Question?

Hello to all I have another question. My husband just got a new gun and I would like to shoot it. It is a shotgun. Will this effect my pacemaker? I wanted to know!!
Thanks,
Jennifer

16 Comments

Gun

by ebfox - 2012-03-03 08:03:32

Don't put the butt of the stock up against the pacemaker. Also don't aim in the general direction of your husband. Otherwise no problem.

EB

What guage is it?

by donr - 2012-03-03 09:03:28

Jennifer: I see you got your PM in Nov last year - that's three months. You should be safe as long as you don't place the butt against the shoulder w/ the PM beneath it.

Absolutely no reason why you should not shoot his shotgun. Your leads should by now be very nicely scarred over. About 10 weeks after having a new lead planted, I took a Jeep Cherokee in the right shoulder at 35 mph w/o any effect on the new lead, so that should be a non issue for you

But before you do, a couple questions: 1) What gauge is it? 2) what type shells do you intend to shoot? Magnums? Skeet & trap? Standard load? 3) Do you plan to fire several rounds of skeet - meaning several full 25 round boxes of shells? 4) Are you just going to fire it for the fun of it - meaning a couple rounds just to see what it's like. 5) Are you a petite size - or larger, meaning 5'8" or bigger. 6) do you plan to wear a shooting vest w/ a padded shoulder?

I use a shotgun for hunting - but I restrict myself to a 20 guage. Why? to reduce the chance of something going wrong w/ PM under recoil. I'm a man, 5'6" (used to be 5"8", but shrunk w/ age) about 180 lbs. I always wear a shooting vest w/ a padded shoulder to lessen recoil shock to torso.

If your husband is a big guy & bought a 10 gauge cannon, & you are a size 4 petite, I'd sorta think twice before doing it.

All the rest of the questions I asked should lead you to areas you should treat w/ care - f'rinstance, a 12 gauge firing 3 " magnums has quite a recoil shock. Skeet & trap loads are lighter, but firing up several boxes of them all in one session can beat you up pretty badly.

Like all things w/ the PM, you want to creep up on its limits. Face it - you screw up a lead, you face an unpleasant surgery. So, fire a couple rounds & see if you feel any different. Fire a couple more & see how you feel.

And, fer cryin' out loud - DON'T shoot your husband.

Ya know, there's one question I didn't ask - are you experienced w/ firearms? An old hand that went deer hunting at 8 w/ your father? Or are you a city slicker who married a country boy & this is your initial step into. outdoorsy things?

Don

Jennifer

by donr - 2012-03-04 03:03:58

So you are an experienced gun moll!

You didn't tell us that part - I'm glad I asked.

You put it on the other side from your PM - this implies to me that your PM may be on the wrong side. OR - you have one hand dominant but shoot from the non-dominant side. Whew! That was a mouthful!

Regardless, you sound like you already know what you are doing.

One parting shot (pun intended) - I've been there. I used to use a .30-06 for deer. After my PM. I decided that the recoil was too much, even w/ the pad, a padded butt & firing it w/ the butt opposite my PM. Our #2 Son, who is a gun nut, bought a .257 Roberts for me to use & he has my old .30-06. The lighter rifle has negligible recoil, & I use it comfortably. At most white tail ranges, it is just as effective as my old rifle.

I've always used a 20 gauge shotgun, mainly because I bought it for my wife while I was in Viet Nam well before you were born. It works well w/ deer slugs - never tried buckshot. Not so hot on field game birds - not enough pellets in it. Does nicely on ducks - ranges I shot at were shorter. Miserable on clays - not enough pellets.

In short, if you are into gun sports, there is a practical solution to accommodating your PM comfortably and safely.

As for hand guns - go w/ that .44 magnum you've always wanted. Dirty Harry would be proud of you!

Oh, BTW, being a purist, I shoot a shotgun & fire a rifle & pistol.

Don

Good question Ronaldo

by IAN MC - 2012-03-04 04:03:56

I was wondering that myself. I have to visit the States in April. If guns are compulsory over there will they let me in without one ?

Ronaldo, Ian:

by donr - 2012-03-04 09:03:01

No. All Americans do not have guns. (I THINK there are about 60 million out of about 300 million of us that own firearms - legally.) It just seems that way to outsiders. All visitors are welcome (Within reason) whether they are packing a weapon or not.

