Left hand shooter

[Steve Grentus]

I'm a natural lefty and tried to shoot righty being right eye dominant but could not do it! Am a newbie black powder shooting lefty with an 1853 Pedersoli Enfield musket! Shooting a percussion right handed musket is no problem at all. Of course, I've always shot my other guns lefty!!
Best of luck from the other side :grin:

gh

 

[Dean2]

I've been a lefthanded shooter for 50 years and all my percussion rifles are right hand models. I've never considered shooting a right hand lock percussion rifle as a problem. You simply load, sight fire, reload and repeat until you're out of powder.

The only drawback is that you won't be able to use the cheekpiece on a right handed rifle.

Now, flintlocks are another matter. All my flintlocks are left hand models. The first flints I ever fired were all right hand locks, and there's something about that pan flash right in front of your face that is always a little disconcerting.

Bottom line: If you see a nice right handed percussion rifle with a price that speaks to you, heed the call and Buy It!

What he said absolutely works and he is correct about the Flintlock wanting to be left handed for sure. That said, I have shot left all my life, I spent more to get most all my Big Game hunting guns in Left hand or ambidextrous levers, break actions etc. I even went to far as to get multiple calibers in exactly the same rifle so everything is exactly the same no matter what I am hunting. I believe there are a number of shots that I was able to make with very short time window that would not of happened if I didn't do this.

In fact there was once out deer hunting that I was peeling my coveralls off and saw a deer bolt onto the powerline about 250 yards up. By mistake I grabbed my right handed brothers rifle without looking, thinking it was mine by the location it was leaned up to in front of me. We never lean a loaded rifle so I ended up taking my hat and glasses both off I as I instinctively racked the bolt, only to find no handle there. Had that been my gun, there would have been a dead deer. As it was, my brtoher nad I were laughing so hard I never did try to load the gun properly.

My only right handed rifles, CF or ML are varmint rigs where a fellow really doesn't care if you pass on one.

 

[Patocazador]

I shoot right-handed and never considered the problems a lefty would have with a right-hand lock ... until I got 2 SxS shotguns. That left hand lock spits hot powder(?) and cap fragments into my wrist and forearm. It definitely could get bad enough to cause a flinch if I wore short sleeves while shooting it.

 

[awebbersr]

Just in case anyone is interested, The left eye dominant right hand shotgun I referred to is an 1880 vintage double barrel 16 ga percussion with Damascus barrels.Frontier Gunshop,(520-325-9880), wants $2200 for it. Well out of my price range, but I was amazed at how light it was. It did align the center of the barrels with the left eye. :v

 

[azmntman]

My problem exactly. If I say...hit powerball?? I would be buying an original older asap. But I'd rather stay here (in my house) which requires my money be sent to the bank regularly!

 

[Richard Kemp]

Are you sure you want to be making your own black powder? Doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

 

[Zonie]

Before we get into a discussion about making black powder, be aware, talk about it is against the Forum Rules. See Rule #39
http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showrules.php

 

[crappsl]

Copy that. Read the rules. Just mentioned I'm making my own. Nothing technical.

 

[nkbj]

I put up with right hand rifles just like right handed revolvers.

 

[Dean2]

:hmm:

 

[Dean2]

Sorry, question was meant for Zonie

Can we Canadians talk about making black powder, nothing illegal about doing that here in Canada? :hmm:

 

[azmntman]

Makes sense, we can order everything we want from 20 different sources by mail and cant talk about making BP and our northern neighbors can make BP and cant order nothing w/o a manure load of govt involvement! :hmm:

 

[Zonie]

You Canadians can talk about it as much as you want. So can all of the Americans if they want to.

No one can talk about it on the open forum though.

 

[bpd303]

Here is the reason why... http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/229301/

 

[Zonie]

The way I see it, that's the reason for rule #39.

Rule # 39 is why we don't talk about it.

 

[Eterry]

I'm a southpaw and have shot righthand cap guns for years without incident...until I bought a musketoon that used the hotter musket caps. Then I started getting "fragged" by the caps on my right forearm. I mentioned this to a friend who shoots competition and he mentioned the lefties on the line use a sock with the toe cut out as a "forearm guard" to lessen the injuries. I tried it and it helps, but doesn't stop it from happening. As to flint; I bought a r/h flint rifle once and promptly sold it...the sizzle that close to me eye was too much for me.
Regards,
Eterry

 

[jackpine54]

I have been shooting RH percussion locks left handed for over 20 years and other than a few very minor burns to the arm, no problems. Most of the time I'm wearing long sleeves so don't even worry about it.

 

[Richard Kemp]

Same with me. Never a problem.( In the Army, shooting my M-16, I'd occasionally get hit in the forehead with a hot ejected casing. Leave a little red mark. You could always tell the lefties.)

 

[Eterry]

I shot several percussion rifles for years and never had a problem until I moved to the bigger musket caps; the no. 11 are no problem at all.

btw, I recall shooting the BRM course at Ft. Sill with OLD M-16's with No Brass Deflector at all and my neck looked like I had been attacked by a varsity cheer leading squad... :grin:

eterry