After 2 long and agonizing weeks after losing the end of the middle finger on my right hand I've successfully squeezed the trigger on something larger than , well, anything. There was a crow perched on the rocks behind the chicken coop jabbering away so I figured I'd poke some fun at him. I went to the gun room and grabbed the 35 Whelen. I figured if it was gonna hurt I might as well make it good. :eek: Oh, and there's about a pretty steep hill and a couple thousand acres of empty wheat fields behind the rocks.

I let fly with the first round, missing the crow because I was all tensed up from antisipating the pain . But to my surprise there was none!!! After I realized that it wouldn't hurt I emptied the magazine then waited for the barrel to cool down and ran another 5 thru it.

The worst thing was I dropped 1/2 the shells on the ground I was trying to load in the gun. Oh well at least I figured out I can shoot again. :D :D

Still haven't got the nerve to try the 300RUM or the ILH (44 mag) yet but I did try to grip the ILH, and within another couple of weeks I should be able to get a grip on things.

Glad to hear you are somewhat functional once again! When I boogered up my hand I was unable to shoot at all for nearly 8 weeks. :confused: Take care of that hand and you will be knocking off ground squirrels with that Ultra Mag before you know it. :D

recoil,
Glad to see you "get on that horse and ride it again". Oops, sorry. :rolleyes:

You MISSED the crow?!!

I had surgery on the trigger hand in Feb. It was completely immobilized for two weeks - so I went and shot left handed (one-handed). I found out that even the 30-30 kicks when you are shooting the wrong way!
Finally went out again yesterday and was able to shoot right-handed and use both hands. It was VERY nice to get back. I can relate to your happiness!

Uh fellas, they do make rimfire .22's, ya know! :D

Uh fellas, they do make rimfire .22's, ya know! :D

Yeah I know but where's the fun in that? I've already killed a crow with a 22lr. And the 35 was feeling left out, now the rest of the boys are all jealous.

TedH, It's going to be a while before I get my nerve up to try the 300RUM.

IDshooter, what sorts cuttin' did you get done? Whatever it was I'm glad it's healing up.

And yes Shawn I missed the crow. Not by much tho :D

The raspberries of the whole deal is, next week on Wednesday I have to have the plate taken out of my right wrist and some more repair work done on my left long finger. The work on my left hand is called "trigger release" I'm not sure what that means in medic talk but it's to take care of the finger "locking up" when it should be bending. Kinda feels like when you "corked" your finger playing basketball. The finger gets real stiff and swells up.

Getting the plate out is pretty minor. Just have to wear a brace for a week or so , mostly to pad the incision site. If'n it's ok with kdub and the other moderators I could post a pic of the xrays of my wrist with plate in it. It looks like a piece of Erector set.

I'll keep you all posted on the outcome of it all.

Oh yeah, TedH don't worry about the antelope hunt, all this will be all better by then :D :D

Well, I guess I misse out on the cause of all this radical hand surgery. Did you have an industrial accident?

A horse got cranky on him. I hope the finger heals up quickly.
http://www.shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=25949&page=4&pp=15&highlight=horse

Bye
Jack

Good news, RJ. Hang in there.

Well my ability to shoot was short lived because tomorrow at 1 pm I get to go have more sugery on my hands. Hopefully this will be the last of it. I probably will be abcent for a day or two while I'm under the influence of a morfine induced idiocy. YUCK!!!! I realy hate pain meds. I don't see how anybody could stand to take them for more than a day or two let alone get hooked on them.

I should be able to pull the trigger again in a couple more weeks.

Our thoughts and prayers go with you. Just make sure that you have enough patience to heal up correctly. An extra week may help avoid problems in the future. Good luck with the surgery.

Good luck.

Heck - you could always have a hook installed and just yank the trigger with the rest of us! :D

Thanks guys ;) The Doc said that the repair site was completely healed and he'd never seen one that was healed as well as mine. But NO SHOOTING ANYTHING for another 2-3 weeks!!!! After that LOOK OUT!! Total surgeries todate on both hands and both arms, 9! Some were multiples, getting 2-3 things repaired at once.

I waited till I could get a "picture " of the hardware that was in my wrist before I posted here again. This is what was in the right one and the left one had the same thing in it. Now that all the junk is out of my hands and they are on the road to recovery I plan on doing more pistol shooting and hunting. But I will have to wear a custom fitted (my own design and build) shooting glove due to the shorter right long finger. Sorry no pictures of that. This is a "G" rated forum. :D

I will be working on my reduced recoil loads for the 44mag RH using my own cast bullets. I'm looking forward to that and the daunting task of learning to shoot left handed.

Glad to hear you're healing RJ. Sounds like you just need some recoil therapy.

RJ, glad you are doing well. I didn't have any plates but I had to have the tendons repaired. They had been broken off years ago in a car accident and repaired. I guess the repair caused them to lay in my hand in an unusual way, so they were causing damage to several ligaments and wearing the tendons themselves. Had to have all rearranged again to keep them from rupturing.

It is still kind of weak and I can't move my fingers quite as far as I could, but it's much better. I can shoot a rifle again, but not a bow (so far). Shooting my bow just a few shots causes the fingers to swell and stiffen up.

IDshooter, That's another thing I'm going to have to work on is figuring out how to shoot a bow again. It might look funny trying to use a release on a longbow. I don't even use a tab, glove or arm gaurd. I'm an insictive shooter and have been since I was 10. Take your time stretching the tendons but they will evetually come around. My orthopedic surgeon, who is also a snowmobiling buddy and an avid elk hunter, said that it can take a year and sometimes more before things will be "normal". You won't even notice things getting better, it'll just hit you one day that "hey, I can move my fingers normally again!" He said that after the initial healing was done that I should go about buissness as usual, being careful not to over do it for awhile, letting my hands tell me when to rest them. Small nuts and bolts realy deal me fits and I find myself having to "think" about what I'm doing rather than it being second nature.


Shawn, my "recoil therapy" so far has been practicing using my left hand to just hold the ILH. The right long finger I'm afraid is going to be too "stiff" to grip a 44 mag very well for some time but the Doc says it will eventually come around. "Just keep working on it". He also suggested that I try a single action instead of the Redhawk because the way the grips are configured. Hmm another excuse to by a new pistol :cool: That and the fact there was irreperable damage done to the cartilage between some of the small bones in my wrist. I do have a "tip" on the finger, just missing from where the nail bed starts. I can shoot the Ruger MarkII ok but I think it's a tad light for much more than rabbits. :D

It's all going to work out I think, but it will just take time.