Anyone ever switch their dominant shooting hand from righty to lefty or vice versa?
The reason I ask...as long as I've been shooting handguns (right handed) I've always had "low/left" syndrome. I will occasionally hit the X-ring, but *everything* else will end up between 6 and 9 o'clock regardless of target type. I know I do have some mechanical issues to work out regarding grip and trigger press, as well as a flinch. No matter how I've changed things up to correct those problems, however, I've gotten the same results.
Friday, for giggles, after two hours of right handing it, I decided to put some lead down range left handed. I'll be damned if my groups didn't tighten up quite a bit and I was hitting the X and 10-ring on a B-27C target with regularity. This shocked me, but I was able to do it with three pistols of different make and caliber, so I don't think it was a fluke. My grip felt more natural as a lefty, as well.
As a backgrounder, on a recent visit to the optometrist, I did learn I was left-eye dominant. That said, I have always been a lefty when using a baseball bat, hockey stick and lacrosse stick, but I do write right handed. When young, I broke my right wrist fairly badly and it is a little creaky at times...not in a painful way, however.
While I'm not a statistician and I probably need a larger sample to claim an "AHA!" moment, when making a simple spreadsheet of where my shots were landing, I was able to double my number of X-ring shots and increase 10-ring shots by 35%, while reducing 9-ring shots by about 40% and totally eliminating 8-ring shots. These stats are based on 170 shots right handed and 100 shots left handed, fwiw.
Aside from the numbers, just visually looking at the target, I see the whole low/left pattern gone from the picture, and a more balanced distribution of shots, rather than a swap to high/low right that one might expect.
I know that for personal defense, it's important to be able to shoot both strong and weak hand, but at this point I'm thinking I need to consider which is REALLY my strong hand and start putting more time into that one, rather than continuing to beat my head against the wall right handed on a seemingly Quixotic crusade to "get better". I'm already better left handed so WTF?!?!
Anyone ever have or hear of a similar experience? Your input is appreciated in advance!
The reason I ask...as long as I've been shooting handguns (right handed) I've always had "low/left" syndrome. I will occasionally hit the X-ring, but *everything* else will end up between 6 and 9 o'clock regardless of target type. I know I do have some mechanical issues to work out regarding grip and trigger press, as well as a flinch. No matter how I've changed things up to correct those problems, however, I've gotten the same results.
Friday, for giggles, after two hours of right handing it, I decided to put some lead down range left handed. I'll be damned if my groups didn't tighten up quite a bit and I was hitting the X and 10-ring on a B-27C target with regularity. This shocked me, but I was able to do it with three pistols of different make and caliber, so I don't think it was a fluke. My grip felt more natural as a lefty, as well.
As a backgrounder, on a recent visit to the optometrist, I did learn I was left-eye dominant. That said, I have always been a lefty when using a baseball bat, hockey stick and lacrosse stick, but I do write right handed. When young, I broke my right wrist fairly badly and it is a little creaky at times...not in a painful way, however.
While I'm not a statistician and I probably need a larger sample to claim an "AHA!" moment, when making a simple spreadsheet of where my shots were landing, I was able to double my number of X-ring shots and increase 10-ring shots by 35%, while reducing 9-ring shots by about 40% and totally eliminating 8-ring shots. These stats are based on 170 shots right handed and 100 shots left handed, fwiw.
Aside from the numbers, just visually looking at the target, I see the whole low/left pattern gone from the picture, and a more balanced distribution of shots, rather than a swap to high/low right that one might expect.
I know that for personal defense, it's important to be able to shoot both strong and weak hand, but at this point I'm thinking I need to consider which is REALLY my strong hand and start putting more time into that one, rather than continuing to beat my head against the wall right handed on a seemingly Quixotic crusade to "get better". I'm already better left handed so WTF?!?!
Anyone ever have or hear of a similar experience? Your input is appreciated in advance!