After 30+ yrs,half of it trad only of shooting a bow rt handed Im about to make the switch to left handed.Im left eye dom and injured my rt shoulder so I guess the ice has been broken in reguards to shooting lefty.Any tips from those that have made the switch is appreciated.
thanks in advance
I switched about a year and a half ago after 35 years of righty due to TP. Shooting better than ever. If you can shoot a little each day or so it should take about 2 or 3 months. Start light! You will pick it up much faster. Jim Castro told me one very important thing. Concentrate on every shot. Good luck and stick with it.
I havent made the switch, but will as soon as I pick up a lefty. I have talked with numerous people about it, as doowop said, start light. Im going ILF route, so I can get some 30lb limbs. I know sounds way to light, but as they said, its imperative to get good form from the start, and your not going to do that with a 50lb bow. You can pick up a metal hoyt excel riser and limbs brand new for under $300. After a couple months you can upgrade new limbs in the 40lb range for under $100. After that, you can get hunting weight limbs for that riser, or sell it and go back to a wood bow or wood ilf riser and use the hunter weight limbs on it. Good luck, I will likely buy a bow at Kzoo next weekend and begin my journey.
swampsSonny,
It'll be a piece of cake, but like doowop said, it's most important to concentrate on your form (I mean every aspect of your shot sequence) on every shot.
I was comfortable after a few days and hunting confident in three months.
Good Luck to you.
I don't have all your experience, but I do have an iffy right shoulder and am left eye dominant, so when I started archery I decided to go lefty. Got a 34# St. Charles longbow (which I doubt I'll ever sell) and went at it. Felt a little awkward at first, but now right handed feels awkward. The advice above seems good to me–take advantage of the change to start with good form gradually working up to shooting the weight you like. I'm glad to be putting some wear and tear on my left side for a change, and also believe the pointing comes more naturally that way.
I started shooting a blank bail a week ago figuring I needed to work on my shot more than I needed to work on hitting.The shoulder thing nearly ended my bow season last yr but I borrowed a lefty and shot it for a week at a blank bail than went threw my BH arrow combo to see what would fly well.I hunted from the ground only since I had no stand practice with my range only around 10yrds but at least I could hunt.Didn't end up with the shot I wanted/needed and stopped shooting after bow season.
I plan to get a light 3pc bow but for now only have the 50lb borrowed bow.The break from shooting was to make sure I didnt pick up bad habits by my approach to the hunting season and now I've only been shootin from 5' for now and no target, hopefully the 50lbs won,t be a problem but thats all I have for now
Thanks for the imput I've got all summer to get this thing down and extend my range more tha 10 steps
IMO... you're going about it the right way. I think too many folks get into the "burn a hole" in the target stuff, when what "we all" need most is a burn the form in your computer attitude FIRST. Hitting the mark will come much easier if the form is good. :^)
QuoteOriginally posted by Jim Casto Jr:
IMO... you're going about it the right way. I think too many folks get into the "burn a hole" in the target stuff, when what "we all" need most is a burn the form in your computer attitude FIRST. Hitting the mark will come much easier if the form is good. :^)
Amen....
I had to switch as well. Form and release are key the rest will follow.
QuoteOriginally posted by swampsSonny:
After 30+ yrs,half of it trad only of shooting a bow rt handed Im about to make the switch to left handed.Im left eye dom and injured my rt shoulder so I guess the ice has been broken in reguards to shooting lefty.Any tips from those that have made the switch is appreciated.
thanks in advance
Fred Bear and Glenn St Charles did it, you can do it. I have shot both ways for years.
DDave
Terry, I remember a while back you were going to try shooting lefty just for kicks. How did that work out for you?
DDave
Not to bad...Charlie made me a double shelf longbow...and I aint half bad if I had to in a pinch. I'd have to cut my range a little bit that's for sure....but I sure haven't put a lot of time into shooting lefty.
It didn't feel as 'weird' as I thought it would starting out.
I did think it was as bad or "wierd" as I had thought it would be either.I didn,t know I was cross dom for a long time and shot well so I saw no need to switch.Shootin field archery for awhile with an 80#er eventually hurt me and it flared up last Aug. 3weeks of rest and I still couldnt reach anchor and the doc got me in right away 3 weeks after a cortizone shot and still unable to reach anchor I got an MRI which showed the rotorcuff was fine but the ???? behind that had a slight tear.I've got a full range of motion just cant draw the weight or throw anything.Kinda reluctant to get cut and figure it'll come back if I keep shootin rt.
That puts me to now and shootin southpaw.I've heard bad things about shoulder surgery and either way I should shoot with my dom eye anyway.
Thanks again
Because of eyesight and then tricep issues I've switched from right to left and back to right - any time you start feeling like it's not working, go back and read what Jim Casto wrote. If you stay with Jim's advice, your biggest problem will be getting to used to knocking an arrow left handed.
i made the switch not long ago. i started too heavy though and could only shoot a few arrows at a time but picked it up very quick and am now shooting better than ever with both eyes open.the hardest thing i found was changing everything else like quiver ect and just picking up arrows in the opisite hand and so on.
I had to make the switch to lefty 4 years ago. Could not even pull back a 20# bow left handed. I bought a 50# bow and sat infront of TV every night pulling it back as far as I could. In the spring I worked my way to pulling back 50#. Now I pull 55# just what I want. Could pull more but no need. By the end of the first summer it became nature to shoot left and today that is the only way I can shoot. Good luck
Itis not as hard as you think it is to switch. I became blind in my right eye so had to switch. Today I have all lefthand bows. Kept one righthanded so my son can use it or friends.
If you are left eye dominant, and/or are a lefty, you can shoot a righty bow. I've grew up shooting that way. Try it and you might not have to sell your righty bows!