I live in a county (Read that Shire to translate into the Mother Tongue) in the state of Georgia (Wonder who that name comes from; it's one of the original thirteen English colonies.) that is pretty rural (On the southern Atlantic coast, just north of Florida - the home of Disney World) and opur residents fall into the class of people our President once classified as "...clinging to religion and their guns...". They have family trees that go back to names like Westmoreland, Stancil, Essex, Buckingham, McDonald, Robertson, Scrymgeour, Cumming, Johnson, Purdy, Thomas, Reynolds, & many more that I found in the list of Scottish clans & in the London phone book. Many of them trace their lineage directly back to indentured servants & other miscreants sent to what was then considered an abysmal, tropical, disease-infested swamp in the period from about 1650 - 1750. They were (& still are) one tough bunch of folks not to be taken lightly. I have neighbors who trace the title to their land back to grants from English kings. They carved a nation out of a true wilderness peopled by what became hostile natives when they faced loss of their lands to foreigners. It was not till the early 1800's that it was safe to wander around my state unarmed, due to the constant, very real threat of meeting a hostile native, intent on doing you harm. The same situation faced those who moved into the vast lands of the west - read that Texas (EVERYBODY knows what a Texan is) - Oklahoma, etc. A gun just was part of what you wore when you left the security of the house. Not just for safety from hostile people, but wild animals. They also faced their share of highwaymen, horse thieves & other miscreants who were social outcasts living on the fringes of polite society & preying on law abiding folk.

Our Civil War (1861-65) brought another period of nationwide armed violence that left a lot of losers from the Confederate States (the southern US, essentially,. including Georgia) who refused to accept that the war was over & moved into the great plains of the West to join the miscreants already there to prey on law abiding folk. The western movies you may have seen depicting Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Jesse James, the Younger Brothers, etc. are all TRUE (but embellished).

Parts of our country were an armed camp through the late 1800's. That is FACT. The cinema has added more than its share of fiction to it. Further, the Indian wars lasted until the late 1800's & it took the Army till then to pacify the great vast plains areas, which were indeed a dangerous place to live, courtesy of the various Indian tribes. To give them their due, "SCALPING" (everyone who has seen a western movie knows about scalping) was NOT a practice they practiced on their own invention. They did it because during the "French & Indian War" (mid 1700's & really only an extension of a war raging in Europe at the same time) both the French & British paid their various Indian allies for members of the other side that they killed. Proof was demanded in the form of the scalp of the victim in the form of the little whorl of hair in the back of the head that everyone has only one of. (Gee, Sweeney Todd would like that!)

Back to the present: I was called for jury duty a few yrs back, one of over 225 citizens of the county. They needed a panel of 12 out of that lot. Here we sat, awaiting the winnowing down of the mass for a trial we knew nothing of. Turned out the accused was up for murdering his brother w/ a .22 rifle, using about ten rounds out of it to do the deed. The first question of us all was "How many of you come from a household that owns a firearm?". The second was "How many of you are from a household w/ multiple firearms?" After each, I looked around to see how many hands were up - It was easier to count the hands NOT raised. Not even a dozen each time. We lived in an ARMED CAMP! (My hand was up for both questions.) The third question was for the women in the crowd. "Are any of you uncomfortable with the firearms in your house?" Not a hand went up.

An intriguing statistic - this is the first murder by any means to take place in our county in over TEN YEARS.

There is a companion town about 40 miles away called Kennesaw. At least ten yrs ago, the town council passed an ordinance requiring that every household must own a firearm. Their crime rate dropped precipitously to nearly zero in about a year & has remained there ever since.

So, for citizen safety, an armed camp is not necessarily a bad place to live.

IAN: come visit rural Georgia - you'll be welcome - and safe - & I'll betcha you'll meet some members of your family tree that planted roots in the colonies more than a few yrs ago.

Oh, & BTW - I come from what I jokingly call a Berlin branch of a Scottish Clan. My great grand father only came here about 1837. From somewhere east of Dresden, west of Poland. Wife's family came from England in the 1700's.

Cheers! Guys, & I hope to meet you some day, I promise I'll leave my weapons at home.

Don

Guns

by jennifernickless - 2012-03-04 12:03:13

Thank you all for the reply! He has a 12 gauge shotgun. And we were only shooting bird shot. I only shot it once. Before I had my pacemaker I shot a shotgun and of course they left a nasty bruse on my sholder but we were also using buck shot. So this time it didn't. I put it on the other side of my pm. I am on the small side on 5'5. And no this was not my first ime shooting a gun. I use to hunt with my dad. And no I didn't shoot my husband! LOL

...To the sound of "God Save The Queen " !!

by Tattoo Man - 2012-03-05 02:03:13

Ronaldo and Ian, I reckon that the three of us have 60 Million people well on the backfoot now, eh ??

Ronaldo, I have it on good advice that machine guns, hand grenades and missiles are freely available at mid-morning breaks in the majority of Schools, Nurseries and some Hospitals.

REALMEN however tend to favour Apache AH-64D Helicopters fitted with M230 Chain Guns along with Hardpoints and AGM-114 Hellfires.
For those who like to pamper themselves, or indeed as a perfect gift from a pretty wife, then Night Vision and Navaid are So the latest thing to prevent Nighttime Brownout when making a surprise visit to chums in the desert. Most of these items are available, Mail Order on easy terms ,..often at discounted prices for Senior Citizens

Always a pleasure to do business with you Gentlemen

Stand Easy !

