DD - That's exactly what I finally figured out this past Monday. He's always been all over the place with the BB gun and the .22 in the past. At age 10, I always figured it was because he was really trying to shoot a rifle that's stock was too long for him. After a couple of shots that weren't even on paper this past Monday, I finally had him switch to right handed and he was actually a pretty good shot. (We'd tried different tests to determine eye dominance and never got a consistent result. If you knew this kid, nothing about that or off-eye dominance would surprise you. He's always been a conundrum and I've finally just decided to appreciate it as part of his charm.) Even though they are both left handed, his older brother is "purely" left handed (can't do anything with his right) and he's a little more ambidextrous so shooting right handed won't be that big an issue for him.

The reason I don't want a bolt action is that I want them to both be able to shoot this rifle. When I got the older boy his first deer rifle last year, I got him a left handed bolt action.