Some thoughts on weak side shooting

 

Recently I sustained an injury to my right shoulder, and it has seriously curtailed my use of that arm. Strength and flexibility have been severely hampered. It has set me to thinking about this deficiency from injury and a deficiency from negligence. 

Now like many lazy shooters, I spend nearly no time on weak side shooting. I mostly shoot for fun, but also for practical reasons like hunting and self defense concerns as well.*

The weak side practice largely centers on self defense scenarios where you are injured (often envisioned to be the struggle which has you bring your weapon to bear) and you must carry on with your non-dominant hand lest you succumb to another's force.  What most of these scenarios that most of us picture miss is the distinct possibility that you enter this situation pre-injured from something totally unrelated. Snowboarding accident for instance.

  

So reflecting on all this has lead me to a few conclusions that could redress this.

1. The most obvious and important first step is to take up practice of weak side shooting and do so quite regularly. Draw and dry fire included. Nothing can replace this and it is critical for anyone serious about this.
2. Next is to make sure I have a left hand draw holster for my carry gun(s). Now for those commonly envisioned scenarios where you sustain the strong side injury during the fight, this does nothing for you**. But given an injury before hand, you can still carry, draw comfortably and less awkwardly with a dedicated weak side holster.
3.  Another thing to do is minimize risk of injury to create that situation in the first place. So I should give up extreme sports and be more careful.(...Yeah, piss on that one. The first two are pretty good though.)   

So, a little something for those you out there to consider before you find yourself in an unnecessarily weak and defenseless position. It is an experience you could do with out with a little fore though
                                                   
* I also tend to view it as a form of political protest.

** Unless you decide to carry two guns, one weak side, one strong. This has merit for a number of reasons but can be costly, cumbersome, and uncomfortable. Still, something to consider.