What caliber for spiders?

[HungSquirrel]

One of my regular customers came in today with a splint and bandage on his trigger finger. I was quite worried to see this, and with good reason: he is a bigger gun nut than I am. He was on the Army shooting team, has a Class III and owns an MP-5.

At any rate, it turns out he had been bitten on the hand by a brown recluse spider that had been sitting on the underside of a doorknob he was using. It bit his right index finger. He waited two days to see a doctor . The doctor lanced the bite with a scalpel to relieve the pressure, and told him if the bite got worse he was to go to the emergency room.

It got worse, so he did. The ER scheduled him for surgery the next day. Four days after having been bitten, the surgeons had to remove much of the muscle tissue from his index finger, and he will lose 80% of its mobility.

The long and short of it is the best shooter I know has to retrain himself to shoot with his middle finger because he waited too long to see the doc after having been bitten by a poisonous spider.

Even more tragically, he is selling many of his pistols; anything that has protrusions on the slide that might hit his index finger will be dangerous for him to shoot with his finger poised next to the slide when he fires.

 

[CNYCacher]

That sucks

Never wait to see the doctor.

A friend of my Uncle's got a sliver on his finger and it got infected really bad. By the time he went to the doctor, they couldn't do anything but take his arm below the elbow.

 

[JohnKSa]

Brown Recluse venom is actually a very effective digestive enzyme. If you get a spider bite that goes numb in the center (where the tissue has died) then it's probably a good idea to go have it dealt with promptly.

 

[Brian Dale]

Dang - venomous spiders!

Take care of your hands, people.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

Brown Recluse and soldiers just don't mix. At Basic in Lost in the Woods, 3 different guys from my company got bit by those nasty spiders, one even got a medical restart.

Mk. 19 HEDP for Brown Recluse.

 

[Heavy Metal Hero]

Haven't you seen Arachnophobia?

Hairspray + Lighter.

 

[gunsmith]

<shivers>

they come indoors in Reno during cold snaps, as do the black widows.

 

[1911Tuner]

Fingers don't have muscle tissue. They're controlled by the muscles in the forearm via leaders running from them to the fingers. He likely lost some connective and nerve tissue.

Bad scene. Hope his hand will find a way to compensate. The human body is pretty amazing. Where there's a will, there's usually a way.

 

[Regolith]

I've actually shot black widows with a BB gun. Little bastards are actually quite tough; the BB failed to penetrate. Granted, it was one of those that required 10 pumps to hit 700-800 fps, and I was only firing at two or three pumps, but still....

 

[brentn]

Can you train your middle finger to be just as effective as your index finger? (heh.. yea yea i'm talking about shooting here folks)

 

[woodybrighton]

i'm so glad I live in the uk we have really wimpy wildlife
ok there are wild boars but they tend to hide but thats the most dangerous thing I could think of

 

[BobbyQuickdraw]

Airsoft Pellets from high velocity versions are pretty good at taking down bugs. Also, I used to use a rubber band rifle that stretched the bands pretty tight to take down flies and other bothersome insects - and no holes in the walls!

But venomous spiders like this are best handled the old fashioned way - with a proper smashing. If you just hit near them they can fall and then scurry away.

Dangerous bites often get bad fast. If you get bit by something and the rash expands quickly, or is dark in the center and round around it, see a doctor that day. Or an ER.

Treated quickly, you'll recover. If you let it go it will eat your flesh. Pretty sucky. Gross too. Spiders are jerks.

I wish I hadn't read this thread before going to bed.

 

[CajunBass]

As far as my wife is concerned, the only good spider is a DEAD one.

Bacl off and nuke 'em from orbit is her solution.

 

[CB900F]

Taurusowner;

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, I was a member of B-1-3 at dear old Lost Inna Woods. Ta HELL with the spiders! We marched to the range, drew ammo for our M-14's & were sent to the pits. Whereupon, 'bout a half dozen pits or so to my left, a young trooper opened up, live fire, into the pit pullin' the trigger as fast as he could! This caused some consternation, as you might imagine, amongst the cadre present.

