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right hander shooting a left handed bow?

I am a right handed person. I bougt a new bow just before bow season. Well, its new to me. It is a hoytt havoc. I picked it up at the store and pulled the bow. Really sweet i thought. It felt good in my hands and it was very comfortable. I test shot it and it was dead on and I loved it. I bought it and took it home. My buddy and i went outside to shoot some practice shots. He picked my bow up and said " this is a lefty's bow " sure enough it is. everything is set up for a lefty but i shoot it very well. Its very accurate for me and i seem to have no problem with arm slap or any other problems. Am i just wierd or have any of you ever heard of anyone else that has done this? Just wondering....

If you have a left handed bow then shoot it left handed! Bows are designed for a handedness for a reason. Check your eye dominence, you may be left eye dominant and then should be shooting left anyways. Your handedness in this sport has to do with your eye dominance anyways. If you're right eye dominant it's time to get a different bow.......Ryan

Never thought about it before now, but I can't imagine shooting that way. The biggest problem I see is that your left eye is useless. The riser, quiver, etc.. is right in the way of your left eye. Unless your shooting with your left eye closed, in which case you are either left eye dominant or just haven't learned to leave that eye open yet. And how can you possibly keep your arm away from the cables?

Something doesn't seem right. Are you brand new to archery? A right handed bow is held in the left hand, left handed bow held in the right. The hand you pull the string with is the handedness of the bow. Not trying to be a smarta$$, just trying to explain if you are new to the sport.

i have shot both a right handed and a left handed bow. i can shoot either fine with my arm not being in the way at all. I close my left eye so i can see the sights and everythign is fine. I have been shooting this new bow for 3 weeks now and im right on. I choot a 6 shot paattern that can be covered by a coke can bottom at 20 and 30 yards. I have no real trouble with it being accurate. I know it seems wierd but im not so sure i shoudl hurry up and sell it and get a bow that is right handed. esp if im accurate with it and i am sucessfull in harvesting game with it.

First of all Michael you should check your eye dominance to figure out which way you should be shooting. To do this, cut a small hole in a piece of paper and holding the paper at arms length look at something across the room through the hole. Now bring the paper back towards your face still looking at the object through the hole. You will automatically come back to your dominant eye.

Now that you've done that you can determine which way to shoot. Hopefully you are left eye dominant so your bow will work for you.

I'm still trying to figure out how you shoot that lefty bow right handed.......doesn't the handle feel horrible??? If it's a "tec" series bow doesn't the riser strength bar get in the way??? My biggest concern would be tuning and how well your arrows are flying. Have you paper tuned it???

There are issues more than accuracy you need to investigate here.....please cover all these bases before you go hunting.

Hmm. I shoot a left handed bow in a left handed manner. I am right handed. Most eye dominance tests show I'm right eye dominant but when I shoot a right hand bow no matter what we do to the sight pins the arrows hit about a foot to right of the point of aim.

I've tried shooting a cheap recurve with a shooting shelf in both sides and I'm more accurate shooting it left handed too.

I can't figure it out but I've been shooting very tight groups with both of my left handed bows for years, including 4 pairs of ruined arrows from stuffing one shaft into the other in the last five years.

Right hand, left hand, who cares. IF the shoe fits, wear it. I shoot bow right handed, and all of my guns I shoot left handed. I write, right handed, but eat left handed, and so on. Remember most great discoveries happen by accident! Happy hunting

Umm if you are closing your left eye you are probably shooting right handed. I have shot traditional left or right no problem, I am left eye dominant, shoot with both eyes open. Can shoot disks out of the air either way. Even built my bows to shoot left or right. Learning to shoot left handed was a trial as far as coordination and putting the arrow on the string, but practice overcame that minor obstacle. If you are comfortable and shoot well why change?

I think that he is shooting a left handed bow in a right handed manner! Like I mentioned earlier, my concern would be with the tuning not the grouping. If it's tuned.....go nuts!

I know a guy who shoots a left-handed bow both right or left-handed, depending on his "mood" or whatever. Yes, this seems "nuts" to me, but he is extremely accurate either way. If it works for you, I say don't worry what anyone else thinks.

Stoney

Sounds like a heck of a pro-shop that sells a righty a left handed bow! Just plain scary!

If you look up new style archery on youtube and you will see that this is actually a more instinctive way to shoot. Additionally you can pull an arrow, knock and shoot in a single motion with the shelf on the right side if the bow as opposes to shooting traditionally right handed with the shelf on the left side if the bow where because of the position if the shelf and string it takes 3 separate actions to be able to do so. I shoot traditionally right handed but after watching a series of videos have ordered and shot a left handed recurved bow with not only very accurate results but also shooting 10 arrows within the 9 ring or better in 16 seconds with altered wide nocks where as on a traditionally right handed bow it takes me on my very best attempt 36 seconds with the same arrows. I think being caught up in what we "should" do over what actually works is what gets up taking 2 steps forward and 1 back. If you look at wartime archers of the past that had to shoot while moving they rested the arrows on the same side of the bow as the habd that they pulled back the string with... for hunting and stalking this means the ability to actually make a follow up shot as opposed to shooting traditionally where if a branch was to knock a shot off true or a possibly misgauged distance means tou have given up your chance to take that animal. I think if you shoot a left handed compound.. which i have yet to do right handed, only recurve.. have been afraid the cables would be an issue... and you are doing it accurately then you SHOULD NOT worry about changing up your bow but instead stick with what not only works, but actually gives you an advantage over many archers that are having to take more movements to nock an arrow than you will ever have to. After shooting this was for 2 months now I wish I had started with a left handed bow in my right hand from the very beginning 30 years ago. Just my 2 cents... sure I will get many argume rd here, but once again it us whatever works for the archer. Enjoy tour new bow and remember what works for others may not work for you.. and vice versa.

Odd how that bow can be shot with the opposite dexterity of what it is.

Best test for eye dominance is to point at something with both eyes open then close one eye at a time. The dominant eye will automatically line up with what you're pointing at, the other eye will cause your finger you are pointing with to be off to the side.

I can't even wrap my mind around this

Don't knock it until you've tried it! Actually, this is very common with oriental and thumb ring shooters.

If the arrow hits what you are aiming at, what more could you ask for?

So to be clear, this is a left handed bow, that you are shooting right handed??

Or it's a left hand bow and you are shooting it left handed? Other than eye dominance, then it wouldn't matter.

But as mentioned above, there's not much "pro" in your pro-shop!

EDIT. Haha! Just noticed the date on the first post.

The question is why did Droid dig up an 11 year old thread...?

WW... I can shoot selfbows and hill style longbows all day with the opposite hand, but I fail to see how someone can shoot a contoured handle bow well, with the "wrong" hand...

Agreed this is an 11 year old thread. Just amazes me what comes back from the archives:)

Best way to do things right is to use your dominant eye irregardless of which hand you think you need to draw with. Scary the pro shop sold a rightie a leftie bow? Not if the shooter is left eye dominant.

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