Shotgun flight?

S

stagpanther

New member
OK--this may seem a stupid question--but why in the movies do people who get hit by a shotgun blast always go flying backwards at least 10 feet? I'm not a physics whiz--but this would seem to be impossible, no?
 
Nothing goes flying, it may tumble a rabbit, but that's about it...

If a shotgun were to have enough power to make a man fly away, Oh Woa to the shooter indeed he'd not be able to shoot one again... Ever

As the wise Yoda would say;
"Mess his pants, he shall"
 
The shotgun thing in movies drives me nuts too. So does watching someone fire multiple shots in a car and then act as if their hearing is perfectly fine.
 
Not only do they fly backwards--but often go through the the walls or doors they hit at the end of their flight. It seems to be time-honored tradition since I see it in westerns as well as modern era movies.
 
It's amazing how accurate these pistol shooters are in the movies--they don't even need to line up the sights, they just point and shoot and put them down faster than Jerry Mucilek. I guess we could change this thread to "Guns n the Big Screen"
 
The reactions shown by Hollywood are over the top. I've never shot a man, but lots of game animals. You rarely get game to drop in their tracks from a hit. The normal reaction is to move as rapidly as possible in a direction opposite from where the shot came from. I'd assume a human would react about the same. I believe 2-3 quick steps and lunging away before collapsing after a hit would be highly likely. And if a door or window looked like an escape route I could see someone crashing through. But it would be from their own power, not the blast of the shotgun.
 
If you had a 3/8" aircraft cable attached around your waist, which was connected to a 50 hp winch with a heavy flywheel waiting for action, you'd also go flying through a wall or 2.
 
The shotgun thing in movies drives me nuts too. So does watching someone fire multiple shots in a car and then act as if their hearing is perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

There's a scene in the True Grit remake that always gets me. Lucky Ned Pepper takes his 1875 Remington SAA holds it straight up about 4 in from his head with the cylinder dead level with his ear and fires a signal shot. Then just walks on like nothing happened.
 
In the real world, sometimes, people do get "blown off their feet" from being shot.

However, it is not the common belief that the energy of the shot does it, it is the body of the person shot that does it. It is a muscle action, call it a spasm, or twitch, or whatever. Sometimes the effect of the shot causes the nerves to "short circuit" resulting in a large muscle spasm, which can throw the body off its feet.

Usually when this happens, the direction is backwards (away from the shooter) but not always. It can be in any direction.

The movies love dramatic images. It's what sells tickets. The reaction to being shot with a shotgun has been ..embellished.. so much over the years, its now an parody of reality, and virtually expected by the un, and under-informed audience.

Cars don't explode into flames when shot very often in real life, but in the movies, it's rare when they don't.

And the USS Missouri doesn't go from 0-30knots in 30 seconds, nor would it stop on a dime and pivot around the anchor chain doing so. (I love Battleship, its sooo much BS, its fun!;))
 
I was gonna mention that, as I've shot animals that leaped, but not by their own doing... Just like he said... A big spasm...

I once shot a coyote that did a backflip ... So much energy was involved in the spasm that it tore the pads from his back paws... He was in no way conscious of this.

Sorry for the graphic nature, things like this happen when the CNS is suddenly destroyed
 
Movies are to realism and historical accuracy what MacD's is to haute cuisine.

I think a lot of how guns are portrayed is bordering on the absurd.
 
Mythbusters did a test where they suspended a crash test dummy, the same weight as an average adult male, from a rig that would allow it to be easily dislodged if struck. The dummy was modified for the test by the addition of an armor plate in the chest to stop bullets.

They tested the rig by throwing a baseball at the dummy to insure that it would fall easily.

Then they shot the dummy point blank in the chest with a .50BMG rifle.

The dummy was dislodged from the supports but then it fell more or less straight down. It definitely was NOT knocked backwards significantly.

50BMGKnockdown_Side.jpg


50BMGKnockdown_Top.jpg


A .50BMG has over 11,000 ftlbs of energy--about 5 times more than a 12ga slug.

The dummy was designed to completely stop the slug in its torso--something that is completely impossible for a .50BMG round in a human. In spite of soaking up several times more energy and momentum than could be dealt by a 12ga slug) the dummy still moved backwards only a couple of inches or so.
 
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