Remember this: This ain't Spinal Tap.
The other night at a meeting of the AOFH, I was sitting down to a nice meal of Venison stew with sweet potatoes, wild rice, and biscuits. Good conversation always makes food taste better along with close friends in small intimate settings. One of the ladies that frequents our little pau wau in the bushes named Mrs. Trish was sitting across from me working her plate over. I asked how things had been since her accident back in 2003.
Mrs. Trish had injured her back which caused her to have a burst fracture of T-12. She said she was doing really well with it. I thought this might be a good time to ask how that was working out for her with shooting a gun. I wanted to know if it affected her performance, emotionally or physically. Mrs Trish told me that one day while waiting in the stand she took down a buck with a .270 Winchester that belonged to her husband. He was somewhere else in another place hunting as they hunted together. She said she didn't go as often as she use to. I asked why? She said after she shot the buck the adrenaline kicked in and she got down from the stand, called her husband then waited for him to come 'give him poke' to make sure he was finished. Her husband took care of everything while she went up to the house to fix supper. The next morning she got up from bed and realized she was tender in her back area. Taking some medication helped her through the day but two days later her husband took her along again to sit in the stand. She crawled up but noticed that she felt she was struggling up the ladder. When she finally got up to the seat, she was slightly shaking. Thinking she had exerted herself, she started breathing to calm her nerves. After a while this problem seemed to go away. While watching the tree line in this corn field that had been combined she saw some deer come out the woods. She took aim but realized that she started shaking all over to the point she felt a little outside herself. I asked her, "What in the world, Mrs. Trish?" She told me that she thought the recoil from the gun had irritated her back wound. These strange symptoms scared her which prompted her to call Mr. Paul to come get her out the stand because she didn't want to fall. Not undaunted she went to the doctor to get examined and pain medication. Now she pre- and post-medicates before going up in a stand and firing off her husband's gun. She had surmised the shock of the recoil traveling through her body when she shot the rifle had irritated her in some way that she didn't notice until later because her body didn't have time to compensate or get over it. Mrs. Trish told me she loved shooting but at her age and impairments was resolute to use good judgement on the quality instead of the quantity of her hunting and shooting habits. Given her handicaps she was in a reasonably good mood about her future in the sport with her husband offering his support all the way.
That brought up an interesting view of recoil. (Then again Mrs. Trish could have been having a heart attack up in that stand when she realized she was going to get lucky a second time?)
Recoil by definition is the backward momentum of a gun when discharged. You could say the backward movement of the gun equals the forward movement of the bullet and gasses (you might smell or see this when the bullet travels down the barrel and exits the bore or the business end of the gun.) I don't want to get into the physics. If you want to know more about that go on a googling run of your own at your leisure.
There are ways to reduce recoil in your gun:
- recoil wad
- hard shot
- porting
- powder type
- mercurial or mechanical reducers
- stock fit
- recoil pads
- action type
Some of the issues that can affect your shooting if you have a back injury or other is:
- Inability to adopt a normal shooting position.
- Carrying or shooting a heavier or more powerful weapon.
- Strain or fatigue in the arms and hands.
- Moving the torso around the pivot of the hips.
- Lose speed and smoothness.
- Lower endurance.
- Performance anxiety
- disabling yourself for a while
Every once in a while, people give the 'big guns' a try but its really not that necessary unless you are truly hunting something that calls for it. There is no need to impress anyone. One well placed bullet from a modest gun can do just as much with less mess than a arm or hand cannon.
In Mrs. Trish case, depending on your ailments, even a little bit of recoil or shock can put you out of commission for X amount of time, so tread carefully. You want to be able to shoot and hunt for many moons, not be laid up in a hospital waiting on surgery or hitting the morphine button.
Never go hunting medicated unless its a medication that doesn't disorient your or compromise your ability to act with common sense or caution. Prescription drugs have a way of altering your thinking ability along with your reaction times. I personally do not want to go hunting with a 'Slow Joe' or a 'Hallucinating Lucy". The last thing you need is to run the bush with your hunting co-pilot and wonder if she's seeing zombies. You might get mistaken for one.
Use common sense if not let your significant other think for you or even your hunting buddy if your mental faculties are termporarily impaired. Also remember its great to go solo hunting but when you're out in the bush accidents happen. Don't go alone if you can. You never know what is around the bend: a broken leg, misfired bullet, a mauling, or snake bite. Be safe not stupid. Egos get people killed everyday.
Written by: W Harley Bloodworth
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
