From: ems@michael.apple.com (E. Michael Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.guns
Subject: Re: .22 LR can kill at 1 mile
Date: 13 Nov 92 04:11:10 GMT
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA

In article <fpcqs4l@dixie.com> jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:

#While acknowledging that people have been killed by mere taps to the 
#temple, the numbers in this case just don't add up.  
...
#Linearly extrapolating
#to 1760 yards (1 mile) puts the velocity at about 200 fps.  

If a tap can do it, then a 200 fps bullet ought to also ...
Maybe you need to add a 'probably' in there?

#In any event, a 40 grain bullet is not going to hurt anyone going 200 fps
#unless it happened to hit an eye and then it would not kill.  Even 300
#fps is not going to do much more than sting.  

This is being a bit absolutist.  I know it is a FOAF story, but the
friend is a local police Seargent.  He worked a case where a child
was killed by a BB from a plain old Daisy air rifle.  The BB hit
the temple and, in an admitedly freak accident, hit right at the
skull suture.  Where the bones meet, in a child, they are still 
soft tissue.  The BB penetrated this weak spot, then caused the child
to die by hitting a critical spot in the brain.

It is, IMHO, telling that the 'Farmer' story had a CHILD being hit
in the head...  they just don't resist bullets as well as an adult...

It may take a freak set of circumstances.

It may be that for most adults 200 FPS through a leath coat would
be a petty annoyance.

I wouldn't want to stake my right to own guns on it... or someone
else's life ...

#The label on the box says RANGE 1 mile.  As computed above, the bullet
#will indeed go a mile and still have a tiny bit of velocity left.
#I'm having a lot of trouble with the "girl killed a mile away by
#farmer with a .22" line.  I've seen similar reports in papers here
#in the US.  

Believe it, it can, does, and has happened.  It is also true that
folks have died from having CPR practiced on them (the Periocardial
Thump is no longer taught to civilians since a thump on the chest
like that has caused SOME hearts to stop ... by the same mechanism
that lets it start others...), and that some folks have drowned from
aspirating a spoon or two of water.  All these are to some degree
freak accidents, but they do happen.  Do you want to defend against
it in court on the grounds that someone shouldn't have died when
your bullet hit them?

#My inclination is to label it an urban legend (rural legend?),
#though I will acknowledge that it is possible for some little girl
#somewhere, already predisposed to some fatal problem, dying after being
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This is an unneeded qualification.  There are weak spots in all of us
that are more subject to damage... some folks more than others.

#struck by a .22 bullet, perhaps from a dislodged blood clot or something.  
#I will NOT accept the claim that someone was killed by bullet penetration
#from a .22 fired a mile away.

Well, try this:  You hand load.  Load up some 40 gr. .22 slugs that do
about 200 fps (yes, squib loads, so watch the powder you use ... and I
guess 'work down' to them carefully ;-).  Then go out and shoot a melon...

I've shot pellets from a Benjamin pellet pistol into Coke cans and mellons
with 3 pumps (rather than the usual 10).  I think you will find that a 
40 grain slug at 200 fps does a decent job of punching holes in both 
tin cans and mellons...

If I had a cronograph, I'd measure the velocity of the pelets and report,
but I don't so I can't.  Can someone with a cronograph do the test?

John has done a very good job of providing reasonable terminal ballistics,
the only remaining question is what damage that velocity can do...


-- 

E. Michael Smith  ems@apple.COM

'Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has
 genius, power and magic in it.'  -  Goethe

I am not responsible nor is anyone else.  Everything is disclaimed.