Tenodesis surgery

[Franklin]

I had a massive rotator cuff repair with a biceps tenodesis in late 2016. It's all healed fine and I can do everything I used to a year and a half ago, except to hold my surgical arm horizontally nearly long enough for a decent match score.

Background: when the long head biceps tendon is dislocated from it's groove at the top of the humerus it cannot be put back in position. A tenodesis reattaches that tendon to the upper arm bone instead of the shoulder joint socket. As I understand it, in the original/correct position, this tendon from the biceps helps lift and hold the arm up. When it is reattached to the upper arm bone it can't do that anymore.

Has anyone had, or known someone who's had, this surgery and successfully compensated for it with their shoulder muscles? Or a lighter gun? Or a different shooting position? Or is the only realistic option shooting with the non-surgical arm?

[Amati]

Hello Franklin.

My right shoulder was done in 1984 in SoCal. The surgeon was Tony Daly, the orthopedic surgeon of the Clippers basketball team.
In my case recovery included a legthy torturous physical therapy but the motion gained justified the means. I never had a problem with the results except for the lack of strength holding a weight at extended arm's length.
Many years and lots of weight training later the earlier strength has not returned but do consider that age has a lot to do with this and hopefully your experience will be better.

In shooting bullseye I compensate in certain areas, one being that overholding is an absolute no-no. Another is improving the lock of the elbow by a sequence of bend and rotation, I got a routine that combines this with a quick sight aquisition and trigger release.
Finally I much prefer guns of less than 38 oz and where the CG is as far aft as you can get it. Guns with magazines in front of the trigger are not my friend.
Hope this helps and I've got a lot more if you're interested.

Best.

GeorgeV

[Franklin]

Thanks for the tips! A rapid fire release cadence helps. Timed fire is definitely more difficult. It also makes a lot of sense to think about where the pistol's horizontal center of gravity is as well as its overall weight. I've got some different options for that I'm going to try.

Do you recall if your shoulder surgery included a biceps tenodesis? It sounds like we've got very similar issues.

[Amati]

Yes it did. All these years later the records were present and the orthopedists at Mayo Jacksonville were able to shed light on the issue.
It never bothered me so far as I've been able to perform vertical lifts and never had to hold weights with an extended arm until bullseye came along.

After shooting a Ruger 22/45 Light I found that holding a sub-30 oz. gun (my .45ACP guns are 40-42 oz.) is quite comfortable, reduces my wobbles and increases my scores. Now I'm building a 5" Lightweight frame Colt 1911 with a Nelson .22lr conversion and this should be under 30 oz. Lucky to have found one NIB as Colt has stopped offering the 5" Lightweight.

[neal77]

Franklin,
I had surgery on my shooting shoulder twice back in 2006. It took about 2 years with therapy for it to be pain free, but my strength was never the same. It started to give me trouble again about 3 years ago and I have had to alter my stance to compensate. I am still trying different weights with my gun. So far, I have had better results with a heavier gun, which was a surprise as I had been going lighter the last few years.

[Franklin]

There does seem to be a threshold weight issue with the shoulder muscles. Get above a certain weight and performance degrades rapidly. My Pardini SP is currently above that threshold after a couple seconds. I'm good for about 10 seconds with my Steyr LP50. One piece of good news is that the threshold is slowly improving. Another is that I spent two full months with that arm in a restraining sling which forced me to became virtually ambidextrous. So, I suppose I could also try shooting with my non-dominant hand.

Some general comments: In my case, the tenodesis surgery was absolutely required due to a dislocated tendon, but it's much more commonly done purely for shoulder pain relief. I have looked around quite a bit and have yet to read any shoulder doc mentioning the potential issues we Bullseye/Olympic Pistol shooters would be concerned with when they are describing this procedure. There is only an occasional mention of limitations related to weightlifting or "overhead" sports. Those could easily be considered irrelevant. Caveat emptor!

[Amati]

Look up Károly Takács in Wikipedia and our problems appear trivial in comparison.

[Franklin]

Great story. Thanks. What an inspiration!

[mr alexander]

Now I'm building a 5" Lightweight frame Colt 1911 with a Nelson .22lr conversion and this should be under 30 oz. Lucky to have found one NIB as Colt has stopped offering the 5" Lightweight.

Caspian Arms does offer stripped Series '70 Government Model Frames in carbon, stainless steel and aluminum.