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Gunshot wounds

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Greg8098

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Has anyone ever been shot, and if so what did it really feel like. Is it totally unbearable or could you still function to get out of harms way. This is a very serious question, because all I have known were Hollywood references, so what the real life situation like???
 
I have not personally been shot. Know LEO and former military who have. Most of them describe the initial sensation as feeling like you were punched followed by an intense burning sensation. The other types of pain typically followed in a few seconds to a few minutes depending on level of shock and seriousness of the wound.

My great uncle took a german machine gun round in the leg during the liberation of Paris. Fortunately it just took a good chunk off the front and he didn't loose the limb but he described the sensation as being slammed hard in the leg by a burning 2x4. He says he didn't really feel any severe pain but passed out quickly. The real pain came later when he woke up at a med-station (and still later during physical therapy).
 
ha

I once took a few hits of .308 to the back, but my partner returned fire as I reloaded...and I had my ballistic armor plates taped in.

okok...I can only speak of the injuries of shooting while hunting (to animals), thanks to the Creator not myself. I'm sure there are some guys here who have, truthfully, dealt with it. I know from hunting, just like fighting, sometimes the most horrendous shots are met with a snort, other times the weakest glance can drop a Goliath. While there is a science to it it can, at times, be humorously unanticipatable (is that a word?). Just stay away from my femoral artery, spine, and guts. . .

ST

ps - I once taught a student, 13 years old, who had been shot 7 times. SHE said it wasn't that bad just something she had to heal from. . . :eek:
 
I have never been shot but I was a medic some years back. I never treated a gunshot wound but from my training I think I got some insight on how it might feel. It is I think a hard question to answer due to an almost endless number of variables. Location of wound, severity of wound, etc. etc. Assuming a vital organ is not involved, bleeding is the obvious major source of concern. It can quickly cause shock. Symptoms of blood loss I recall are extreme fatigue, chills, thirst, unconciousness. It is important I think for eveybody to take first aid. Blood loss can kill rapidly. First aid skills can be highly effective in saving a life especially if the blood loss is from a limb as opposed to the trunk. As far as how it "feels" I imagine that would again depend on the variables listed above.
 
You should always remember that if you are shot -don't stop shooting your assailant and keep fighting to live after the gunfight !!
 
It depends what was shot. It depends how severely the person is psycologicly impacted as well. Many soldiers, like Japanese in bonzai charges (after running out of ammo) during ww2 would take multiple rifle (with better ballistics than any pistol) rounds and still kill some with a sword before dropping. Modern suicide bombers often run or drive after taking multiple shots and manage to detonate thier explosives. In the famous '86 FBI shootout Michael Platt took multiple hits, the first of which would have been likely fatal shortly after yet proceeded to gun down multiple officers and even advance on them while doing so. His partner William Matix also took a round through the back of the head (as well as another one) that exited out the front of his face (taking pieces with it) and he awoke a few minutes later, jumped up and somehow managed to go to the FBI vehicle Platt was stealing before he was shot multiple times cowering in a fetal position shortly after. Both of them had prior military combat experience and were also previously military police. Many police officers have been fataly shot and proceed to wound or kill the person that shot them before they die at the scene.These examples are of very severe/fatal shots, not just shots that hurt and posed blood loss issues, but serious organ damage/artery damage that would have lead to almost certain death regardless.

There is many more examples but basicly what all the examples point to is the determination of the individual to spend the last few seconds of thier life before thier body ceases to function doing something they knew would lead to death, or they had trained (so it was a less necessary thought , requiring mainly just repetition of somethign they are familiar with) extensively in such circumstances. So the main related factor is that they are either not shocked that death has come because they already planned it, and so are not as subject to shock, or they are simply doing something that they have done so many times before in training that they continue through the motions of repetative training without the shock of being shot kicking in.
The usual reaction of the average individual would be to focus on the shock and intense pain and either pass out or drop to the ground. In fact such a reaction would often increase thier chances of survival as less rounds are likely to continue to be dumped into them.

In fact the old wild west movies, especialy with the types of weapons they were using are entirely unrealistic in that 2 individuals that drew from holsters would likely have both taken a few shots regardless of who got off the first shot. Without good medical care this could easily mean both men involved in such a fight would die. Such an image would not have much glory to it though and so old westerns and modern action movies don't show such outcomes. Most gunfights involve one side with a clear advantage. President Jackson was in a duel where his opponent (Charles Dickinson) was known as a very good duelist that Jackson could not hope to outdraw. Yet after taking a .70 caliber round to the chest he then aimed and shot back with a shot that Dickinson would die of.

Guns are dangerous, and can easily be deadly, but they are not the death rays of Hollywood. They are merely launching small pieces of metal at speed into someone else. At pistol velocities not much different than being stabbed with a blunt, hot, metal rod of the same diameter. Death will often surely follow from certain shots, but not for many seconds-several minutes.
 
Greg,

If the goal of your question is to better understand what happens when people get shot, you might find the document below helpful. Anecdotal stories are always interesting and certainly useful in some ways - - but difficult to draw general conclusions from.

http://www.firearmstactical.com/pdf/fbi-hwfe.pdf
 
mete said:
You should always remember that if you are shot -don't stop shooting your assailant and keep fighting to live after the gunfight !!
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'll make a point of trying to remember that ;)
 
My BIL was shot at nearly contact distance with a .32 long Smith from a revolver. Entry was high on the back of the left shoulder (shooter was standing outside his car and shot through the driver's window when he flinched away from something hard...The gun barrel... that banged into the side of his head), exit was slightly lower on the front, bullet crossed the car and lodged in his friend's (in the front passenger seat of the Chevette they were in) hand, which he had on top of his thigh. BIL immediately took off (they had been stopped at a red light when they'd been bumped slightly from the car behind, which is where the shooter had come from), and it took a couple blocks for them to realize they'd been shot, when they saw the blood on their clothes. In what was probably a bit of shock-induced denial, they originally thought a firecracker had been tossed at them. They then drove themselves maybe 2 miles to the hospital and walked in. He said that there wasn't a lot of pain at any time, but keep in mind it was a LRN slug that didn't mushroom much or cause a huge ammount of damage. His exit wound scar is about the size of a nickel.

