This is a discussion on Any Shooters With Disabilities? within the General Firearm Discussion forums, part of the Related Topics category; I work with people that are disabled, both physical and mental. We have taken many out shooting and they all had a ball.
I was ...
I take my father in law out for shooting -73 years old, eyes are starting to fog over and can't walk to well due to a hip replacement and has no real good ability to grip a handgun for too long due to wrist injuries on the job years ago. It's painfull for him to shoot, but he loves it so much that when ever he wants to go, is when we go shooting.
I taught many years ago. Archery and .22 Rimfire rifle for young kids.
Some kids with disabilities & some without.
Target shooting is such a fantastic Confidence Builder for all kids.
We had an interesting program for rifle.
All of the kids made their own targets using stencils for the next rifle session.
All kids cleaned and maintained their own issued firearm.
All kids policed up their own rimfire brass & maintained their own station.
Emphasis on Safety and strong personal responsibility.
We've been around disability for about 18 years now. We also have a disabled man that lives with us (his mother died suddenly 5 years ago). When he first came to live with us he was afraid of guns in general - probably scare tactics from his mother.
Well, if you’re going to be a part of this family, you’re going to go shooting. Once he fired a few rounds he was hooked. He has mental retardation plus severe spastic cerebral palsy. The way we help him shoot looks pretty unconventional.
The rifle butts up against the back of the wheelchair, and the gun has to be sideways so he can pull the trigger. His range of motion keeps him from firing the gun upright. We do the actual aiming because there is no way he is able to support the whole firearm. When I let him shoot the 12 gage it pushes the wheelchair back about 3 inches (he loves that)
We searched for a while, but now he has his own .22 rifle. I need to get a trigger job done on it to make it easier for him.
I also have another friend that is a C4-5 spinal cord injury (he has no control from the nipple line down). We’re trying to get a rig that will allow him to actually shoot himself the rig we’re looking at is at http://www.beadaptive.com/pages/lm100.htm (hopefully the link will work). They even have a sip-n-puff trigger control.
If anyone knows of a better rig please let me know.
How do you upload a picture? Maybe someone could talk me through it off the forum.
Thanks, I'll give it a read. I'm an amature myself, and always willing to learn more. I really enjoy shooting - firearms and cameras. A good day is when i get to shoot both!
Neck fusion fron C4-7 forced me to give up trap shooting.I looking
at another operation but I continue to shoot and will give trap
another go once I get pain levels down.Disability all in in mind!