Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Arthritic shoulders and recoil.

When the time comes that my 7x57 gets to be to much for me i have a 250 Savage to fall back on.

I also have a 6.5 Grendel as well as a 223.

but the way the 7x57 works i don't think it will be anytime soon.

I have a theory based on an example of one so maybe worthless. But two points. When the monos loose petals they may actually kill quicker. The only time I have recovered a mono that lost it's petals and was able to track some of it's path it appeared that it developed a wobble as it lost petals and then resumed a straight path after it the petals were shed and the bullet was shaped more like a wad cutter. This on a hog shot through both shoulders where I could see the bullet path in the shoulders. There was extensive damage to the heart & lungs so it is difficult to say if this was from bone fragments, the sheared petals, or a wobble or tumbling effect of the shank of the bullet? Whatever transpired it was very effective.

Back to sore shoulders: As a last resort I got an injection of cortisone directly in the offending shoulder before an elk hunt. This really worked but is not something you would want to do on a regular basis. Maybe something to ask your orthopedist about?

I forgot which archer it was who was one of the first modern archers to shoot elephant with a bow maybe Howard Hill But in order for him to draw his 125 lb. bow he resorted to cortisone as the practice had irritated his shoulder. He got his bull.

Tejano, The cortisone shot I got from my local VA 's PA was given from the right rear into the joint with no pain at all. It was a mix of 3 meds, a hyper quick short lived one that the PA dribbled out of the needle onece he got it placed, #2 was a "medium term" med 'posed to kick in about 10 days to a couple weeks later, and then a long term med that could last up to couple years. Best news was the NO Pain on the injection & being able to receive similar shots every 4 months for the rest of my life if need be. I do fudge a little with Tramadol when I over work schlepping antique furniture around and catching up on yard work left from the mid April storm that downed 6 120-160ft+ pine trees and left gaping root ball pits everywhere.

So far the shoulder has reponded most of the time except when I sleep on the right shoulder all nite without rolling over. The 50+ years of that sleep position was the result of a major surgery to rebuild my right urinary tract at 19 and sleeping "on the wound" was necessary to keep the dozen+ Maxipads in 3 layers from becoming dislodged. 'tween pad changes initally every 2 hours until the wound finally sealed.couple weeks later. Been about a month so far since the steroid shot...and planning a range trip in the next week or so to try out my Mod 70 Sporter in 270, with factory Lite Loads for starters at first. If I can shoot that then the Tikka 6.5 Swede and M70 Fwt 7x57 mauser are almost a for sure thing with medium loads.
Ron

That may be newer technology then when I had to do it. Great that it works. Maybe more healthy with the timed release aspect.

Myself, I am going to the city for some type of guided cortisone injection on Wednesday. I have had them before with no effect, maybe this is a newer formulation.
3 previous rotator cuff jobs has only made it more unbearable. Hurts like crap.
Sawbones wants to do a reverse replacement, but it also has its risks.
From the waist down I am still an athlete- legs and wind are strong.
Hard or medium recoiling rifles hurts a tad , it is great Mr Nosler started the current bullet revolution. Ditto to Randy from Barnes.
Me thinks the little .243 will be going up the Elk mountain this year with me if I am not in post surgery rehab

Those of us in Idaho who didn't know that a 243 (with appropriate bullets) was not an elk rifle have been killing elk with them for decades. Prior to the 243 a lot of the "old-time" guides used Savage 99's in 250/3000 but when the 243 came on the scene almost to a man they changed to it and went right on killing elk.

drover

I have a 7x57 waiting in the wings that I shoot occaisionally to develope loads for the time the .35 Whelen and Weatherby mags no longer work for my tired self.

Think long and hard about that. Make sure the Doc has done a few hundred a year. Mine was 18 months ago. It works "Almost". It is year before you feel some what comfortable with it. However, it will never work like the original equipment .It always feels stiff. The muscles you have to retrain since you will no longer have the rotator cuff muscles ache evervtime you use them. Neck, back, chest. PT is life time thing after.Stop and all those new muscles deteriorate fast

Saddlesore, thanks for the info.
I am skeptical about the replacement. Tough spot to be in, maybe in time they will improve the procedure.
I would like to rope steers again, and get off these painkillers.Maybe the new , improved injection will help...Osteo, now

i have decided not to do the replacement surgery ,surgeon told me if i did do the replacement shoulder surgery it would only work for a long time if i was very careful with lifting stuff with a limit of 15 lbs. on the shoulder that i got the replacement parts.as far as cortisone shots i have had many and that is a crap shoot too some work most don`t for very long. now some may laugh but i have had better luck with bee string therapy with honey bees the oriental people have used for centuries.

Tejano,

Randy Brooks told me 14 years ago, during a mule deer hunt, that the original X-Bullets pretty much lost their petals consistently, which he saw as a plus, since the detached petals resulted in more damage around the wound channel.

