The ibuprofen club

There have been several on here that discovered the same thing I did years ago. When dry tumbling using corn cob or such put the biggest caliber in first and tumble for a couple minutes, then add next smallest caliber. Keep doing it till all are in there. The bigger cases fill with tumbling media straight away and the smaller ones cannot get caught inside then. This I find helps with hands that have a hard time gripping brass and needle nose pliers to get them apart. Easier to avoid in the first place than to have to do it and then take pain meds. This method does NOT work with wet SS pins though.

Well, let's face it - being a member of Club Presbyopia sucks hairy sweaty green donkey nards. Getting old sucks and it only gets worse and worse - this is just how this horridly cruel system of natural selection works. Best thing we can do is do our best to seek and obtain treatment, for our ailments, and follow doctors orders, and hope for the best. Switch sides that you shoot from if you must, and slowly downgrade the boom level of your boomers as you age, to save retinas, joints, and such. I feel for ya, as I do for all of us graybeards.... I'm just starting down this road, though I did just have two cataract surgeries.

Thank you so much, modern SCIENCE and medical professionals! Note to self: send that personal thank you note to opthamologist who has helped me to see again.

Labguy47 said:

As I prepare for surgery, again, I couldn’t help but think of my last range trip. How I couldn’t shoot any big bores with the ease and finesse of my youth. I was astonished, upset, embarrassed, and humbled. Is this what growing old has in store for me?
I’m already the one that gets more than a little ridicule for the ancient wheel gun on my hip.
Am I doomed to be the one with high dollar.22lr taking all day to draw a smiley face on the target?
Does anyone else face these kinds of dilemma?

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Well, I'm staring down the barrel at 70 and I still shoot stiff (pun intended) loads of homemade 45ACP and .357 without injury or even difficulty. Keep your upper body in shape, if you can. It doesn't require a gym membership or expensive home equipment. A half dozen exercises can keep you strong enough to handle the big stuff. Hang in there!

I keep active, and try to keep in shape across the board (upper and lower body). But, osteoarthritis is my nemesis. I'm not that old, but my hands seem to be a few decades ahead of the rest of my body. Aleve is a part of my routine now.

It sucks, particularly when the weather changes. Thought that all was a myth, but dang I can feel it in my finger joints before a storm comes on, and especially in the fall.

No special routine for shooting though - a day of typing on the keyboard is worse than an afternoon at the range.

Drail said:

I tried turmeric and it did work pretty well but it tastes really awful. I suppose it could be loaded into capsules. Be careful using Ibuprofen - that stuff will eat holes in your stomach and do serious liver damage over time. It has messed up a lot of people who did not know it is only for short term use. Of course they don't tell you that........

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You're using the wrong type of turmeric. You do not want the stuff out of the kitchen spice cabinet. You want capsules of it that on the facts label are called something to the effect of Turmeric Root Extract standardized to 95% Curcuminoids with Bioperine. You won't find it at Wally World or other local places likely unless you have a health food/supplements store nearby. I started taking the cheap stuff from Wally World before I knew any better and wound up with some nasty nosebleeds for my trouble.

ETA - I take turmeric And glucosamine. I started taking the glucosamine first and it worked wonders for the aches and pains in my hips. I started taking the turmeric for other aches and pains and it works well for pains beyond arthritis. I also prefer Alieve (naproxen sodium) to ibuprofen.

Thank you for that info. I will get myself to a health food shop.

This is what my wife and I use:

https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-premium-turmeric-720-mg-240-caps

The key is to take enough of it. We use 3-4 capsules several times a day. It works.

My doctor says this is great because turmeric has no known side effects.

I am 72 and had rotator cuff surgery May 17th. So I'm into my 5th month of recovery. Few days ago I went on the first post surgery p-dog hunt. Very successful shoot; i killed 320 dogs....I can still shoot.. Mostly with low recoil 17HMR and 22 Hornet. But, I shot 100 rds of .223 and had a few days of pain. Gotta be careful. This past weekend it took longer to set up my deer blind....takes longer to do everything. The good news is I have no intention of stopping...yet. I enjoy working at my reloading/cleaning bench. My cure for pain used to be gin martinis, but now it just makes me sleepy...sigh. Saw this sign at the gun range porta-potty: "Those with short barrels and low velocity, please engage target from a close position."

I'm 75 and getting ready for my left hip to be replaced. Thank you Army, especially the M113A3.

They laugh about the president's bone spurs but I don't laugh about mine.
I have to break them loose on a regular basis. Usually they dissolve away pretty quickly, but I've got a large one in the outside of the arch of my left foot that's coming through the bottom of my foot.
Makes it hard to get well planted for precision shooting.
If I don't break them loose I'll end up like my great grandpa - totally immobilized and then dead before my time.

I'm 62 and only within the last year required Rx glasses for the first time. In younger years, vision was 20/10. Still tested 20/13 ~ 2007. Now I'm feeling the effects of age, as I still attend the gym 3 times a week, but after sitting for a mere 2 or 3 hours watching the tube, getting up, I feel 90. Not bad getting up in the morning, though. Take 15 mg Meloxicam for back issues, but as I use the back extension my gym now has, that may stop. But I've done more shooting this year than any since 1993. God, how I've missed it! Not too damn good anymore with the rifles, but with pistols am still quite good, especially my EDC-lucky me. Need several more trips with a few rifles to satisfy myself that, within reason, I'm still capable with any sort of arm. Shooting is something I'm not willing to give up on. In fact I think I'll head over there today.

A lot of it is mental.

