My First Stitches

[Elessar]

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m95/ ... itches.jpg

I know, I'm an idiot. I've been made fun of to NO end about it, but I don't care. Rolls off mah back . For anyone who didn't get my "Member Pictures" thread post, I was out with my brother target shooting with his Weatherby .300 WinMag and while firing prone, got my eye too close to the scope and took the full brunt of the recoil into my eyebrow. I figure, I fired a high powered rifle without any real instruction and actually, I was nailing bullseye standing at 75 yards on my first 3 rounds ever, so I don't feel too bad!

It was when I went prone to try and stabilize the weapon with somethin to lean it on that I got a little too close (being left eye dominant but right handed doesn't help) and had the recoil take a chunk outta my eyebrow

So we decided to go get it stitched up and I'd never had stitches before so there's my first 5 stitches . For anyone who's never fired a rifle cartridge like this I can tell you that after firing a 12 guage shotgun just prior, the .300 WinMag is louder and has harder recoil than a Mossberg 12-guage shotgun firing shot, not slugs.

[Entilzha]

First battle scars

[Distracted]

Sigh. And here I was worried about the neighbors and the stopping power of your target.

Boys and their toys.

[CoffeeCat]

Nice one.

[CX]

You'll shoot your eye out kid.

I learned the hard way about upward recoil too, though with a 16 gauge shotgun. Had it braced against my shoulder nice and tight, but left it loose along the comb with my cheek. Gave me a nice bruise.

[Navigator]

Muzzle brake, you need a muzzle brake. I sympathize. I don't have the scar, but have knocked out a glasses lens. which was close enough for me. I have a bad habit of climbing the stock; I'll pay some day.

[Elessar]

Ok!

Well we went out again today and my sister went with us this time, so it took some time to get to the rifle because she hadn't fired the pistol before. BUT, we didn't hit up the shotgun this time.

Well, the first shot layin down on the truck bed, even though Josh and I thought I was far enough away, I bumped my eyebrow (key word *bumped*, lol* but it started bleedin. We cleaned it up and checked in the mirror and decided I didn't break a stitch, just disturbed some scabbing that came loose and decided to thaw out in the truck a little and go at it again. So, I learned to get rid of this 'left eye dominance' crap that was getting me hit, so I just closed my left eye and used my right eye. That worked out. I gotta tell you, after hitting myself twice, I was getting nervous just pullin that trigger!

So starting at 95 yards and then falling back to 180 yards, we put the rest of the box of rounds down range before calling it quits since the sun was setting and the wind was picking up.

I actually shot better at 180 yards than my brother . I was hitting on the outside border of the bullseye ring and a little further out too, in about a 2 inch group.

FUN!

[Mitchell]

Watch out for them there Rifle scopes, it seems that they pack quite a bite.

Ive never had my scope even get close to hitting me. But I sure the heck have had my shoulder bruized up after shooting quite a few rounds. Usualy only happens if I make the dumb arse misstake of not shouldering the rifle right.


So Elessar are you shooting the same, better, or worse now that you switched to yer right Eye?

[Elessar]

About the same. I don't fully understand what it means to be 'dominant' in one eye, I was just afraid I wouldn't even be able to get a full sight picture with my right eye if I tried to use it, but I was able to... I just couldn't get it perfect. I probably just need practice and to get over being nervous and scared to get too close to it. Don't a lot of scopes come with a rubber cover around the eye piece? If I go buy a rifle myself I might look for one of those.

His scope was only 3x-9x, so backing up to 180 yards was rather difficult... the target got pretty small. So when I buy a rifle, just to have some fun with long distance shooting, I'll probably find a scope w/ stronger magnification.

Since my purposes are just fun target shooting, for my purposes I think I'll be looking more at .243 or .270 or 22-250.

[Mitchell]

Yeah a lot of them do, but they wont do much to protect you given the force that scope will be comin at yer eye if your not holdin the rifle nice an tight.

Couldnt get the full sight picture in? well it not only could be that you switched eyes, but also the fact that this gun is set up for your brother, an not you. For years I used my Late Great Uncles 308 to hunt deer, an I had to pull my head back away from the scope, since I couldnt see through the thing anyother way. He was a short scrawny lil feller, an had the rifles butt stock shortened for him. An the scope couldnt be moved anyfurther forward. a new scope, a few half dozzen different recoil pads latter, an now I can shoot the gun an see through the scope just fine.

Since my purposes are just fun target shooting, for my purposes I think I'll be looking more at .243 or .270 or 22-250.

All good ones, Ive shot a 22-250 before, nice lil gun. Might I suggest a 25-06. shoots just bout as strait an as far as anyone of those 300s (probably a bit further). But with a lot less kick(well just bout the same ammount of kick as a 30-06 has). Its kinda neat to see what happens to a woodchuck after its been hit by one of those rounds from 400, or 500 yards.

You also might wanna try the 308. Since its the same rifle round used by US military Snipers.

[CX]

I don't fully understand what it means to be 'dominant' in one eye, I was just afraid I wouldn't even be able to get a full sight picture with my right eye if I tried to use it, but I was able to... I just couldn't get it perfect.

That means that your brain depends on the information in one eye over the other. Usually you can notice when you close your dominant eye if you're focusing on something, because the picture will shift slightly off to the side, but if you close your other eye it will stay about the same. That's why you're off slightly in your aim. Are you left-handed as well? Most people are dominant to one side, but there are a few who are cross-dominant - are right-handed and left-eye dominant or vice-versa. If that's the case with you, there's programs you can get into to fix that, and you'll need it if you want to be a Marine so you can shoot like you're supposed to.

[Elessar]

yep. right-handed, left-eye.

Now I think I understand why the former-Marine-optometrist said, "Oh they'll fix that on the rifle range, mwuahahahaha!" lol

[Emberchyld]

Congrats for joining the facial stitch club! You'll be feeling that bump for quite a while (my chin stitches were back in Aug and it still aches to put weight on that spot), but now you get to sport a neat little battle wound!

[evcake]

A club I didn't know I belonged to.

[enterprikayak]

"you'll shoot yer eye out!"