Eye surgery blues...righty and may need to learn to shoot my AR with my left....

[Sr Wing Commander]

So I had cataract surgery. It went well and I now only need reading glasses for close in work and am 20/25 at distance. This is great because I had terrible nearsightedness. So much so that for over 15 years I could not get in the military, but now might be able ot get in the reserves (although that's another story).

BUT I had some retinal swelling (unrelated to the surgery). it healed, after some injections in the eye, which is not something I recommend for fun, but left some scarring on the retina. This has caused some distortions in my right eye. For the moment I can't see down my iron sights. Red dot might help...but I am thinking of learning to shoot lefty, at least with my AR, if it doesn't go away. It may over time.

Any suggestions or things I should know or think about? Any ambidextrious rifle shooters out there.

[btcave]

Whoa! The thought of eye surgery makes me shiver. If you have the money, get a Stag lefty upper for you AR if you intend to shoot left handed.

Learning to shoot left handed will take some time I would guess. I've done it, trained it, but never got comfortable with it.

[ltorlo64]

Whoa! The thought of eye surgery makes me shiver. If you have the money, get a Stag lefty upper for you AR if you intend to shoot left handed.

Learning to shoot left handed will take some time I would guess. I've done it, trained it, but never got comfortable with it.

I've shot left handed all my life. I have tried to shoot right handed but was never able to get comfortable with that.

As for a left handed rifle. From my experience, unless you are using a bolt action, whether it is left or right handed is not big deal. I don't even notice the empties flying past my face or the action on my Garand and Carbine coming back at my nose. Learning to hold your arms right is where I have the problem when I shoot the other way. It just doesn't feel right to have my left elbow down and my right elbow out.

[Sr Wing Commander]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Eye surgery was weird...you have to be awake for it....the shots were actually worse then the shots....

[Flinter]

Wouldn't an Eotech solve that problem for you? Or an Aimpoint?

I'm not sure, but are those systems dependent on which eye is dominant?

[ready]

When I went through instructor school we had to be able to do everything support side that we could do strong side and it sucked. I personally can't get used to it. I would try and mount a red dot with a larger FOV a little further down the rail so you can pick it up with your other eye. Either that or go the laser route.