There was a news story recently on one of the St. Louis, Missouri news channels about a woman that was shot at by her ex-boyfriend. As this gal was pulling away from a convenience store the Ex ran behind her car and fired a round from a .40 S&W through the back window at her. The bullet spider webbed the back window, penetrated through the glass and impacted the woman in the center of the back of her head. Here is the relative part… the bullet buried up in this ladies wig/weave and did no more than cause a slight cut of the skin on the back of her head. She stated her head snapped forward at the impact, but that was all she felt and she continued to drive away from the Ex until she was a safe distance. She was treated for the slight cut and after x-rays revealed no other damage than the slight cut of the skin she was treated and released. The bullet was recovered tangled up in her weave. I remember the .40 S&W being called the .40 Short & Weak by nay sayers in the past, but wow!
Bullets do some funny things...
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There was a news story recently on one of the St. Louis, Missouri news channels about a woman that was shot at by her ex-boyfriend. As this gal was pulling away from a convenience store the Ex ran behind her car and fired a round from a .40 S&W through the back window at her. The bullet spider webbed the back window, penetrated through the glass and impacted the woman in the center of the back of her head. Here is the relative part… the bullet buried up in this ladies wig/weave and did no more than cause a slight cut of the skin on the back of her head. She stated her head snapped forward at the impact, but that was all she felt and she continued to drive away from the Ex until she was a safe distance. She was treated for the slight cut and after x-rays revealed no other damage than the slight cut of the skin she was treated and released. The bullet was recovered tangled up in her weave. I remember the .40 S&W being called the .40 Short & Weak by nay sayers in the past, but wow!
Joni_Lynn
US Veteran
.............bone head.
G
Guest
Guest
Depending upon the vehicle I can tell you for a fact that punching a hole through a piece of Safety Glass is going to slow down ANY handgun bullet to pretty much minimal velocity. Doesn't make much difference what caliber as long as it is a hollow point or soft point design.
Stophel
Member
Aqua Net.
cshoff
Member
After punching through the glass, all bets are off. That bullet could have done any number of things after the initial impact with the window.
Gatofeo
Member
When I was a U.S. Air Force Security Policeman in the 1970s, we carried Smith & Wesson Model 15s in .38 Special.
Duty load was the 130 gr. full metal jacket bullet at about 750 fps from their 4-inch barrel.
I knew a sergeant who had fired three times upon a fleeing vehicle in the Philippines.
He reported that two bullets bounced off its back window, and the third bullet bounced off the trunk.
Those were weak, "widow-maker" loads we were forced to carry. Heck, the 148 gr. wadcutters we qualified with had more oomph than our duty load.
But we were forced to carry them because, reportedly, some ignorant high-ranking officer believed the old wive's tale that a bullet piercing a plane's skin would cause rapid, catastrophic decompression.
But I've digressed.
Automobile glass is a tough barrier to bullets. In the Air Force, we were taught to roll down our door window before we walked up to a vehicle we'd pulled over.
This plate of glass inside the door, and both steel panels of the door, could give us pretty good protection against an attacker's handgun bullets.
It's still true today.
Take a look at your car door with the window rolled down. The bullet has to punch through the outer skin, through the window if its rolled down, and then through the interior. Things like arm rests, maps and door pockets can slow a bullet tremendously.
Numerous tests have been conducted against cars with various handgun calibers and bullets through the years. The best penetrators have been full-house loads from the Magnums (.357, .41 and .44), 9mm Luger and .38 Super.
Shotgun slugs are awesome penetrators too.
When I'm on the road, I carry my Browning Hi-Power 9mm with 115 gr. jacketed hollowpoints. If I have to defend myself against someone in a car, it's a better penetrator than a .45 Auto, and offers less recoil than the Magnums.
Duty load was the 130 gr. full metal jacket bullet at about 750 fps from their 4-inch barrel.
I knew a sergeant who had fired three times upon a fleeing vehicle in the Philippines.
He reported that two bullets bounced off its back window, and the third bullet bounced off the trunk.
Those were weak, "widow-maker" loads we were forced to carry. Heck, the 148 gr. wadcutters we qualified with had more oomph than our duty load.
But we were forced to carry them because, reportedly, some ignorant high-ranking officer believed the old wive's tale that a bullet piercing a plane's skin would cause rapid, catastrophic decompression.
But I've digressed.
Automobile glass is a tough barrier to bullets. In the Air Force, we were taught to roll down our door window before we walked up to a vehicle we'd pulled over.
This plate of glass inside the door, and both steel panels of the door, could give us pretty good protection against an attacker's handgun bullets.
It's still true today.
Take a look at your car door with the window rolled down. The bullet has to punch through the outer skin, through the window if its rolled down, and then through the interior. Things like arm rests, maps and door pockets can slow a bullet tremendously.
Numerous tests have been conducted against cars with various handgun calibers and bullets through the years. The best penetrators have been full-house loads from the Magnums (.357, .41 and .44), 9mm Luger and .38 Super.
Shotgun slugs are awesome penetrators too.
When I'm on the road, I carry my Browning Hi-Power 9mm with 115 gr. jacketed hollowpoints. If I have to defend myself against someone in a car, it's a better penetrator than a .45 Auto, and offers less recoil than the Magnums.
scf4003
Member
I never thought about this .. thanks for the info
HOUSTON RICK
Member
Double tap.
Andy Taylor
Member
I had seen this story on the news. They neglicted to mention caliber, or the window. Just shot in the back of the head and had a picture of the woman. I had figured it was a .32, .380 or some such cartridge. I did not expect it to be a .40. The woman had the "corn row" style hair style that is popular in the black community.
Regarding bullets doing "funny things," I remember a gun magazine article (perhaps American Handgunner) in which a LEO was hit in the right arm by a 9 mm.
The bullet traveled up his arm, turned at his shoulder and lodged in the middle of his back near his spine.
At first the medics thought he had only suffered a slight arm wound.
The bullet traveled up his arm, turned at his shoulder and lodged in the middle of his back near his spine.
At first the medics thought he had only suffered a slight arm wound.
scooter123
Member
I suspect that the shooter was probably using reloads that he picked up at a gun show in a ziplock bag. Meaning, it was a weak load.
Winshields in a car are very tough barriers. They utilize a sandwich construction of 2 layers of glass bonded by a very tough polymer film. This is done for two reasons. One reason is that the thinner layers of glass will shatter before a human skull. The polymer film is there to keep a human skull from popping through the windshield causing decapitation or strangulation. That tendancy to "give" without yeilding is why they can be tough barriers to a bullet.
However, I know that side windows do not use this type of construction and believe that rear windows don't either. Basically, they are just tempered glass that has been heat treated so that it breaks into tiny fragments instead of large knifelike fragments. As a barrier to a bullet, they are not very effective.
Winshields in a car are very tough barriers. They utilize a sandwich construction of 2 layers of glass bonded by a very tough polymer film. This is done for two reasons. One reason is that the thinner layers of glass will shatter before a human skull. The polymer film is there to keep a human skull from popping through the windshield causing decapitation or strangulation. That tendancy to "give" without yeilding is why they can be tough barriers to a bullet.
However, I know that side windows do not use this type of construction and believe that rear windows don't either. Basically, they are just tempered glass that has been heat treated so that it breaks into tiny fragments instead of large knifelike fragments. As a barrier to a bullet, they are not very effective.
SW357Addict
Member
Obviously the hair weave absorbed a large amount the energy from the bullet just as the weave to a Kevlar vest absorbs energy. There was actual physics at work here.
Pisgah
Member
Back in the early '30's, my grandfather was a young physician practicing in out small town. The one local "hospital" then closed every day at 5PM, no one but patients there unless there happened to be someone in critical condition in house. Nighttime emergencies were usually taken to the office of whatever doctor was contacted.
Grandad got a call from police at 2AM summoning him to his office to treat a man who had been shot in the head with a 1911 .45. He got to his office expecting to find someone clinging to life, and instead was surprised to find a very drunk man with a hole in his forehead, complaining loudly of a headache. Seems he and buddies had been playing poker, and when there was a disagreement one gentleman shot this fellow square in the forehead from a range of no more than 4 feet. When Grandad probed the wound, he found solid bone -- no hole in the skull. Feeling around the man's head, he felt a lump in the rear at the base of the skull. He took a scalpel, sliced into the lump, and out popped an almost-pristine 230 gr. bullet. The bullet had coursed up, over, and around the skull under the skin doing no more than minor damage.
I always remember this tale whenever I see a 9 vs. .40 vs. .45 "stopping power" discussion. It's always wise to keep in mind that there's really no such thing as "stopping power" in a handgun.
Grandad got a call from police at 2AM summoning him to his office to treat a man who had been shot in the head with a 1911 .45. He got to his office expecting to find someone clinging to life, and instead was surprised to find a very drunk man with a hole in his forehead, complaining loudly of a headache. Seems he and buddies had been playing poker, and when there was a disagreement one gentleman shot this fellow square in the forehead from a range of no more than 4 feet. When Grandad probed the wound, he found solid bone -- no hole in the skull. Feeling around the man's head, he felt a lump in the rear at the base of the skull. He took a scalpel, sliced into the lump, and out popped an almost-pristine 230 gr. bullet. The bullet had coursed up, over, and around the skull under the skin doing no more than minor damage.
I always remember this tale whenever I see a 9 vs. .40 vs. .45 "stopping power" discussion. It's always wise to keep in mind that there's really no such thing as "stopping power" in a handgun.
flop-shank
US Veteran
The same friend who I recently mentioned shooting someone's arm off with an M-16, had an AK round go through his helmet, glance off his skull, cut the webbing in the top of his helmet, bounce off the other side of his head, and come to rest sticking halfway out the other side of his steel pot. He was knocked out cold.
Of all the gunshot wounds I have witnessed the following has to be the strangest:
A young female was standing next to her friend (or whatever he may have been called that particular night) who was sitting on a concrete block. He was screwing around with a .25 ACP, and somehow managed to shoot her in the right temple. From the blood trail we could determine that she ran away from him, did a complete loop around a tree, ran past him and fell on the sidewalk a few yards from where she was shot. She was hauled off to the local hospital where they did X-rays of her head to try to find the bullet. Nothing was found and no exit wound could be located. She was put on a helicopter and flown to the nearest trauma center. The short story is that the bullet went into her head, missed her brain, and went into her sinus cavity. The doctors said that most likely when she collapsed the bullet fell onto the back of her tongue and she swallowed it like a wad of snot. They located the bullet in her stomach and she crapped it out a few days later. Exactly one week after being shot I saw her at a bar with a bandage on her head, holding a 24oz beer.
A young female was standing next to her friend (or whatever he may have been called that particular night) who was sitting on a concrete block. He was screwing around with a .25 ACP, and somehow managed to shoot her in the right temple. From the blood trail we could determine that she ran away from him, did a complete loop around a tree, ran past him and fell on the sidewalk a few yards from where she was shot. She was hauled off to the local hospital where they did X-rays of her head to try to find the bullet. Nothing was found and no exit wound could be located. She was put on a helicopter and flown to the nearest trauma center. The short story is that the bullet went into her head, missed her brain, and went into her sinus cavity. The doctors said that most likely when she collapsed the bullet fell onto the back of her tongue and she swallowed it like a wad of snot. They located the bullet in her stomach and she crapped it out a few days later. Exactly one week after being shot I saw her at a bar with a bandage on her head, holding a 24oz beer.
