scoped! now my wife fear's shooting.

[Bigeclipse]

Well it happened...my wife scoped her nose so bad she broke it! Here is the story. She has been hunting her whole life, even more so than me. She used to shoot a 243 but stepped up to a 7mm-08 2 years ago. While she was hunting in a tree stand, a very nice doe came in from her right side. She is right handed so in order to shoot the deer she had to turn to her right and was in a very awkward position. This lead to her not holding the rifle properly. Well needless to say, when she shot...the scope bashed her nose bone hard enough to fracture it (we were not sure at the time though if it was broken). Even though she got the doe, she decided to not end the hunt since she still had one more doe tag and a buck tag and she said her nose was not in too much pain. Later that morning another doe came by and she shot it. This time hitting it far back (very unlike her, she never misses). We found the doe alive about 300 yards away, her dad finished it off. Later that day, after the hunt, she commented to me saying she thinks her scope is off from hitting her face so hard and that was the reason she hit so far back. Well we decided to check the rifle before she goes on hunting through out the week. We set up the shooting bench and I watched her shoot. She was shaking very badly at the anticipation of shooting. I told her to not shoot. I asked her why she was shaking and she said she was REALLY scared. I assured her the reason she was scoped in the first place was due to the improper holding of the rifle and actually she is shooting a rather mild round (140 grain accubonds) compared to say a 3006. It didn't matter, she kept shaking. I said ok, just breath and for this first shot keep your head a bit further back on the stock than normal to ensure no scoping, don't worry to much about getting a bullseye, just focus on holding the rifle, in a firm but not over powering manner and shoot one to get your confidence back. She shot and hit a bullseye. I said see, no problem. She said, she was still scared. I said ok, lets take a break from hunting and shooting. So we went home. At this point she went to the doctors to get her nose checked and sure enough it is broken so I told her, let's hang up hunting for the season focus on healing and we can work on your fear of shooting later. So what advice do you all have to try and help her get over this fear? My plan is to get out shooting with the bolt action 22. Do lots and lots of shooting with that. I will also be reloading some very mild 7mm-08 loads with 120 grain nosler ballistic tips. Have her shoot some of those. If that works out, maybe we will just stick with those lighter loads and keep her at ranges under 300 yards for a while. Then if she regains full confidence, step back up to higher charges? Any other things I should do?

 

[Pdvdh]

That's a tough one.
Ear plugs and a .22 and practice, and back to a lesser recoiling rifle. As in .243.
She now fears the 7mm. That will be hard to break.
Might move the scope further forward...
But all in all, unfortunate.

 

[Deleted member 48126]

I would work up. .22 LR, .17 HMR, .22 center fire, etc. I would also ad a brake too and a thicker softer recoil pad. Just anything to help reduce recoil or give a perception that you're trying to tame recoil for her.

 

[velvetant]

22 and lots of practice, do some reduced loads in the 243 if she still has that rifle.

 

[gohring3006]

I would make sure the rifle fits her perfectly.
A stock with a adjustable butt plate would be ideal. Along with a 4" or more eye relief scope. The adjustable butt plate is good for fitting the rifle when a heavy coat is used.

A proper fitted rifle helps when odd angles are introduced into shooting form.
Other than that, good luck it will be a tough nut to crack.

 

[7magcreedmoor]

I'd want to make sure the rifle fits her properly. If she's on the tall side or a bit long in the neck the standard length of pull might have her cramped up on the gun too much, and she has too consciously pull her face back when she shoots. That's all well and good until the one time when she forgets to do it and: WHAMMO! Put her in prone, straight behind the rifle, bolt all the way open and if the tip of the bolt touches any part of her face put a spacer between the recoil pad and stock, then if needed move the scope forward until she starts to see the image pull away from the edge of the circle at max magnification. Prone is usually the worst position for scope-eye if the fit isn't right. In any other position she'll get a little more room so this doesn't happen again. After fixing any fit issues, I'd have her dry fire in the house a million times before going hot on the range again.

