Brain damage from large caliber?

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I don't know about brain damage directly, but I often wonder how our veterans survived being in the middle of intense barages of gunfire during the world wars.
Imagine WWI, tight trenches lined with men, trying to repel a wave of enemy troops, 30 cal rifles going off faster than popcorn with the microwave on high...saying it would make you deaf seems to be an understatment, yet somehow they endured, and can still hear (if you yell)
 
Sure, its possible...

Brain damage from firing rifles? Sure, its possible. But if you don't put the buttstock against your head, its not likely!:D

Its a matter of amount. Our bodies will take a certain amount of punishment, and shrug it off. A larger amount and we still heal fairly rapidly. More than that, and damage becomes permanent.

Boxers and footballplayers get hit in the head! Enough impacts and damage results.

Big Bore rifle shooters don't suffer the same level of impact to the brain. SO, the amount of shooting needed to cause damages is beyond what is normally done by shooters, even the most prolific ones.

Joint and nerve damage, especially from handguns is much more common. We shoot handguns A LOT more.
 
well after finishing up my last season of D-1 Football last season I can assure you that firing even the biggest magnum wont result in a brain injury. I have shot quite a few guns in my day and that little ache after shooting doesnt even compare to one day of football practice, not even considering games. So if 95% of football players come out without brain damage I'm pretty positive no rifle will cause any unless you put the recoil pad on your head.
 
I am an expert in the field of brain injury and have never seen one from recreational shooting of firearms. I have seen lots of people survive gun shot wounds to the head, but thats a different issue all together.
 
hearing problems

Working firing ranges without hearing protection can cause more than just hearing loss and ringing in the ears.

Here a little report from 1966 http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=AD645898&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf


I have often heard (pun?) that range officials during WW2 often devolved the "shakes" from being exposed to firing noise month after month. This was due to a lack of hearing protection. (as in none) What the true facts are I have not spent the time to research out.
 
Greetings,

I am new and would like to open the link 2 posts above me (by lefteydom) in this thread, but I can't figure how to do it.

" Error - Request Denied, please try again. "

I was an armorer/supply clerk ordered not to wear ear plugs while driving because I drove US Army Combat Engineer basic/advanced trainees: I was always driving at the firing ranges to exchange Company supplies with thousands of M16-A1's and combat mortars going off randomly with NO ear protection (sometimes I felt like they were timing to me driving by :(

Anyway, I have TBI (traumatic brain injury) and many other problems due to TBI and would like to research this link. I was just diagnosed last month (after 34 years!) with TBI as the root cause to my many other problems I have. The link above sounds like Parkinson's disease which I would like to research.


Peace.
 
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I am an expert in the field of brain injury and have never seen one from recreational shooting of firearms. I have seen lots of people survive gun shot wounds to the head, but thats a different issue all together.

I think it's difficult to make an all-encompassing statement that is applicable to everyone without knowing additional factors that may have an affect on a person's reaction to repetitive shocks to their head.

I have taken sodium warfarin (Coumadin) as an anti-coagulant since 1985. I have had three doctors advise me not to shoot large caliber rifles, including a good friend who is also a shooter, specifically because of the chance of causing a small brain hemorrhage due to recoil.

The two rifles I own that may cause problems are a 45-70 and a 30-338. Since there seems to be no definitive information on heavy recoil and the use of blood thinners - I've decide to take a conservative approach and have not shot either rifle since 1985.

With my 12-gage over/under, I only shoot trap loads and have a recoil system in the stock. My .308 has a muzzle brake and recoils a little less than a .243.

Unless you know every factor that may interact with a person's health, or can cite definitive studies on the subject, I would think making statements that could affect a person's health is not the smartest thing to be doing a public Internet forum - regardless of one's status as an "expert."
 
I am new and would like to open the link 2 posts above me (by lefteydom) in this thread, but I can't figure how to do it.

I can't open the link, either, but that is probably because it is nearly 6 years old!!! The site linked to probably no longer exists.

This is the main reason we don't revive old threads, the information in many cases is way out of date.

Feel free to start a new thread with your questions, this one is going back in the box.

Closed.
 
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