Contact shot, blast damage?

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Keith B
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#16

Post by Keith B »

Excaliber wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:06 am
surferdaddy wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:48 pm
Excaliber wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:16 am This article should answer the question.
So the residual blast can be fatal by itself it would seem. Craziness. Didn’t Brandon Lee die from blanks somehow?
No, Bruce Lee reportedly died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller he had taken for headaches.
Bruce died from a brain edema possibly caused by a reaction to a prescription painkiller. His son Brandon was shot during the filming of The Crow. The gun was a .44 magnum.

In the scene preceding the fatal scene, the gun was loaded with dummy rounds, rounds which have a bullet but no powder or primer, so that close-ups would show normal-looking bullets.

For the fatal scene, which called for the revolver to be fired at Lee from close range, the dummy cartridges were replaced with blank rounds, which feature a live powder charge and primer, but no bullet, thus allowing the gun to be fired without the risk of an actual projectile. The bullet from a dummy round had separated from the cartridge and lodged in the barrel. When the blank round was fired, the bullet was propelled forward with almost the same force as if the round were live, and it struck Lee in the abdomen. He died after 6 hours in surgery.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#17

Post by ELB »

Excaliber wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:06 am
surferdaddy wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:48 pm
Excaliber wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:16 am This article should answer the question.
So the residual blast can be fatal by itself it would seem. Craziness. Didn’t Brandon Lee die from blanks somehow?
No, Bruce Lee reportedly died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller he had taken for headaches.
Surferdaddy is asking about Bruce Lee’s son Brandon, who did die from an accident involving blanks.

However it wasn't the gasses from the blank that killed him, at least not directly. As I remember reading it years ago, The Crow was a low budget production. At one point the prop master manufacture dummy rounds for a revolver out of live rounds by pulling the bullets, emptying the powder, then replacing the bullets into the cases. The cases may have retained their primers.

The handmade dummy bullets were used in a revolver in a scene Where are the revolver was seen close up and needed to look like it was loaded.. Somehow one of the bullets came loose and lodged in the barrel – – I’ve read two accounts, one that somebody actually pulled the trigger and the primer drove the bullet into the barrel, And another account where the bullet (or the tip broke off) simply came loose and stuck in the barrel.

The revolver was set aside for a couple weeks without being properly cleared, and then used in a scene where Brandon Lee walks through a doorway to a shot by an opponent. The same revolver was used for this scene and loaded with blanks. When it was fired the movie blood squib on Bruce Lee exploded and he fell down as directed, so no one realized immediately that he had actually been shot with a .44 bullet, or at least a piece of one. When they realized he was really shot they rushed him to the hospital but surgeons were not able to save him.
Last edited by ELB on Mon Mar 29, 2021 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#18

Post by J.R.@A&M »

Perhaps contributing to Oswald's demise from Jacky Ruby's snub 38? Else it was a very fatal bullet trajectory through Oswald's abdomen.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1963/11/24 ... 204553842/
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#19

Post by surferdaddy »

ELB wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:27 am
Excaliber wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:06 am
surferdaddy wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:48 pm
Excaliber wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:16 am This article should answer the question.
So the residual blast can be fatal by itself it would seem. Craziness. Didn’t Brandon Lee die from blanks somehow?
No, Bruce Lee reportedly died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller he had taken for headaches.
Surferdaddy is asking about Bruce Lee’s son Brandon, who did die from an accident involving blanks.

However it wasnt the gasses from the blank tha killed him, at least not directly. As I remember reading it years ago, The Crow was a low budget ptoduction. At one point the prop master manufacture dummy rounds for a revolver out of live rounds by pulling the bullets, emptying the powder, then replacing the bullets into the cases. The cases may have retained their primers.

The handmade dummy bullets were used in a revolver in a scene Where are the revolver was seen close up and needed to look like it was loaded.. Somehow one of the bullets came loose and lodged in the barrel – – I’ve read two accounts, one that somebody actually pulled the trigger and the primer drove the bullet into the barrel, And another account where the bullet (or the tip broke off) simply came loose and stuck in the barrel.

