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[Chase]

Just finished reading C.J. Box’s Open Season.  The mystery’s setting was like visiting family, as my dad was born along Crazy Woman Creek near Big Horn, Wyoming.  If Open Season hasn’t hit the silver or plasma screen, it will.  It features a simple country hero with a charming country family, an endangered species, and a corporate entity threatening to destroy them all.  It has the same money-grubbers we love to hate in A Christmas Carol and Jaws.  There’s even a detestable mother-in-law.

Joe Picket, the hero game warden, isn’t very good with guns.  That’s understandable, as neither is C. J. Box.  The first clue came when Box had his readers smell “cordite” -- always a giveaway that the author is echoing words about which he knows little.

Cordite was a smokeless ammunition propellant used chiefly in aircraft ammunition.  Over a hundred years ago, for a short time, economics forced the British to use reclaimed cordite in .303 rifle ammunition, but not to excellent effect.  It’s way too stringy (slow-burning) for use in handguns or shotguns, and I seriously doubt if you could scrape together a pound of it today for reloading, but that doesn’t stop author after author from scenting their pages with cordite.

Then in his final chapter, Box has buckshot from a 12 gauge take off the bad guy’s gun arm at the elbow while spinning him around.  Sorry, that’s nothing but bogus movie and TV special effects.

A 12 gauge buckshot charge is nine 32 caliber lead balls.  Formidable to be sure, but a single shot from many yards away will not take off limbs nor throw bodies around.

“Back in the days,” my shooting group had an event where three-person teams tried to sever suspended two-by-fours by handgun fire.  Each shooter fired 18 rounds of .357 Magnum or 45 ACP ammo from 21 feet in less than thirty seconds.  That’s 54 shots into a board hung on a string which twitched surprisingly little and usually remained in one piece when the gun smoke cleared.  I realize a 2X4 stud and an arm are two different things, but tests in Mexico with animal parts had similar results.

Literally adding insult to injury, the bad guy’s knees were then turned backwards by two successive shotgun blasts.  Maybe contact wounds -- the barrel pressed against the knee joint -- might produce such gruesome effects, but (again literally), who’s going to stand still for that?

I guess the point of my sour grapes is “research” only going so far as copycat phrases and watching TV isn’t what I expect in a well-written mystery novel.

Chase

[Lee Lofland]

Chase, you are so right. People do not spin around or fly backward, forward or sideways when shot. They merely fall to the ground.

The buckshot thing is ridiculous. As you said, a shotgun blast doesn't do that kind of damage unless the shooter places the end of the barrel against his victim and then pulls the trigger. I've never once seen that done except in cases of suicide or hunting accidents. Even then, the victims fell directly to the ground.

By the way Chase, great explaination..

[Ingrid]

Funny!  Even I would know that buckshot couldn't sever a limb, though I might buy the impact of a shot making a person fall/stagger back. You guys are sooo helpful to us.
As for the scenario/characters: that sounds pretty much like formula to me.

Ingrid

[Chase]

Lee,  thanks for the support from a pro in the know.  Since moving to Oregon, I’ve been slowly integrating into its shooting community.  Lots of rural law enforcement types use public ranges when police-only ranges are too far away for timely practice.

Naturally, we visit.  When I admit I’m trying to write mysteries, they ask if I throw around words like “perp” and “vic” like on TV.  I tell them my yarns feature amateur sleuths, so there’s not much cop lingo I have to fake.  Then they go on to catalog all the Hollywood blunders.  It gets hilarious.

One Oregon State Police instructor who makes his single-action revolver seem like it’s on full-automatic in cowboy competition says one of his most onerous tasks is making academy recruits stop holding their handguns up to their faces as cops do on TV.  He says its only purpose is to get both the gun and the actor’s face in a closeup.  In real life, an accidental discharge in that position would temporarily (maybe permanently) blind the officer, slide-damage his or her wrist, shoot off a nose or hat, and certainly cause any onlooking perp or vic to fall down laughing.

I’ve seen the same “safety stance” in my concealed carry permit courses before the sheriff issues cards and in private personal protection classes, but I’m surprised they happened at the police academy level.

Ingrid, you're so right.  Open Season's formula made the story more than predictable.  It was like watching a millwork martial arts movie where the gentle kung fu expert watches his friends and family die one by one before he has enough oomph to hack and kick the bad guys into oblivion.

Not at all like The Colorado Kid, a real mystery in my humble estimation.  However, I know this isn't the section to compare novels.  Someone recently mentioned Bob might create such a place.  Has he?

Chase

[Lee Lofland]

Chase, where are you located in Oregon? One of the departments featured in the book I'm writing is in Oregon. Central Point is the name of the city. Those guys have been a tremendous help to me.

I have seen some torn flesh on a few thumbs and the web area between the thumb and forefinger from holding a pistol too high up on the grip. The slide can catch the hand when ejecting the empty brass. That's just inexperience and it only takes one time to learn that lesson. You really have to be holding a pistol way wrong for this to happen, too.

Ingrid, I've only seen a few people shot and each of them simply fell to ground. Sort of like a carpenters folding ruler. One ( a police officer) was shot in the face and he did turn to the side, but that was out of a defensive reflex, not from the impact of the bullet.

For the most part, perp and vic really are TV blunders. I have asked around and still haven't found a cop other than some in NYC who uses those terms. Most cops just say suspect or #&$ hole for perpetrator and just plain old victim for a victim.

