Any experience with Total Shoulder replacement and shooting

[gldwight]

any experience with shoulder replacement

Thanks for the welcome and replies.
I've found them to be helpful and encouraging along with several I got on Saubier.com too.
I spend a lot of time over there as I'm deep into small cal's.

JHenry: age 18, what the devil happened to your shoulders? man, that's mighty young for such problems. I'm sorry to hear about them hitting you.

I just reread my first post and see that I didn't put my age in there. Looks like I'm the old man of the bunch here so far at least. I'll be 68 on the 28th(12 days or so).
Plus I've been around and beat myself up much of my life to cause these problems too. I'm paying for it, that's for sure. Unless something or someone does me in, I'll be going thru this stuff awhile yet too. Just buried my Dad Oct '09 aged 92/8mo. He was in pretty decent health for his age and trails he rode on as a cowboy.

My elk rifle is a 10#, 26" easy kicking .300WinM with 200gr Sierra's about as fast as possible.
I'm also building a .358U/M right now too. Intentions are to tame them both as much as I can with mercury capsules when I can finance them.
So recoil is nothing I haven't learned to live with already. I also shoot .45 Colt 330gr w/20gr H110 as my big pistol. I'm one that wouldn't have an AR if they gave me the factory. Don't take offense at that as I mean no harm, I just don't like 'em. I'm a wood stocked bolt gun shooter. Though I do have several black plastic NEF rifles and a CVA .54 bp blk plastic too.

Soon as it prove's itself on one, I'll likely spray some camo on the plastic guns. Painted one today, it's drying now. Think I'm gonna like it real well IF it proves durable and I feel it will.
Used that multi colored Stone paint from Rust Oleum for $9/can. The tan shade. Painted the whole gun, bipod & all, taped over the lense's and scope markings was all, the rest got painted. Looks pretty darned good so far.

I'm well acquainted with being in shape before surgery and PT afterwards. I've got a whole lot of exp with healing things up.

Take care, wish you all well, catch up around here more when I get a chance.
George/Pueblo CO

 

[Picher]

My .243 is a seven-pound carbine. I have killed a couple of dozen bucks with the Sierra 85-grain HPBT bullet--which is now loaded by Federal. The recoil is not at all onerous. Mostly neck shots; a few cross-body heart/lung shots--and they all fell where they were hit.

I'd guess that this load in an eight-pound rifle with a Limbsaver-type recoil pad would be adequately gentle on a bad shoulder, but be quite effective on deer.

I agree with Art's comments above, but for heavier game, you may want to consider using Hornaday GMX 80 grain bullets in your handloads. They're accurate and hold together very well, providing greater killing power than heavier bullets, but with lower recoil.

 

[Art Eatman]

Sorry, gldwight, but you need nine more years. Shucks, I've been shooting rifles longer than you've been living.

 

[gldwight]

Art:
Pat yourself on the back old man!!
Not many on most boards that are as old as even I am, let alone as old as you are.

Out here in CO we can't shoot elk with less than .25 cal so that eliminates the .243 as it should.
It's a fine antelope & deer rifle, which I use mine for when I'm out for prairie goats. Usually when I'm
out for muley's it's elk season and area too so I'm carrying the .300WinM with those 200gr Sierra's that will
do the job and no splash on the surface like that 180gr Core Lokt did for me in 2000 on a cow at 200yds.
Just a fluke and one single bad bullet out of 500 I bought. There's been at least 63 elk killed with bullets
from the same 500 slug box and my reloads. About 8 were killed at less than 40yds, two at 30 feet in the
timber and not a bad bullet other than that one I had.

Once they're gone, they're gone and I'll get the other guys to shooting 200's & they won't know the difference as I'll just hand 'em ammo & collect the money.

I'll tame these guns with mercury if they need it after I heal up enough to get back to shooting them.
They've already got the weight, long barrels and good pads, balance and fit and they shoot real well too.

Thanks guys, wish you well.
George

 

[dprice3844444]

http://www.gentrycustom.com/services try a muzzle brake to lesson recoil

 

[mshootnit]

johnnyorygun I wish you well. If you want to shoot there will always be a gun that you can shoot even if its just a 22.

 

[JHenry]

age 18, what the devil happened to your shoulders? man, that's mighty young for such problems. I'm sorry to hear about them hitting you.

Football can be pretty be hard on the body

 

[wheelgunslinger]

^ football can be very hard on the body.

I'm a PT student, and I've seen some very painful recoveries already related to arthritic conditions.
The entire application of force to the shoulder in a non-normal loading (we didn't evolve/weren't created to have force applied to our shoulders in that way) is touchy if you're having a replacement or considering one.

Think about something like a crossbow with almost 0 recoil.
They tend to tell younger people to wait because you basically get one shot at replacement. Screw that up and you just have to live with it.
Do your PT and don't play word games with what the Ortho and PT's tell you.
That's my dos centavos anyway.

In the end you need to be able to drive your car, stir your coffee, pet your dog, etc. more than you need to shoot rifles at varmints.
I have, however, seen people use an AR with a sling and shooting sticks with shoulder problems. :0)

 

[StrawHat]

What the PT guy said +1.

The other thing is muscle mass after surgery will be nil so there will be nothing to soften the recoil. As much as I liked my big bores I had to down load them to make sure I did not blow the new joint all the way to the scrap ward.

 

[doubleh]

What the PT guy said +2.

I haven't had shoulder replacement but had both shoulders sliced and diced last year to re-attach the rotator cuffs, scope the arteritis, and cut off the ends of my collar bones. I think a .223 is about my limit on recoil now. If I were left handed it would be a 22LR.

I AM NOT going to do anything go through any of that again. I think shoulder replacement would be even more unpleasant and more fragile.