Cast Off and Southpaws

CheeseBurger

CheeseBurger

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Any of you left hand shooter's shoot a shotgun with cast off? How much does it bother you? Seems hard to find a shotgun with neutral cast. Thinking about buying a used Ithaca SKB O/U with cast off but I'm hesitating as I don't have experience with cast off or on. The only two shotguns I own are neutral.
 
Both my wife and I are left handed, and relatively new to the shotgun sports (2 years). We have struggled hard with this exact issue, and have tried several iterations of trying to get used to guns set up for right handed folks. We prefer over-unders to semis (the stock fit problem is pretty easy to fix with how the semi's all have adjustable plates for casting left or right and adjusting drop), so our focus has been on the O/U guns.

Firstly, cast on/off are infuriating terms, as they are always referencing a right handed shooter. Ergo, a gun with cast off moves the cheek piece away from the centreline of the gun (away from your cheek) relative to a right handed shooter, but for a left handed shooter it moves it inwards (towards your cheek). Our experience in being left handed and trying to shoot a shotgun with cast-off was that you get slapped by the stock a lot, fatigued easily, and generally upset with with the gun.

Secondly, because we liked the style of the beretta over unders so much, we've tried on multiple occasions to have their wooden stocks bent by professional gunsmiths/gunfitters. Our experience here is that the wood stocks return back to their original shape over time, and require multiple sessions of bending and adjusting, all at reasonably high cost. This was very frustrating.

So, our solution was to migrate to the browning guns, specifically the cynergy. Both the 725 and cynergy field guns have neutral cast, and their synthetic stocked guns have a readily available easily replaceable cheek pieces that allow you to go either cast on, cast off, or neutral. W've both got our personal guns set up with the Cast On cheek piece (which browning marks on the cheek piece as LEFT), and we could not be happier. My wife now easily shoots a 12 gauge cynergy sporting synthetic, and she is giving me a run for my money in the score department! Her former silver pigeon 20 gauge has been re-named "the Wifebeater".

Good luck!

Cheers,

Brobee
 
CheeseBurger said:
Any of you left hand shooter's shoot a shotgun with cast off? How much does it bother you? Seems hard to find a shotgun with neutral cast. Thinking about buying a used Ithaca SKB O/U with cast off but I'm hesitating as I don't have experience with cast off or on. The only two shotguns I own are neutral.
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Won't be beneficial at all to attempt to force fit a shotgun with cast-off stock or vise versa. The Browning may be an alternative if it's a double gun that you seek.

Lack of proper gun fit will pose a concern particularly if the plan is for high volume shoots with a given shotgun. Some years back, I was compelled to sell off a beautiful 28ga CG Magnus Grouse even though it had a cast-off stock (I'm right handed) and had very similar dimensions as my Berettas. Regrettably, there was still enough difference (nothing to do with cast) as far as that parfticular shotgun was concerned that I was hurting after a 3-4 rounds of clay.
 
A competent shotgunsmith should be able to adjust the cast by bending the stock. Unfortunately good ones are very hard to find in Canada, our gunsmiths tend to very heavily favour rifle work. One "home gun smith" who claimed to be able to do the job broke the stock of my Merkel. That was an unpleasant and expensive experience. But it is a common procedure in Britain, and a good smith can do it with minimum "casualties". There is something wrong when a stock bending job doesn't stay bent, either with technique, re-sealing of the wood, or both. I think there is a business opportunity for someone brave enough and skilled enough to offer a good Canadian stock bending service.
 
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I am by no means trying to force something. I was really just curious to hear if anyone shot left handed and found that shooting cast off shotguns didn't bother them. I am in fact right handed and left eye dominant so shoot left handed. I have shot enough now that shooting a rifle/shotgun right handed feels odd to me.
 
Best way I know of is to shave the right side of the stock until it centers for the shooter.
The downside of that is that you end up with a stock that will fit a left handed shooter, but will look like crap to a right handed shooter! ( grin)
Cat
 
Why not have a stock made, or better still Blaser makes very nice true left-handed O/U. I have two friends that are left-handed, and they both shoot the Blaser. They are very happy with them.
 
durnet said:
Why not have a stock made, or better still Blaser makes very nice true left-handed O/U. I have two friends that are left-handed, and they both shoot the Blaser. They are very happy with them.
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Blasers are anything but cheap, and most people are not prepared to pay that kind of money pf r a gun
Cat
 
Good to know Brutus! Thanks for that.

Cat - I'm not sure I could bring myself to shave a comb like that!

I think I'm going to hold off for a bit until I can shoulder a few and see how they feel. Thanks for all the responses everyone.
 
CheeseBurger said:
Any of you left hand shooter's shoot a shotgun with cast off? How much does it bother you? Seems hard to find a shotgun with neutral cast. Thinking about buying a used Ithaca SKB O/U with cast off but I'm hesitating as I don't have experience with cast off or on. The only two shotguns I own are neutral.
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I've never seen an SKB/Ithaca that wasn't neutral, but as southpaw myself I will echo what others have said: do not bother with a gun that cast for a right-handed shooter (cast off).
 
I've gone in the opposite direction before; I picked up a gun with cast on, even though I'm a right handed shot. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. I adapted myself to it to the point where I could shoot decently, but then it makes it difficult to switch back to a normal gun. I had my best year on grouse ever shooting that wrong-sided gun, but eventually I took it to a smith and had the stock bent over.
 
ninepointer said:
I've never seen an SKB/Ithaca that wasn't neutral, but as southpaw myself I will echo what others have said: do not bother with a gun that cast for a right-handed shooter (cast off).
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I'm kicking myself now as I had a Ithaca SKB SxS 12g in my hands a month or so ago and I didn't buy it. It certainly fit me.

Thanks again guys for all the responses. Appreciated!
 
The browning is neutral but unfortunately the new 101's arent. Really wanted one till i shouldered it. Check the shotshow threads CZ is offering a south paw O/U that should be both good quality and reasonable price
 
CheeseBurger said:
Any of you left hand shooter's shoot a shotgun with cast off? How much does it bother you? Seems hard to find a shotgun with neutral cast. Thinking about buying a used Ithaca SKB O/U with cast off but I'm hesitating as I don't have experience with cast off or on. The only two shotguns I own are neutral.
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I can tolerate some shotguns with cast off to a point some not,the worst was a 28 ga winchester 101. I only have one shotgun(Caesar Guerini) that has a 1/4 cast on lefthanded stock , a browning Maxus that I have adjusted and the rest are neutral. I currently have 1 SKB 600 but have had 2 others and all neutral cast.
 
I've got a Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon Sporting. I ordered it in Left Hand, cast on. I like it and shoot it very well. I took my 18y old son trap shooting at our club one day and he couldn't hit anything with his Remington 870. Hit about 3/10. I gave him my 686 and without caring that it was LH, he managed to hit every clay with the remaining 15 shells! Although cast would probably optimize the fit for most, maybe it isn't as big a deal to some. I thought Brownings came in neutral cast.

(Youtube -Zane shoots the Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon)
 
I'm a left-eye dominant right-harder who shoots left. And Nope, I don't shoot a right-cast shotgun very well! I got my two beretta 68#s steam bent and they have stayed there ( 5 years for one, 3 years for the other). I also have a Cynergy camo with no cast that I shoot well too because the comb height is right ( but I didn't change the comb to a lefty one). FYI, chekc out the new Benelli OU. Funky looking, as we've come to expect from Benelli, but it comes with all the shims to adjust cast and drop.
http://www.benelliusa.com/over-under-shotguns
 
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