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Does the Imperium refuse to recruit anyone who is left-handed?

I've noticed that some of the special characters are lefties (Yarrick, Lord Solar, and Gaunt seem to be lefties with heir storm bolter/pistols in their left hand), but everyone else seems to be right-handed. What gives?

Chances are, they were just trained to shoot right handed. Firing guns is very easily ambidextrous. I'm right handed but shoot just as good lefty. Heck, with my AK-47 I shoot better left handed. (Due to the weapon's ergonomics.)

 MWHistorian wrote:
Chances are, they were just trained to shoot right handed. Firing guns is very easily ambidextrous. I'm right handed but shoot just as good lefty. Heck, with my AK-47 I shoot better left handed. (Due to the weapon's ergonomics.)

Leftie checking in; military drill has taught me to shoot right handed well enough to pass by.

But it would be nice to have a little more variety in the models.

Lefties were mutants and have been purged. You are asking a lot of questions.

The assault marine box has two of one and three of the other. (There seems to be a difference of opinion on which weapon people would put in their dominant hand.)

Is being left a genetic thing? would the selective genetic breeding of most Guard (read; Cadians) remove the Leftiness from the genetic pool?

I have no idea about how handedness is determined.

 Sparkadia wrote:
Is being left a genetic thing? would the selective genetic breeding of most Guard (read; Cadians) remove the Leftiness from the genetic pool?

I have no idea about how handedness is determined.

I think even the hardiest genetic breeding of Cadians would be kinda screwed by being so close to the Warp, they did all gain Violet Eye's as a result of it afterall.

I would imagine Space Marines being ambidextrous. Going just off the Space Wolf kit, it's possible to model them holding a bolter with one hand and have bits for right and left. I even have a few that has them holding a bolt pistol in one hand and a bolter with the other.

I've always assumed that the close combat weapon was held in the dominant hand and the gun was held in the weak hand, so I'd say there are a lot of lefty models.

Blacksails wrote:

 MWHistorian wrote:
Chances are, they were just trained to shoot right handed. Firing guns is very easily ambidextrous. I'm right handed but shoot just as good lefty. Heck, with my AK-47 I shoot better left handed. (Due to the weapon's ergonomics.)

Leftie checking in; military drill has taught me to shoot right handed well enough to pass by.

But it would be nice to have a little more variety in the models.

Leftie as well, but I shoot rifles right handed since I'm right eye dominant. You shoot with your dominant eye, not your dominant hand. Hands can be taught how to handle something no matter which side you use, eyes can't. With pistols though I have my left hand on the trigger and line up the sights with my right eye. Looks goofy as hell to someone who knows proper shooting technique, but any time someone has questioned it my performance at marksmanship drills has been enough to shut them up

Seaward wrote:I've always assumed that the close combat weapon was held in the dominant hand and the gun was held in the weak hand, so I'd say there are a lot of lefty models.

Like I said above I'd put my pistol in whatever hand my dominant eye lined up with. For me this does result in ccw being dominant hand, but I imagine it would be different from person to person. Space Marines are most likely ambidextrous for all intents and purposes anyway considering all the training they get. Shooting with your off hand is a pretty big part of most contemporary tactical shooting classes. In the 40k universe I imagine this hasn't gone anywhere.

I am right handed but I am more accurate when shooting in a left-handed manner (That is, holding the gun with the right hand and firing with the left).

It also feels better for some reason.

 TheSilo wrote:
Does the Imperium refuse to recruit anyone who is left-handed?

I've noticed that some of the special characters are lefties (Yarrick, Lord Solar, and Gaunt seem to be lefties with heir storm bolter/pistols in their left hand), but everyone else seems to be right-handed. What gives?

The imperial creed oleaves no room for doubt: Being left handed is a sign of genestealer infection and must be met with purging with extreme prejudice.

Yarrick doesn't have much of a choice in which hand he uses.

My understanding from a UK army friend is that many designs of rifles eject the cartridges at high speed from one side only - they don't have resources to spend making 10% of all rifles eject the other way, so everyone shoots right handed so they don't get a cartridge in the eye. I kind of assumed the imperium did something similar.

Some rifles and machine guns can be changed to eject brass to either side, while other weapons (like the FN P90) are designed to eject downward.

Although lasguns don't eject empty cartridges, they have to vent heat, which one could reasonably assume is vented in the same manner; soldiers of the Imperial Guard likely don't want heat constantly blasted in their faces so they're taught to fire right-handed.

 Jimsolo wrote:
The assault marine box has two of one and three of the other. (There seems to be a difference of opinion on which weapon people would put in their dominant hand.)

