Do you train with your non-dominant hand?

[SigShooter77]

For the last few years, I have been forcing myself to shoot both right and left handed with pistol and long guns. It's really awkward at first. If you had seen me I probably looked like a monkey f'in a football. There is significant tactical application of this, but given what I've read about the very short length of a civilian gunfight and the close proximity, do you consider it worth it to train your non-dominant hand to be able to operate the gun?

Here's a picture of me trying to shoot left handed...

Link Removed

 

[gunnerbob]

Yes, I train with both hands in rifle and pistol...

By the way, I think you're letting yourself go a bit... lmao.

 

[Pir8fan]

I shoot about half and half. Oddly, I feel far more comfortable carrying pistols on my left side, yet I carry revolvers exclusively on my right side.

 

[Nightmare45]

Absolutely.

 

[jtg452]

Yes, I do. I started about 15 years ago when I first got into CAS shooting. I shoot 1 handed with my pistols while competing and I wasn't comfortable with all the swapping the second pistol from one hand to the other, so I taught myself to shoot with my off hand. I shoot rifles right handed but shoot pistol left handed, so I had the advantage of my right hand already being trained in the proper trigger stroke. What I did was simply fired half the ammo I shot during a range trip with my off hand until I couldn't tell the difference between the groups fired strong hand versus my non dominant hand. I still try to shoot at least 25% of the rounds fired through a pistol on a range trip with my non dominant hand just to keep any rust from sitting in.

 

[farsidefan1]

I train 3 ways 3-4 times a week. Start out traditional weaver then dominant hand then weak (left) hand.The interesting thing is that my right hand is getting tired after 2 handed (I shoot a couple hundred airsoft most nights and the trigger pull is very long and hard) so I am usually more accurate with my left than right. When I go to the range and shooting fewer rounds I'm better with my right. I am going to get one of those laser glock imitations so I can practice with my concealed draw and shoot.

What I's really like is a farm where I could practice move, draw and shoot. They frown on that at ranges. We used to have some places to shoot fairly nearby but some fires made them post "NO SHOOTING" Even when fire danger is nonexistent. Rats.

 

[wolf_fire]

You should train for whatever you feel is the inevitable outcome of a nasty situation. If you think it is possible that an attacker could stab, shoot, or bludgeon your strong side and you have no idea how to shoot effectively with your weak side, you are dead my friend.

I would always recommend training one handed. More importantly, learn how to take cover and change a mag one handed, both weak and strong side. It can be done, and be done quite easily.

 

[Bikenut]

In my opinion.......

It would be wise to train using any and all scenarios you can possibly think of that require any and all responses you can possibly think of. It is downright foolish to practice standing in a perfect stance carefully lining up the sights while sloooowwwwlllly squeezing off perfect trigger pull shots when in the real world your response could be anything from the bad guy just gives up... to a full on fall on your arse you've already been shot but still in the fight battle with 3 or more really bad bad guys and your gun jammed/quit working as you suddenly realize the value of a back up gun in your weak hand so you can continue protecting yourself and your wife/kids from being raped/killed. Train accordingly.

 

[mappow]

I do train with both hands on occasions. My wife initially commented on "What do you think, you're Josse Wells?" Then after explaining to her that IT MAY COME to using my weak side, she started training as well. I would add also that if you can train from a laying position on your back and use both strong and weak , it'll help too. Never really thought about it till I saw a few VIDs on what to do if you're hit. Can you recover and still engage?

 

[Jreaper15]

I do train with both hands. I like to make sure to every few weeks, My thought is that if i were to ever have my dominant hand get hurt I would at least be familiar with being able to operate with some accuracy and familiarity with my off hand!

 

[stormadvisor]

Yes. You never know if you need to use the off hand.

 

[Firefighterchen]

Yes I train with my reaction side. I train until I fail, so I can always push my limits further.

Sent from my HTCONE using USA Carry mobile app