Equipment & Gear > Archery Gear

Has anyone "switched sides"?

<< < (2/2)

scotsman:
After shooting my bow right handed for 50 years I had a eye issue which causes focus problems in my right eye. It was either learned to shoot left-handed or quit Archery so I immediately taught myself to shoot left-handed. (I have always can still do shoot traditional). It took a while to build up strength on my left side but after about six months I was almost to my original draw weight. The primary issue I had was shooting to the right when I let my concentration relax. Now, I come to full draw and squint my right eye a little bit to force my vision to focus with the left eye. I’m not as good as I once was but I’m still almost as good as I once was if you get my drift. One bright side to it is that a tendency I used to have snap shooting right handed as completely gone away and I find my concentration draw and follow through is better than before. The most awkward part in learning that I’m still fumbling over is getting arrows out of and replaced in a bow quiver. I’ve started using a hip quiver which has the added benefit of reducing physical weight on the bow. If I can do it anybody can do it

actionshooter:
Thanks guys, confirmed that all of Mathews bows are available lefty, so happy with that!

actionshooter:

--- Quote from: Stein on February 10, 2026, 08:35:20 PM ---I did that very same thing.  Right for everything except bow and I shoot pistol right handed but use my left eye like you do.

For new equipment, no big deal.  I bought a used bow, so the selection was far less but I found what I wanted at a good price.

The rest was just practice and reps.  One off season and I was shooting better than righty.

One good thing is that if you use a wrist release, it is much more convenient hunting where I put it on when I wake up and take it off at sunset.  Being right handed, it's not a big deal to have it dangling on my non-dominant hand all day.

The other good thing is that my left hand isn't mentally associated with pulling a trigger so I feel I have far less problems with trigger slap or any of the potential issues with using your dominant hand.  This could be 100% mental, but I think it's real and I've never had any trigger pull issues knock on wood.

I can't think of many negatives except a minor one where your bow is in your right hand so I also use my rangefinder on my left.  It still gets a bit awkard but nowhere near enough to come close to the benefits.

Being able to see is 1500X more beneficial than using your correct hand in my opinion.

--- End quote ---

Thank you! Great points and sounds like the exact same issues!

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page