lefty shooters in the military

[Mike.357]

Don't know if this is the proper forum or not for this.

How does the US military treat left handed shooters when using long guns?

Do they allow lefty shooting or does a southpaw have to conform to a right handed manner of shooting?

[Guest sagebrushjim]

When going thru Boot Camp in the Early 70's the Navy had us shoot Right handed, but after that at my other Commands when qualifying we could shoot either way that was comfortable... Don't know how it is now... Left the Navy in 1992...

[dariks]

I called my brother who is an E-6 in the Army and here's what he told me:

They do allow you to shoot left handed, but they do not provide you with a left handed rifle. (Think brass flying past your nose. ) He also said that they won't discourage you from shooting left handed if that is what you are comfortable with.

[Marswolf]

I probably still have an old leftie adapter for the original M16s around here somewhere.

[Mike.357]

I tell you it does not bother me really having brass flying past my nose. I guess at my age I grew up in an era where left handed people were given no real options. Them little desks in High School were all righties, nun's used to smack me to try and make me write right handed. Until the last ten or twenty years forget finding decent sporting goods for lefties. I do have one left handed bolt action .22 rifle that I bought just because I had not seen one before.

I am glad to read that the military lets us right brained people do what is natural.

[DMark]

A deflector was added to the AR family in the 70s. It keeps the brass away from left hand shooters. Also, now that we train using both left & right shooting for CQB, everybody needs it.

[Marswolf]

Yeah, the brass deflector was added when the M16A2 came out.

I've cleaned the brass marks off of it many times.

[jeepbus]

I shot left handed and they just told us to shoot how we were comfortable.In basic I shot 40 out of 40 on an automated range,left handed.Now in close quarters they wanted everyone to shoot both ways.