I'm right handed but I'd shoot a pistol with my left, and have a sword in my right.

I've assembled some of my Noise Champions and one Chaos Terminator to be "other-handed" when compared to the rest. Adds some variety and realism.

I'm cross-dominant. When given a sword and a pistol, I'd probably keep helplessly switching them from one hand to the other. Not sure what would be the final decision, but probably pistol-left and sword-right.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only right-handed white men in the Militarum.

 Ashiraya wrote:
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only right-handed white men in the Militarum.

White, right handed, straight, blue-eyes, blonde-haired...

GW = Nazi Germany.

GW Management = Hitler.

IOM is an aryan race.

That's why chaos is "black"...

 Selym wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only right-handed white men in the Militarum.

White, right handed, straight, blue-eyes, blonde-haired...

GW = Nazi Germany.

GW Management = Hitler.

IOM is an aryan race.

That's why chaos is "black"...

What does that make of Salamanders then?

 ZebioLizard2 wrote:

 Selym wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only right-handed white men in the Militarum.

White, right handed, straight, blue-eyes, blonde-haired...

GW = Nazi Germany.

GW Management = Hitler.

IOM is an aryan race.

That's why chaos is "black"...

What does that make of Salamanders then?

REDACTED

Bharring wrote:
Lefties were mutants and have been purged. You are asking a lot of questions.

The inquisition does not suffer inquisitive people!

There are some kits, especially older ones, that have a lot of left handed options. Khorne Berzerkers have quite a few, for example. And I doubt Berzerkers suddenly decide to go leftie after they fall to Chaos. Well, actually they might, because it's scientifically proven that left handed people are the devil

 Ashiraya wrote:
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only right-handed white men in the Militarum.

Isn't the Emperor Syrian?

Being left handed is occasionally annoying... Chalk/dry erase/pens that don't dry quickly, guitars, sitting at a table next to a right handed person while you both writing, hockey equipment (goalie), baseball gloves, scissors that are made for righties, etc... Firing a rifle was never a problem, feels comfortable on either side. There are no bolt-action rifles in 40k anyway.

Clearly the STC production culture of the Imperium has no place for weirdos who can't use ergonomic scissors or draw a battle plan on a chalk board without smearing it everywhere.

Yeah, what everyone else said, especially

dementedwombat wrote: but I shoot rifles right handed since I'm right eye dominant.

Left hand dominance happens roughly 10% of the time. Left eye dominance happens about 33% of the time. The only time that you're going to be basically untrainable as a right-handed shooter is if you're left-hand-left-eye, and that happens only about 3% of the time (and even then, if you're a space marine, you'll have a few centuries of training to sort things out).

Plus, models with two weapons is tricky. Just because they have their sword or pistol in a certain hand doesn't mean they necessarily favor that hand. I mean, ask yourself right now, would you rather have your sword or your pistol in your dominant hand? The answer could go either way, and would be based on other factors including fighting style.

For me, personally, I'd have pistol in left and sword in right because I'm right handed, but left-eye dominant, so I'd want to shoot a pistol lefty anyways. If I were right-eye dominant, though, I'd probably settle the conflict by shooting righty, as I'd rather be a bit more accurate with the pistol than swing a little harder with the sword. But that's just me, who knows what others' preferences could be?

Oh, and don't forget grimdark. My guard SO shot lefty and stabbed righty, but then got a left-handed powerfist, which means he had to switch to shooting righty to get his thumb into the glove. Then he got his arm hacked at, and the powerfist was replaced with a bionic power fist, which means now he's stuck shooting righty whether he likes it or not.

In the grim, dark future of requisition errors and bionic limbs, a person is likely going to have to make some adaptations over time.

The reason you got your gun in your right hand and melee in the left is that you want the additional precision to shoot at an enemy and as soon as he comes near, you drop the weapon and swap hands for melee.

 Sigvatr wrote:
The reason you got your gun in your right hand and melee in the left is that you want the additional precision to shoot at an enemy and as soon as he comes near, you drop the weapon and swap hands for melee.

Discarding your weapon is a capital offence.

I don't really think a sculptor would bother with doing left handed figures, when they would subconsly sculpt them as right handed and It's a small detail that's easily missed.

Imperium was always supposed to bit like Nazi Germany.

 Trickstick wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
The reason you got your gun in your right hand and melee in the left is that you want the additional precision to shoot at an enemy and as soon as he comes near, you drop the weapon and swap hands for melee.

Discarding your weapon is a capital offence.

Tell that to the Hormagaut charging at you.