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need help with pain in left hand while shooting prone
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:25 pm
by oscaro
Hi,
Every time I shoot in the prone position my left had hurts like crazy and
it falls sleep. I bought what I though would be a better glove from Kurt Thune to try an alleviate it. I even adjusted the sling so that the buckle would not
end up behind my left hand but it is still VERY painful. It hurts between my thumb and index finger.
Is this normal or I need another glove, sling etc. I have an integra hand stop which again I thought being very adjustable would help but I don't see a way to eliminate the pain by adjusting that.
Has anyone out there found this same problem?
Thanks in advance,
Oscar
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:36 pm
by Waisted
Does the pain appear immediately or does it build up over time?
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 6:53 pm
by oscaro
Waisted wrote:Does the pain appear immediately or does it build up over time?
Well it starts to really hurt after about 10min, by 20 min my had is sleep
and it hurts like crazy.
Oscar
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 7:03 pm
by Roodaddy600
welcome to the world of prone shooting. Take a break when it gets bad. You should also find that the more you shoot the longer it will take until it starts hurting, but it will still hurt no matter how long you shoot.
Shane
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 8:07 pm
by peterz
I'm not a doc, nor a prone shooter, but I have had pains like that in part from mousing on a computer. I would suspect that there is a nerve problem in your wrist, or a circulation problem. Mine was nerve, and it came from a crushed disc in my neck.
Don't ignore it; get it looked at, please.
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:01 pm
by Jason
Roodaddy600 wrote:welcome to the world of prone shooting. Take a break when it gets bad. You should also find that the more you shoot the longer it will take until it starts hurting, but it will still hurt no matter how long you shoot.
My hand always falls asleep after 15 minutes or so in position, and it's done this ever since I started shooting as a teenager. I've just gotten used to it and learned to position the rifle over my thumb so that it doesn't cant to the left when my hand dozes off.
What hurts like the dickens is waking it up after a relay. I have to be careful to not put any weight on it and use my elbow to unhook and stand up. The tingles as it wakes up are quite brisk (okay, I am a wuss) but after a minute or two it's fine and I'm good to go again.
And no, I haven't experienced any long term issues with carpal tunnel syndrome or related wrist health issues in over 20 years of shooting.
Jason
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:33 pm
by bugman551
Maybe the problem is your handstop. Try different sizes, I now use a small one and no more pain.
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 9:47 pm
by oscaro
bugman551 wrote:Maybe the problem is your handstop. Try different sizes, I now use a small one and no more pain.
Well, I heard about that too so that is why I bought the Integra handstop..
lots of pain.
Oscar
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:19 pm
by gtrisdale
One of the things that can cause excessive pain in the left hand is allowing your hand to twist too far to the right. A thing to try is keeping your hand straight and making sure that the weight of the rifle is supported by the wrist.
Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2010 10:44 pm
by bugman551
Oscaro, do you mean you are getting more pain with the Integra handstop?
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:54 am
by oscaro
bugman551 wrote:Oscaro, do you mean you are getting more pain with the Integra handstop?
Not really, about the same as what I had before with the old handstop.
Oscar
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:46 am
by Guest
I suffered with the same problem about 18 months ago - it seemed as though all the weight of the rifle was concentrated between the thumb and forefinger and I was in agony after 10-15 minutes.
One thing to try is:
adjust the position where the sling crosses the wrist/forearm. By lowering this crossover point it pushes the heel of your hand higher and gives better contact with the stock. The rifle HAS to rest on the heel of the hand, if there is sufficient traction your hand shouldn't slide forward against the handstop and the pressure should be considerably less.
If the sling is too high, the heel of the hand comes away from the stock and all the pressure is transferred to the front of the hand between the thumb and forefinger.
I found that the MEC handstop was more comfortable than the Anschutz one I had been using.
Also, removing as much weight as possible from in front of the handstop helps. I had a big folding bipod which was causing some of the problem.
I can now stay in position for 20 minutes+ with no pain in the left hand.
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 12:49 pm
by oscaro
Anonymous wrote:I suffered with the same problem about 18 months ago - it seemed as though all the weight of the rifle was concentrated between the thumb and forefinger and I was in agony after 10-15 minutes.
One thing to try is:
adjust the position where the sling crosses the wrist/forearm. By lowering this crossover point it pushes the heel of your hand higher and gives better contact with the stock. The rifle HAS to rest on the heel of the hand, if there is sufficient traction your hand shouldn't slide forward against the handstop and the pressure should be considerably less.
If the sling is too high, the heel of the hand comes away from the stock and all the pressure is transferred to the front of the hand between the thumb and forefinger.
