considering a lefty bow for a right eye dominant shooter

[TexasStick81]

I've been having some shoulder/neck tightness off and on in the past year.  This has been helped by taking time off and shooting less per outing.  Another option that seems to help is to balance it out by drawing equally with my left side.  It gets really boring though and I think I'd like to shoot if I'm going to be drawing left handed.  I am right eye dominant (RED) and I've been reading about strategies in this forum.  

I don't necessarily forsee myself doing a lot of hunting lefty but I'd consider it if I could get proficient with it.  Does this seem like a reasonable goal, to shoot lefty being RED, or should I just stick to drawing lefty?

Also, I'm not wanting to invest more than about $100 to start with.  Despite my limited budget, should I try to stick with a similar design bow to what I shoot righty (Centaur and Big Jim TC, two hybrid RD longbows)?

[TexasStick81]

No thoughts by shooters on here?  I realize some aspects of the questions are not strictly shooting/form so feel free to only respond to those related to the challenge of shooting with the off eye and whether I should just stick with drawing left handed

[Pine]

Fred Bear shot left but was RED because he was missing part of his index finger on his right hand . He would cant the bow a little more than usual to get the arrow under his right eye . I think if you just shoot by feel ( true instinct shooting ) your brain will take over and adjust the shot for you after a while .

[bofish-IL]

I shot for 13 years or more right handed even though I was left eye dominant. I shot all types of critters that way. You learn to adjust.

Then I finally switched to left hand and recently lost sight in my right eye. The change just felt natural.

If you cannot mentally adjust shooting left handed. something you could try is closing the right eye just before drawing.

[monkeyball]

Our bodies are pretty adaptable. If the draw is feeling comfortable to you  on the left side,why not try it? Right eye dominant....close it.

 No choice now which one you are going to use.Go for it!!!


                                                              Good Shooting,
                                                                            Craig

[TexasStick81]

Thanks for the Feedback guys.  Any thoughts on whether the bow design matters?  I'm looking for really cheap in the 40-45# range.  I don't want to spend much on an experiment but I also don't want to get a very different design and attribute struggles with adapting to the shot to form or ability when it's possibly a difference in bow design.  Or should I just not worry about that and grab the first cheap one in my weight range?

[Todd Cook]

I shoot righty, but am left dominate. Dosen't bother me.

[longbow fanatic 1]

Originally posted by Todd Cook:
I shoot righty, but am left dominate. Dosen't bother me.

Me too. I close my left eye when I shoot.

[mike g]

I'm (LED) and shoot right handed....
    I shot lefty for awhile, did not take long to adapt....
    I taught myself to shoot both sides and keep both eyes open....Takes some getting used too, but it comes around....
    My next Longbow will be without a shelf, so I can shoot it Ambi....

[damascusdave]

I no longer have a dominant eye but when I did it was the left one...I have been shooting both right and left handed for a long time...only difficult if you make it that way listening to advice...I just convinced a friend to try it and within a couple of weeks he is telling me how well he is shooting already...what harm do you think can come from it...what you start with means nothing unless you get started...any bow that you can draw comfortably will work fine...try to find an old dual shelf fibreglass bow

DDave

[Bladepeek]

I switched to lefty because I was left eye dominant. I find I can shoot with equal accuracy (inaccuracy?) from either side. I do have to squint my left eye when I reach anchor shooting from the right side, but I don't find that a problem. And it really does make drawing from both sides less boring. I sort of have a contest with myself - right side against left side whenever I shoot. I keep a right hander up in my shop and then carry up whichever left hander I want to shoot that day. Good fun and helps keep the back muscles evened up.

[McDave]

At one point I wanted to be ambidextrous, so I alternated between right and left handed bows for about a year.  My accuracy right handed declined, and my accuracy left handed never reached the point I hoped it would, so I stopped shooting left handed on a regular basis.  I keep a target at work to practice form at close range, and I shoot an equal number of right and left handed shots there to try to keep the two sides in balance.  I enjoy shooting left handed occasionally just for the fun of it, or to try someone's left handed bow.

[wallybowman]

Right eye dominant, need to shoot a bow right handed.

[mangonboat]

While its an experiment in the very early stages, I was encouraged by comments above from McDave and DamascusDave about the possibility that, if its is a dominance issue rather than a difference in visual acuity between your two eyes, your brain will eventually and automatically learn to do what it needs to do to balance the  signals from both eyes and even enable ambidextrous shooting if you shoot truly instinctive. So I am practicing with both left and right hand bows, focusing on proper form and release and really concentrating on my aimpoint before during draw and release and in follow through. The result is elimination of my consistent grouping of shots from my left hand bows to the right of my aimpoint..I am grouping where I am aiming shooting left -and-right handed. If the results continue in this direction as I increase the right-hand practice, I dont have to get rid of my left-hand bows and I can feel confident in my shots. just for kicks, I may video some of my practicing both ways to see how closely my 50 years of left-hand form is mirrored on the right. It has not been difficult, as I am focusing on the same things, e.g. anchor point, both ways.