Help "teaching" my dad to shoot.

[JStem1283]

My dad has been hunting/shooting for a long time. About 3 years ago he suffered a pretty serious work injury, which has basically left him without use of his right (dominant) hand. He wants to get back into some sort of the shooting sports to spend more time with my brother and I. I have already figured out in my head how to teach him to hold a pistol with his left hand and aim with his right eye, however I'm hoping some of you can offer any other advice you may have with that. Also is it safe to say that shooting a rifle with optics is pretty much out of the question? I've never tried shooting with optics using my non dominant eye, but I'd assume that you wouldnt hit what you're aiming at. Any advice would greatly appreciated.

[ghost183]

good for you man.. doing this for pops..


as far as the rifle/scope.. the bullet is going to go where the cross hairs are, the gun doesnt know which eye youre using.. lol, he just has to get used to closing his dominant eye to focus with his left

[Grey Bearded One]

I had to shoot left handed for a while, I just used the left eye. It took me a while to adjust to shooting lefty but my scores soon came up to nearly what I shot right handed.

[JStem1283]

good for you man.. doing this for pops..


as far as the rifle/scope.. the bullet is going to go where the cross hairs are, the gun doesnt know which eye youre using.. lol, he just has to get used to closing his dominant eye to focus with his left

I guess my train of thought is the whole point your finger at something then close each eye thing. If thats not the case, then I'm in business. He has obviously had to learn to do everything left handed now so he should have some good hand strength built up over 3 years.

[ghost183]

nah..point his finger and close each eye isnt the case with a scope.. his fixed position of focus will be the crosshairs, not the target, he'd have no choice but to close hie right to see the cross hairs.. should be an easy transition visually, just takes some getting used to mentally, forces of habit etc etc..

[MOUNTAINORACLE]

I've done a lot weak hand pistol shooting over the years and anytime at the range I always include weak hand training; I keep both eyes open when shooting a pistol or revolver. As far the rifle goes if the sights are aligned with what you what to hit, you will hit it.

[Cyclops]

I agree with the premise that regardless of what hand or eye is used to shoot a scoped rifle the round is going to hit where the cross hairs are spotted. That would be true of iron sights too.

If you want to shoot handguns, I can pass this experience on yo you. When I was training for recon battalion in 1963 I had to qualify with the M1911. I am right side dominant, and qualified that way. However, We also trained to shoot on the weak side. Why? Because if you get shot in the strong side hand or arm the M1911 is out of meaningful service unless you can shoot on the weak side.

Learning to shoot the M1911 on my weak side was not all that difficult. Left hand and eye work well together, if you train enough. We dry fired for many hours before live fire. That dry fire was the key to getting command of weak side shooting. It is really a matter of mind over matter rather than physical capability of the weak side. Even currently when I go the the range to shoot my 9mm I do some weak side practice. If I ever have to shoot it out with a bad guy and he manages to disable my strong side, I want to know that I can still defend myself. I never cross side trained with a rifle because we were issued M3A1s, and submachine guns make weak side shooting easy.

Keep the idea of lots of dry run training in mind. It works.

[JStem1283]

Thanks for all the advice! We went out yesterday for some pistol shooting, and overall it went pretty well. It took a bit of time to get him used to doing a left hand stance, then finding what stance was most comfortable with him. He will have to work some dry firing exercises to improve his accuracy, but he was already grouping pretty well at 7yds and consistently hitting 2/3 IDPA steel at 15. Which I understand isnt anything special, but for someone who essentially lost everything...this made him feel really good.

[ungawa]

My dad has been hunting/shooting for a long time. About 3 years ago he suffered a pretty serious work injury, which has basically left him without use of his right (dominant) hand. He wants to get back into some sort of the shooting sports to spend more time with my brother and I. I have already figured out in my head how to teach him to hold a pistol with his left hand and aim with his right eye, however I'm hoping some of you can offer any other advice you may have with that. Also is it safe to say that shooting a rifle with optics is pretty much out of the question? I've never tried shooting with optics using my non dominant eye, but I'd assume that you wouldnt hit what you're aiming at. Any advice would greatly appreciated.

What does "basically?" mean?

If he's doing well then don't change anything and ignore my suggestions.

If he's not doing well, I would have him close his dominant eye and shoot handgun with his left eye. For rifle I would try to stick with right handed if possible. It is easy to overcome a slight loss in trigger control if he has any right hand function by doing dryfire drills and dime/washer drills. Throwing away 40 years of natural point of aim, cheek weld, stable position, and confidence by going lefty is a little more work. And he won't have stock control.

It sounds like he is happy so just have him keep doing whatever he is doing but remind him to do a few minutes of dryfire drills and slow, deliberate gun handling and shooting drills to make up for all the changes. Every time he shoots and, preferably, a few days a week. Unless it will make him miserable or he is a curmudgeon, then leave him alone If he needs a little more I have seen some of this. I am not an instructor but I can provide some moral support and hints.

[JStem1283]

What does "basically?" mean?

If he's doing well then don't change anything and ignore my suggestions.

If he's not doing well, I would have him close his dominant eye and shoot handgun with his left eye. For rifle I would try to stick with right handed if possible. It is easy to overcome a slight loss in trigger control if he has any right hand function by doing dryfire drills and dime/washer drills. Throwing away 40 years of natural point of aim, cheek weld, stable position, and confidence by going lefty is a little more work. And he won't have stock control.

It sounds like he is happy so just have him keep doing whatever he is doing but remind him to do a few minutes of dryfire drills and slow, deliberate gun handling and shooting drills to make up for all the changes. Every time he shoots and, preferably, a few days a week. Unless it will make him miserable or he is a curmudgeon, then leave him alone If he needs a little more I have seen some of this. I am not an instructor but I can provide some moral support and hints.

His hand is physically there, but for most things its useless..he cant open a bag of chips, or twist off a soda/water bottle top etc and def cant squeeze a trigger. It does fairly well as a support hand with some attention, so he has to shoot left handed. We may move onto rifle soon, but I figure work on one thing at a time.