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Mr Aguirre
I have to agree with your post about self defense myths in a couple of cases where I have had (thankfully) indirect experience:
A tenant of mine was shot 4 times with a .38 Special-Colt Diamondback loaded with Federal 158gr
LSWCHP's. One round hit her directly in the breast bone--it followed her skin completely around her ribs and was under the skin of her back. One round went through and through her left thigh--but no bones or arteries and one round logged in each forearm going lengthwise and causing some nerve
damage in one arm. She managed to fight back a bit and later crawled to a waiting police car. (I had given her the ammo and her ex-boyfriend took them from her revolver). The other 3 slugs were removed at a later visit to her doctors office. The ex shot himself twice (!) in the heart and died--leaving me some major cleanup. The tenant was a very pretty blonde about 5'5'', 115lbs (about 10 lbs boobs) and that .38 sure didn't stop her--she had a young son to protect.
A high school friend took a load of 00 Buck from a Cop's shotgun at about 35' about 2'' below his
solar plexus. It did stop him at that moment, but he was showing off his (horrendous) scar from the wound at bars a few months later. He was about 5'10'' 170lbs and a gifted athlete before he went
'to the dark side'...later died from a drug overdose.
You are right---nothing is a sure thing, and most people survive their gunshot wounds. I'm sure you
will see a lot of confirming emails like this.
Mark in Oh
Hi Mark, yes, that’s surprisingly common, the projectile travels all around the torso and ends up on the other side, just under the skin. The doctor just cuts the skin and removes the projectile. On the other hand, there’s people that get shot in a limb with 22LR round nose and the projectile travels across the arm, through the armpit and into the heart or some main blood vessel, killing them. If they had been shot with a more powerful caliber, it may have gone through the arm and none of that would have happened. Ammunition is a pretty simple variable, it’s the human body and mind that messes up the equation. :-)
Sounds like your buddy was very lucky. The key word there is “stop”. He may have survived, but it sounds like the 00 buck did its job putting him out of the fight.
Take care folks.
FerFAL
5 comments:
I observed a surgery in which the victim was shot directly in the top of the head. (range and caliber unknown) The skull deflected the round which skimmed along the inside where it passed through the left eye and exited the upper jaw.
Aside from superficial damage due to bone fragments the brain was relatively uninjured and the patient survived, although I have to believe he was stopped.
Even a head shot guarantees nothing. Running away looks better every day! ;p
"Running away looks better every day! ;p"
I would say the "cimmerian broad sword" plus "running towards and chop away" is looking better each day :P
I tracked down some stats on the net (so they must be true) that claim 80% of gun shot victims survive - seems believable. Since the congresswoman got shot a few days ago hearing on the news a lot that only 5% of head shot victims survive. Still looking on stats per caliber...
Stopping power! The following link provides a drop down list to search for one-shot stops based on caliber and specific bullet. Enjoy!
http://tinyurl.com/4mzvp3p
Massad Ayoob tells the story of a similar thing happening to a woman - shot in the head with a .357 magnum - bullet hit her skull in the forehead, went up and over the top of her head and exited (I think) the skin at the rear. This isn't necessarily the fault of the .38 mentioned in the post (the poster neglects to mention if it was +P or not). Handgun bullets sometimes do weird things. We use the best we can to stack the deck in our favor as much as we can. Handguns simply aren't all that powerful compared to long guns.
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