I have a question for yall.

I am left handed and have grown up shooting right handed firearms.

A couple of year ago, my wife bought me a Savage Left Hand 17HMR bolt action rifle. I found that I actually did not like a left handed bolt action rifle. I have always been able to stay on target and cycle the rifle with my right hand. Having a left hand bolt I would have to more my trigger hand to cycle the bolt and then reposition my hand to shoot. I determined that I could put more rounds on target faster with the right-hand bolt than with a left-handed one.

Have any of yall tried shooting a left-hand bolt if you are right handed or a right hand bolt if you are left handed? If so, what is your opinion?

For automatics.semi-autos, I prefer left handed firearms simply for the ejection port being away from me.

I shoot left handed but prefer right handed bolts. I prefer cycling the bolt with my right hand as well. But I also prefer a straight stock. Some right handed stocks are canted for a right hand shooter. Also, right handed bolt are much easier to sell versus left handed.

I am left handed and never again want a right handed rifle to shoot left handed.

Are you saying you can shoot better from a bench? That is about the only position a wrong handed rifle sort of works.

I agree with Fireman and I even apply it to a degree. My guns I mainly shoot from bench or do not plan to seriously hunt with are right handed and my bolt guns that get hunting time I tend to go lefty.

I have always hunted with right handed rifle kind of world you grow up in I can't even operate a left handed rifle hardly and the few I have tried I feel like I am trying to eat with chop sticks rather than a fork. But left handed auto shotguns are a must

I also prefer a right handed rifle. Simple fact is, I tend to hunt in a blind. I always shoot from a rest. It just works better for me.

i'm left handed and when i learned to shoot
one just didn't run down to academy and pick
up a left handed any kind of gun. i learned
to shoot right handed, but never could use
a bolt action the way it's supposed to be used.
that makes it just a heavy single shot with
integral ammo storage for me.
form is what make for accurate shots, so i
sure wouldn't change my shooting at this
stage in life. and this close to opening firearms season.

If you learned to shoot right handed, why can't you cycle a bolt right handed?

The best assignment there is.

A left handed shooter grab a right handed rifle. Shoot from seated, kneeling, and off-hand unsupported, meaning just you, the rifle, and the sling. After the shot MAINTAIN SIGHT PICTURE and cycle the bolt. You can try to reach across with your left hand and cycle the bolt. In the end you'll probably look like a pig on roller skates, and you probably can't maintain sight picture. Now try the same three drills with a bolt handle on the correct side of the rifle...

No argument from me on that. I just never shoot standing or kneeling unless it's with a shotgun

If I shoot standing or kneeling, I will probably be shooting a semi-auto rifle. If I am sitting, prone, or at a bench I will more than likely be shooting from a supported position (bar, table, bipod, etc). This is when the right hand rifle and off hand bolt cycling happens.

It interesting to hear about other lefties and how they shoot.

it's extremely awkward and slow to me. awkward and slow = poor accuracy and form.( to me )
i do fine with the single shots and levers and muzzleloaders and semi-autos i use.

Prone or the three days a year I shoot from a bench (prairie dogs) my non-trigger hand, right hand is holding the rear bag aiming the rifle. When I need to cycle I let go of the grip, cycle the bolt, place the hand back on the grip, never losing sight picture. I enjoy trying to run the range 200 to 800, shooting every target in hundred yard increments in less than one minute. Sometimes I get it in time, sometimes not.

I started off right too...I still own a few right handed rifles...the users are all left handed now...

Ed

What if a rifle you really want only comes in right handed models? That happens to me often. Like the Tikka CTR.

if you feel the need to have a top drawer rifle, drag out the checkbook
and get one of those nice merkels and the euro scope to top it. it'll
fling a bullet from either shoulder and never squeak.

or you can go cornbread like me and shoot h&r's and cva's with leupolds
that cost more than the rifle. dead deer either way and they never know
whut kilt 'em.

i can't recall the last time i needed a follow-up on a deer.

Yep a problem I have all the time.....

Since going left---actions I like are the problem. Remington 700 are easy---but not my favorite. I have Granite mountain ( start at about 3k for the action),Remington 700s, Defiance, Gentry, Winchester 70s, 1 LH savage, and Blaser stuff ( or shoot my single shot stuff--or my lever guns) When I got into Blaser in the late 1990s--this is why, because all you had to do on a R93 to make it LH is change out the bolt housing voila you have a left handed rifle...now they make stocks configured for either LH or right...modular guns still hold a soft spot with me... The R8 is a great system, but Blaser has gotten overly spendy in the last 10 years.

Ed

I used both until I finally decided to weed out my right handed rifles and replace them with left handed bolt guns.....only right handed bolt gun I have now is a .22-250 that was a gift and will never get sold.

I like having a left handed bolt gun because its the proper way to be...that said, I can cycle a right handed bolt gun pretty dang quick from a field position.

the avg. hunter can't cycle a bolt action rifle quick enough anyway to make it matter if the gun is right or left handed, for most its a moot point.

Agreed!

Then you find a good gunsmith and have one built. To my limited knowledge a factory left hand bolt gun chambered in 26 Nosler doesn't exist!

I too am a lefty. Grew up shooting right handed bolt actions and just got used to it; got to make that first shot count. My first shotgun was a Mossberg 385 bolt action (right handed); I used to be able to get a second shot off pretty quick.
A few years ago I almost traded my right handed Rem 700 BDL in 7mm Rem Mag in for the same gun in left hand but at the last minute I decided Why?

I think in comes down to what feels comfortable to you.

Mike I run mine pretty fast and I am sure you can attest to that lol. I also run my bolt with my right hand. May not be optimal but like a handi cap person I have learned to improvise.

Which rifle is that?

My new one. The 26 Nosler that I had ARP build for me.

BMD can run a right handed bolt shooting left handed as fast as I can run my lefties. Seen that first hand.