I’ve heard people say that when a handgun is fired against a person’s body, that the expanding gases seriously complicate the wound. I tested the theory with a S&W 638.
Impact velocity: approximately 900 fps
Penetration: 14.1"
Retained weight: 134.5gr
Max expansion: 0.554"
Min expansion: 0.426"
It definitely tore up the clothing pretty well and added a lot of powder particles to the wound, but it doesn’t look like the wound is any worse than normal.
Would the results be different with a magnum? What about a rifle or shotgun? Were there just not enough gasses from the .38 spl to be a factor?
I would like to see the same test performed with a higher pressure round like 9mm or .357 magnum.
Still a good information though!
It looks again like that 135 gr Gold Dot just barely has enough velocity to open up. Lower the ambient temperature, have a cartridge on the lower end of the extreme spread, or add a little distance to the target and this particular GD does not open up.
In one of his books, Jeff Cooper describes a suicide where a man placed the business end of a barrel under his chin and blew the top of his head off using only a powder charge. They later found the bullet on the mantlepiece. I would expect the bigger powder volume of a rifle or magnum round to cause more damage than a regular pistol round. Either way, anecdotally at least, the damage from a contact shot is almost certainly worse than from a shot of any reasonable distance long enough for only the bullet to be the wounding mechanism.
You are describing the “bang stick” effect. A bang stick is a short and single barreled handgun on the end of a short pole. It is used primarily by divers for killing fish. It is also about the only way known to instantly take out a good sized shark. In use, it is jammed against the fish and the barrel slides back enough to cause the primer to contact a firing pin and ignite the cartridge. There may be newer designs out there that I am not yet aware of.
This is a significant advantage of the revolver in that if the barrel is jammed against an opponent and the trigger is pulled, the gun will still shoot. A short recoil operated auto will usually disconnect and prevent the round from firing. The effect is much greater than just the bullet, as the expanding gases are much higher velocity than the projectile and cause tremendous shock. I always recommend a revolver for defense against bears for this reason.
depends on a lot of variables. I had a patient walk in from the ambulance once after trying to eat a shotgun. if you google a bit there are some pretty horrific contact wounds.
At least from what I saw with the shotgun, that column of air in the barrel may displace the barrel just enough to prevent a clean shot, but also causes pretty massive stellate type lacerations. Not only the bullet track, but also flesh torn from high velocity gasses.
We fired the 135g Gold Dot into ballistic gelation out of my Model 60 with 1-7/8" barrel. The gelation was shot at a distance of 15’. Rounds fired through 4 layers of denim and at bare gelatin opened up like they were designed to do with decent penetration.
I was unpleasantly surprised when the 158g LHP +P FBI load I had been carrying for years failed to perform as well. The bullets did not deform at all.
The Speer 135 gr short barrel load is on the ragged edge of its ability. If you have a “fast” barrel, you should see good results. My 638’s barrel seems a touch “slow”. Take a look at my other tests. Even ATK’s site shows the shot through denim had marginal expansion.
ATK shows expansion at .577" and penetration at 11". It is identical to what I observed. I measured a MV of 866 fps out of my J Frame. Published MV is 945 fps.
It’s not the best defensive cartridge, but it is pretty good for a small concealable firearm.
I haven’t seen anyone who was shot with it though and that is the acid test of any defensive cartridge.
Ive seen several contact shots from suicides. There is indeed a big difference between magnum rounds like the 357/44 and normal rounds like the 38/9/40. I have seen the magnum rounds remove large amounts of the victims head while the normal rounds usually just go through like normal with a decent amount more damage at the entrance. I have only seen a few chest shots that were contact (all woman) and they used 22s and 38s. Other than the burn marks on the skin I didnt notice anything significantly different. However I obviously didnt perform any kind of surgery or autopsy so I cant say if the inside was any different than normal.
Do that same test with a 4 or 6 inch 357 or 44 with full powered loads and you will see a significant difference.
I’ll echo what Cgrunt has seen. I’ve been to four pistol suicides over the years. 9mm’s didn’t look to bad. A model 19 in the mouth took about 2 inches of the crown off the man’s head.
I investigatied a shooting two years ago with a struggle and contact shot to the right side under the armpit. Interesting circular burn pattern about 2 or 3 inches in diameter around the entrance hole. Semi auto functioned fine and fired two more rounds. David
You can put your thumb over the back of a slide and fire. There isn’t that much pressure.
I’d be more worried about the sad state of circumstance that lead me resorting to a contact shot. I could give two ****s about the effect of someone blowing their own head off.
I investigated three suicides in which a handgun was used, but never a self defense shooting where someone made a contact shot. What surprised me the first two times was that the projectile did not exit the skull, one was a .45 ACP round and the other a 9mm +P+ round. On the third suicide the subject pressed a revolver against his chest and the round did not exit, which surprised me as well.
Two other suicides in which a shotgun (over and under 12 gauge) and rifle (AR-15 with 20" barrel) were used, it was difficult to tell what damage was caused by muzzle gas and what damage was caused by pressure from the projectile(s) passing through the head or chest. In both cases the damage was much more devastating than injuries inflicted with a handgun.
I agree with bp7178’s comment about the circumstances leading up to needing to make a contact shot. My concern about gas escaping is about what the shooter would experience in a self defense situation.