Injuries... how have they changed your life with firearms?

[Carl N. Brown]

Injury: I broke my left collarbone, among other things, in a car wreck Aug 1992. Since I had multiple life threatening injuries, setting the collarbone was not a priority (apparently pins in the collarbone to mate the two halves would have a tendancy to migrate) so that was not done. The collarbone knitted overlapped, shortened with a lump in the middle. The left shoulder is noticeably more set in from the right.

Change: I won't shoot any long gun in heavier caliber than .22 from the left shoulder. Plus I use earplugs and muffs when I participate in matches at the gun club.

Is this the cripple thread?

This is the survivor thread.

 

[hang fire]

I have had injuries and surgeries to spine, fusing four of the lower lumbar. I shrugged them off and mushed on down the road, but this last episode which resulted in 30 days of hospitalization and four different procedures in three facilities has changed all that. Started with a surgeon using micro surgery blowing a gall bladder removal when he cut open main bile duct. So far bills have run over a quarter million dollars and the pain from bile in chest cavity have been unreal.

So my shooting has been curtailed for forseeable future.

 

[bayjoe]

Lower back injury 20 years ago. I can't have tight pants, wear a belt carry a pistol without having serious back pain.
Old age is contributing to shoulder aching when I try to hold pistol on target.

 

[chicharrones]

I'm very blessed. Out of the accidents I've had, all were pretty much fully recoverable.

The only thing even shooting related is when I mistakenly stuck my trigger finger into a still powered cooling fan. It lopped the tip most of the way off, but I fixed it with super glue and it all grew back together.

The only downside (and it ain't much of one) is I can't use a trigger lighter than 4 pounds because I just can't feel it.

 

[Deltaboy1984]

Well boys some days are better than others but keep on plugging along.

 

[Romeo 33 Delta]

My combat injuries (right Femur and hip) and ones associated to them (nerve damage to left leg and hands) have pretty much made it impossible to shoot semi-auto pistols reliably (trouble operating the slide), though I can still manage revolvers if I shoot them single action. I have a special bench at the local range made for me by a great guy and I can still shoot my target rifles and some MilSurps (non-semi auto) without too much trouble, but I have problems cocking most of my favorites ... M-1, M1A, BM-59, M-1941, FAL, G3... but I'm pluggin' along!

 

[Zaydok Allen]

A back injury is why I got into carrying in the first place. I was stoved up something fierce when I was 25. It took me about 2 years to walk normal again. Even after that I would hurt myself every now and then and my back was all torqued up.

I doubted my ability to defend myself in a hand to hand or even knife to hand situation do to the stabbing pain I felt and a real lack of mobility and manuverability. I started carrying as a result.

I am well healed now and would have a fair chance of fending off an attacker, but I still carry since I value my life a great deal.

 

[rugerman]

Not an accident- a disease, arthritis! I used to shoot a couple of hundred 44 mag rounds a week thru my Ruger superblackhawk and other large caliber pistols, now I have a hard time with even a full sized .357 and on really bad days a 22. I have lost my hand strength, now my knees are bone to bone and my hip joints are breaking down and I have digenerative disc disease in my back. GETTIN OLD IS NOT FOR SISSIES!

 

[22-rimfire]

I have a couple vertibrate degenerating in my neck. Been that way for a long time. Have learned to turn my whole body when I can to look from left to right and avoid very quick movements with my head. Chirapractors notice the limited movement quite rapidly and then I explain why. It is one of the ways that I screen Chirapractors... if they notice, I know they're likely to be pretty good, if not, I generally don't come back.

 

[340PD]

Two years ago @ age 66, I had both rotator cuffs repaired in the same year, both biceps had a tendon snap but they really not needed anyway so the surgeon left them alone. Rehab was about six months per side but nowhere near as bad as I expected.

Lots of PT. but now I am back to doing anything I want. Golf, all my handguns, and I just bought a bow so I can shoot with my grandson. Just got back in after painting one side of my house and now off to the archery range.

Hang in there, nothing is as bad as it appears to be.

 

[doc2rn]

If I had your luck, I'd be walking around in custom medieval-style full titanium armor. Sounds like you'd be pretty easy to locate in any given city if one just hangs around the E.R. long enough!

Funny thing is I work in a hospital lab.

 

[PonyKiller]

in the scheme of things, I don't have it that bad off. Long and the short of it is this. I have to retrain myself how to hold rifles, shotguns and handguns again. In the past almost two years my shoulders have gone south in a hurry, and I compensated for it. My left arm ended up about 2" shorter and didn't move much. So when rifle shooting I couldn't aim with the left arm, but held tight with the left and aimed with the right(i'm right handed). And got good at it, I've been strong enough to kinda muscle through it.
Handgun shooting was even more twisted and awkward but again I compensated for it and got good. By the spring i'll be able to use normal geometry and go back to the way I was taught, but unlearning the compensatory techniques I created will undoubtedly be a challenge.

 

[newfalguy101]

Not an injury, but, an inheritance............the bones in my right forearm are fused at the elbow end, which means ZERO rotation in my right elbow. Hands straight out, palms down, rotating my thumbs up as far as possible, my left arm flips completely over palm up, my right, stops with my thumb at about 35-40 degrees ( the amount of rotation in my shoulder and wrist ).

I cannot physically grip a long gun while shooting right handed, and when I shoot lefty, I rest/grip the forearm between my thumb and pointer............obviously not a fan of bolt guns. Using a handgun is better because using a two handed grip, I can force the gun vertical, however, one handed the gun is somewhere between gangsta and vertical....turns out, your sights do NOT have to be straight up and down to get good hits.

My biggest challenge thus far has been trying to figure out how I can carry concealed..............you would be amazed at the little things in life you CANT do when you have no elbow rotation

 

[hueytaxi]

Age had crept (quickly) upon me. After years of Commuting, my left hand has stiff arthritis and I have no grip with it. about two years ago I developed an issue with my right shoulder. I can use it in all normal activities, lifting, shooting, etc. But the post use period brings a lot of pain. Wife is always offering some of her pain meds which so far Ihave refused. A little Bayer as yet has allowed me to sleep. That said, I have not fired my MN M44 in a couple years and the last time recovery was a week. May be time to liquidate.

 

[CharlieDeltaJuliet]

Dang guys, I thought my degenerative disk disease and fractured vertebrae, was bad. I wish each and one of you the very best.

 

[Gaffer]

I suffered a macula hole in my right eye retina several years ago and even after surgery the distortion has limited me in having the visual acuity that is needed to shoot well. At 81 it is too late to learn to shoot left. Getting old is not easy but it beats the alternative.

 

[Nasty Ned]

My gosh, I'm 77 now and thought I was getting bad off until I read all this. I surely am sorry for all the aches pains and problems all these good folks have and feel quite fortunate not to have quite as many as most of Y'all have. I have been shot twice, both times by accident, but there was a time that if I had been hit, it would not have been an accident. I wish the best for all of Y'all.

Ned