My shooting buddy caught a .380 hardball round at contact distance, entered the palm of the left hand at the base of the thumb swell, exited the top front wrist area, breaking 2 wrist bones. I was there, since it was my pistol :banghead: (poor gun handling and technique while he was too far away from me to grab him). Got his attention big time, since he knew exactly what happened and when it happened to him, but by the time we got to the hospital, he said it wasn't in much, if any pain...In fact, he needed to see the X-ray to believe there were bones broken...
 
whoa

what?

I was there, since it was my pistol

heh heh
and everyone cracks on youtubers for shooting to quickly and without hearing protection :D :D
 
Adrenaline

Adrenaline and endorphins are crazy things. They can enable injured people and animals to do the strangest things. During an attack or fight endorphins numb pain and adrenaline constricts blood vessels, channeling blood to where it is needed most, usually the large skeletal muscles. I have experienced this first hand. Not due to a shooting, but another life and death scenario. It is a totally personal experience, but in my case, I stopped felling pain, got slight tunnel vision, I lost color vision for about a minute and only saw in black and white, time slowed down, and I was ridiculously strong. After the incident, I needed a medic for sure, but I was able to fight off four attackers who were all larger than me, and escape to safety, inflicting a world of hurt upon two of them in the process.

My experience leads me to believe (for the most part) that as long as the brain and spine are not damaged, and the will to fight or flee is there, that someone or something will continue to fight, no matter how badly wounded, until they are either safe or bleed out, or are incapacitated in some other way.
 
Maybe its just me and I don't see it, but, has anyone answered the original question?

Lots of speculation though...

salty.
 
Like getting punched. Very hard.

I got three rounds from a handgun. I was wearing equipment that slowed it down, but one almost killed me anyway. The first shot went under my left arm, the bullet broke my top rib. Felt like getting poked with a branding iron. I turned to my left, but couldn't (phsyically capable, but not mentally) raise my rifle back up and got another in the lower right side of my chest, breaking the bottom rib. I suddenly remembered I had legs and got the third while attempting to run away.

The first just hurt badly. The second two felt like solid thumps followed by burning sensations and loss of breath. I can remember being more afraid of dying from lack of oxygen than from being shot. The docs said later the second two barely penetrated at all, going through a manual in front and hitting my shoulder blade in the back. The first one, under my left arm, was a one in a million. If it was lower and went between my ribs or higher and over my ribs, it would have had a clear path to my innards. It penetrated, but not much, either. All I know about the caliber is apparently small, but entirely too big for my tastes.
 
I (and 3 others) were shot at Phoenix Trap & Skeet Club during the Spring Grand in '78.
I was seated on one of the brick planters when a shooter the next field away had his gun come apart at the stock and fall to the ground, discharging, the shot string passing between two of the members on his squad and hitting us positioned behind the trap line.

I did not know I had been injured. let alone shot. I was primarily hit on the left side of the head with one pellet passing through my left eye.
Upon being shot I stood up, only to have bystanders grab me by the arms and seat me back down.
There was no pain initially, but during the ambulance ride I could have used an absolutely lewd scotch.
 
Geeze, Hockea... Can you still see out of that eye?:eek:

I've only been hit by ricochets. One sank into my left side after bouncing off a plate. It felt hot and like somebody had slapped me with a dowel like a whip - only not so bad. I continued to shoot to finish my time at bat and then looked down to see my spent bullet and my shirt buried into my skin about an inch deep.

I pulled it out and we all winced and laughed about how accomplished a shooter I was, put a bandaid on it and that was about it. It left a small scar.

The other time, I had a bullet ricochet and hit me in the throat. I could hear the buzzing whirr of the round coming my way and then it hit me. I thought I was dead. Seriously. It felt like I had been knuckle punched in the throat but it didn't even break the skin. Scared the crap outta me.

Both of these incidents occurred at legitimate ranges where all safety rules were being observed.
 
Yes, I can see pretty well when I use a contact lens.
Actually I feel fortunate as the outcome could have been much worse.
 
Geeze, Hockea... Can you still see out of that eye?

I've only been hit by ricochets. One sank into my left side after bouncing off a plate. It felt hot and like somebody had slapped me with a dowel like a whip - only not so bad. I continued to shoot to finish my time at bat and then looked down to see my spent bullet and my shirt buried into my skin about an inch deep.

I pulled it out and we all winced and laughed about how accomplished a shooter I was, put a bandaid on it and that was about it. It left a small scar.

The other time, I had a bullet ricochet and hit me in the throat. I could hear the buzzing whirr of the round coming my way and then it hit me. I thought I was dead. Seriously. It felt like I had been knuckle punched in the throat but it didn't even break the skin. Scared the crap outta me.

Both of these incidents occurred at legitimate ranges where all safety rules were being observed.
Click to expand...

I'm curious as to whas it a bullet or a shotgun the first time?

You got bad luck.
 
I caught a load of birdshot in my right calf from a buddys 12 gauge on a quail hunt once (no Chenney jokes please :rolleyes: ). Honestly it didnt hurt till I rolled up my pant leg to look at it, then it felt like 1000 red hot needles were being pushed into my leg (hes lucky I didnt return the favor). I have a series of small dimple like scars on that leg now, kinda looks like a golf ball. I dont hunt with or talk to that guy anymore.
 
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