Shooting Dumb Handed

[sixshot]

Had surgery on my right thumb several days ago & its covered in a pretty heavy wrap with a steel cover over the thumb so I can't bend it. Have to leave it on for another week & its bugging me that I can't shoot so I decided yesterday enough was enough. I grabbed my 3" S&W 696 44 special & went to the range & set up one of the plate racks & stepped back 12 yds & ran it twice dumb handed as one of my son's calls it.
I'm actually a natural lefty but have always shot right handed. His wife is a lefty & so is one of his son's, so plenty of dumb handed people in the family.

Dick

[2 Dogs]

Did you hurt that thumb while you were running along side a Grizzly Bear pinching on his ribs to see if he was fat enough to plant a cast 45 slug into??

[sheriff]

A good revolver man always practices 'either hand'..... Hate to hear about the surgery. Hope recovery goes well (and fast).

[500fksjr]

Sept 23, 2022 12:44:00 GMT -5 sixshot said:

Had surgery on my right thumb several days ago & its covered in a pretty heavy wrap with a steel cover over the thumb so I can't bend it. Have to leave it on for another week & its bugging me that I can't shoot so I decided yesterday enough was enough. I grabbed my 3" S&W 696 44 special & went to the range & set up one of the plate racks & stepped back 12 yds & ran it twice dumb handed as one of my son's calls it.
I'm actually a natural lefty but have always shot right handed. His wife is a lefty & so is one of his son's, so plenty of dumb handed people in the family.

Dick

Makes a great point to learn/practice with both hands...Heal fast !!!

[contender]

Don't let him fool y'all. He's shot USPSA,, & they love to throw in that dumb hand,, or as we normally call it,, "weak handed" shooting.

Ok, 'nuff said. Heal fast my friend!

[bradshaw]

Dick.... look at it this way: a switch to your offhand give your gunhand time to heal. To impose recoil on your injured hand retards recovery. To rest the elbow of my gun arm, I gave considerable magnum time to my offhand. This has added years, if not decades, to my marksmanship. Discovering in the process a very cool trigger finger in my offhand.

And, as long it makes a strong sight picture, it doesn’t matter which eye aims.
David Bradshaw

[bigbrowndog]

I too am left handed but shoot right, and in competition all the “weakhand” stages or runs were shot faster and better weakhanded than strong hand, even with a transfer from the draw.
Keeping the off hand handy makes for good practice.

Trapr

[bigbore5]

Wish you a speedy recovery. But don't stop shooting using both of your hands. I run the same drills with both. Every drill day.

[matt56]

I occasionally shoot left handed if I’m having a windage problem with a revolver. Just to take my grip and trigger finger out of the equation

[rangersedge]

Harder for me than it seems like it should be.

[bula]

Also came into the world left handed. Played little league either hand. I've warned younger friends to try many things with their off hand. Writing, etc.. Just to wrap their minds around what it would be like. They thought it was funny when I suggested to try their off hand in the bathroom.. My right shoulder is wearing down, and I've had to contemplate that issue. 

[pete]

Had my right shoulder fixed this past spring. 5 weeks+ of no right hand. You can learn to do what you have to using your dumb hand, well and quickly. Including shooting. Shot my 1860 army a couple times lefty, it was easier when i HAD to than when i WANTED to. Go figure. Heal well and quickly Dick, hunting season is upon us!

[rexster]

A prayer for complete and timely healing!

Being naturally left-handed, but right-armed, writing lefty, but throwing righty, I decided to carry on my right side, ‘way back in 1983, when I started a police academy. (Handgun carry being generally illegal, in Texas, at that time, I had not yet established any handgun carry habits.) Drawing an L-Frame revolvin’ pistol, from the then-mandated low-slung duty rig, was not unlike throwing underhanded, and working the long-stroke double-action trigger was simple enough, in principle, for my less-smart hand. (My prior handgun experience had been limited to the single-action trigger, with a 1911.) I knew that I would be patrolling mostly alone, after I completed field training, in a patrol car with a 60/40 bench seat, so, I would have more elbow room to reach my right hip. Right side carry just made sense, and became a habit.

I established a pattern of training more, with my right hand, to shoot the larger duty sixguns, and training to use the smaller J-Frame hide-out/back-up gun in my left hand. This had the unintended consequence of sparing my “smarter” left hand quite a bit of .44 and then .41 Magnum recoil. I finally realized that I had K/L-Frame-sized hands, and that it was a BAD idea to hold an N-Frame with an offset grip, to get enough index finger on the trigger, for DA shooting. Using an offset hold tended to direct more recoil in to the base joint of my thmb, and then torqued the wrist in a worse way than if using a properly-centered hold.

Generally, I am functionally ambidextrous with most of my handguns. Glock triggers are, well, a bit complex, so, I tend to shoot a Glock better lefty. My left thumb is noticeably more dextrous than my right thumb, so, thumb-cocking, to enable one-handed single-action shooting, is better done lefty. Due to so many training repetitiions, over the years, drawing and pointing any handgun still feels more natural, if done right-handed, whether or not the holster rides high, low, or a sensible in-between.

[bula]

Any pistols(semi-auto) that fall into my possession get a strip of traction tape on the top of the slide. Ejection port to rear sight. Action can be worked one handed against most any surface. My thigh, inside of other forearm, or as Gabe Suarez said, your opponents forehead. Ouch. Just sayin. 

[rangersedge]

Bula: I always thought the rear sight was there for that purpose! Are you supposed to use it for something else? ;-)