I have heard the phrase “He got his head blown off by a shotgun”, or some variant, before. I’m wondering if this is literally true. Can a shotgun blast actually blow a head to smithereens?
Don’t need answer fast…
A good chunk of it, yeah. All of it would be a bit much but it can transform half the head into gibs. Maybe a magnum 10 gauge could completely blow off a small head.
Google image the keywords “shotgun” and “suicide” together.
Yeah, I have seen pics, but I didn’t really know for a fact if they were real or fake.
Where’s MythBusters when you really need them.
Anecdote:
I have shot at watermelons that were close to but a little larger than the average head with a 12 gauge. Although they were fairly squishy, which is why we used them as target practice and not lunch, they were never completely obliterated. Close range the shot pattern stays fairly tight so it obliterated big chunks but not all. Further out and it starts to spray more but loses some of its power to “Obliterate”. Still devastating and totally lethal but not the completely gone you are asking for. Given that a head is very different from a melon I’m not sure how to read this but I’m betting total obliteration would be unlikely in any event.
As for the pictures I don’t want to look at anything I can’t un-see.
What about two barrels fired at just the right range at the neck? Could the head literally be blown off without being totally obliterated?
There is a web site that’s been in existence since 1997 that has photographs of what you seek. Even the two-click rule here is insufficient for this site. You can find it on your own. It appears the site hasn’t been updated since 2012.
[Monty Python voice]
It was just a *small *head.
[/Monty Python voice]
Good Lord! That was informative. Thanks!
LaGarde’s Gunshot Injuries (1915) includes a (B&W) photo of a suicide who killed himself by sticking the barrel in his mouth. There isn’t much recognisably left except the lower jaw with a few teeth in it.
We are a morbid bunch.
Yes, I admit to being morbidly curious. I just can’t seem to help myself. I gotta admit, I find this sort of stuff interesting, dunno why…
Thank you, Dr. Lecter.
Shotgun blast to the head removes a significant part of the head. Double barrel with both barrels opened up all but removes the entire head depending on focal location.
A detective with Waukesha Sheriffs Office showed me some slides of a guy that put a handful of .22 bullets in his mouth before putting the shotgun under his chin. BION one of the buck shots actually ignited one of the .22 rounds that went backwards through his skull while the 00 buck went upwards through his brain. Now there was a guy who REALLY wanted out!!!:eek:
Yes, a shotgun blast placed well can mess you up REAL good. The sad cases are those who miss. You’d think a kill shot placed by the head’s owner would be a no-brainer, but some sad sacks can’t even manage that, just blowing off non-critical parts of their heads.
A coyotes head is much smaller than a humans, it will blow a coyote head pretty well to bits but not completely remove it. Possibly with the right shot size and a very speciif distance you might if you had a good neck shot with a 10 guage.
AKA James Vance.
Almost by definition, the owner of a good shot becomes a no-brainer.
Well, there are head shots and there are head bursting shots. Shooting a human head with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with 00 buckshot from ten feet away sees nine .33" lead balls flying in a cluster that is a bit larger than a golf ball when it crosses those ten feet. These 9 lead balls will hit the head at 1,100+ feet per second, doing serious damage.
Head bursting shots involve holding the shotgun muzzle tight against the skin. Now there is all of the high pressure, high velocity expanding gases entering the head along with those 9 lead balls. Pop.