There are always extremes in how bullets perform. I don't know if anyone reads Allen Jones in American Handgunner. He worked in a large city Texas ballistics lab for a long time and has other experience as well. He is the reason I buy that magazine. Anyway, he had a column not too long ago where he talked about unusual shooting situations. The one that stayed with me was where a woman had sworn out a warrant to keep some dude away from her-X boy friend I think-bad actor. Anyway, he comes over to her place and threatens her, of course. She is terrified-I think the guy had already beat her up. So she has an anchient single shot-bolt action rifle that was intended for some kind of .22 caliber skeet shooting. I know, it was a new one on me too. She has one bullet, also designed for this same sport, a .22 cal round that has a projectile made of some kind of compressed stuff that evidently acted like a mini shotgun round in this skeet deal, but that's all she had. So the guy is really about to come through the door, and she lets him have what she has-this granulated deal-right through the door. By this time, Jones is looking at the guys body at the lab, scratching his head with both hands, because the report says one shot fired, but the guy's got two holes in his chest. The first on the sceen comes in and fills out some more questions and adds some more to this incredible deal. The bullet split in half, and both halves evidently were fatal hits. The guy-who was reportedly quite large-was dead right there. Devine providence? That is a factor you know.
Now-The .45 ACP-In 1968 I saw this reveered round do two completely different things in the same incident. This was in a Liquor store in southern California. The old man who owned it had been shot in a hold up a few years before this, almost died, spent a long time recooperating, and when he went back to work, he hired only people proficient with firearms to work at his big modern store. It was long and narrow, with one door in and out-up by the cash register. Of course, the cashier was armed, and in this case, a 1911 in 45 ACP. But he also had a guy who walked around looking out through the cold cases with a rifle! Anyway, these two dudes came in separately, one going to the back of the store. while the other one loitered around up by Mr. Cash box, and proceeded to pull what was later determined to be a blank gun, pointed it at the cashier, and snapped off a couple of blank rounds at him. In response to this, the cashier drew his 1911, and shot this guy, at about arms length, in the chin, and just above one eye, basically removing his head, for all intents and purposes. At this, the other evil genious commences to run up the isle toward the cash register-there really wasn't many choices for him, but of those available, this was the worst. Of course, this is all happening fast, and as the clerk has completed shot # 2, he naturally lifts his weapon slightly, aiming at the now running, screaming, and shooting "co-conspiritor," who has an actual firearm-a .32, that he is discharging, mostly, into the now mostly headless body of his partner. The clerk puts two in him somewhere in the chest area-probably a classic double tap. He spins around, and exits through the door, gets in his car, and drives away!! The first cop on the sceen is a guy who hangs out in the same beer joint I do, and he, as well as myself, because I was staying accross the street, heard the shots. They found the second guy, alive. My cop buddy said that both of my fists would have fit in the hole in his back. He was paralized from there down-but alive. They found a very large quanity of hard drugs when they found this guy, a goodly portion of which was in these two. That's why he lived-no shock. Shock is what kills most shooting victims, especially those with not critical hits. They fouind that there were a "connect the dots" string of these hold ups that afternoon-6 I think. At one of them, the store employee yelled at them and they laughed and, ran out the door. When I finally walked accross the street, someone had thrown a 4X4 gause pad in this large pile of brains. The head hit was what it took to stop the guy, but the other guy "walked away" shot with the same gun. Just goes to show... Flapjack
