Rifle shooting damages your brain ...

[98src]

106 Recoilless Rifle

I just read the obituary of Lones Wigger, described in the New York Times as the "all time best rifleman". He was 80. Charlie Askins said during his competition and Border Patrol years in the 1930s he fired over 500,000 rounds. He may have been crazy but I don't think it was from shooting.
I went through TOW School at Fort Benning in August 1979, they said when firing from an enclosed position double hearing protection must be worn. We trained on the simulator, the champion shooter got to fire a live missile. Loudest military weapon I encountered was the 106MM Recoilless Rifle, you could hear that a half mile away.

You sure didn't want to stand behind one. All we got to do at Ft. Bragg in'66 was to fire the sub caliber 50 spotting round.

[JB White]

There is a concussion factor to be taken into account. We all feel it when on the range and shooting in a booth. Nowhere near a flashbang but it's there. Now they're saying the damage is cumulative over time. Might well be for all I know. They blamed hammer drills and Hilti-guns for both my hearing loss and inner ear deterioration. Are they right?

Back when I saw the Gustav displayed on the Military Channel(?) they showed it being fired from inside a room. Back blast wasn't so much a factor or so they said. I later discovered there is only a single round capable of that. I still wouldn't want to be the shooter or the loader in a confined space.

[Vern Humphrey]

Large calibers impart a lot of energy on the body. Detached retinas can happen. But the article shows a picture of a rocket launcher and not a little one. And I don't think a lot of 5.56 shooting will make your head fall off.

The Carl Gustav is a recoilless rifle. It isn't the recoil, it's the blast. Nowadays we have special helmets and hearing protection for artillerymen, and we probably need that for Carl Gustav crews.

[dogtag]

A lot of people around here seem to lack a sense of humour.
My post about rifles and my contract for supplying BBs was
tongue-in-cheek but obviously flew over the heads of most.

[togor]

If it had been a CNN or other source then the joke might have been clearer, but you like the Daily Mail so aside from the mild BB joke one could reasonably assume you were playing it straight. Maybe now you understand why I jumped on it.