The .22 kind of surprised me.

[Triathloncoach]

Some guy on the board recently had an accidental discharge in his leg with a 22. He didn't appear to think it was life threatening wound, although I'm certain it was a terrible experience for him.

I don't know who these guys are, but I'm skeptical. Mildly.

 

[jcountry]

I don't think I will be volunteering to get shot with a .22 anytime soon.

I saw a great documentary on Reagan's injuries called "saving Ronald Reagan." It was told from the perspective of the Drs and nurses who treated him. One little .22 came damn close to killing the man. Lodged right in his lung-nicked his pulmonary artery. He damn near bled to death. (Left such a small entrance wound that the secret service didn't think he had been hit at all. But it pancaked before it went between two ribs, and ripped a huge wound channel.)

One of the things that the surgeon mentioned is that .22s can be very dangerous in that they are so small and can easily get sucked into the circulatory system while you are trying to remove one. If that happens, it could go straight to your heart, or brain, or most anywhere else. A .22 can glance off of bone easily and cause all sorts of strange troubles you might not expect. It would seem that the main danger is cutting through a large artery-but that is nothing to sneeze at. I understand that someone with a sliced femoral artery (for example) can bleed out in just a few minutes.

I think they are plenty lethal. I sure ain't about to jump in front of one to find out.

 

[dunkel]

Yeah, don't get me wrong...I don't want to get shot with a .22, either. If it misses bone on the way in, it's pretty unpredictable. I know a lot of men and animals have met their end with a .22. As always, it's about shot placement. Also seen plenty of other handgun wounds with much larger calibers than .22 where they were sitting up and talking to us. One guy got gut shot something like 5 times with what we figured was a .45 and while he was hurting, he made it out of the trauma room in ok condition. Now, whether he made it out of surgery or not is another story...but he was alive when he left us, so it wasn't our paperwork to do lol.

 

[Bypass]

Yeah, don't get me wrong...I don't want to get shot with a .22, either. If it misses bone on the way in, it's pretty unpredictable. I know a lot of men and animals have met their end with a .22. As always, it's about shot placement. Also seen plenty of other handgun wounds with much larger calibers than .22 where they were sitting up and talking to us. One guy got gut shot something like 5 times with what we figured was a .45 and while he was hurting, he made it out of the trauma room in ok condition. Now, whether he made it out of surgery or not is another story...but he was alive when he left us, so it wasn't our paperwork to do lol.

LOL,