ALthough not very common, the .22 Magnum(or .22 WMR) Is a fairly capable civilian round, that would stand a decent chance of being fatal.
Size of the round isn’t the problem, it’s the deformation. A .22 slug basically flattens out to the shape of a nickel after contact with a hard surface. If anyone has shot a person with a .22 and finds this to be incorrect, please let me know. After shooting a very large number of .22 rounds, I have never recovered one that wasn’t in the shape of a nickel. Of course the firing pin mark on the case can still be used but that’s not related to the slug size. I have two .22LR hand guns so yes, they are do exist.
The angle of contact is critical to this case of “can you survive a headshot”. I have absolutely no problems believing that a .22 slug impacting a person’s skull from a non-90 degree angle would not penetrate and only give the person a scalp wound and one hell of a headache. I doubt the 90-degree thing is a good explanation so, not “head on” if that makes better sense. Having seen plenty of ammunition ricochet off of water because of the angle, it would not surprise me one bit.
By the way, Hinkley shot Reagan with a .22 pistol. Brady took one in the head and while he is obviously screwed up from it, he lived. Reagan took one under the arm and survived while I believe that one Secret Service agent was hit and died. He was using “detonator” rounds so the ballistics of it are questionable compared to standard rounds.
I don’t know if it was a .22, but wasn’t President Lincoln shot with a very small round?
The rounds Hinckley used were Devastator explosive bullets, this link (ghastly color scheme warning) contains more information about them.
I guess you mean “heart or the head”.
I actually nursed a patient who had tried to suicide by shooting himself in the heart with a .22 gun. The bullet was lodged in the muscle of his heart and doctors were going to leave it there but had to remove it because it began to interfere with the electical signals that control the heartbeat.
Again, don’t try this at home.
I have seen many GSW’s while working as a fireman/paramedic in Dallas; the majority of which are handgun related. Yes you can survive a head shot from a .22 or a .45 caliber handgun.
The Long Road, mentioned angle of contact earlier, and that is the critical element, along with the particular area of the cranium, that was involved. The skull has strong and weak points, so not every angled head shot is non-lethal.
I have also seen a .32 caliber bullet lodged right between a guys eyes. He shot himself from point blank, and survived. The bullet cracked open his skull at point of impact and stopped there. He had a huge hematoma, but no permanent injury.
Unfortunately, I’ve seen leg shots that were lethal. Any major artery, if damaged can cause enough volume loss for a person to crash(blood pressure drops).
almost any gunshot ‘can’ kill you, given the most favourable circumstances, even pellet air guns if they enter an eye cavity or some other vulnerable spot. However, .22LR cannot be relied upon to kill you, or stop you doing whatever the other guy wants to stop you doing, which is why the police don’t use them.
More or less… High speed bullets do indeed do damage due to shock effect- basically the shock wave stretches tissues beyond their capacity and they tear/rip, or organs rupture/break, etc… Still, even at that, what ultimately kills you is blood loss or direct CNS damage.
Another thing- in this context, “high speed” really means rifle bullets like the 5.56 NATO or .30-06, which travel at speeds upwards of 2800 FPS.
This is the real difference between teh 5.56 nato(what the M16 fires) and the .22 long rifle- they’re both the same diameter (.22 vs .223), but the 5.56 goes 3200 fps, while a .22LR goes 1200 FPS. Both have roughly the same size bullet too- ~55 grains for the 5.56, and ~40 for the .22.
Handgun rounds typically stay around 1000 FPS, which isn’t fast enough to cause any of the speed-related effects. Therefore, you need a wide, heavy bullet to make a big hole and have enough momentum to penetrate deeply.
That’s why the 45 auto, or even Civil War muskets were effective- big heavy bullets going relatively slow- they just poked a great big hole in people due to size and momentum.
.22LR has neither- it’s probably the weakest commonly available round in the world.
Thanks for the corrections. I saw Devastator, switched back here and typed Detonator. My Short Term Memory sucks.
This is off topic but since we are talking about bullet damage…Last night while driving home and listening to an AM radio program about hunting and hunting laws, I heard this lovely story. Grandfather is out deer hunting with Grandson. Grandson starts walking toward Granfathers stands near the end of the day. Grandfather shoot Grandson at 50 yards with a 300 magnum. All I can think is “Holy shit!”, look at the energy and size of the round. The kid died of course, angles and such don’t matter much when you get hit from 50 years with a round like that.
QUOTE FROM SAM STONE:
I’ve heard something similar to the OP, only it was in the context of the .22 short round, specifically fired from those tiny derringers with almost no barrel. These weapons have an effective range of only a few feet, after which the .22 round will not have enough energy to typically be able to penetrate the skull.
I own a North American Arms .22 LR pistol. It measures 4 1/2 inches overall. When I first got it, I was firing at a 55 gallon drum with a paper target attached, from a distance of 5 feet. It didn’t penetrate. At 10 feet, it missed the target alltogether. I remember the guy who sold it to me calling it an ;
‘elevator gun’, meaning that it was only accurate if you were in an elevator.
I can’t speak to how much damage a .22 can do at any range, but I can tell you for sure that a .22 CAN kill at short range. My sister suicided with a .22
More oversimplifying a complex topic. Who said it was neccessary to penetrate the skull to kill someone? There are soft tissue entrances to the brain and more external soft tissue spots which can be fatal.
We did the same thing. With .22 shorts !