Do you practice shooting with your weak hand?

[Hawkeye]

If you dont, you should. Even though I have, I do not feel as confident with my weak/non dominant/reaction side hand as I would like. Freak things happen, and you never know when you may be without the use of your strong/dominant/weapon side hand.

[monkeybird]

Absolutely true. I broke my dominate hand 2 years ago. The knuckles on some fingers was crushed and are now fused and will not bend. After several surgeries it's the best it will ever be. I still have problems pulling a trigger with that hand. It requires both hands with the index finger from both hands to pull the trigger. I can pull it with just the dominate, but after about 10 times the fingers get numb and tinglely. Very unpleasant. So I always use both index fingers and it's a habit.

How did you break you arm? It's miserable to be in a cast - I hated it. I hope you get full motion back.

[Hawkeye]

Slipped and fell.....broke wrist.

[eeyore]

Wish you all the best, but you have your remote and the lap top. This past Winter i broke my shoulder, on the strong side, misarble. Will never be right. Broke my weakside wrist (two times) in the past.
But to answer your question not anywhere near enough. I will change my ways. Thanks for bringing it up.

[Lowdown3]

Sorry to hear about your arm Hawk, we'll be praying for good healing.

Working up to trying to get as good point shooting with the left hand as the right.

Have to work on drawing with the left, reloading one handed also. An easy way to do that is to put your right hand behind your head like your stretching and hold it there. Now do everything with your left hand- draw, shoot, reload.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Well that sucks bro, sorry to hear
I had surgery on my strong arm a while back and had advance notification and got all ready or so i thought. Reloading is a booger and had to get a weak hand holster cause drawing from a serpa holster weak handed is also a booger. Actually bought me a different knife too cause the one I had was a booger to open without dropping. I have changed my training from shooting to drawing and even did some practice fighting with the proverbeal "1 arm behind the back" a while ago

[Hawkeye]

Just got back from the orthopedic doc. The good news is, its only a fracture and wont require surgery. Bad news is, it wont take much more for it to break all the way, which would then require surgery. Put on a perm. cast, and said that it should start healing pretty quick, and be ok, but he wants to x-ray it again in 1 week. Just have to be careful with it.

Now, back to the discussion at hand. Reloading while shooting with your non-primary hand is tough enough. Doing it with ONLY your non-primary is very challenging. I like to try and find a training opportunity every where I can, so this will be a good one for me. I've already started back on dry fire drills. Hope to get a few live ones through the gun once I'm feeling a bit better. Maybe this is a good video opportunity....:cool: A special thanks to all the instructors I've trained under, who made me practice non-primary shooting drills. They are a necessity.


Oh, and who says you cant have a little fun with a less than desirable situation....

[EX121]

Sorry to hear about the wrist, but glad no surgery required. I cut my weak hand thumb & nearly severed the tendon a few years back, it very difficult to load with out a thumb, nad the need to shoot one handed , but the cast made a stable platform. good luck on healing.

[1Admin]

Gun goes dry and locks back, drop mag and then holster it, even if it's backwards. Grasp your mag, insert into gun while in holster, get gun back out of holster and use thumb to trip bolt hold back OR you could hook the rear sight on your holster, belt, back of your shoe, just do it in a safe direction.... LOL Probably easier to show than explain.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

on a sidenote dont holster a gun in a highsided serpa or your gonna have to find a buddy with a screwdriver to pull it apart. The low sided ones are ok though.

[Longhunter]

Yes practicing with your weak hand is something everyone should do, as well as shooting with your strong hand only. As with everything else start with the basics and start slow, do some dry fire, move on to shooting one round, then two etc, etc. Once you've done the shooting, practice drawing, firing, and changing mags all weak handed.

With the mag change, after ejecting the mag you can put your pistol between your legs, under your arm, backwards in your holster(pistol butt forward)or kneel on your weak side and place your pistol between your calf and the back of your thigh. Once your pistol is secure, use your weak hand to insert your magazine and then catch your rear sights on your holster, back of your heel, belt or any (safe) place on your kit to release the slide to chamber a round.

As 1Admin said, this is easier shown than explained. Might make a great new S & P video.;)

Practicing weak hand fire and everything that goes with it is also good time to evaluate your kit setup. What kind of holster are you using and where is it on your body, where is my long gun right now, is anything getting in the way or slowing me down?

One side note while actually shooting weak handed, try canting your pistol, not full on gangsta but just a little. Basically(without your pistol) throw a punch with your weak hand and with your arm extended notice that your fist naturally cants a little to the side. It seems a little more natural for your arm and you shoot better weak handed with that little cant. Food for thought. Take care and stay safe.