Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hunting after shoulder surgery

I had open heart surgery in July 2020, 4 bypasses. Dr said NO shooting for 12 weeks. Well our MLD season open about 8 days before the 12 weeks were up. Told a knowledgeable friend what I wanted to do and he suggested a rifle load for me. Loaded up about 30 and headed to the range with my warden (wife). She said she was going to shoot several rounds before I did. She did her thing and said " here shoot all you want, it's not going to hurt you at this point of the game" Killed a nice 6pt about 45 minutes into the season. Best of Luck Daniel

Was in same boat as you but hurt mine being a former pitcher and lost my shot with the Dodgers due to it. I shot a A-bolt II Medallion 7 mag with the CR Boss (not loud but all thump) with no problem since 1996 up until 3 years ago when I started having issues. It wouldn't hurt while shooting, but if i spent extensive time at the range, it would ache later that evening. So I went to a Tikka T3 308, added a limbsaver and no more issues. I also had a 20" Rem 700 308 that was custom built on the 700 action but was a little heavy, but virtually no kick. So you could get a slightly heavier setup to help with recoil as well.

But as others said, you should be fine after surgery. In my case I'm 50 and it started to catch up with me.

I had the same surgery last April. I was shooting a light weight recurve (35#) in 6 weeks. By week 10, I was back to my regular bow.
Follow directions, do the PT.
If you have to, you can always try a lighter caliber and see how the shoulder takes it. The 6.5 is really light recoil so I suspect you will be fine.

talking a little more about your shoulder surgery, my last shoulder surgery from a bad fall doctor said to me the sooner you have the surgery the better it will turn out. this maybe something to thing about ? the AR lower is a good thought or just buy a new rifle in a AR platform. good luck with that surgery,Pete53

Again thanks for everyone’s feedback. Going to put off the surgery until thanksgiving. That’ll give me a chance to hunt Missouri rifle season but recover enough to still do some planned dad/daughter stuff in spring with my daughter who is a senior in high school this year.

Going to practice some off hand shooting as well so if I get a chance in December to take a buck down here in Texas I’ll be ready.

Thanks y’all