"Some people are put on this world purely as an object lesson to others..."
The weird thing is, he wouldn't have been as bad off if he'd used a Weaver hold. Something would still hurt afterwards (this much stupid is supposed to hurt!) but the basically assymetical Weaver would have put most of the power back past his face instead of right into it.
Which is why guys shooting handcannon-class revolvers prefer the Weaver hold.
Problem here though is without being able to put his strongside hand behind the grip (because it's a friggin RIFLE!) he wouldn't have been able to do a real Weaver hold. But even "Weaver-oid" would have helped.