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You would think that if you were shot, you would know it.

Near Rosharon, south of Houston, in 1996, a man came home to find that his house had been broken into. He could not immediately determine what was missing.

He sat down to watch television when he felt an explosive pain in his head and started bleeding from his nose and mouth. He thought he had a heart attack.

He had actually been shot by a sniper from outdoors, with a .22 rifle stolen from his home.

The shooter later tried to extort money from the family, threatening to continue shooting them if they did not pay him off.

He was a career criminal who had worked for the victim and had a grudge against him. The shooter was eventually convicted of aggravated assault in this case. The total of his sentences for crimes committed before and after he went to prison is 489 years [sic].

The victim recovered.

Lengthy, convoluted story: http://www.policenewsonline.com/html/tpnjan09.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:You would think that if you were shot, you would know it.

When I was working in a large ER back in the 80s, I help treat a gunshot victim one night. He walked in through the ambulance doors under his own power, approached the unit admin desk, and said, "I think I've been shot." He then collapsed on the floor. He had, in fact, been shot 6 times in the back with a .38 special, and all 6 rounds went through his lung fields without hitting any major structures like mediastinum, aorta, heart, etc. As recall, none of the hits were through and through, so he could see no blood on himself. He was running away from the gunman when he was shot. He recalled hearing the shots, but didn't recall feeling the bullet impacts - although he began to feel pretty badly in fairly short order.

He lived, BTW.

It's amazing what the human body can survive, though it's pretty rare for someone to be ambulatory after multiple COM hits.

- Jim

A phone man I worked with long ago, came into the garage late one afternoon complaining about a bee sting right at collar level on his neck, about the eight o'clock position. Another phone man who looked at Joe's injury noted that it did not appear to be a bee sting, but there was a small hole and he thought Joe should go to the hospital and have it looked at. Joe didn't go.

A few days later the hole had just about healed over but a small lump had kind of developed.

Joe finally went to the hospital, where a .22 LR slug was located in his left trapezius muscle. They removed it even though it probably wasn't going to do any more damage.

As best as Joe could recall he felt the sting while driving along a road at 50+ mph, but he couldn't place the location exactly. No other incidents were ever reported in that area.

jimlongley wrote:A phone man I worked with long ago, came into the garage late one afternoon complaining about a bee sting right at collar level on his neck, about the eight o'clock position. Another phone man who looked at Joe's injury noted that it did not appear to be a bee sting, but there was a small hole and he thought Joe should go to the hospital and have it looked at. Joe didn't go.

A few days later the hole had just about healed over but a small lump had kind of developed.

Joe finally went to the hospital, where a .22 LR slug was located in his left trapezius muscle. They removed it even though it probably wasn't going to do any more damage.

As best as Joe could recall he felt the sting while driving along a road at 50+ mph, but he couldn't place the location exactly. No other incidents were ever reported in that area.

This is another piece of anecdotal evidence on the real stopping power of a .22. Although some consider it better than a sharp stick, I'd call the two pretty much even within 3 yards.

A lot of people have been killed with sharp sticks, too.

The difference is that if someone shoves a sharp stick in your eye or certain other sensitive organs, you will know it.

- Jim

Excaliber wrote:

jimlongley wrote:A phone man I worked with long ago, came into the garage late one afternoon complaining about a bee sting right at collar level on his neck, about the eight o'clock position. Another phone man who looked at Joe's injury noted that it did not appear to be a bee sting, but there was a small hole and he thought Joe should go to the hospital and have it looked at. Joe didn't go.

A few days later the hole had just about healed over but a small lump had kind of developed.

Joe finally went to the hospital, where a .22 LR slug was located in his left trapezius muscle. They removed it even though it probably wasn't going to do any more damage.

As best as Joe could recall he felt the sting while driving along a road at 50+ mph, but he couldn't place the location exactly. No other incidents were ever reported in that area.

This is another piece of anecdotal evidence on the real stopping power of a .22. Although some consider it better than a sharp stick, I'd call the two pretty much even within 3 yards.

In fact, I'd give the advantage to the "sharp stick"...as no reloads would be necessary.

seamusTX wrote:A lot of people have been killed with sharp sticks, too.

The difference is that if someone shoves a sharp stick in your eye, you will know it.

- Jim

Well....a .22 "in your eye" would garner some attention too, (I would think).

Yeah, but hitting a 1-inch circle at 3 yards under stress is not easy. I've seen plenty of shooters who couldn't do it even on paper.

With the stick, you get multiple tries, as you said.

- Jim

flintknapper wrote:In fact, I'd give the advantage to the "sharp stick"...as no reloads would be necessary.

And they don't set off metal detectors. I think a sharp stick would be even better than a plastic cat on a key chain.

boomerang wrote:

flintknapper wrote:In fact, I'd give the advantage to the "sharp stick"...as no reloads would be necessary.

And they don't set off metal detectors. I think a sharp stick would be even better than a plastic cat on a key chain.

Some would even say "the cat's meow".