Close Calls

Wicklowrider

http://blognator.com/soldiers-that-had-a-lot-of-luck/

Steyr

Very interesting, thanks for that, Manic have you ever come under fire "over there"?

Holybejaysus

Hmmm....I must say, some of these strike me as rather suspect. If they were ricochets, where a lot of the energy has dissipated, then that is survivable.

A glancing round to the helmet would probably leave you with a nice little headache, but a full on 7.62 would break your neck, not to mention pass through a helmet no problem.

I stand to be corrected on this by people who have actual experience with real firearms. (That doesn't mean you, COD fans..)

Lab_Mouse

Holybejaysus wrote: »

(That doesn't mean you, COD fans..)

Dont know about CoD but in Battlefield Bad Company 2 the damage from a 7.62 would depend on the range of the person firing the gun from their target.It might only break the targets neck a bit.

iceage

Lucky, lucky bast*rds! Just goes to show the lids and new armour is saving lives. More and more cases of these lucky bullets, recently story of a lad came out where the side panel of his Osprey stopped what they thought to be a 7.62 round. The impact took him completely off his feet. Thankfully he was left with just bruising.

Wicklowrider

Holybejaysus wrote: »

Hmmm....I must say, some of these strike me as rather suspect. If they were ricochets, where a lot of the energy has dissipated, then that is survivable.

A glancing round to the helmet would probably leave you with a nice little headache, but a full on 7.62 would break your neck, not to mention pass through a helmet no problem.

I stand to be corrected on this by people who have actual experience with real firearms. (That doesn't mean you, COD fans..)

I am GUESSING the reason a round passes through a helmet without deathly consequences in some cases is because of its high velocity - it punches cleanly through with little hindarance. I base that guess on the fact that the entry and exit holes on some of them are aprx the same size - which suggests to me that here was a minimum of resistance.
One of the despatches documentaries showed a marine taking a sniper round through his helmet and he suffered little more than a headache. I think I'd want my ticket if it got that close ( and perhapsa lotto ticket also).

I do remember the Irish army getting new helmets in the '80's and I think it was the supplier who set up a demo. They fired a round at the old helmet and it punched through. they fired a round at the new helmet and it glanced off BUT the piece of 4x4 on which the helmet was perched disintegrated into splinters!

firefly08

but a full on 7.62 would break your neck

Only if it hit your neck. If you mean being hit in the helmet, and the force breaking your neck, there is not much chance of that from a 7.62. If the bullet had sufficient force to do that, the rifle would seriously injure the shooter (equal and opposite reaction and all that jazz).

I don't know anything about military helmets or armour but I'm guessing that most of these guys were shot from some distance. As well as loosing energy over distance, bullets can also become destabilized, and tumble/bounce/ricochet more easily. I believe this can result in nastier wounds if it penetrates, but it probably reduces the likelihood of penetration.

Doyler92

Wow, the iPod picture is amazing.

Manic Moran

This is one of the more famous ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXMjh_XbkiI

Another is http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/teeth.asp

This is the closest that I'm aware of which I personally experienced.



I would routinely travel at 'eyeball defilade', basically sitting so that my eyes are clear of the periscopes, but not much else. So three, maybe four inches higher would have nailed me.

NTM

Wicklowrider

Manic Moran wrote: »

Another is http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/teeth.asp

This is the closest that I'm aware of which I personally experienced.



I would routinely travel at 'eyeball defilade', basically sitting so that my eyes are clear of the periscopes, but not much else. So three, maybe four inches higher would have nailed me.

NTM

Thats really amazing about that guy getting shot in the tooth and living.
I'd never guessed there were so many close calls in battle.
Congrats on your own luck with the close one (don't know if that sounds right, but hope you get what I mean..)

AbusesToilets

I have a friend who had a roll of black electrical tape in a side pouch that stopped a PKM round. He remembers asking if he had been hit and being told "No". Later on when he was going through his stuff he saw the hole in his pouch, looked inside and there was the round sticking out of the roll. Lucky fellow.