LOL I am left eye dom and also rt handed shooting right handed for a long long time.
Since I hurt my shoulder and couldnt draw rt handed I opted to LOL like I had a choice to shoot left.
Now that the ice has been broken I figure I should stay a lefty so as not to do anymore damage to my rt shoulder and also to shoot with my dom eye.
While I may be new to this format I have been around awhile I just thought Id see what others that have made the switch had to say perhaps offering something if only encouragement.
Thanks for the replys
I switched in my late 40's. It was the best thing I have ever done. I read that if you practice a lot but never get much better, it might be a dominant eye problem. I was making subconscious adjustments in my backyard shooting the same target,so I wasn'to bad. But when in a hunting situation, heat of battle in the woods my shooting was terrible. I got 1 deer in 27 yrs of hunting hard. After the switch, which only took 3 days, I got 3 bucks in 4 yrs. I still am not a good shot but much better than I was.
I switched last May due to tp issues.Started with 25lb borrowed JOAD bow. Shot it everyday for about an hour. Then bought an Tradtech pinnacleII with 35lb limbs and continued daily shooting. At first, I closed right eye and sort of gap shot. I have now become pretty proficient with both eyes open , shooting ( instinctive or subconcious aiming ). I would say that since you've messed up one shoulder with heavy weight bows,You've only got one more chance to do it right. I would really consider backing way off on the poundage to learn. And make 50 lbs my goal instead of the starting point. According to Fred Eichler You can cleanly kill all north American game with a 54 lb recurve. He should know....he's done it.
I forgot to say that I now shoot 45 lb limbs and can hold 10 to 15 seconds on target before releasing if I want to. I sometimes do this as Larry Yien suggests as a shot strengthening exercise.
Thanks Ike and other,s
I'll be darned if I haven't (maybe) figured out how to really should lefty. For years as a kid I shot left handed/left eye/ but using right handed bows. Coming back to archery, I went back to that same thing. Ron LeClair chided me a bit on a thread about doing that and said I'd be better shooting like a true lefty. I just couldn't keep the arrow on the shelf when shooting a lefty bow!
Anyway, I had bought my son a little 25lb Indian, double shelf and I figured I would play with the lefty shooting. Started with an arrow with no tip so I wouldn't put something through my hand.
It's taken a month but finally, today, for the first time I'm consistently keeping the arrows on the shelf and hitting my target consistently. It's a good feeling to finally accomplish something that seemed darn near impossible for so long.
I injured my right shoulder and taught myself to shoot lefty. Surprise, although I am right handed and right eye dominent I found I shoot a lot better lefty. Now I shoot both ways on every outing. It really is much better for your body.
Just an update about my switch to lefty. Im a 160's shooter at my league. I bought a lefty bow and practiced after work at 8yds in my basement for 3 days. On the 4th day I went to league and shot a 177 left handed. Also note the league targets range from 5-25yds and I had not shot past 8yds previously. Ive read plenty of post that eye dominance doesnt matter, well for me it does!!!!!
Get a new bow SwampSonny, and have fun.
I should have a new to me RER here by the end of the week or early next so I'll be able to return the borrowed lefty I've been shooting.I skipped out of league this yr which kinda sucks but I figured I need to work on my shot more than I needed to shoot for score.Normally I shoot an indoor 300 league and hope to or WILL lol get better than I was.Thats the beauty of keeping score it tells ya where you stand on average
I too am considering the switch to left hand . Hurt my left shoulder & dropped down from 60#s to 45#s . After about 10 shots the arm is not steady .
My biggest problem when I switch to lefty is my eye dominance. I am right eye dominant and I get a really goofy sight picture when I use my right arm as the bow arm.
I've been left all my life,so naturaly started archery lefty.recently found out I am right eye dominant so bought a light weight RH bow to work with.I am thinking about learning to shoot with both hands now.Does anybody else shoot both hands?Or am I just going to confuse my already confused enough brain?
QuoteOriginally posted by shoothathang:
I've been left all my life,so naturaly started archery lefty.recently found out I am right eye dominant so bought a light weight RH bow to work with.I am thinking about learning to shoot with both hands now.Does anybody else shoot both hands?Or am I just going to confuse my already confused enough brain?
A friend had to switch due to an eye problem. He shot left for several years and finally got the eye problem fixed and now shoots both ways. He shoots compound and wears a release on both wrists.
He points out that he has a much wider "field of fire" this way and doesn't have to move around in his stand to shoot deer coming in from behind on either side.
There's an even bigger advantage for him since he owns an archery shop. He can easily tune both left and right handed bows.
He told me that it didn't take long to make the change to left. He was shooting as good as right handed after about 6 weeks. It was probably faster for him since he couldn't go back to right handed due to his eye. I think swiching back and forth would slow the transition.
Allen
I am left handed right eye dominate. Originally shot lefty until I discovered right eye dominence then switched to righty. Last year because of arthritus attacks in my right hand I started shooting lefty again. Now I shoot off either side almost equally.
So far my left handed shooting seems to be going well. I really like the way this RER shoots for me.First day shooting it seemed like I couldnt miss the bull,granted I was only 8 yrds away for saftey reasons here in the shop but it was bull bull bull on a 300 round target and for the most part its the same at 15 now too.They've moved some things around here in the shop and I've yet to shoot at 20 I need to come up with a better back stop just incase I get a flinch,shooting inside the work place requires that I keep them all in the target go figure LOL
As for shootin both ways I've not tried rt handed since I hurt my shoulder but I was a decent shot rt handed with a left dom eye so if it didnt hurt I'd think I could shoot both ways.Shoulder is better than it was and I could get away with a few shots but I really wanna get the lefty thing down so I'm not risking it