Posted By: Crazyhorse
Good News/Bad News ? - 01/12/09 08:08 AM
While Lora and I were at the DSC show on Saturday, I finally got the chance to have Lora handle a Left Hand bolt action rifle.
This has been an ongoing sore spot with us since she started hunting der/elk and javelina with me.
She is right handed thru parental preference, but attempts or does many things left handed.
One of the first major hurdles e facd when she wanted to start hunting, was figuring out why she was having so much trouble see thru the scope on one of my rifles.
We discovered that while she does some things right handed, she is left eye dominant.
We got that worked around, and in firing a right handed rifle, she just keeps her left hand around the pistol grip and takes her right hand off the forearm and cycles the bolt.
She has gotten quite adept at the technique.
I had been talking about getting her a left handed rifle for a couple of years, and so Sat. at the DSC show, I checked around the various gun displays and found a couple of left hand rifles for her to shoulder and see how they felt to her.
Well, the first rifle I had her try was a Mark V Weatherby in 300 Weatherby Mag.. I forget what type scope it had on it, but needless to say it was a good bit heavier than the model 77 Ruger Ultra-Lite in 257 Roberts that she is used to handling.
So we went by another display, and they had a left hand something or other in 270 without a scope, but with an $8000.00 price tag.
She was plenty apprehensive, but the guy in the booth told her to go ahead and try it.
She shoulders the thing, a lot easier and better than the Mark V, and I then told her to act like she had shot the gun and to cycle the bolt.
Well, she did her standard, pull the thing tighter to her shoulder with her left hand and take her right hand off the forearm and start reaching for the bolt.
At that point, I reached out and put my hand on her right hand and said, leave your right hand on the forearm and reach up with your left hand from the pistol grip to the bolt handle.
It was so neat, because she tried it, and the light came on.
She finally realized what I had been talikng about when I said that we needed to get her a Left Hand rifle.
Now the fun part. I have settled on the caliber I want to get her, a 7mm-08.
The problem is going to be finding one at the right price.
I would prefer to get her a Ruger, but I do not think they make a Model 77 Ultra-Lite or compact in 7mm-08.
Savage offers it in a couple of their guns, and i know savage has one of the better triggers on the market, but have never been real impressed with the looks of their rifles, although I have not paid any real attention to some of the newer models.
This has been an ongoing sore spot with us since she started hunting der/elk and javelina with me.
She is right handed thru parental preference, but attempts or does many things left handed.
One of the first major hurdles e facd when she wanted to start hunting, was figuring out why she was having so much trouble see thru the scope on one of my rifles.
We discovered that while she does some things right handed, she is left eye dominant.
We got that worked around, and in firing a right handed rifle, she just keeps her left hand around the pistol grip and takes her right hand off the forearm and cycles the bolt.
She has gotten quite adept at the technique.
I had been talking about getting her a left handed rifle for a couple of years, and so Sat. at the DSC show, I checked around the various gun displays and found a couple of left hand rifles for her to shoulder and see how they felt to her.
Well, the first rifle I had her try was a Mark V Weatherby in 300 Weatherby Mag.. I forget what type scope it had on it, but needless to say it was a good bit heavier than the model 77 Ruger Ultra-Lite in 257 Roberts that she is used to handling.
So we went by another display, and they had a left hand something or other in 270 without a scope, but with an $8000.00 price tag.
She was plenty apprehensive, but the guy in the booth told her to go ahead and try it.
She shoulders the thing, a lot easier and better than the Mark V, and I then told her to act like she had shot the gun and to cycle the bolt.
Well, she did her standard, pull the thing tighter to her shoulder with her left hand and take her right hand off the forearm and start reaching for the bolt.
At that point, I reached out and put my hand on her right hand and said, leave your right hand on the forearm and reach up with your left hand from the pistol grip to the bolt handle.
It was so neat, because she tried it, and the light came on.
She finally realized what I had been talikng about when I said that we needed to get her a Left Hand rifle.
Now the fun part. I have settled on the caliber I want to get her, a 7mm-08.
The problem is going to be finding one at the right price.
I would prefer to get her a Ruger, but I do not think they make a Model 77 Ultra-Lite or compact in 7mm-08.
Savage offers it in a couple of their guns, and i know savage has one of the better triggers on the market, but have never been real impressed with the looks of their rifles, although I have not paid any real attention to some of the newer models.