After about 50, you begin to realize that you don't need a 700 Belchfire super magnum to kill an elk. A .270 works just as well.

And you realize that a 9MM or .38/.357 will defend you just as well as a .500 S&W.

You will realize that you are maturing in stature and wisdom the first time you read an article by Jack O'Connor, Elmer Kieth, Jeffie Cooper or Wiley Clapp, and the first thought that comes to your mind is : "Damn! These guys are full of sheet clear up to their eyeballs."

Wow! You criticized Jeff Cooper! That reminds me of one of the great BENEFITS of getting old: you don't give a crap how anyone feels about what you say.

I'm 57 years old. After years of abusing this body; I feel it everymorning. A wise man once told me, you have to be tough to get old. He wasn't lying...

Hi...
Still following this thread ...
A couple of days ago I took the Labs out for their morning run and slipped and fell on the wet grass during a fairly heavy rain.
Two days later and I feel like I was hit by a truck. Having trouble with steps and too uncomfortable to sleep well. Back is stiff and sore, hips are sore and my neck hurts constantly. Advil only takes the edge off enough to allow me about a half hour of activity before the pain forces me to sit.
Wife stayed home with me yesterday...she worries. She has seen me through two terminal cancer diagnosis and is understandably somewhat overprotective.

DannyLandrum said:

Getting old sucks and it only gets worse and worse

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Yes , but as Captain Obvious would say : It beats the alternative!

Oh hell dude....you are so not alone....this may be long....but I will try to keep it short.

In my 50's 4 back surgeries, and if I am lucky I can steady a very light 22 and hit what I aim at.....for about 5 shots....then because the nerve damage in my left arm, the strength is gone and it really just starts to shake and get sore.

Ever do something where you had to hold something over your head for a long time.....and it just gets to the point you can't do that....well think that after 5 off hand shots with a 22.

If you still want to play with guns, you are just going to have to change the way you do things and if you can't or don't want to do that, yea....it might get to the point you can't do it anymore.

I tried air guns, but they are pretty heavy, no recoil and that is nice so I can put them on a rest on a table and shoot. Prone is out, too much metal in my neck for that kind of range of motion....I try once and a while and think you broken down fool you just can't do this....a few ibuprofen plus...if you get the meaning....yes it is that bad....a day or two and I will be back at it.

I shoot off a bench now....pretty much everything. I can do seated without much pain, so I have been working on that, but in games where others are prone, or standing I feel like I am cheating....and I am if they are standing....I am lower...more stable...as it is. I can say I can feel a VERY small taste on how real disabled people feel.

Only you know how you feel, talk to the Dr's....you know the robbers in the mask that are going to cut into your body, soul and wallet...and tell them what you want....they are usually pretty truthful.

good luck.

As I don't find heavy recoil particularly ennobling, I'm a big fan of Past shoulder pads and decellerator buttpads. On a especially nasty Enfield jungle rifle, I even went so far as to install a mercury-filled, inertial recoil attenuator in the buttstock. Every little bit helps.

Look, I shoot for relaxation and enjoyment, not to get beaten up. I'm too old (71) for all that crap about "sucking it up" and "toughing it out." The tools are there and I use them, otherwise I'd not be able to shoot as much as I do. It's that simple.

Grab some padding and go for it! Good luck.

(This reminds me. I need to get new glasses. LOL)

I remember the story of the old bull and the young bull standing on a ridge.

The young bull says: "geez, grandpa, look at all them pretty young heifers down in the valley. Let's run down there and breed one of them."

The old bull says: "Hell, son, let's walk down there and breed all of them."

t

375supermag said:

Hi...
Still following this thread ...
A couple of days ago I took the Labs out for their morning run and slipped and fell on the wet grass during a fairly heavy rain.
Two days later and I feel like I was hit by a truck. Having trouble with steps and too uncomfortable to sleep well. Back is stiff and sore, hips are sore and my neck hurts constantly. Advil only takes the edge off enough to allow me about a half hour of activity before the pain forces me to sit.
Wife stayed home with me yesterday...she worries. She has seen me through two terminal cancer diagnosis and is understandably somewhat overprotective.

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Have you been diagnosed with OA, or any other kind of arthritis? Falls can sometimes "wake them up," or if not diagnosed, bring it to the surface. This happened with my mother many years ago. After a fall, she started for the first time taking lifelong NSAIDS.

Stevie-Ray said:

Have you been diagnosed with OA, or any other kind of arthritis? Falls can sometimes "wake them up," or if not diagnosed, bring it to the surface. This happened with my mother many years ago. After a fall, she started for the first time taking lifelong NSAIDS.

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Hi...
I have degenerative arthritis in my neck due to way too many radiation treatments for three different bouts with cancer over the years.
It can be painful when it flares up but I can generally tolerate it with the help of Advil.
Sudden jolts are generally enough to cause a nasty flare-up, which is exactly what my little tumble did.
Most of the aches and pains subsided enough by the weekend that I was able to get to do some shooting with my son.

Now my right shoulder is slightly bruised from shooting about a hundred rounds of 12ga. loads at claybirds.
I probably shouldn't have shot that many rounds but I don't know any better

rust collector said:

That may be one of our biggest challenges--knowing when to quit and realizing that we don't recover as quickly as we once did.

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I am well aware of both of those challenges...and constantly ignore the warning signs.
I may be nearly 64 and in dubious condition healthwise but in my mind I am still young and strong...and I continually pay the price for my refusal to accept my physical limitations.
My wife says I am stubborn, hardheaded and inflexible...and she's correct.