When I am getting into position I am putting my hand right up against the handstop, so yes this is where all of the force (weight?) is at. As far as the position of the sling it comes down and around below my wrist which causes another problem..it digs into my the back of my forearm and I have quite a bit of pain there too.... and I am wearing a Ghemann shooting vest and then my shooting jacket. This is why I had to undo the sling and move the buckle away from back of my hand..it helped but the sling is still digging in there too.
So what you are saying is dont have the hand right up into the stop.. I thought I needed to do this so that the hand ends up ALWAYS at the same position and it is consistent from shot to shot??
The other end of my sling is as far up the arm as I can get it.. above the bicept.
Oscar
I found that the MEC handstop was more comfortable than the Anschutz one I had been using.
Also, removing as much weight as possible from in front of the handstop helps. I had a big folding bipod which was causing some of the problem.
I can now stay in position for 20 minutes+ with no pain in the left hand.
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 12:52 pm
by oscaro
When I am getting into position I am putting my hand right up against the handstop, so yes this is where all of the force (weight?) is at. As far as the position of the sling it comes down and around below my wrist which causes another problem..it digs into my the back of my forearm and I have quite a bit of pain there too.... and I am wearing a Ghemann shooting vest and then my shooting jacket. This is why I had to undo the sling and move the buckle away from back of my hand..it helped but the sling is still digging in there too.
So what you are saying is dont have the hand right up into the stop.. I thought I needed to do this so that the hand ends up ALWAYS at the same position and it is consistent from shot to shot??
The other end of my sling is as far up the arm as I can get it.. above the bicept.
Oscar
Old coach told me I'll shoot best "when it hurts real g
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:51 pm
by NuJudge
In shooting mostly High Power and a little Smallbore for 30 years, I've never found anything that helped, except using a loose sling, and that gives me bigger groups.
As said above, when it hurts too much, take the rifle out of your shoulder for a bit.
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:09 pm
by Guest
oscaro wrote:When I am getting into position I am putting my hand right up against the handstop, so yes this is where all of the force (weight?) is at. As far as the position of the sling it comes down and around below my wrist which causes another problem..it digs into my the back of my forearm and I have quite a bit of pain there too.... and I am wearing a Ghemann shooting vest and then my shooting jacket. This is why I had to undo the sling and move the buckle away from back of my hand..it helped but the sling is still digging in there too.
So what you are saying is dont have the hand right up into the stop.. I thought I needed to do this so that the hand ends up ALWAYS at the same position and it is consistent from shot to shot??
The other end of my sling is as far up the arm as I can get it.. above the bicept.
Oscar
No, I believe you should have your hand against the handstop but that you should try and ensure that the weight of the rifle is on the heel of your hand. I achieved this by adjusting where the sling crossed the forearm.
It's also good to have the sling attaching to the handstop in such a way that it doesn't squeeze the front of the hand against the stock. I found the MEC handstop allowed this where my anschutz one didn't.
The sling digging in to the forearm is something I dealt with by altering my sling - in many slings there is a twist that creates a lot of pressure along the top edge. There are a number of slings now which have a swivel to take out the twist and allow an even pressure across the sling where it crosses the forearm.
I found that having a single thickness of sling also helped - like the Centra Sling which is great but pricey. I butchered my Thune sling to achieve the same result. A single thickness doesn't generate the same torsion.
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:56 pm
by Charlotte
What he said!
Roodaddy600 wrote:welcome to the world of prone shooting. Take a break when it gets bad. You should also find that the more you shoot the longer it will take until it starts hurting, but it will still hurt no matter how long you shoot.
Shane
Rifle Weight
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:26 pm
by Guest
Had you said your hand started hurting immediately, I would have suspected the weight of the rifle, because I had that problem, when I added too much weight. When I removed the weight, the immediate pain went away. However like everyone else said. Welcome to World of Prone shooting. Your had will go numb after 10-15 minutes of shooting and then hurt after that. Take a break and also try a small hand stop, and try not to twist your wrist too much. have fun and good luck.
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 11:58 pm
by peterz
And watch out for carpal tunnel syndrome if you abuse your hand and wrist!
Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:18 am
by Rob25220
If you really want the pain to go away then you will most likely have to change something to achieve this. There are numerous handstops and sling positions that you could experiment with but if it was me i would go back further than that to see if i could take some pressure out. My thoughts would be to get some more angle into the left arm and raise the position so that the weight is sitting more on the bone structure. One thing to try is to just hold the gun no jacket no sling just grab hold and aim it at the target where your hands end up is the position of most comfort for you, in a lot of cases the position that you end up with will be within 10mm of this position. Take care working the butt length out if it is adjustable as you want a good contact onto the pistol grip. If you have access to a coach or the Ways of the rifle book they would also help you out quite a bit.
Good luck with it.