Archery hand orientation?

Question

I'm buying a bow for a hunting trip next weekend, and the site is asking me for my "hand orientation". I hold the bow with my left hand, with the arrow shelf on the right side, and shoot that way.

Am I oriented right of left hand?

Answer 1

Neither, if you hold the bow in your left hand, the arrow shelf should be on the left side of the bow.  Right handed bows have shelves on the left side and vice versa for left handed ones.

However, the handedness of the bow doesn't depend on whether you're left or right handed.  It's more of whether you're right or left eyed.  You need to first find your dominant eye.

To tell which eye is dominant, you do one of several eye dominance tests. One we use a lot is, you stand up straight, pick a target far away that is straight ahead of you. Look at it with both eyes open. Now point both of your palms toward the floor, and put them together, such that your fingers on one palm crosses the fingers on the other palm. You'll now have a small diamond shaped hole in between your palms, between the two index fingers and the two thumbs. Make the hole small, while looking at the target, raise your arms up so that you can center the target within this hole. Keeping the target centered in the hole, bring your hands to your face. The eye that the hands come back to is your dominant eye.

If you're right eye dominant, then you draw the string with your right hand and hold the bow with your left.  Left eye dominant, you do the opposite.

The only exception to this rule is if you're doing one of the traditional asian style archery like Kyudo.  Then you're always right handed and the arrow goes on the right side of the bow.