TargetTalk

After 30yrs of Pistol shooting I am now suffering from elbow pain and shoulder injuries.
Caused by lots of shooting, old age, wear and tear, recoil, low term training, reloading and workshop related activities.
How many other long time shooters are out in the Pistol shooting world are suffering with sports induced injuries and pain ?

i think 90% of us is suffering from elbow pain, i'm 28years and 6 years shooting and i noticed sometimes a little pain.

I tore up my dominant-side shoulder in a weight-lifting injury nearly 20 years ago. After therapy, it became and remains quite usable for day-to-day activities. Two-handed shooting for any pistol sports that allow it (and since I'm in the U.S., that's nearly all of them) is no problem; that's a matter of pushing forward on the dominant side and pulling back with the non-dominant side.

Holding a pistol in one hand, however, is very different. The weight of the pistol and arm, simply hanging from my shoulder without force applied toward the body, is distinctly painful.

I find it rather dejecting that this is the time in my life when I've become more interested in pistol sports that require I use just one hand. :-(

I have never had elbow problems from shooting. Although age and life's work led to shoulder repairs on the rotator cuff, cartilage, bone spurs, and arthritis. Shoulder has not been the same since. No discomfort from shooting, but performance is not what it used to be. Probably I wore the shoulder with a lifetime of baseball and tennis. I definitely can not pitch anymore.

In my experience, tendonitis, appearing in the form of "shooter's elbow" can only be alleviated in the short term by icing and anti-inflammatory medications. After the arm has been adequately rested, then a weight lifting program can build the muscle groups that support the tendons. Regularly using stretching exercises specific to the area can prevent a repeat bout of shooter's elbow.

I had an automobile accident many years ago that caused injury to my shooting shoulder and arm. Only a moderate weight lifting program seems to keep me able to shoot one-handed. The older I get, the more time I have to devote to physical conditioning to simply maintain some semblance of strength.

Guess I'm just lucky, but after nearly 20 years of shooting, quite a bit, the worst injury I've had was a bit of stiffness in my neck after shooting for about 6 hours.

I've seen a lot of people suffer quite significant injuries in their elbows and shoulders, most of whom never really seem to fully recover after rehabilitation or even surgery in some cases.

If your stuck with injuries that don't seem to disappear after significant periods of time and work with a physical therapist I would advise to do some work with a specific strength and conditioning coach (not a personal trainer at the local gym.) These are usually guys with a lot of experience in human movement and are prepared to get out to the range with you and assess what specific muscle groups, tendons and stabilisers need specific work in order to get over such injuries.

Good luck

I have found that the only time I have "injured" myself when shooting is when I was already injured from something else .... weightlifting-throwing-rotator cuff issues. I then tried to shoot AP,FP,SP, RFP & CF all in two days. For the next week I couldn't rise my arm above my shoulder. I think I had just over worked the stabalizing muscles in my cuff area.

I have also had "tennis/shooter's elbow" from doing too much gripping and drilling of screws as I re-built a deck three years ago. For the next few weeks, I had the tennis elbow issue when I shot ...which I aleviated with one of those velcro/neoprene pressure wraps high on my forearm. I rested & stretched my arms/hands for a couple of weeks (did laptop work) and I have yet to have it flare up again.

The International shooting events do not cause enough recoil, so I suspect the recoil induced issues you are talking about is Bullseye, Hardball, or IPSC/IDPA etc ... Also the reloading statement made me think of the IPSC/IDPA as my 32 S&W realy doesn't take much lever work ... and neither does my .45 for Bullseye, but I usually only load about 200 at a seating.

When I shoot smallbore prone ... sling, jacket etc ... my ligaments in my shoulders get pretty sore & stretched...that is why I use the micrometer take-up tensioners on the sling. I don't shoot it enough, so I get sore every time, but it goes away eventually.

Ibuprofin, Naproxin and aspirin are my friends.... not all at once!