But then he started getting glowing reports from many hunters who had recovered Xs that retained all their petals (and hence weight). The reports weren't so much about killing power but 100% weight retention. This became an often-cited characteristic of his new bullet, both in hunting camps and gun magazines, so Randy (being a good businessman) decided to give customers what they wanted. He played with the bullet-making process until most would retain all their petals, especially if they didn't hit heavy bone along the way--but that was not his original intention, or or even what he considered desirable.

One of the interesting things about all this is the newer Long Range X-Bullets (LRXs) are built to open easier at longer ranges, where velocity has fallen off, so do lose petals more than the TSXs or Tipped TSXs.

My surgeon only placed a few limitations.Certain movements and no high impact use like using a sledge hammer on concrete. As far as lifting he said as long as I use good mechanics ( proper lifting techniques ) I should have no problem.The first test was lifting hind quarters from a big bull elk I killed last October onto the pack mule.That was about 10 months after surgery, so maybe I am not out of the woods about that long term thing. Of course turning 76 next months, I don't have real good prognosis for long term anything.

If you need a new shoulder though,you probably can't lift 15 pounds over your head anyway. Prior to replacement, I could do work down low,but anything above my waist,my arm hung down like it wasn't even mine.

This is what a 140 Partition looks like from a 7mm-08 after it hits a 4x4 Roosevelt bull in the left scapula, travels through both lungs, breaks a rib, then comes to rest under the hide of the right shoulder.




Dead in the tracks he was standing in when I shot him.




P

I like the LRX's for close or far shots. If I ever run out of projects to do ( not likely) I will score some X bullets on the ogive to encourage petal separation but to still have a base to expand. Ross Siegfried did this but didn't report about the results much that I read. The Lehigh and the Raptor and I think some Hammer bullets are designed this way. No doubt any of them would be good but then so are plane Jane bullets like the ballistic tip and many others.

Back to the shoulder thing. The improvements in bullets make much smaller cartridges viable choices for medium game. The 22 & 6mms for deer and the 6mms and 6.5s for elk.
I will carry something larger for as long as I can but I am comforted in the fact that I can take an an elk cleanly with my 6mms or 25 caliber rifles, with good bullets of course.

Have used the Cutting Edge Raptors and Lehigh bullets enough to get some idea of how they perform. That and my experience with over 150 Barnes X's, Fail Safes, E-Tips and GMX's indicates losing petals probably does result in quicker kills. But as with any "field tests" with expanding bullets, there are lots of variables.

But as always the major effect of any expanding big game bullet comes from placement, as long as penetration is sufficient, whether lead-cored or monolithic, not how much weight or number of "petals" they retained.

About the only time I shoot my .35 Whelen anymore is just before my next elk hunt to be sure it's still sighted in. I'm getting signs that arthritis is in both shoulders and recoil doesn't make them feel any better. My load run a 225 gr. Barnes TSX at 2510 FPS at the muzzle.

My 30-06 pushing a 165 gr. Accubond at 2880 FPS isn't much better so I don't shoot it all that much any more. I do have a .280 Rem isn't all that bad with recoil even with top loads because it's so damn heavy.

What all this boils down to is I've been playing with few rifles in 7x57 and loading the ammo at or close to 7-08 levels. I get decent results with the 150 gr. Partition, but not with the ABLR. None of the rifles seem to like the 160 gr. Speer hot Core and so far the 140 gr. Barnes TSX has been a disaster. I'm kind of leery regarding the 7x57 as the only two animals I have ever lost were shot with a 7x57. Dunno if that's something significant or like some kind of message but it is what it is. I know the Whelen will do the job and the 06 works nicely. ll I can ad to that is bullet failure was responsible I believe on the first deer and my body on the second loss, so nothing to blame on the cartridge, just bad luck.
Paul B.

Comerade, Have you considered an auto-loading, gas gun? I own 3 browning BAR II stalkers in .243, 30-06, and 338 win. (These are the ones with black synthetic stocks, parkerized finish, and iron sights.) While the BARs are a little heavier than most hunting/bolt rifles, these stalkers are lighter than most BARs. Felt recoil is much less than my bolt rifles, of the same caliber. I found a gunsmith that put 2.75 lb triggers on all three trigger groups. Once I figured out the right forearm torque and ammo each gun likes, 1/2" 3 shot groups are the norm, for all three rifles.

These guns are very recoil friendly, add a softer/aftermarket recoil pad, they should be even more so. I would think a 308 or 06 would serve you well?

Andy3

Hi Andy, no I would not find an auto loader of much use in this country. The rifles are dragged through all weather conditions and horseback. Browning makes great stuff though.Thanks for the input.

on my Perazzi trap gun i have a Grayco recoil pad that reduces recoil to maybe half ? i have considered putting one on my 300 Win.Mag. ? rifle will weigh more but my shoulder will feel better too .

Anddddddd..there you go. For anything in the lower 48 that most of us will ever get to hunt, the .243 will work just fine.

If its smaller than say....300 pounds, the .223 with proper bullets works just fine..

Both easy on the shoulder.