CTE from shooting magnum rifles?

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Back around the year 2000, I built a 458 Win mag rifle on a Mauser action. I built it for cast bullet silhouette shooting. After i had that stuff figured out I began experimenting with jacketed bullets. I was shooting a lot of full power loads. I always left the range with a headache. I would take some Motrin on my way there.

In the news today is a study released on CTE, and that you don't have to get concussions to get it. Multiple hits is all that it takes. They are cumulative, many small hits will equal one big hit. Everyone's tolerance is different, just like smoking, some smokers will never get cancer, some will get it early.

Shooty
 
I have a very good friend and shooting buddy who is fighting early onset dementia. They think it is CTE.

It's no joke. His short term memory is shot and getting worse. It's so sad.

He's always been involved in high risk sports. BMX biking. Very risky kayaking. And then shooting. He's had a number of concussions over time. But as a high level competitive shooter he's shot hundreds of thousands of rounds.

This thing sucks... we should all pay attention.
 
i mentioned years ago in a thread about watching someone else shooting a barrett .50, and the shockwave from behind the rifle was "surprising" to say the least. i am not in the medical field, so i cannot speculate how repeated use may effect someone
 
How about the venerable .500?



h3PUXbo3tCo

And shotguns?

 
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I said years ago I won't let my son play football. Soccer and hockey are probably just as bad.


a lot of the talk about cte, concussions, coffee , diet soda, regular soda, char-broiled meat, etc. come from liberals who are hell bent on protecting ourselves FROM ourselves. but a lot of what i've researched from non political md's, seems to indicate it's not how well your head is protected (sports helmets), but the brain hitting the skull from the inside. i'm sure a lot of you have seen these same studies.

a lot to think about for sure
 
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The scary part is soccer. I think it would be a rare head hit that would make you see stars, but a lot of repetitive heading has caused more than a few concussions. Like I said before, some people are put together more delicate than others.

If I shoot a hard recoiling rifle I prefer to do it standing, but testing loads is on the bench with a rest. I learned that it hurts a lot less if you raise the rest up high enough so I am sitting up straight so that the butstock is positioned on my shoulder just like it is when I shoot offhand. It makes a huge difference to my shoulder, but doesn't seem to matter to how my head feels. I'm not superman.
 
I like 5.56 out of a heavy piston rifle the best, or at most 30-06 from the Garand. Anything more (.308 from a bolt rifle, for example, or
30-30 from a winchester) is no longer fun. That's just me. .I have a Knoxx recoil reducing stock on my pump shotgun. I do not shoot
12 gauge without it.
 
a lot of the talk about cte, concussions, coffee , diet soda, regular soda, char-broiled meat, etc. come from liberals who are hell bent on protecting ourselves FROM ourselves. but a lot of what i've researched from non political md's, seems to indicate it's not how well your head is protected (sports helmets), but the brain hitting the skull from the inside.

Exactly.

I'm also convinced there's a nutritional component to dementia with lipids - the right/wrong kind - at the center.
 
Anyone who has shot or been next to a 50 BMG with a brake knows the sinus clearing concussion. When I break out the big 50, our shooting pavilion roof is quite close and the blast impulse will knock dust and wasp nests loose and/or knock snow off the roof. Probably not good for the gray stuff in my noggin but I don't think I get the kind of hammering that I received from football, rugby, and karate.
 
Someone at my range has a SBR M16 (like 8" barel or so) with a compensator. Standing directly behind him while doing a mag dump was like getting punched in the face. It was one of the coolest guns I've seen
 
Someone at my range has a SBR M16 (like 8" barel or so) with a compensator. Standing directly behind him while doing a mag dump was like getting punched in the face. It was one of the coolest guns I've seen

Loki on the forum has a SBR with one of the 'cookie' comps. Basically a very short but wide comp that matches the diameter of the fore end. You don't want to be standing next to that thing when it's on the line at a NES shoot.
 
I doubt heavy recoil contributes to CTE. I had a 460 S&W XVR and the conclusive shock wave would give me a sinus headache.
 
In other news, researchers reported today that life invariably contributes to death: "'With the exception of a very few, historically unverified cases, every instance of human life we have studied has invariably resulted in death. The exact mechanisms vary widely, but the correlation is so strong as to be causal' said Dr. Bunsen Honeydew."
 
Tank crews and artillery crews with big booms right next to them . What are the stats on them and CTE? Same with crews on carrier flight decks.
Tanks are insane... but not to the tank crews, who are safely buttoned up inside. Artillery crews get a big boom, but not much of a shock wave... they're behind the gun, not to the side. Artillery is also much lower velocity than tank rounds.

(Yes, I was an artilleryman in an armored cavalry regiment, so I was exposed to almost all of it.)
 
Did they give you guy any hearing protection?
I'm not sure if you're asking me, but since my post was the last before yours...

Yes. We had excellent in-ear plugs, plus CVC helmets that dampened noise, in the 1980's US Army in Germany.

Well before the Army, I grew up shooting .22 rifles, riding motorcycles, and operating all sorts of machinery with loud engines. I still have excellent hearing at 54. When it was a "thing" 10 years or so ago for kids to have "mosquito ringtones", which supposedly no one over the age of 20 could hear, I could hear them.
 
Soon enough they will have one of those cat scan/xray slow mo movies showing our brains bouncing around while shooting guns.
When I went to a joint specialist he told me most of the pain I'm in was basically caused by the first 20 years of my life.
I remeber my dads Dr also saying that about smoking and drinking the real damage is done earlier than you would think. Well that's at least what the think.
 
I said years ago I won't let my son play football. Soccer and hockey are probably just as bad.

Football I'd honestly worry less about the head trauma and more about ligament damage from a blindside tackle or having another player accidentally get rolled up on them. Hockey carries all the same risks as football, soccer seems "safe" but they've found young kids and particularly girls get concussive and aub concussive impacts from heading the ball. Which makes sense since younger kids and girls don't have neck muscles that are quite as developed.

The headache that you experienced ahooting high power rifles could also be related to your hearing. Even with proper ear pro those suckers are super loud and the shockwave/sound wave they produce could be felt still.

It's certainly possible though that the recoil translates to sub concussive type impact on the brain.

It's pretty scary how many things can create sub concussive brain impacts that can add up over time. Concussions are less of The issue now because people are much better about dealing with them properly. But those sub concussive hits do add up and still require us to take care of our brain, they're just easier to ignore because you don't necessarily show symptoms the way you do with a concussion.

I'm not a medical specialist so my information is based on scientific articles and anecdotal experiences I've had from wrestling, soccer and mma and speaking with certified trainers about the subjects of concussions and other injuries.
 
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