A Leftie in the Making

At the beginning of the year, this meme was incredibly accurate. I have always done some shooting left-handed, but very little. 50 - 100 rounds per year over the last fifteen years doesn't add up to much when compared to the rounds shot with my right hand. My best guess would be 1-2% of my shooting was done left-handed since I began shooting.

I knew, when I wrote up my shooting goals for this year that I wanted to increase my left-handed shooting, but it was pretty vague. I just wanted to do it "more". My vague idea of "more" was somewhere around 25%, I figured that would make me competent enough should anything happen to my dominant arm/hand.

I started the year shooting the Dot Torture, so it was easy to plan to shoot it once right-handed and once left-handed. By the end of February, I realized that I was far exceeding my goal of 25% left-handed shooting. I continued to run drills both right- and left-handed throughout the year, and I have averaged about a 50/50 split between both hands.

Some drills, like the Baseline Evaluation, lend themselves very nicely to switching hands. When I shoot the Baseline Evaluation I do it right-handed, left-handed, right hand only, and left hand only. At 50 rounds each, it's easy to run through 200 rounds in a one-hour period of time, so it can get expensive quickly.

I have found an unexpected benefit to all of this left-handed shooting (besides the obvious increase in confidence, etc.). A couple of months ago at work, I was working on my laptop and eating lunch at the same time. About half-way through my lunch I realized that I'd been eating my salad left-handed. With a fork and everything. And I hadn't even made a mess!

As I sat there, in wonder that this miracle occurred, I realized that I've been using my left-hand far more frequently and without thought since I began shooting left-handed. It's a benefit that I never considered, and, yes, I feel dumb for not ever considering it.