Always makes me wonder if the script writer's version of luck is being confused with fucked.

The vast majority of game animals I've eaten had been through-and-throughed...it was acutely unlucky for them.

On the flip side of this, what is with the urgent need in shows to get the bullet out? I'd think other things would take priority. I get that eventually it will be a lead poisoning risk etc., but the baddies are at the door so maybe patch the surface and get the hell out first?

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
On the flip side of this, what is with the urgent need in shows to get the bullet out?

That one always cracked me up.

Take out the bullet and they are cured and the damage the bullet caused magically goes away.

Why the double "throughs"?
"It went clean through"
Why twice?

Similarly, 99% of bullet wounds fit 1 of 3 categories:

1) Instantly fatal. Lights out. DRT. Most often applies to nameless extras.

2) Minor flesh wound that the character shrugs off. Perhaps needing to have the bullet removed with a pocket knife first. But no big deal.

3) Gut shot, low and to one side, to hide until its dramatic reveal immediately after accomplishing their important task, and then they croak.

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
On the flip side of this, what is with the urgent need in shows to get the bullet out?

Because it's what audiences have been led to expect. And it's a cheap script shortcut to show them getting medical care that can be handled in a few seconds of screen time: Do a quick montage showing some medical dude with some forceps, then a close-up of them dropping a bullet into a pan, then a shot of either sewing them up or taping a gauze pad over the spot. Then, on with the plot like it never happened!

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
Take out the bullet and they are cured and the damage the bullet caused magically goes away.

Exactly. This bullet wound is always directly in the middle of the shoulder structure - not a graze that creased the outer flesh but a penetrating wound directly into the middle of the complex bone/muscle/cartilage structure of the shoulder - and then a few minutes or hours after getting the bullet dug out, they're hanging for their life off the side of a building/helicopter/cliff by that same shoulder, yet are able to muscle themselves up to safety using that recently destroyed shoulder.

One of the guys I work with was shot "through and through" with the bullet entering at his hip, passing through the hip joint structure, and exiting out his buttock. It took five months of surgeries and rehab for him to get (mostly) back to normal.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
then a close-up of them dropping a bullet into a pan...

You beat me to it. There has to be the obligatory dropping. Whether it is a bullet, an arrowhead, some space debris (e.g. The Martian), etc. it's briefly examined and then ceremoniously dropped into a metal pan with a satisfying "clunk."

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Why the double "throughs"?
"It went clean through"
Why twice?

Through the skin on once side, then through the skin and out on the other side.

If it's not a through and through, the bullet is still lodged inside somewhere.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Why the double "throughs"?
"It went clean through"
Why twice?

Through the skin on once side, then through the skin and out on the other side.

If it's not a through and through, the bullet is still lodged inside somewhere.

The terminology is still ridiculous.
An in and out.
A through shot.
A "dinnt hit nuth'n import'nt"
Any of those make more sense than just referring to the penetration of skin.

quote:

The vast majority of game animals I've eaten had been through-and-throughed...it was acutely unlucky for them.

Guess it depend on what it went through on the way through......

Reminds me of the Doctor scene from Wick 3 that really picks up on this threads theme.... Listen to the Doc give Wick instructions on where to properly shoot....

Don't forget cauterizing the wound with gunpowder.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:

quote:

Originally posted by Ryanp225:
Why the double "throughs"?
"It went clean through"
Why twice?

Through the skin on once side, then through the skin and out on the other side.

If it's not a through and through, the bullet is still lodged inside somewhere.

Kinda' ridiculous to call it a 'through and through when, without the first 'through' it's NOT a gunshot wound...

Yes, even the name of the trope is bitch worthy...I reckon we're in meta-bitch territory.

Growing up in the 60's I remember the John Wayne movies with these events.
They also included, just before the Doc took the bullet out, a shot of Whiskey and punch to the jaw to knock the patient unconscious.
Always for their own good and 100% succcessful.

Two of my friends have been shot where the bullet passed through. Fortunate for both of them.

One was shot in his shoulder and the other in his lower leg.

I knew a man with a Ruger 22 auto pistol. He removed the magazine but forgot to clear the chamber. While holstering it fired. The bullet entered the side of his thigh and exited the back above the knee. It then entered his calf and ended up in his ankle. The doctors left the bullet in saying it would cause more damage to remove it. He was on crutches and then a cane for months. I guess this would be a through and through since it went through his thigh and through his calf. But I wouldn't say he was lucky.

I saw a number of people who were shot through and through. They were quite dead. Through and through!

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by apprentice:
On the flip side of this, what is with the urgent need in shows to get the bullet out?

That one always cracked me up.

Take out the bullet and they are cured and the damage the bullet caused magically goes away.

I caught an old episode of Gunsmoke partway through the other night. Some crazy old lady (really) needed to dig a bullet out of the guts of a ne'r-do-well that Festus had put lead on. She gave him a shot of whisky, had him grip a chair back from his bed and she proceeded to go after it with a 5" boning knife. Not an incision, mind you, but digging. They didn't show the clank, but he woke up the next morning a bit sore, but doing fine. "I had to go deep, but you should heal up fine". No concern for sewing his intestines back together or infection, at least not in the short term.

No movie cameras, no director, no script during my two combat tours in Vietnam. I helped render aid to wounded, stop bleeding, seal up sucking chest wounds (lung penetrated), bandage, bundle onto helicopters, and zip up in rubber bags for later evacuation.

Personally, I was wounded a total of 5 times. Once by close air support by the USAF (shrapnel tolower back and legs). Twice by bullets (left forearm and a chunk of elbow bone, and through the steel helmet to fracture my skull and give me a new hairstyle). Twice by enemy shrapnel (hand, arms, upper chest, shoulder, upper arm, buttocks, both legs).

Carried several pieces inside my body for about 9 to 12 years before they either worked their way to the surface or had to be surgically removed. Some were easily removed with a sharp blade to pierce the skin and a pair of forceps to extract the metal.

Knew one guy who carried a 7.62mm bullet in his lung for about 40 years, then brought it up in a coughing fit.

Knew other guys hit in major bones resulting in lots of damage and really serious pain.

Through-and-through (skin, muscle, etc) without striking bone or severing arteries is always preferable. Bullets and shrapnel left inside the body is seldom a major problem; sometimes the danger of removing exceeds the danger of leaving it alone. Infection from dirt, fibers, debris, and bacteria entering the wound are usually the primary concern in keeping the person alive for the long haul.

And where the hell is Point Blank ?

Is that south of Oxnard and north of Yuma 10 ?