field experience
I found this interesting and I hope you all do too.
Some years ago I shot a moose with a .308 round from about 30 yds. The moose reared like a horse trying to unseat a rider and staggered to a halt within 2-3 seconds and fell over. As an ER physician and coroner you can imagine that I was greatly interested in the bullet path. The .308 was likely traveling about 2500 fps and was likely at about 165 gr when it left the barrel. The bullet broke a rib on entry and exit from the chest cavity and was trapped intact and fully expanded under the skin on the far side of the animal. The lung (elastic tissue) at the entry point had a permanent cavity about the size of my fist and a contused area (bruise) about the size of a basketball surrounding that. I think that likely represented the shock wave damage (temporary) from passage of the rifle velocity round. The bruise and bullet path was tapered gradually from the initial large bruise all the way though the aorta (the really big artery coming out of the heart) and some major vessels at the root of the lungs on into the far side lung. There was a huge amount of blood in the chest cavity, very little exterior bleeding. The diversion of the blood from the heart into the chest due to the interruption of the aorta away from the body and brain probably is what shut this huge animal down so quickly.
The autopsies I have attended to see handgun bullet wounds caused me to come to some sort of “old time conclusions”. One is “Aim small, miss small”. Some statistics I have seen indicate that there is about an 80% chance of surviving a gunshot wound. There is little or no chance of surviving a destructive heart wound. On the other hand the police officer survived a .357 wound which “nicked” the bottom of her heart.
http://www.lapdonline.org/inside_the_lapd/content_basic_view/27327#Stacy Lim
Scroll down to Stacy Lim.
Now since we seem to agree for the most part that handgun rounds are puny compared with the high velocity round from a rifle, my conclusion here is the old “bullet placement” theory. Almost any round from a handgun will cause immediate severe damage if placed into the heart or brain. A liver hit will cause some bleeding that is significant, but takes time. A shot into the belly is not worth much in the short run, unless the round hits the lower spine or one of the major arteries that pass through. I wonder how many of us here could count on a heart shot under the stress of a gunfight, as a civilian. I am not at all sure I could, but I would try to shoot an aggressor any where I thought I could to stop the threat. You must do what is necessary.
I read another point the other day: If you know you are going to be in a gunfight, take a rifle and a friend with a rifle. The handgun is for those unexpected bad surprises.
Penetration is quite unreliable and is based on several factors, bullet weight, velocity, obsatcles (ribs?) even pocket watches or a similar obstacle and is influenced hugely by inertia. The bullet is not operating in a vacuum.
Not long ago, a courageous police officer fought for another ten minutes after being fatally wounded here in the Phoenix area. He was a hero and expressed concern for his fellow officers, all the while dying himself.
So, the decision by the aggressor to stop the fight, as mentioned, is uncertain and in the case of a person on something like PCP he may go right on shooting or fighting even after suffering a fatal wound. If you are involved in a gunfight you must influence the aggressor to stop, the best way you can, as soon as you can.