many respects to 1000-yard Benchrest guns, the way shots are fired during the course of a match is quite different. 1K Benchrest shooters can fire all their shots in a fast string with conditions remaining relatively stable. F-classers shoot in squads of two or three. After each shot, you must wait for the target to be pulled and marked. So, while a 1000-yard Benchrest guru like Bill Shehane might fire 10 shots in one minute (or less), a top F-classer might fire his ten shots in ten minutes. Consequently, wind shifts are more likely to impact F-class shooters, so you need good wind-doping skills to be competitive. While 1K BR shooters normally produce smaller groups than F-class shooters, the gap is narrowing, with "cleans" having been shot at 1000yd targets (1 MOA X-ring) in recent matches. At the recent F-Class Nationals in Camp Butner, 1/2 MOA X-rings were used at 600 yards. F-class guns and shooters are now getting so good, that there is some pressure to adopt 1/2 MOA X-rings for the 1000-yard distance also."
That is why I offered the example in my previous reply on this thread.

Here is the entire article on F Class where I found this description: http://www.6mmbr.com/Fclass.html
 
Right Handed Shooter? left hand

I;m a lefty and shoot a right right a left right a right left port.
Its not that hard for me to get use to. Off the bench of course
If I were to shoot prone then I would need to have a full left Left, to stay in position.
 
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GerryM said:
I;m a lefty and shoot a right right a left right a right left port.
Its not that hard for me to get use to. Off the bench of course
If I were to shoot prone then I would need to have a full left Left, to stay in position.
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This is what I was talking about. Boyd and Mike explain the options and why they make the choices they do. very well. Gerry gives another example. I agree shooting off hand or prone, with no mechanical forearm support would be a clumsy operation at best with a 'wrong handed rifle'. The only reason I used the example of F-Class is that F-Class shooters do use a forearm support exactly as BR shooter do. They just do in on the ground with a regular bench style rest or a bipod. As a result shooting a 'wrong handed rifle' is an option for F-Class, as it is for BR.

As a disabled shooter, I am unable to either shoot off hand with any rifle or on the bench efficiently with a wrong handed rifle. I envy those who can do either. The mechanics of shooting with a wrong handed rifle on the bench efficiently requires two hands, just as shooting off hand requires two hands.

I forgot to mention my ambidextrous shooting instructor shoots pistols right handed, off hand rifles right handed and BR rifles left handed with right handed rifles. There are reasons why she does that. I will leave it to you to figure out the reasons why she shoots like that.

Thanks for those who responded with real world examples. Enough about this for now.
 
Many years ago there was a fellow who shot score, right handed with a left bolt Remington. I watched him shoot, he was very comfortable at the bench, he would open the bolt, the case was right there for him to remove and reload, he made it look very easy. He did not use the ejector,most didn't back then. Another shooter switched to shooting left when he developed eye problems in his right eye. Same thing, once he got used to it, it looked easy, his was RR rifles.

I've spent plenty of time behind an XP100 and wondered why they didn't make it with a left hand action.
 
I wanted to see how it felt to shoot a left hand rifle, right handed. (I'am right handed) Picked up an ambi stock and mounted my Savage Model 12 "left hand" repeater action in it. Love how it feels!!
Picked up a right hand thumbhole BR style stock, plugged the right hand bolt handle cut and recut it on the left side. Mounted the action on a Whidden V block using a single shot follower.
Right hand stays in the thumbhole for control and the "free" left hand works the bolt and feeds ammo. I like it so much that I wish all my rigs were set up that way.
And Wayne, the XP 100 is perfect for a left hand shooter!! :cool:
 
Is an AR even legal for f class? I know i wouldnt object if somebody wanted to shoot an AR against a precision rifle in any match i go to. From what ive seen if a left hander is shooting a right handed gun its cause thats what they have.
 
Dusty Stevens said:
Is an AR even legal for f class? I know i wouldnt object if somebody wanted to shoot an AR against a precision rifle in any match i go to. From what ive seen if a left hander is shooting a right handed gun its cause thats what they have.
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According o this article they are.
http://www.accurateshooter.com/technical-articles/lefty-ar-upper-not-just-for-southpaws/

As you surely know, all ARs are not created equal. Here is the related quote from that article:

I’ve seen quite a few AR15 based rifles in F-TR at our local club matches over the past year. This upper would be a good choice for many right-handed shooters using the AR for F-Class as it allows loading with the left hand while the right hand remains on the pistol grip and ready to fire when the target appears. In light of the fact that the bolt release is on the left side, that makes life a lot simpler than using the right hand! So if you’re a left-handed shooter or even a right-handed F-Class shooter, give this some thought, it might be just what you’ve been waiting for and didn’t even know it!
 
There are many left handers who prefer right bolt actions. Among these are HOF shooter Speedy Gonzalez. Also, Jim Carmichel told me that he had three left bolt rifles. He is right handed but likes his left bolt rifles for shooting prairie dogs. With a repeater, he does not have to take his hand from the pistol grip. He, however, uses right bolt actions for competition...since repeaters are illegal. Good shooting...James
 
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