Where are these legions of shooters with nerve damage? I know a lot of guys that do a lot of shooting with these guns and only know of one with nerve damage. He's close to 80yrs old and has been doing it for a living for several decades.
Craig, I will agree there are not “legions” of these guys to be found. Will you agree with me that my use of the plural “s” does not designate numbers in the thousands as the word “legions” does? The single individual to whom you refer is probably John Taffin. Almost everyone knows about his problem. If you do a little casual research you will find other shooters who have the same problem to varying degrees. Not being famous gun gurus means their problem does not get the degree of publicity Taffin’s does.
So you agree that one can do enough shooting to become proficient but not so much as to have permanent damage? Good.
Yippee! We have an unqualified agreement on an issue. Aw shucks, I guess we don’t. I forgot about my wife and other small statured persons who will never become proficient with a hot .45 or .454 because it just is not physically possible without injury. I know a 50 something woman who in her twenties carried a .44 Special because back in the 1970’s gun gurus said the .38 wasn’t good enough and the Charter Arms .44Sp Bulldog was great. Her right wrist is now a mess.
If you can't get through 50rds, you're not doing enough of it. And doing enough of it to be toughened against recoil is not the path to nerve damage. Here's where I brag on the guy who tested the new Ruger .454 and .480 for putting nearly 5000rds through the .480 with mostly 300rd sessions.
While body type and physical conditioning aid in management of recoil, recoil management is more about technique and mental conditioning than “toughening”. The slow progressive damage caused by heavy recoiling handguns is to some body parts you can’t really toughen up through physical conditioning. You can’t do much to strengthen weak bones in you hand and wrist, nor the nerves, sufficiently to overcome the problem even in the biggest of men. Bigger and stronger people just withstand more shooting before it happens. Speaking of bigger and stronger, I noticed as a youngman that as soon as I grew past 200lbs in body weight my tolerance for rifle recoil greatly increased. That however is for a different discussion.