Hello All!
I am starting this thread because I have found out not so long ago that I am right-handed/left eye dominant or if you like, cross-eye dominant. I will discuss some of the main concerns I have regarding this "problem" since the AR platform/system was designed with right-handers in mind.
Disclaimer : I am in NO WAY a professional shooter nor do I even own an AR at the moment : I am planning on getting an AR platform as my next primary airsoft gun and this is only
me preemptively preparing for some of the issues I will/would run into shooting it mainly left-handed. Some videos at the end
!
What the heck?
For those of you who don't know what this is or what it implicates, this just means that if you are looking down the sights holding your rifle right-handed, you won't be able to focus on the irons, clearing the front sight for accurate shooting. Most of you will know by now that squinting/closing one of your eye for shooting is not really recommended!
What are the suggestions?
Looking around the Interwebs for info, you will find discussions regarding that matter, some of the most recurring solutions will be :
1. Run optics
A lot of people will suggest to run red dots or other kinds of optics to resolve the situation. Red dots give you the advantage of acquiring targets faster and not having to align those two pieces of iron to aim. This, for me, is the easiest way out of this, however you are not addressing the issue, you are bypassing it. Optics rely on batteries and can fail you during a game. They can also fail because of breakage/other issues and now you are stuck running irons again, which means back to the issue.
2. Getting a complete left-handed AR
Some people will suggest getting a fully left-handed AR platform, since you are a southpaw. This is somehow a viable
idea to some extent. The main focus of this solution is to suit your needs with a platform mirroring the "normal" AR and learning to operate this platform in the same manner (mirroring operation). This one is complicated, even in the RS ballpark, these platforms are far less available than the "normal" (read : right-handed) ARs. In airsoft, they are practically inexsistent. For me, this is not a viable option since you are focusing your training on something adapted, which is not the norm. Even if you practise "strong" AND "weak" side, if you ever have to operate somebody elses rifle (AR) you will be lost because everything will not be at the "right place" (Note : this situation did happen to me once in a game, I was out of ammo and the medic in my squad, having to run around and heal people, left me with his AR, I was running an AK but the end result was the same, I was at lost with an unfamilliar platform where all the controls/operation we're not at the right place).
3. training your right eye
this suggestion will pop out every once in a while on various forums/websites. The idea is that you "force" you right eye back into the dominant role so that you don't have to deal with the whole "re-learn your platform" thing. Training muscles in your eye can be a very long and difficult process since training all those small muscles is way more difficult than training any other, larger, muscles in your body. For me, this is
not an option since the main reason why my left eye became the dominant one in the first place was because I was born with a defective right eye (they don't even have a real name for the condition since it is so rare, I won't get into details)
So what does that leave us with?
Well, it leaves us southpaws with something rather simple : training with a right-handed AR like you would if it were your weak side. Now you might ask yourself : why all the fuss if you are going to conclude with something that everybody does in the first place!?. If you are right-handed and right eye-dominant, training your left/weak side is just, well, training your weak side. Most of your AR operation, reloads, malfunction-clearing, etc. will be done on your strong/right side. Sure, you might practise those every now and then but they will never take the most part of your training. Southpaws, on the other hand (no pun intended), will do all of those on the other side. So how do we do it and most important,
how do we do it fast and efficiently?
Here's a few videos that I've found very helpful on the matter, It does include the use of some gadgets but then again, nothing fancy that a right-hander would not use :
Magpul B.A.D. on a left handed AR15
Grey Group Training Left Handed M4 Reloads
Left Handed AR15 Options
Thank you for reading this and please feel free to input your own experience and correcting me if you don't agree with some the points I've rised. Enjoy!
-Coresair