Frank Haertlein
Moderator
Opinions on Pain and the Ethical Taking of Animals.
During that police action known as Grenada, a marine friend of mine was crossing an open field trying to get to an embankment on the other side with his platoon. As they were in the middle of the field they got incoming mortars and one guy behind and to the left of my buddy was killed instantly by the mortar. He continued running until he got to the embankment where he battled with the enemy. Some time later, a medic came upon my friend and immediately said "You're not fighting anymore.....did you know you were hit?" Apparently, when his buddy was taken out by the mortar, a piece of shrapnel hit him low in the left side near his kidney. He never knew he was hit and never felt any pain. The medic said that he would have died from loss of blood if he hadn't been treated. He didn't even know he was hit by a jagged two inch piece of metal and felt no pain whatsoever.
Some years ago I got a ricochet from a .223 Rem. 55 Gr. FMJ in the forehead just above the right eye. I was firing my Colt AR15 Carbine at the time and thought that there had been a miss ejected round from my weapon because just as I pulled the trigger, I felt my head go backwards. I looked at my gun wondering what the hell had happened and not seeing anything wrong continued firing. I had been shooting at what I thought was a plain steel pole but it turned out to be a hardened steel drilling rod used in mining operations.
The bullet just bounced back and hit me in the forehead above the right eye. About 15 or so seconds later, something wet was running down my face and into my eyes. My first thought was that "man, I didn't know it was that hot!" thinking I was sweating. Only when I whipped it away did I realize it was blood. I instantly knew I was hit in the head and the first thing I did was to see what part of my brain had been affected by the bullet. I looked to see that I could move all my toes and fingers, if I could remember things from a long time ago, if I had any loss of feeling over my body and all that kind of stuff. I couldn't see what part of my brain had been affected by the hit.
What I noticed most was a lack of any pain at all. I simply didn’t feel a thing. It wasn’t until later when the surgeon removed the bullet jacket fragments from my forehead that I found out that the jacket material from the bullet had embedded itself into my skull. It never entered the cranial cavity. It was one hell of a jagged piece of jacket material. I pulled out more pieces that the surgeon had missed for a few years after that.
Another time (I won’t get into the details but......) I got a .22 round right in the middle of the thigh between the knee and the ball joint of my left leg. I simply couldn’t believe I had just been shot and pulled down my pants only to see a neat little red hole. I didn’t feel a thing! I walked into the surgeons office and after cutting into my led with a scalpel where he thought the bullet was and then not finding the bullet, he told me to come back tomorrow. (so help me GOD this is a true story!)
The next day he used some kind of scope that let him look at my leg with x-rays in real time. He drew an "X" right above the bullet and then did the surgery again. The bullet had bounced off my bone and wound up near the top of my thigh. I never felt a thing from the original gunshot. What DID hurt was the after effects of the surgery but actually getting shot two different times and not feeling any pain combined with the story from my friend about getting hit with the mortar, confirmed what I suspected. Many times, humans, and by inference, animals, do not feel the kind of pain you might imagine when shot. Most animals die quickly without feeling any pain. The ethical hunter does all that is within his or her power to ensure clean, instant, humane one shot kills on the animals he hunts.
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During that police action known as Grenada, a marine friend of mine was crossing an open field trying to get to an embankment on the other side with his platoon. As they were in the middle of the field they got incoming mortars and one guy behind and to the left of my buddy was killed instantly by the mortar. He continued running until he got to the embankment where he battled with the enemy. Some time later, a medic came upon my friend and immediately said "You're not fighting anymore.....did you know you were hit?" Apparently, when his buddy was taken out by the mortar, a piece of shrapnel hit him low in the left side near his kidney. He never knew he was hit and never felt any pain. The medic said that he would have died from loss of blood if he hadn't been treated. He didn't even know he was hit by a jagged two inch piece of metal and felt no pain whatsoever.
Some years ago I got a ricochet from a .223 Rem. 55 Gr. FMJ in the forehead just above the right eye. I was firing my Colt AR15 Carbine at the time and thought that there had been a miss ejected round from my weapon because just as I pulled the trigger, I felt my head go backwards. I looked at my gun wondering what the hell had happened and not seeing anything wrong continued firing. I had been shooting at what I thought was a plain steel pole but it turned out to be a hardened steel drilling rod used in mining operations.
The bullet just bounced back and hit me in the forehead above the right eye. About 15 or so seconds later, something wet was running down my face and into my eyes. My first thought was that "man, I didn't know it was that hot!" thinking I was sweating. Only when I whipped it away did I realize it was blood. I instantly knew I was hit in the head and the first thing I did was to see what part of my brain had been affected by the bullet. I looked to see that I could move all my toes and fingers, if I could remember things from a long time ago, if I had any loss of feeling over my body and all that kind of stuff. I couldn't see what part of my brain had been affected by the hit.
What I noticed most was a lack of any pain at all. I simply didn’t feel a thing. It wasn’t until later when the surgeon removed the bullet jacket fragments from my forehead that I found out that the jacket material from the bullet had embedded itself into my skull. It never entered the cranial cavity. It was one hell of a jagged piece of jacket material. I pulled out more pieces that the surgeon had missed for a few years after that.
Another time (I won’t get into the details but......) I got a .22 round right in the middle of the thigh between the knee and the ball joint of my left leg. I simply couldn’t believe I had just been shot and pulled down my pants only to see a neat little red hole. I didn’t feel a thing! I walked into the surgeons office and after cutting into my led with a scalpel where he thought the bullet was and then not finding the bullet, he told me to come back tomorrow. (so help me GOD this is a true story!)
The next day he used some kind of scope that let him look at my leg with x-rays in real time. He drew an "X" right above the bullet and then did the surgery again. The bullet had bounced off my bone and wound up near the top of my thigh. I never felt a thing from the original gunshot. What DID hurt was the after effects of the surgery but actually getting shot two different times and not feeling any pain combined with the story from my friend about getting hit with the mortar, confirmed what I suspected. Many times, humans, and by inference, animals, do not feel the kind of pain you might imagine when shot. Most animals die quickly without feeling any pain. The ethical hunter does all that is within his or her power to ensure clean, instant, humane one shot kills on the animals he hunts.
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