Because I'm left handed...

[RodKirby]

This year LOML gave me a tear-off Lefty calandar - some great stuff.

Today's "Inspiration from Lefties"

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory"

General George S. Patton

I cannot find any confirmation that he was left handed!

If he was, why did he wear his ivory-handled gun on his right?

[LinuxRandal]

http://www.nibs.com/Left-hand%20writers.htm

While it says he was left handed, how many things were still taught right handed? How many tools are right specific (to this day), things like gun safety's?

[Uncle Cracker]

A lot of what Patton said was left-handed...

[LinuxRandal]

I didn't know they were both revolvers, I thought one was a 1911. Maybe due to how you reload a revolver (left hand speed load or manual load). Maybe someone who has recent military experience, can tell how they teach now. (shoot right, shoot both, etc) I tried to enlist years back, medically disqualified, but told, go to jail if you don't sign up for the draft.

[Stytooner]

I know for firing an M16, they had special deflectors for the brass for left handed shooters. They taught both in Bootcamp. Just what you were comfortable with.
My son is left handed and uses a bow left handed, but a rifle right handed. Just how he learned it.
I personally feel that many lefties become semi or ambidextrous because of the way things are made and generally taught. That is not a bad way to be.

[atgcpaul]

My dad is right handed but shoots rifles and shotguns left. I think he has special guns that eject the cartridge away from his face. He thinks he remembers being disciplined in school for writing left and always thougt he was a lefty deep down. My friend is a lefty but plays golf right. That's just how he was taught.

[jking]

A good friend of mine from college is left handed, but, it seems he does as many or more tasks with his right hand.

Shooting technically should be driven by which eye is dominate, not which hand is dominate.

[LarryG]

I personally feel that many lefties become semi or ambidextrous because of the way things are made and generally taught.

This fairly describes me. I consider myself a southpaw but my left-handedness is limited to writing, eating, using tools like a screwdriver or a hammer, and shooting pool. I play guitar right-handed. I bat and throw right-handed. I bowl right-handed. I play golf right-handed. I shoot right-handed -- pistols, rifles, bow (my right eye is dominant). When fishing, I cast right-handed. I used to think that I use my left hand for tasks requiring dexterity and my right hand for tasks requiring physical strength, but in fact there are exceptions and overlaps.

In all cases, I automatically started doing the activity using the hand that felt most natural and never really made an effort to use the opposite hand. In some cases it was probably a subconscious reaction to being a left-hander living in a right-handed world. The sole exception was raquet sports like tennis, badminton, and ping-pong. With any of these, I feel completely lost using either hand.

[Uncle Cracker]

(with respects to Shaquille O'Neal) maybe he was amphibious...

[gsmittle]

Rod, since you're living Down Under, you're actually writing with the correct hand.

I'm pretty strongly left-handed, although I did learn to bat right-handed. Theoretically, that puts my dominant eye closer to the pitcher, thereby giving me a better look at the ball leaving his hand. In practice, I couldn't hit anything anyway.

I do shoot left-handed and have gotten semi-used to shells flying past my nose. Personally I prefer a pump-action to a semi-auto. Pumping the gun lets me know when the shell is being ejected. I refuse to pay the huge premium for a lefty bolt-action, which makes using one cumbersome.

My desk and shop are set up backwards for normal people. My front vise is on the right side of the bench, and I tend to arrange tools on the left and supplies on the right.

My school-supplied Winderz (bleah) laptop has the mouse buttons reversed, which drives my students crazy when they try to print stuff using the laptop. At home, all the mouses are on the left side of the keyboard. My right-handed wife likes the arrangement; she says it leaves her right hand free to make notes or grab her coffee cup.

I wear my watch on my right wrist, too. I'd love to have one that runs backwards (a counterclock) but I won't buy one for myself. Hey, what a great gift idea!

One thing I have taught myself is to use my right hand if there's any possibility of a hand or finger injury (reaching into the garbage disposal, etc. and yes, I do take all possible precautions). My theory is if I mangle my hand, at least it's not the one I write with.

g.

[BobSch]

I'm one of those mixed-up people that are a bit of both. I write right-handed, bat left although I throw right, hold a tennis racket in my right hand but my backhand is stronger than my forehand. I'm just a little confused.

[natausch]

Mice I use right handed, but touchpads I use lefty.

Shop is also setup very lefty, including my unusable to a righty drill press.

[avbclark]

Right by training Left by birth

The BVM Nuns saw to it I wrote with my right. I have the scars on my left knuckles to prove it. Do not use the Left, it is Sinister.

I shoot right handed because I took my first shooting training from a "gunny". He taught in the ROTC training at college. I want to be clear, I was not in ROTC, but due to health, not philosophical issues. I respect anyone who is serving or has served their country, and I don't want to take credit for something I did not do.

All of my uncles who have given me guns over the years shot right handed, so all of my bolt actions are Right.

I shovel both right and left. Ask anyone who knows me and I can shovel it better than anyone they know.

[tommyt654]

Good to see some of us are in the Right frame of mind

[Mr__Bill]

I'm right handed but shoot a rifle or shotgun left, a vision issue, and a pistol right. My daughter is left handed, can pitch with either. Now that she is living in OZ she says that everything is natural now... She also insists that she is not 'A Blond' but 'A Lefty'.

Bill
on the left coast