From:	Rand Ratinac docwagon101@*****.com
Subject:	Questions of great importance (Steve, Jon, RA:S people especially)
Date:	Wed, 1 Sep 1999 23:27:38 -0700 (PDT)

> > > (And why don't people lose their heads when MP-HMG rounds pass
six inches from their heads?)
> >
> > Hell, I dunno. Question from a non-military-goon-type. :) Why WOULD
you lose your head from a near miss?
> >
> > Errr...unless you're talking figuratively here and you mean "freak
out", not literally losing your head. :)
> >
> > *Doc' points a finger at AE. "Not a word, you."*
>
> Sorry, here comes a word anyway. :)
>
> A lot of times, bigger rounds will have enough energy surrounding
them in the air to take heads right off people. It's one of the first
things they teach you when they pull out the .50 cals for the first
time. "A .50 cal round passing within a foot of someone's head will
make it [insert inappropriate expletive here] EXPLODE." We were messing
around in Spain one day and a guy did it with a melon. We had to put a
target next to the melon to get people to believe that he wasn't
actually shooting it. [That was the same day one of my squadmates shot
a cow with a 40 mm grenade launcher. What a guy.]

Ouch. Would a helmet - hell, would ANYTHING - help against that?

> The effect is similar to hydrostatic shock, in physics terms, at
least.

Err...I thought hydrostatic shock had been debunked as a myth.

*Doc' hides as he realises he may have just started WWIII...*
==Doc'
(aka Mr. Freaky Big, Super-Dynamic Troll of Tomorrow)

.sig Sauer
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