[BridgeWalker]

I've posted here in the past about my bad shoulder. Judo injury, years old, pain, numbness, weakness, misery, yadda yadda.

For various reasons having to do with insurance, I'm finally in a position to maybe do something about it. Have a consult coming up. From what I'm reading about the nature of my injury, surgery is a near-certainty. The idea of missing out on an entire summer of trap and skeet is just crushing.

Has anyone here managed to shoot trap or skeet one-handed? My guess is that skeet would be a better option, because I could go with a 28 or .410, so lighter and more manageable recoil. Of course, I only have my 12 gauge Benelli right now, so I'd have to get a different gun.

Anyway, I still haven't see the orthopedist, but just curious if anyone else has experience with this.

[GearHead_1]

I missed your previous posts. May I ask the nature of your injury?

[Kingcreek]

Years ago, my Dad had a friend with one arm. He hunted with a 12g model 37, went swimming and even waterskiing, and occaisionally drove an old motorcycle.
Last year shooting skeet on station 8, the sun was just over the top edge of the high house. I could see the corner (my hold point) if I pulled my hat low and held it there with my cupped left hand but was blinded if I put my hand on the shotgun. So I called for the bird and broke it shooting one hand. I got some applause and some ribbing so I had to do it 2x more. Not as hard as I thought it would be.
a 20g semi might be calm enough for you after a little healing- depends on your specific limitations.

[Oldnamvet]

I used to shoot skeet one handed using my contender .410 pistol but never scored batter than 16/25. A friend with a shoulder problem uses a special sling and quasi-hip shoots. He has socred up to 20/25 using that technique with a 28 gauge semi.

[BridgeWalker]

I missed your previous posts. May I ask the nature of your injury?

Eh, there's not much to tell. Haven't had a doc look at it in years, so medically speaking I don't know what I'm looking at.

Hurt it playing judo. I didn't get the memo that women don't have quite the upper body strength of men, and I was trying to out-tough every guy in the dojo. Didn't have much choice, since I was the women crazy enough to want to do judo with a bunch of guys. It was a heckuvalotta fun, but a couple thousand shoulder throws later working out with some big strong guys, it started hurting.

I was working on two throws at the time--tai-otoshi, which involves using the arms to jerk the opponent up and back enough to mess up the balance before sweeping the legs, and a one armed shoulder throw, the proper name of which I forget, but which involves getting the arm between the opponent's body and arm when he's mostly in front of you, sweeping around, and using legs and back to drive him up and over your shoulder. I bet it was that one that did it, because with me being shorter than a couple of the guys I was working with, I had my arm raised up and forward as I twisted around--a position in which I have read the shoulder is supremely vulnerable to injury. The other one is a very jerky forward upraised motion as well, but less weight-bearing, and less twisting.

Not quite like a classic rotator cuff, which tends (or so I read) to hurt in the front and side of the shoulder. Mine hurts mostly towards the back of the shoulder and on bad days it radiates up my neck and down into my hand. This all happened eight years ago or so. Got some PT at the time. Orthopod said I had some torn cartilage, but didn't elaborate, and being young and dumb, I didn't ask. PT didn't do jack, but I moved out of my parents' house and didn't have decent insurance. Got busy with life and never did anything about it.

It's been getting steadily worse since then. I've adapted around it. I shoot a Montefeltro for trap because it's a couple pounds lighter than a trap gun. I shoot pistol one-handed. I started using fountain pens because the pressure ball-pens, and to a lesser extent, rollerballs, require makes my shoulder ache and part of my hand go numb. Ibuprofen became a way of life. Quit judo, and every time I missed it too much and tried to go back, the pain and weakness chased me away.

Now i've been diagnosed with asthma and that goes hand in hand with a likely NSAID sensitivity, so I gotta lay off the ibuprofen. I'd really love to play judo again. I'd like to be able to shoot trap with a trap gun. And I'm tired of hurting all the farking time. It seems that for older injuries, and for injuries that haven't responded to PT in the past, and for younger people (I'm 29), surgery is the preferred solution in this case, which is fine by me.

But, it seems that the post-op period of no use at all except for PT is generally about 12 weeks. That's a big chunk of the summer. In fact, that's the whole summer. :( Full recovery takes up to a year, it seems. So, shooting alternatives. And that's the full story, since you asked. :)

[BridgeWalker]

I used to shoot skeet one handed using my contender .410 pistol but never scored batter than 16/25. A friend with a shoulder problem uses a special sling and quasi-hip shoots. He has socred up to 20/25 using that technique with a 28 gauge semi.

The latter sounds neat. The former, I just don't have the guts for. The teasing alone could kill me. :o

[BridgeWalker]

Kingcreek--a 20 would sure be cheaper to shoot than a .410 or a 28. Don't really see doing enough one-armed shooting to make a press worthwhile for the subgauges, but would get pretty irksome paying $10 or more for a box of shells.

Nice to know that as 12 can be handled one-handed.

Maybe a thumbhole type stock would let me get a better grip on it. hm.

[Pete409]

Two hands are much better than one for pointing the gun and for absorbing recoil. I've seen numerous people shoot skeet and sporting clays while using a pump action gun with a pistol grip stock.

They shoot the gun from just above waist height. They have something wrong with their shoulder so they can't bring a gun up to their shoulder. A 20 gauge pump with pistol grip stock works well for this. If you can get both hands to just above waist height (shooting from the hip), then you could do it the way I've described. That's MUCH better than trying to shoot a shotgun one handed.

[Leadhead]

You sound like a fairly determined and athletic person I'm sure you can do it but if not it won't be long till you are back in the game and in the mean time you can brush up on your pistol technique....

Good luck with the surgery!