[Chase]

Lee,

Central Point, Oregon, isn't at any central point in the state.  It's far south, a suburb of Medford in Jackson County on the California line.  Haven't been there, but I'm promised a visit to Crater Lake and should see that area soon.

My new digs are farther north in the Willamette Valley.  Albany is near Oregon's capitol, Salem.  I work out of Colton, even farther north and eastward in the foothills of Mount Hood.  Like my home state of Montana, these mountains harbor lots of loggers and cowboys.  I wrangle bees, and we rent them out to small horse ranches and farm tracts, all with plots of berries, onions, flowers of every description, carrots, alfalfa, etcetera.

Yup, many of the locals are armed, some due to the noir side of bucolic splendor.  The "etcetera" I mentioned includes fields of marijuana.  Located more in the southern counties your Oregon counterparts patrol, these growers aren't local homeys.  They are mostly Mexican and Central America cartels moving from camp to camp on remote BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands.

Chase

[Lee Lofland]

I've never been to Central Point, either. I have been a speaker for the Willamette Writers Conference for the past few years. That's held in Portland. I'm assuming you're near there. It's all really beautiful country.

[Ingrid]

Would caliber and proximity make a difference in the way the victim falls?  As for television and the movies: the actors who play the victim generally milk the moment for all it's worth.

I don't work with guns.  I wonder if the impact of an arrow would make a man stagger back. If I remember correctly, I usually work with knees buckling before collapse.  Does the body really fold at the waist?  And fall forward?

Ingrid

[Chase]

Ingrid,

Whether this helps or not depends on my limited ability to depict the basic facts, but bullet damage to flesh and bone is exacerbated more by velocity than caliber.  The way a body falls, if at all, depends a great deal on its stance or motion when struck.

Generally, handgun bullets – even .44 Magnum and .50 Action Express – drill holes.  A bullet through the brain pan usually kills quickest, and the body falls depending on which way it happens to be leaning or moving.  A bullet piercing the heart kills in a few seconds, but usually the victim has already crumpled.  Hits on other vital organs may allow victims to linger or even survive, but they usually fall soon after being hit.  Few, if any, are effected by the direction or caliber of the handgun slug, except to say that in the same location, a 325-grain .50 Action Express bullet will do more damage than a 40-grain .22 bullet.

Though generally smaller in caliber than big bore handguns, the velocity of high-power rifle bullets cause considerably more damage to flesh and bone.  The wound channel expands upon entering flesh, effecting more tissue, disrupting more blood vessels.

A person shot through the chest with .357 handgun bullet may survive.  However, he or she may not survive the same shot placement from a .243 rifle bullet.  Still, in both cases, gravity or motion of the body at the time it was hit will determine how it falls.

I have no experience with arrows in humans, but I’ve been with archers who bagged deer and elk.  In both cases, their arrows passed through lung areas, and the animals behaved as though they were not hit.  Both continued to walk for several yards, then wobbled and fell dead having bled to death internally.

As I said, these are only basics.  All wounds and their effects on individuals are surely case-by-case phenomena, leaving writers lots of latitude.

Chase

[Ingrid]

Okay.  Thanks, Chase.  That helps.  I seem to be doing it right. I just dealt with three arrow wounds. Two were non lethal-because they didn't hit lungs or hearts (though they caused fever/infection); the third hit a lung, causing blood to foam at the mouth, and was fatal but not instantly so.

The help is much appreciated.

Ingrid

[Chase]

Ingrid,

My limited experiences include lots of first aid but lacks longer-term first-hand medical knowledge.  However, your descriptions seem consistent with what I've seen and heard later in hospitals and in the field.  All kinds of undressed wounds are likely to infect, often with fatal results.  From search-and-rescue efforts and hunting, I do know bright, frothy blood on the mouth and along drip-trails all point to pierced lungs when the person's or animal's body is found.

I'm sure some nurses, doctors, and paramedics among our members can add details.

Chase

[Daniel Hatadi]

In my writing, I generally avoid research by just using words like 'gun' and 'shoot', keeping it nice and simple (and I'm lazy). But this is some fascinating stuff, and it's going right into my bookmarks.

Thanks very much, guys.

[Michele Viney]

As for television and the movies: the actors who play the victim generally milk the moment for all it's worth.

Ingrid

I agree with Ingrid, actors do milk the situation for all it's worth - especially if they have been 'shot' before. However if it's an actor who hasn't experienced being 'shot' they sometimes get quite a shock when the squibs go off - it's more from the sound than anything else.

The special effects guys use little explosive devises called squibs which are attached to a blood pack to simulate the gun shot. They aren't supposed to hurt and it is often the surprise or the sound that gets the reaction rather than the actual squib going off.

However if the actor is a prima donna the special effects guys have been known to arrange things so the actor gets a bit more of a shock than he/she is expecting. If they are set a certain way then yes they do hurt! It always pays to be nice to the special effects guys.

Cheers
Michele

[Chase]

Michele,

Squib is an interesting F/X term.  It certainly fits other meanings as a farce or something ineffective.  In football, it's a weak kick that skips and skids along the field as the kickers hope to recover it.

In ammunition, it's a dud round with enough force to propel the bullet into the forcing cone or barrel of the gun, making the next shot impossible or dangerous due to the blockage.

We learn so much here.

Chase