rifle

Thanks Tracey, If you note in my original message I have the implant on the right. My question is has anyone had any success/failure using the upper arm to rest the butt of the rifle, as opposed to resting it on the chest wall.?

7 Comments

no, but

by Tracey_E - 2009-10-10 09:10:48

It all depends on how you hold the rifle.Try it and see how you do. As long as you don't rest the butt right over your pm, you won't hurt anything so try some different grips and see how it feels.

I am right handed and my pm is on the left, but the way I hold a rifle it would not be a problem even if it was on the right. I hold the butt higher and to the right of where the pm would be, (trying to describe it) not really upper arm but sort of tucked in front of the shoulder, still on the chest but off to the side.

This cracks me up, the whole time I've been here I don't think I've seen more than one or two posts about shooting, now it's every other post, lol.

No good answer

by lenora - 2009-10-11 02:10:26

Mike, don't know a thing about rifles but if you've got an AV graft
(fistula) you really need to talk to the doctor that maintains it. You wouldn't want to cause any trauma that would interrupt the blood flow through it or cause it to clot off.

rifle

by mikedb - 2009-10-11 11:10:08

Thanks Lenore, That is why the pm is on the right, not the left, which is the most ususal.

rifle

by mikedb - 2009-10-11 11:10:17

Thanks for the advice and the good words TracyE. I think the reason there are so many about rifles right now is that it so close to hunting season- at least in this part of the country. (Northeast),

Ouch...

by TLR - 2009-10-12 04:10:43

Mikedb, I take it you are quite an experienced shooter so will not have to tell you that the most effective place to place the butt of the rifle is where the muscle joins the collarbone, with your elbow horizontal to the ground to lock it into place. If you move the butt of the rifle outwards towards the bicep or upper arm you are going to drastically reduce your targetting accuracy. This is further increased with range and so a couple of inches at 100m would result in missed shots at 4-500m and would be dangerous at ranges greater than that. Now if you are shooting targets fine but when hunting it could mean the difference between a killing shot and a glancing shot, and you don't want to be responsible for all those animals running around injured in the wild with rounds in them or bits of their body missing, its quite inhumane really.
I don't know what rifle you shoot but can you adapt your shooting to fire it opposite handed? Obviously make sure the rifle is capable - a faceful of cocking handle, empty cases and GSR can really spoil your day (and your eyesight), if its not then consider buying a new rifle that you can.
I am a police firearms officer in the UK and I learnt to fire left handed as well as right, and it has been my experience that people firing opposite handed actually achieve better groupings when on the opposite hand. I don't know if this is due to higher levels of concentration and application of the marksmanship principles or whether its just because firing on the opposite hand naturally removes all those bad handling habits you pick up over time.
And yes I have fired with the butt directly over the implant site in my left shoulder, it was only a carbine but f*** me never again, the wound on the outside looks fulled healed after a couple of weeks but inside must be a different story. This was 6 months after the implant, and I was wearing body armour but still it wasn't the most pleasant experience in the world.

rifle

by mikedb - 2009-10-12 11:10:53

Thanks TLR. I had thought about body armor, but I am glad you clarified that thought. I shoot a carbine and the bolt action would no doubt cut my face if I changed to the left shoulder. I am seriously considering a stand (I hunt for deer). Have you any ideas about that?
I am also a retired police officer (US-- Connecticut), and a former Marine. Nice to talk to someone else in law enforcement. Be well. Mike

rifle

by deerehunter - 2009-11-02 11:11:46

I can understand this issue as I am going throught a somewhat simular situation as you. I had my PM implanted 12 days ago but was luck in a sence it was placed on the left side and I am right handed. I live in the midwest. I love to hunt whitetails however due to a life altering spine injury I only get to do it with special equipment for a few days a year usualy durring the rut (NOW) but this won't happen this year. The recoil of my rifle that happens to be a 7mm mag. It does pack a wollop on both ends so after my injury i had a muzzle break, magnaported and a gas opperated recoil reducer that reduces the recoil from 20.8 ft. lbs. to 7.3 ft lbs so this reduced the recoil quite a bit and went down to a 150 gr bullet that being said I told my Dr about this and asked if it would be safe to fire or if I should just let this season pass. He said I am not a hunter or a firearms expert however I do have a lot of patiants that are my experience is that after 6 weeks if you feel you can try it. I have asked several people and went to some local shooting ranges over the weekend and there were a lot of people there sighting in as you can imagin and ran into 2 men that are post pacemaker surgery and they said they have no trouble at all the one said that he got his in Sept. and was there shooting a 300 mag with no recoil supressers. I am taking some of their advice I am going to have someone else check to see that my gun is still on then if I see a 140" or larger buck than I will shoot if not there will be nothing to worry about. Hope this helps and good luck.

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