He just didn't want to enter the pit with a live cottonmouth, or whatever it was, in there. Why, you'd think he did something wrong from all the whoopin' & hollerin' that resulted.

900F

 

[scout26]

Yep, I was in A-5-3 at Lost-in-the-Woods, and got a brown recluse bite on the back of my right hand. I've still got a pit on the back my hand from where the doc's dug out the venom/dead flesh.

Well, I guess the one good thing about Northern Illinois is no poisonous spiders or snakes.

 

[beaucoup ammo]

Those things are bad news! Terminix guy who does our house got bit (someplace else) and saved photos of the wound on his cell. Son Of A Gun! That hole was deep and wide..on his back.

Take them seriously and get to the doc ASAP. He's lucky to have his finger. This is graphic:

http://www.ascendedhealth.com/brown-recluse/bite-picture.htm

 

[Colt46]

James Bond did it best

A cigarette lighter and a can of Hair Net. Extra cripsy.

Brown Recluses are kind of an enigma. I know four people that were bitten by them and the diagnosis was always done at the hospital where they went for treatment of an infected area. The Dr.'s always gave them antibiotics and sent them on their way. Saying it was a classic Recluse bite and infection. Anybody here actually see or feet the Recluse bite first hand?

 

[Jimmy Newman]

Unfortunately, from what I have read on the subject, it wouldn't really have mattered if he went to see the doctor immediately or not because there is no FDA-approved antivenin for brown recluse bites.

So the doctors will keep it clean and debride the dead tissue to keep away secondary effects like nasty infections, but you basically get to just wait until the bite stops rotting.

Given what I have seen/read, I think I'd rather be bitten by a rattlesnake.

 

[.44walkersabot]

A man I know personal has a beautiful daughter who was on the cheerrleader's team. She got bit on the outside of her left thigh. They didn't think too much of it. Put alcohol on it ie the usual stuff. When they finally went to the emergency room a few days later after it kept getting worse and worse, they had to do a lot of cutting on her. She has a big hole in the side of her leg and now she wear's jeans and slacks about all of the time. A Brown Recluse will put a hurting on your ass...Okay...

 

[Tommygunn]

Actor Vic Morrow had a missing end to his "trigger finger" (congenital defect) and fought his way throush five seasons of "COMBAT!" firing his Thompson with his middle finger. No Kraut ever complained .....
Sorry about your friend's injury. He should be able to compensate though.

 

[txgho1911]

There is disagreement in the medical field about treatment.
One remedy includes a nitroglycerin tablet wet and pasted over the bite. Theory is this promotes circulation in the area that the venom turned off. Seems as though there is a need for more research in this.

 

[sixgunner455]

Wow.

My father taught me that a properly run household has a pump pellet pistol in it. Spiders explode when blasted by 10 pumps of air fired through it from close range.

In Southwest Asia, I saw spiders that make brown recluses and their bites look like babies. Combat boots squish them good.

Then I moved to sunny Arizona. I discovered that there are spiders here in the states that are not susceptible to the air blast from the pellet pistol. But they die quite quickly when hit by an actual pellet.

 

[MT GUNNY]

.22 LR shot shells

 

[Gator]

Personally I use an 11 1/2 EEE. I work with brown recluses and black widows and have found it very effective

 

[jabotinsky]

Here's what Hudson from the movie Aliens would say:


I'm ready, man, check it out. I am the ultimate badass! State of the badass art! You do NOT wanna f___ with me. Check it out! Hey Ripley, don't worry. Me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you! Check it out! Independently targeting particle beam phalanx. Vwap! Fry half a city with this puppy. We got tactical smart missiles, phase-plasma pulse rifles, RPGs, we got sonic electronic ball breakers! We got nukes, we got knives, sharp sticks...

They're coming outta the walls. They're coming outta the goddamn walls. Let's rock!

Hey, maybe you haven't been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked, pal!

What do you mean "THEY cut the power"? How could they cut the power, man? They're animals!

We're on an express elevator to hell; going down!

That's it man, game over man, game over! What the f___ are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?

Ripley: I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit.