Aches and pains

J

jag2

New member
As I get older (70) I find things that hurt that I didn't even know I had. My hands are a bit calloused from pistol shooting and now the joints in my fingers feel a little funny and seem a bit stiff. Is it common for pistol shooters to have arthritis problems, say more than the general public?
 
I don't think so. I'm going to be 70 on my next birthday and I've had some arthritis since I was in my early twenties. All my friends have the same complaints as you do and most are my age or a bit older. It just goes with the territory. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've probably shot over a half million rounds of handgun over the last fifty years. I shot major competitions for many, many years and hunted exclusively with handguns for over forty years. I don't think it's caused any problems, I think it just points them out. It's not just my hands that have some problems, it's all my joints. However, staying very active has helped me out a lot. I still manage to maintain almost two hundred acres with food plots, trails, tree stands, ect. I just hurt a bit more when I'm done at the end of the day. My friends who've become more sedate than me have a lot more problems. My dad was like me and he got his last deer with the bow on my place on his eighty-fourth birthday. You know what they say, use it or lose it.
 
The "fun" part of aches and pains is how they
travel. One day in the side of the neck, next
day in an elbow and then maybe a foot and
so on.

Look at it as an adventure, each day the ache or
pain surprises you in a new body part.

And yeah, you'll even develop a pain in the
butt from time to time.
 
Just be glad that it took 70 years to feel this way.... I'm falling apart @ 50:

- Achilles tendonitis
- gout
- joint effusion (water on the knee)
- pinched nerve in neck (my shoulder and upper arm hurt all the time)

If you got to feel good for 70 years, I am happy for you. May our aches and pains, at least, let us get a good night's sleep once in awhile...
 
jag2 said:
As I get older (70) I find things that hurt that I didn't even know I had. My hands are a bit calloused from pistol shooting and now the joints in my fingers feel a little funny and seem a bit stiff. Is it common for pistol shooters to have arthritis problems, say more than the general public?
Click to expand...

If your fingers are calloused from pistol shooting, I bet you have a firm grip and better than average hand strength.

For the last several years my finger joints feel sore and stiff the day after a round of chin-ups. It isn't a good kind of soreness like when you were young and worked a muscle so that it would be sore the next day. Instead, it's a soreness I associate with inflammation.

I love Aleve. I take one every day.
 
That would make a good survey question. Personally, I don't think so. Not saying that it can't happen with consistent use of magnum loads out of a snubbie. If you're starting to feel it at 70, be happy. :)
 
All my finger's but one are crooked with arthritis. They have never bothered me since moving to a dryer climate. For a long time though, when I'd go back to the valley, I would hurt like hell. My left knee was eaten away by it and had to have it replaced, right knee is on the way out, same thing. Neither knee hurt from the arthritis but crazy when I'd hit bone on bone. Also if I got down for some reason, I couldn't get back up without something to hold on to. Getting old ain't for sissy's! Every old injury seem's to be making a come back!
 
If arthritis is coming for you, it makes no difference if you shoot or not. It's not caused by shooting though.
"...each day the ache or pain surprises you in a new body part..." Yep. And always just enough to be annoying. Ma Nature's way of letting you know you're still alive.
 
I made it to 70 with remarkably few complaints. I wondered what people were talking about. The past three years, I have learned a lot, none of it fun.
 
In exactly one day I'll be hitting the big "80". The big boomers don't seem to be as much fun anymore and stuff like the .404 Jeffery and .416 Rigby stay home these days. I haven't even shot the .375 H&H for some time now.

I still shoot the .35 Whelen enough to keep up with it as it's my main elk rifle with the 30-06 as a back up on hunts. I have a custom .280 Rem. that came out a bit heavier than I expected but the weight makes it pleasant off the bench. The good old 30-06 is still no problem but lately I've been working with a couple of 7x57's ad I'm seriously thinking of trying it for an elk hunt. I have one good load using the 150 gr. Nosler PT and may try out Jack O'Connor's ole 160 gr. /4350 load, that is if one of he rifles likes it. Results with the 150 gr. PT and Re17 have been extremely interesting and may try that powder with a 160 gr. bullet for results.
Mildly arthritic hand and shoulders appreciate the very pleasant recoil of the 7x57. I just may sell off the loundenboomerkickenharders. :rolleyes:
Paul B.
 
Despite having painful arthritis in some joints, my hands seldom hurt. i inherited Dupuytren's disease. The hands draw up due to nodules and fibrosis. An uncle at age 95 had claw like hands.

So far neither has bothered my shooting.
 
Is it common for pistol shooters to have arthritis problems, say more than the general public?
Click to expand...
Yes and no...

Post-traumatic arthritis can occur in any part of the body due to injury - or repeated stress.

Osteoarthritis
Sometimes called degenerative joint disease or “wear and tear” arthritis, osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common chronic condition of the joints. It occurs when the cartilage or cushion between joints breaks down leading to pain, stiffness and swelling.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system attacks joint tissue, causing inflammation of the joint lining. What does that mean for you? Joint pain, stiffness, and sometimes even loss of normal movement.

I really hate to say it - -but - you should see a doctor & determine which type you suspect you have.

All three types are treatable - but - the treatment and even the "old home cures" are different for each.
Some of the "home cures" can actually make things worse.
 
Just turned 70 in April. How did I make it this long :D?

38 surgeries/surgical procedures, Severe arthritis throughout my spine, bulging discs, replaced left shoulder (I am left handed), and my hands can barely close.

Without pain, I would feel as if I had lost my best friend. I do believe that trying to over come the pain has kept me alive.

This has been going on since 1969 from a little place in Southeast Asia. Thanks to God I do not have my name on a wall in D.C.

My shooting has eroded, but I can still do it. Actually set up a handgun range in my back yard last year and purchased 5 new handguns (one an AK pistol) last year.

Finding ways to overcome the pain of my muscles and body and shoot is a hobby that I truly enjoy and trying to find ways to minimize/mitigate the difficulties is actually a good thing. I can concentrate and actually forget the discomfort for a few minutes.....except on those days when my shooting is horrible ;).

Shooting (at least in recent years) did not cause the arthritic pain. I shoot 357 and 44 magnum quite often and the recoils of each are not a problem. Also shoot 22LR, 9mm, 40 S&W, 357 Sig and 45 acp as well as 38 Special and 44 Special. Holding the guns out in front of me in a proper (or semi) shooting stance and even when sitting can be painful at times.

The biggest pain :p is with a back yard range my expenses have gone up tremendously.
 
I turn 75 next week and aches and pains aren't all of it. I find that I just cannot hold my hands as steady as I could when I was younger, so even moderate accuracy at close distances with a handgun is getting to be tougher. Seeing a doctor is a good suggestion. For awhile in my right hand I was having such severe arthritis pain that it would wake me up at night and severely ache for days at a time. My rheumatologist gave me a shot right into the base of the thumb joint. That was over two years ago and it was a miracle cure. I will admit that it was the single most painful thing I have ever endured when that shot went in, but well worth it. He offered the same for my left thumb, which was not quite as bad off, and I declined. I don't think I could have handled two of those shots at one time.
 
Will be 66 in September. I get out of bed with aches and pains everywhere, but I've found, I'm better off not taking anything, such as Tylenol, etc. and just let coffee and moving around "temper" the aches, which usually takes an hour or so.

I do have almost constant aches in each hand-thumb area. Nothing that bad at the moment, but there, nonetheless. What bothers me more than anything, is the constant ringing in my ears. I've tried several of my doctor's suggestions, but to no avail. My message to those just starting out in this sport of ours, is to use proper safety gear. In my case, hearing protection. I can almost know with certainty, it was the 296 powder, under 125 grain HP in my .357 that caused my damage, as I remember vividly the loud cracking and the temporary dullness in my ability to hear. The dullness was exceeded by the stupidity in my brain to realize what I was doing to my hearing.
 
Funny how it works. Years ago I'd wake up in the morning refreshed, feeling good, ready for the day. Now when I wake up, for the first 30 minutes each step is a new experience in pain. Have you tried a stuff called "Bio Freeze"? Helps me. It's now available at WalMart.
 
I’ll be 70 in a few days. My doctor told me to stop taking NSAIDs last year so I’ve been using turmeric for inflammation/pain. My wife uses it too. It works well with no side effects but you have to use large amounts. For example, my wife and I take three or four 720 mg capsules at a time.
 
thallub said:
Despite having painful arthritis in some joints, my hands seldom hurt. i inherited Dupuytren's disease. The hands draw up due to nodules and fibrosis.
Click to expand...

I have it in both hands. The VA hospital worked on the left hand a few years ago. They made it better, but nowhere near as much improvement as they predicted/promised. Because they did what I consider to be a poor job on my left hand, I'm holding off allowing them to work on my right hand (I'm right handed).
 
Aguila Blanca
At 71 the VA has been very helpful to me with military issues . I've been very active in sports before the service & both beat up my body pretty good , even though wouldn't change a thing . Benchrest shooting is much easier on the body then handgun shooting . Two blown out rotator cuffs , hands aren't as steady , have to stretch before putting on my socks . Even though life above ground is still good. Shooting now is my favorite sport . Be Well.

Chris
 
Yep, arthritis in the hands, a shoulder that's giving me trouble, other miscellaneous aches and pains of getting older... I remind myself that the alternative is worse.
 
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