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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: ChriZ Dane Pedersen <cbp1002@******.CAMBRIDGE.AC.UK>
Subject: Bullet Damage
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 1993 01:56:38 +0100
Don't like the sound of that hydrostatic shock effect.

Sounds like a sniper with a really overpowered rifle would be capable of
taking you out straight through a shotproof vest.

All the vest is designed to do is spread the bullet impact over a larger
area, leaving you briused but free of holes, right ?

And this, presumably, would have no effect on the forming of the
aforementioned shockwave......


Does the shockwave kill by causing heart failure (massive heart attack
caused by reversed blood flow ) or simply rupture all blood-carrying
organs in the body ?
Message no. 2
From: The Deb Decker <RJR96326@****.UTULSA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Bullet Damage
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 1993 19:19:51 -0600
>Sounds like a sniper with a really overpowered rifle would be capable of
>taking you out straight through a shotproof vest.

Stranger things have happened. He could do that.

However, there are different level of hydrostatic shock, depending on
who you ask. When peopl first started talking about it (the 60s?) there
were tales of troops getting nailed in the hand and dying of the trauma.
Most reports I've seen (admittedly few) now discount those stories and
attribute them to the tumbling of bullets: i.e. you hit his thigh and
it exits his shoulder. There are others more qualified than I who have
and likely will expound upon the topic further, but the point is that
hydrostatic shock isn't quite that bad, as far as I know.

>All the vest is designed to do is spread the bullet impact over a larger
>area, leaving you briused but free of holes, right ?

Think of Death as one really big bruise. . .:)
Death and injury can occur internally, without actual bullet penetration.
Like if you get punched real hard in da head enough, your brainpower goes.

>And this, presumably, would have no effect on the forming of the
>aforementioned shockwave......

Right

>Does the shockwave kill by causing heart failure (massive heart attack
>caused by reversed blood flow ) or simply rupture all blood-carrying
>organs in the body ?

Not all blood vessels. Even just one or two major ones getting thrashed
would ruin your day.

J Roberson

Further Reading

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Thwap!