WestKentucky
Member
I am a safety professional by trade (desk jockey mostly) and have been conducting studies of repeated trauma and repeated motion injury for my employer. I have not seen any such study for those of us who are part of the shooting hobby world.
Obviously there are dangerous behaviors to be avoided as should be taught by a mentor upon a persons entry into the hobby. Muzzle awareness, fire/safe awareness, loaded chamber awareness to name a few. Additionally firearms handling is a lesson for day #1 before the weapon is ever loaded. These items should all be drilled to a point where they are natural. I will assume at this point weapons safety has been covered and should be a sticky if it is not.
To move forward, we must look at behaviors creating unsafe conditions over time. The prime example of course is hearing protection. Ringing ears is a sign of hearing loss. It may be minuscule for each outing, but it does add up. You must remember that every million dollars is made of one hundred million pennies, and try to protect what pennies are left. Be aggressive with hearing protection and reward yourself with the ability to hear your loved ones say they love you as you breathe your last.
Almost all musculoskeletal disorders are easily preventable by reducing exposure and by changing motion. Rotation of tasks allows the body to rest and recover from certain stress events and goes a long way in preventing an MSD. Rotate shooting styles or rotate shooters. Rotating weapons may be enough to break up the day. After all, rifles, shotguns, revolvers and autos are held differently and operate differently thus the body moves differently. Similarly different long gun actions can change motions.
Carpal tunnel is often viewed as a condition brought on by typing but it is much more than that, and can happen in areas other than the wrists however the same condition in different nerve centers are called different things. CTS is the contraction or damage of the lining around a set of nerves in the wrist. It occurs due to repeated motion in the area and the body's response to protect the nerves ( I am no PT or MD so accept the generic terms here) which would be like a waterhose around water. The lining swells and crimps down on the nerves causing nerve failures which are painful, cause loss of strength and eventually loss of use of the digits. This occurs much like kinking a waterhose can regulate flow or even shut flow off. The trigger finger is very susceptible to this condition. Stretch the arms, hands , and wrists before long range sessions to help reduce the impact on the body.
Excessive recoil is a commonly overlooked item. Recoil can be managed very effectively by use of the shooters body. The shoulder tells you shooting that 10 gauge hurts, so you need to listen to your body and limit that repeated force before it becomes repeated trauma and damaged tissues. Likewise a stiffly recoiling handgun such as a ultralight bigbore revolver or automatic can be traumatic to the wrists and even elbows. Handgun recoil can be lessened greatly by use of bent elbows as the body absorbs the force with motion rather than with rapid muscle response in the wrist. Do not lock elbows. This can play into nerve damage, nerve housing damage (carpal tunnel or similar in other locations) and potentially skeletal system issues as the bones flex with recoil. Even a good spring breaks after flexing too many times.
Allow time between range sessions. The body will heal a lot of the injuries you inflict upon it but it must have a chance to do so. Listen to the body. It will tell you when it needs to recover.
Please ask questions so I can methodically go through other actions and add those to the list. I have a PT and doctors I deal with regularly and will ask questions of them should I need to do so.
Obviously there are dangerous behaviors to be avoided as should be taught by a mentor upon a persons entry into the hobby. Muzzle awareness, fire/safe awareness, loaded chamber awareness to name a few. Additionally firearms handling is a lesson for day #1 before the weapon is ever loaded. These items should all be drilled to a point where they are natural. I will assume at this point weapons safety has been covered and should be a sticky if it is not.
To move forward, we must look at behaviors creating unsafe conditions over time. The prime example of course is hearing protection. Ringing ears is a sign of hearing loss. It may be minuscule for each outing, but it does add up. You must remember that every million dollars is made of one hundred million pennies, and try to protect what pennies are left. Be aggressive with hearing protection and reward yourself with the ability to hear your loved ones say they love you as you breathe your last.
Almost all musculoskeletal disorders are easily preventable by reducing exposure and by changing motion. Rotation of tasks allows the body to rest and recover from certain stress events and goes a long way in preventing an MSD. Rotate shooting styles or rotate shooters. Rotating weapons may be enough to break up the day. After all, rifles, shotguns, revolvers and autos are held differently and operate differently thus the body moves differently. Similarly different long gun actions can change motions.
Carpal tunnel is often viewed as a condition brought on by typing but it is much more than that, and can happen in areas other than the wrists however the same condition in different nerve centers are called different things. CTS is the contraction or damage of the lining around a set of nerves in the wrist. It occurs due to repeated motion in the area and the body's response to protect the nerves ( I am no PT or MD so accept the generic terms here) which would be like a waterhose around water. The lining swells and crimps down on the nerves causing nerve failures which are painful, cause loss of strength and eventually loss of use of the digits. This occurs much like kinking a waterhose can regulate flow or even shut flow off. The trigger finger is very susceptible to this condition. Stretch the arms, hands , and wrists before long range sessions to help reduce the impact on the body.
Excessive recoil is a commonly overlooked item. Recoil can be managed very effectively by use of the shooters body. The shoulder tells you shooting that 10 gauge hurts, so you need to listen to your body and limit that repeated force before it becomes repeated trauma and damaged tissues. Likewise a stiffly recoiling handgun such as a ultralight bigbore revolver or automatic can be traumatic to the wrists and even elbows. Handgun recoil can be lessened greatly by use of bent elbows as the body absorbs the force with motion rather than with rapid muscle response in the wrist. Do not lock elbows. This can play into nerve damage, nerve housing damage (carpal tunnel or similar in other locations) and potentially skeletal system issues as the bones flex with recoil. Even a good spring breaks after flexing too many times.
Allow time between range sessions. The body will heal a lot of the injuries you inflict upon it but it must have a chance to do so. Listen to the body. It will tell you when it needs to recover.
Please ask questions so I can methodically go through other actions and add those to the list. I have a PT and doctors I deal with regularly and will ask questions of them should I need to do so.
