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?
