I would like to relate an anecdote from a fellow I know here in Salt Lake City. “Mike” went through a nasty divorce from his wife several years ago. When the final judgment was entered, Mike called the cops to have them stand by at the house while he retrieve his belongings as ordered by the court. So with 2 cops standing in the yard, Mike is carrying some stuff from the house to his car. When he is about 25 ft. away, his ex wife steps out onto the porch, aims and fires 1 round of 9mm. The round struck Mike in the back of his head where the neck meets the skull, left of center. Mike dropped, but was not knocked unconscious. He crawled forward and hid behind a tree. The cops disarmed his wife who was ruled mentally incompetent and spent 7 yrs. in the loonie bin.
The bullet went into the muscle at the back of Mike’s neck and lodged against the bottom of his skull. The doctors did not want to operate as there is a lot of stuff in the neck that can be damaged during surgery, so the bullet is still there. The scar is a divot about 1.5 inches wide, 1 inch high, and about 3/8" deep at its deepest point. The scar tissue on the divot looks like the scar tissue on someone’s deltoid from a vaccination. Mike says he currently experiences no discomfort from the bullet (although he has other health problems).
I do not know the model of gun / bbl length or bullet weight or type used, but I will attempt to find out these details in the future and add them to this thread.
It truly is amazing the things people survive through. The woman in this was probably pretty lucky (relative term) that windshield glass was between her and the shooter.
My did took a piece of shrapnel in his posterior cervical spine in Feb. 1945 on the German border that remained lodged between C5-C6 without any long-term effect until his death in 1991. Pretty common for surgeons to leave projectiles in-situ (in place) if there is no good reason to go after them.
I personally was involved in the care of an individual who attempted suicide with a .357Mag to the head. He put a pillow between the the muzzle and his skull and suffered only a grazing shot.
A psychiatrist I knew kept a .38Sp full cartidge with a primer strike (powder drilled out) on his key chain. One of his patients swallowed the muzzle in a failed suicide attempt. Trigger pull, click, no boom. She decided God had more purpose in her life and sought treatment for her depression.
Pistol bullets and skulls are a strange mixture. I’m personally aware of several close range head shots that resulted in minimal injury, with 9 and .45’s.