Anyone here have serious neck problems? If so, what is the largest rifle you shoot? I now have 3 plates and 10 screws in my neck and I am questioning my future shooting. I have a .505 in the works and don't know if I can even get the sights filed in. Anyone out there in the same boat?

I got my reloading components fo rthe .505 in last week. Good god that thing is huge!!!

My neck is bad. Although it was not 378s and 460s that caused the problem but the 375 and doing lots of shooting with a loose hold both on the bench and shooting lots of kangaroos aross the bonnet of the car off a sandbag and also the folded down windscreen of a Suzuki and again holding the fun loose.

About 10 years ago I started doing nearly all my shooting with a bag of lead shot behind the butt. For most shooting I have a leather bag that is about 15 pounds and I sit the bag on a flat sand bag that is behind the butt. The lead sort half fills the bag and the butt of the gun is resting on the empty part of the bag. On the bench I use the bag for every calibre including 243.

Another way, although I have not done it, is to have a strap around the butt and each end of the strap is attached to a bag of lead shot. One of the posters John S uses that set up for his 450 Dakota. He has some pictures posted up of it quite sometime ago. You might put a posting up addressed to him and he could repost them.

Mike

Mike

I shoot the .500 Jeffery and would not take any chances if I was a problem like you.
What does your doctor say on the matter ?
The energi that is released when shooting the big bores is serious stuff. Then again so is a sneese.

I have problems with my knees and therefor I can no longer ski !b Tuff luck but that is just the way things are.
I will not take any chances with my health just to have fun for a short period of time.

JMO

Cheers,

André

Be really careful with your situation. Stay to a smaller caliber with way less recoil. I would set up a 10.5 lb 375 with a pachmayer F990 pad as a max with your condition. What is the largest caliber that you've been able to shoot with your neck in this condition and still feel comfortable? I'm sure that you don't want to bend your neck plates with a 505.
Take care,
Dave

Marc this might go against the grain of why we like our classics but as a last resort mate, along with the advice of Mike375 for bench shooting, you could have the 505 built real heavy as well. Like 15 lbs or so.
Not sure how that would effect your neck for carrying something in one hand but would sure take recoil down a peg or two.

Building up the kind of endurance to carry it is something most could do. A bit of a pain in the ass but the option is there.Guys train themselves to take 25lb 4 bores and 50BMg wildcats on hunts after all.

Karl.

Jeff:
Sorry about yoru knees. This was my 14th operation and I have had to cut out a lot of thing si used to do over the past few years. It sucks, but there's nothing we can do about it.

Last summer I shot my 9.5# .375 for 5 rounds of a bench 2 different days. At the time, i had one plate in my neck and the vertebrae were still slopping around a good deal. It was brutal. I will work up to it gradually starting in tyhe summer and see what happens. Had a checkup this week and the doctor said I could bungee jump and sky dive in May, but while fun, thos activities don't whip my head like a big bore. I have never shot anything more viloent than an 8# .375, so I don't really know what to expect.

I'm a sheep hunter, so while i prefer rifles to weigh less than 6# ready to go, I do pack around a lot of weight-wellI did until a few months ago.

This neck is how I found this site. I had to come home OCtober 1, and have only left the house a few times since then. ANd I have been on serious amounts fo rdrugs the entire time as well. Sometime my head would clear up and I would re-read a post of mine and think, man, that did not come across like I was thinking I was typing! Luckily I am almost off all drugs now and I can drive short distances. But I am worried about my Gibbs project. I just have to shoot that thing. Holding the cases and bullets in my hands last week did scare me though

I have never shot anything more viloent than an 8# .375, so I don't really know what to expect

A different world.

Mike

Well, there's a couple things you can do:

1) After you finish the .505 with good European walnut you can send it to me and I'll keep you from hurting yourself with it.

2) Order some milsurp IMR 5010. It's stick powder with a difference: the sticks are so big they will stick crossways in the neck of an RCBS powder funnel if you aren't careful. And it burns almost as slow as WC 872. If you cram in every stick that will fit with a lot of tapping to settle the grains you can get 145 grains in under a 700 grain M2 ball in .51 Gibbs (practically the same thing as .505) for 2100 fps out of a 32 inch barrel. I think my starting load of 120 grains (need filler) went somewhere in the low 1700s, though I can't find my reloading data right now. Hack off 10" of barrel and you might be down to magnum pistol velocities.

In short, you can make a .505 into a sick shoulder-fired cannon, but with careful component choices, you can make it into a popgun too.

A check of old posts shows 125 gr of IMR 5010 with a 700 gr bullet out of a 32" barrel at 1800 fps.

Has anyone tried the "Lead Sled" with big bores? It may be a way to shoot the .505 with your neck problems.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mike375:
_I have never shot anything more viloent than an 8# .375, so I don't really know what to expect_

A different world.

Mike

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Having shot many rounds through a 350 rigby, a bit milder than a 375, as well as a 458 Lott and a 500 Jeffrey, I wholeheartedly agree with Mike.

The 45 caliber and larger bores shooting 500 gr and heavier slugs at 2200 fps or more, are an entirely different world in recoil compared to the 375. Despite those saying the 375 is a big bore, it is really a medium bore, albeit a very capable one. The true big bores have signifigantly more recoil, and they deffinately rock your world, especially off the bench.

quote:

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Originally posted by Paul H:
The 45 caliber and larger bores shooting 500 gr and heavier slugs at 2200 fps or more, are an entirely different world in recoil compared to the 375. Despite those saying the 375 is a big bore, it is really a medium bore, albeit a very capable one. The true big bores have signifigantly more recoil, and they deffinately rock your world, especially off the bench.

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I definitely agree. I would not be shooting one of the true big bores with the types of neck problems that Marc_Stokeld describes above.

Here are some pics (of a friend of mine, shooting a 470 Mbogo) to illustrate a 500 grain bullet at 2500 fps...

Before and after...



Side view...


Cheers,
Canuck

I have one of the "lead sleds" that I use for bench work on my 600 JDJ Ruger #1 at 10.5 lbs. It works great. I highly recomend for the big guys

As I said above I use the lead bag on the bench for even 243 so as to save my neck and hopefully have enough shots left to see me out with big bangers when I can't use the lead bag. Wish I had started 20 years ago instead of only about 10 years ago.

Mike