 

[Dosh]

Big, very unfortunate situation the wife had. My brother in law had scoped himself several times while practicing, but never had while hunting which is strange. He eventually went to Cabelas and looked through scopes till he found one with the longest eye relief. Hasn't had any issues since. My grandson received a nice scope from the brother in law and everyone is happy.

 

[CraigL]

All of the above are good comments. What about a scout rifle setup? No way to get scoped then.

 

[Bigeclipse]

all,
thanks for the replies. This rifle was custom built and fit for her. the length of pull is perfect and is based off of her 243 custom fit rifle which she has owned since she was 22. She has also been shooting since she was 14 (she is now 31) so plenty of experience, including longish range stuff (500 yards). She is actually a better shot than me when we sit and shoot over summer. It all came down to the fact she made a poor mistake and held the rifle in a very awkward position which allowed it to kick back into her nose. Even her 243 would have done this I think. FYI, this the 7mm08 is not a feather weight setup. it weighs in at 9.2lbs with the scope. The recoil literally is nothing to me. This is 100% in her head type issue. That being said, I was thinking of what many you have stated. The rifle is topped with a leupold VX-II (which from what I read has plenty of eye relief). She has shot probably 300 rounds through this rifle with zero problems prior to this and has taken 9 game animals now. I think making some very light recoil loads will help but I think mostly she just needs to shoot to bring her confidence back.

 

[Pdvdh]

Shrinks use tempered exposure to feared items/situations as therapy to treat patients' phobias.
And that's what your wife now has. A phobia. Unrealistic fear of rifle recoil. So it will require slow but steadily increased exposure to shooting, while doing everything you can think of to reduce the odds of another scoping.
She'll get there if she enjoys hunting/shooting. Will take some time and reinforcement of positive experiences while shooting.

 

[Bigeclipse]

Shrinks use tempered exposure to feared items/situations as therapy to treat patients' phobias.
And that's what your wife now has. A phobia. Unrealistic fear of rifle recoil. So it will require slow but steadily increased exposure to shooting, while doing everything you can think of to reduce the odds of another scoping.
She'll get there if she enjoys hunting/shooting. Will take some time and reinforcement of positive experiences while shooting.

She LOVES hunting. She will go into the woods alone, even if I decide to sleep in haha. She, however, does not love shooting. She only shoots to practice for hunting. You are right though, she likely does have somewhat of a phobia now and the worst thing that could happen would be another incident. Best to shoot the 22 like crazy, then the ultra light loads I make up for her and work up from there to moral hunting velocities. heck, maybe ill use this as an excuse to buy her a 6.5CM lol

 

[CaptnC]

I put a break on my wife's rifle so this would never happen. She is the type that one bad incident and she is done!

We hit a huge 11 to 12 foot wide manta ray while offshore fishing three years ago. I've been fishing offshore since the 70's and owned my own boat since the 80's...never hit one before but she still won't go!

Any way I put a break on her 6.5-06 so if by chance, she got too close it would never happen or it would be so slight of a impact she wouldn't pay attention to it.

She has only been shooting about 10 months...so she has no clue a rifle kicks!

 

[Hand Skills]

Lots of good advice here. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is loading the gun for her. Try this after some live practice, and after a lot of dry fire. She shoots, hands the rifle to you, you 'reload' it for her, but randomly leave the chamber empty. Be clear before hand that this is an exercise, explain how it works. Not only is it a fun thing to do, but it verifies if any problems with trigger pull and follow through persist. Stay away from the bench too, especially with full power loads at first, it's a lot easier to absorb recoil from self-supported positions. Another one to try is (under close supervision) shooting with both eyes closed. This takes the visual component away, and makes shooting a purely kinesthetic experience. With mild-recoiling calibers this is an easy way to prove to the body how benign recoil is. The loud bang and jarring of the sight picture are far more offensive than a light tap on the shoulder.

 

[DartonJager]

Don't know if it was suggested, is her scope set to maximum eye relief? Is a low powered scope with as much eye relief possible and option? The muzzle brake is also a great option but she will really need to wear ear protection then.