Shooting ideas to compensate for injuries.

ds5160 · May 1, 2012

Hi folks, new to shooting, picked up a Walther PPQ, which I enjoy. I have always wanted to shoot long gun, rifles and shotguns, but due to medical history, it is not advised by my doctor. I have a history of blood clots in my strong side shoulder, and the only way to remove the scar tissue is through two invasive surgeries. Even t.hen, there is no guarantee that I won't develop anther clot problem. The doc suggested continuing with handguns, but see if there is a way to simulate skeet and traps with a pistol. Other advice is to make sure no recoils gets back to my shoulder. Repeated stress from recoil could break the scar tissue free and send it on a trip that would be very bad for me.

Any thoughts on how to shoot trap, skeet, and precision rifle without adding more risk than necessary? Safest is to stay pistol, but if I don't ask, a brilliant solution might not appear.

Thanks.

MarkAd · May 1, 2012

I dig your style.
Have you thought about learning to shoot with your off-side. From you description you off side seems to be OK.

ds5160 · May 2, 2012

I asked about off-side, and since they can't be sure what caused the clot, but the primary theory indicates that shooting off-side could lead to a clot on that side. I am willing to learn more, but I always have to manage the risk (just like everything else). Thankfully the doctor is a shooter, and she said a .22 rifle (off-side) might be ok, but there are no guarantees that nothing would happen. I have no interest in hunting, so a .22 would be sufficient for fun, but I would really love to learn trap/skeet.

Flopsweat · May 2, 2012

I suppose a small caliber pistol with birdshot might be interesting. It would be shorter range and you'd probably want to substitute the clay pigeons with something reusable. Maybe old tennis balls or something. And of course you'd want to set the range up very carefully since you'll be shooting upward. Another alternative might be Nintendo Wii or XBox Kinect, if that doesn't seem a little lame to you.

Shooting a .22 rifle from the bench can be a lot of fun. I have one that will shoot MOA at 100 yards. On a windy day, it's about the same challenge as shooting a bigger gun at much longer distances. If I could use wind flags at my favorite range I'd be doing that a lot. A great resource for precision rimfire shooting is RimfireCentral.com.

Tbucket · May 2, 2012

Target shooting with a sled would work, suppose you could build a pivoting platform with a sled to shoot skeet with????

hermannr · May 2, 2012

When I was 16 years old I took hunters training. The course I took involved shooting a round of trap as part of it....however, I did not own a shotgun. Fortunately for me, the instructor allowed me to shoot his custom made Superpoised that had a hydrolic buffer in the stock. shooting 12 ga full loads was with no more recoil than a .22. That was years ago, but I will never forget that shotgun.

Ask a compitent custom stock maker if they can do the same for you. You could probably use an air shock, or air over hydrolic now I would think. It really did work well to soften the recoil.

Nwcid · May 2, 2012

Dont think you could use it for trap/skeet but something like this would stop the recoil to your body, <broken link removed>

salmonriverjohn · May 2, 2012

A full size .410 may well fit the bill your talking about.

ds5160 · May 2, 2012

Thanks for the ideas. I appreciate the feedback. Nice to know there are options.

jonn5335 · May 2, 2012

have you tried shooting a shotgun with the recoil pad not pressed against your shoulder ? they do not recoil very hard and you can stop it before it reaches your shoulder it's not a bad way to shoot some clays

ds5160 · May 3, 2012

jonn5335 said:
have you tried shooting a shotgun with the recoil pad not pressed against your shoulder ? they do not recoil very hard and you can stop it before it reaches your shoulder it's not a bad way to shoot some clays

I have never fired a shotgun. I was going to ask a friend if I could go with him, but wanted to check with my doctor first. That took me to the question.

hermannr · May 3, 2012

ds5160 said:
I have never fired a shotgun. I was going to ask a friend if I could go with him, but wanted to check with my doctor first. That took me to the question.

If your doctor considers it a danger, I would be very careful, clots are no fun.

There is one other way you can do this, just so you can shoot a shotgun...some Skeet loads are loaded VERY lighly. It makes it more challanging to hit the clay. If your shotgun friend reloads you might ask for a couple extra light loads, to be shot out of a heavy double barrel with a really good buttpad...not to do on a regular basis, but to give you some experience to compare with when you try other options to reduce recoil.

billyinfinity · May 3, 2012

While probably not the safest, nor most accurate, I have often seen people shoot from the hip with shotguns during skeet. Wile they are typically just shooting a single shot that way for fun, or to show off, or both, they have done so with success. I imagine you could learn to shoot that way and have marginal success.