General Tattoo Man (retired)

Gentlemen.. what are the facts ?

by IAN MC - 2012-03-05 03:03:20

I have tried to find out which countries have lower death-rates per 100,000 population from gun-related homicides than the US. The only ones I could find are :-

Argentina,Finland,Switzerland,France,Canada,Austria,
Norway,Portugal,Belgium,Costa Rica, Uruguay, Slovenia,Barbados,Israel, Italy,Australia,New Zealand,Denmark,Sweden, Slovakia,Peru, Czech Republic,Germany, Greece, Azerbaijhan, Macedonia,Kuwait,Hungary, Ireland,Latvia, India, Spain, Bulgaria,netherlands, Moldavia, Lithuania, Taiwan,China,Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, England, Wales, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Quatar, South Korea, Japan , Chile.

I got bored, but there are lots more !

Doh ... which country should change its gun laws ??

Ian

Pacemaker

by ebfox - 2012-03-05 05:03:01

Hey Guys,

This is a pacemaker support website. Let's stick to that- I can listen to talk radio if I want to debate religion, politics, guns, abortion, etc.

Let's all help each other, OK?

EB

Such a reassurance !

by Tattoo Man - 2012-03-05 07:03:46

I'm just sure, dearest donr, that Ronaldo, Ian and now ,myself can rest assured that Not All Americans have guns
That ONLY 60 Million out of 300 Million are armed fills me with relief...after all that is only

ONE IN FIVE or 20% !!!!!!

Best wishes from a peaceful little island called the UK, floating near a place called France

Tattoo Man

I agree, Tattoo Man ! ,

by IAN MC - 2012-03-05 12:03:37

I'm sure that John Lennon would have found those figures really reassuring !

Ian

PS Thanks for the invitn to Georgia, Don, ...it sounds great.. I'm going to Chicago unfortunately. I have a son, daughter-in-law and 3 grandsons there.

No problem with the shotgun

by bshpmark - 2012-03-06 07:03:00

I am a police firearms instructor. We carry Mossberg M590A1 short barrel shotguns and use reduced recoil buckshot and slugs. My ICD is in my left shoulder and I shoot right side. So there is no problem at all unless you happen to shoot yourself in the pacemaker. If you do you won't have to worry about problems with the pacemaker anyway. There will be bigger fish to fry.

Ian, et al:Are Youse Guys ever in for...

by donr - 2012-03-07 04:03:37

...a history lesson.
Been too busy last three days to write anything of inconsequence.

Have a) met myself coming while I was going in a narrow doorway; 2) Been up to the neck of a tall giraffe in hungry crocs. No time to write.

History is factual; you may not like what it is, but you must accept it if you are intellectually honest!

Don

ebfox ... you are right BUT ....

by IAN MC - 2012-03-07 07:03:35

Hi ebfox .. yes, we are all here to help fellow PM wearers, and that is the only reason for the existence of this site.

But, what if Jennifer's original post had said " I've just got a new drug, Drug X, and I would like to take it. Is it OK with my PM ?"

I assume you would have been happy if some of us had replied " Jennifer, don't take Drug X, it is dangerous , it, has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths , and its usage is severely restricted in most civilised countries "

Substitute " Gun" for " Drug X" and then you object to our replies. It doesn't make sense does it ?

Ronaldo, Tattoo Man and myself have replied because we DO care about people !

PS bshpmark .. my local Police Officer here in the UK is called Dave . On patrol , he rides a police bicycle ( no police car provided) and rides around the local villages being nice to people . I doubt that Dave's ever seen a gun. Yes we have police firearms instructors, like yourself, because of terrorist threats etc but not many of them. You'd be hard pushed to get a job here.

I am a frequent visitor to the US and you have got most things right, but , I'm sorry, your country has got its gun policy so wrong ! I write this because I would hate to think that any of my Cyber PM friends will get shot ( let alone me, when I visit Chicago in April.)

I wish a safe and happy day to all PM 'ers

Ian

PS message for donr

by IAN MC - 2012-03-07 09:03:16

Hi don ... I found you last message really interesting.

I think you and I have agreed on previous topics that only by looking at the history can we understand why we are where we are now.

As Laurel and Hardy used to say " Now look at the mess you've gotten us into ! "

Hope you're well

Ian

LOL !!

by Tattoo Man - 2012-03-08 03:03:03

,...Isnt it just so rewarding, seeing the Boys playing together nicely,..chatting about Guns and Giraffes.??

And I So Love that ,truly imaginative concept about "History being Factual"

Boys will be Boys, and I guess they will always have these idealistic fantasies to help prop up their Dodge City facades .
Chesterton said "Cest les fous qui on le raison"..for myself' I'll stick with the Giraffes..you know where you stand with a Giraffe...namely...quite low down

Best wishes to you all, from down here.

Tattoo Man

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