Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Broken collarbone, what to do?

Hi All -

I broke my right collarbone (I am right handed, of course) being thrown from a green horse just after the start of the season.

I have been deer hunting once or twice with a 44 revolver, planning on shooting it left-handed if I could find a deer willing to wait while I got everything together.

So has anyone else dealt with one of these? How long was it before you could shoot again? Any suggestions?


Thanks,

tq

How old are ya Lad?? It can be 6-8 weeks for a youngster.

ET is right 8 weeks for sure.

I had my shoulder cut on a few years back (right shoulder). Did the same thing, hunted with a pistol L/H. Later in the season I did hunt with a rifle, a 7-30 waters with 120 gr bullets down loaded so almost no recoil. Did not figure one shot would hurt that bad.

Broke mine at 15 yrs old. I snapped it on the middle, and it was a "splintered" fractured. Wore a brace for 8-9 weeks. After I took it off, I learned the hard way that that doesn't mean you're ready for normal activity. Wrestling around with a buddy, I cracked the healed spot. Set me back a couple of weeks. I decided I didn't want to feel that pain again.

Broke mine at age 42 (and at age 5 but that one I don't remember other than jumping from the second story of the barn toward a small pile of loose hay). The last one hurt like heck for a while. Took about three months before getting back to full activity and was careful about shooting anything that recoiled much for quite a while thereafter. Good luck.

Some advice we used to get for any ailment when I played football in middle school and highschool from one of our old coaches. "Aint nothin' runnin' a mile or two wont cure". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Yeah, I'm 38, so I'm guessing 8 weeks before I am anything near back to what passes for normal for me.

I'm concerned about the recoil sensitivity, damn, I'm signed up for the Boomershoot in April and was hoping to use my 300 H&H at least part of the time, but apparently I'll have to find something smaller or learn to shoot from my left shoulder.

Re: 280Rem's solution, I could certainly use the excercise, but I'm not convinced that it will fix the problem :-)

Thanks for the input!

tq

p.s. any tips or tricks to shooting on the injured shoulder after the initial healing period? Thanks, tq

Get a Lott. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Les

38 your looking at 8-10 for sure and maybe a bit more stressing it to soon will set you back longer. Other than handgun you most likely can forget shooting for at least three to four months.

A bunch of years ago I went to the Dr. to see why my left arm wasnt up to snuff anfd got quite a surprise. When he brought the x-rays in, he says howd' you break your collar bone? He showed me the pic & sure enough, it had been broken several years prior to this Dr. visit but I do not recall ever having any extra hurt from that. He tells me that most folks are in a lot of pain for a few weeks but I never was. I knew there were a lot of times when this could have happened as when I was a young guy, I did not take very good care of my bod. Wisht Ida' known I was going to live so long; might have tooken better care of me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

That was not being offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted, but merely to show it had been said. (Lawyer schpeak) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> That's the legal translation of: "Im just saying". <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I'd stay away from anything on the opposite shoulder, save maybe a .223 or 22-250 on a long gun. Even with the break on the right, shooting on the left will transfer some energy to the right and I imagine would hurt like HECK. A 44 mag handgun would be worse in the right hand, and pretty hard in the left hand-I might try a 357 mag if it were me, left hand only though.

just my thoughts

Dave

I'm in the same boat, I had surgery on my right shoulder last week. I did some LH practice with the 44 before the surgery, that went OK, but there are other problems. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Have you thought about gutting and dragging? Also what happens if you slip and fall? Your natural reaction will be to grab with the right side and that's gonna hurt.

I haven't given up completely for this year but I sure as the devil don't want to undue what the Doc did. Right now I'm in the wait and see mode.

Dale

Too bad the timing is so bad.

Crossbow?

First of all OUCH!!! Compound fracture of my left clavicle during wrestling practice my junior year in high school. By far the worst pain in my life. To make matters worse, my shoulder was also seperated. ER doc set my shoulder w/o pain medication. I remember drifting in and out of it, vomiting, and just generally being quite miserable. When he finally gave me something for it, all he gave was Tyllenol 3's. Really irks me to this day, ecspecially since I know what should be done in a situation like that. I broke it again about 3 years ago, fell into a stinkin doorknob, was given 3mg's IV hydromorphone (diluadid) almost upon entrance to the ER. Turned horrible misery and suffering into just a mild inconvenience. From my experience and training you are probably looking at 2-3 weeks of hardcore suffering (clavicles are one of the most painfull fractures becuase it is impossible to totally immobolize unless you don't move), and 6-8 weeks before you can return to normal activity. You will still be feeling it for 6 months or so, but after about 8 weeks it should be set strong enough to return to whatever activity you can handle based on the pain. Good luck.

Violator22 - smartass. ;-) Besides, my wife won't let me :-)!!

blinddog1 - Yeah, I was afraid of that. Oh well, I can still run dogs and let others do the shooting, and deer hunt with the 44.

Dale K - I empathize. I hadn't gotten as far as the 'gutting and dragging' in the thought process, but I see your point. I have been hunting with a partner so to a degree that problem is mitigated. Re: falling down, yep, but thats something I try to avoid anyway, and the 'heightened consequences' are just more motivation to stay vertical :-). Your situation is different in that regard, the worst I'm likely to do is re-break and set myself back 3 weeks. You could undo a umpteen thousand dollar surgery without trying too hard.

I had a co-worker who blew his shoulder out lifting a sapling out of the way as he drove his 4-wheeler under it. It was probably a year before he was mostly recovered.

2muchgun, good idea. If I'm still recoil sensitive next season I'll probably have to go that way.

OH MD Hunter - thanks for the insight. Thats about what the ER doc said, but its nice to get confirmation from a fellow shooter. I feel for you trying to get through the initial visit on a couple of tylenol, I'd be hacked off too.

Having fractured mine twice, once quite badly, it's not nearly as serious as a shoulder injury. I broke mine into three pieces and still managed to win a powerlifting tournament 3 weeks later- I had to choke up on bench but the other lifts were fine- Dr. was pissed.

If you take it real easy for the first 10 days, you can do quite a bit after that- shooting a rifle should be no biggy- unless it's a Lott! (pun, of course, intended)

Clavicle simply holds your shoulders back- doesn't really bear any load at all.