The revolver was set aside for a couple weeks without being properly cleared, and then used in a scene where Brandon Lee walks through a doorway to a shot by an opponent. The same revolver was used for this scene and loaded with blanks. When it was fired the movie blood squib on Bruce Lee exploded and he fell down as directed, so no one realized immediately that he had actually been shot with a .44 bullet, or at least a piece of one. When they realized he was really shot they rushed him to the hospital but surgeons were not able to save him.
Crazy the odds of that happening. So sad.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#20

Post by surferdaddy »

J.R.@A&M wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:11 am Perhaps contributing to Oswald's demise from Jacky Ruby's snub 38? Else it was a very fatal bullet trajectory through Oswald's abdomen.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1963/11/24 ... 204553842/
Was that a contact shot? I was never able to tell from the one video if ruby was against him.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#21

Post by J.R.@A&M »

surferdaddy wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 12:06 pm
J.R.@A&M wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:11 am Perhaps contributing to Oswald's demise from Jacky Ruby's snub 38? Else it was a very fatal bullet trajectory through Oswald's abdomen.

https://www.upi.com/Archives/1963/11/24 ... 204553842/
Was that a contact shot? I was never able to tell from the one video if ruby was against him.
I can’t tell from the old video
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#22

Post by Chaparral »

Excaliber wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 7:06 am
surferdaddy wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 11:48 pm
Excaliber wrote: Sat Mar 27, 2021 8:16 am This article should answer the question.
So the residual blast can be fatal by itself it would seem. Craziness. Didn’t Brandon Lee die from blanks somehow?
No, Bruce Lee reportedly died from an allergic reaction to a painkiller he had taken for headaches.
Four cases of death by blank, including Brandon Lee, cited here.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blank_(cartridge)

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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#23

Post by powerboatr »

off topic
but i have, all the gross stories beat.

i was stationed at pensacola in a department that happened to also have a large hangar.

they also teach flight training in pcola, and one of the trainers crashed into a "hill" and killed both pilots (student and training pilot). Well the navy thought it would be great to bring the Plane and its human parts to our hangar, vice the flight training squadron about 30 miles away. We had to post watch on said plane until the investigators convened, 24/7 in very close proximity.
mind you the small amount of pieces they could recognize as parts of the human body were removed at crash sight (4 legs one set was missing its feet, one torso, arms minus hands), the rest were strewn throughout the small plane. it was freaking gross, brains, skins, hair, i think an eyeball, blood, blood, blood, more brains and skull were everywhere the windshield, the instrument panel the back of front seat, the propeller . we had to post watch around this plane for weeks. IN the summer and it stank, made flies and oozed juices all over the floor. even the investigators got sick. once they completed and removed the plane to be destroyed it took use weeks to get all the FLIES out and the smell vacated. SO now nothing turns me inside out, except brains.

it was weird the plane didnt burn, it just ran into the earth

no blast damage, just sudden stop damage
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#24

Post by JustSomeOldGuy »

Lost power because they were out of fuel?
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#25

Post by srothstein »

powerboatr wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:25 pm IN the summer and it stank, made flies and oozed juices all over the floor. even the investigators got sick.
As most patrolmen learn rather quickly in major cities, there are two good tricks to dealing with the smell. One way to handle the smell is to smear Vick's Vaporub under your nose. While it will generally work to open your sinuses, the menthol smell works to block other odors for a short time. I don't think there is enough Vaporub in the world to handle a full 8 hour shift in close proximity to that though. The second is an old homicide detective's trick. At one scene like this, I was told that this is why a lot of homicide detectives carry cheap old cigars. Light it up at the crime scene and pretty quickly, all you smell is the cigar.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#26

Post by powerboatr »

JustSomeOldGuy wrote: Mon Mar 29, 2021 11:10 pm Lost power because they were out of fuel?
nope, flew into a stand of trees, that removed the wings and the fuselage kept going into the ground. it was gruesome ,


at least thats what the investigators told me, they were puzzled as to why or how they got disoriented and tried to knock the top off a hill. this drove the intense mechanical inspection to make sure it was pilot/s error.


a few years later i lost a dear friend when a trainee pilot flew into his plane while training in key west. we had closed casket because he was in pieces
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#27

Post by Lena »

I witnesses and was involved in a car jacking shooting some yrs ago involving 2 males stabbing the occupants the defensive action was return fire from a 45 acp at 9-12" Hydro Shock ammo the impact was on bridge on nose and upper lip, besides the apparent bullet penetration there was a huge amount of blast damage on both individuals so per topic yes for sure blast damage does exist.
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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#28

Post by surferdaddy »

I have been doing a lot of pondering about my edc as of late, that’s really why I brought this subject up. I have weapons with high capacity and I admit that they do have very compelling advantages in many situations but I also know that the elegant design of a revolver has some advantages as well. All any of us can do is make ourselves aware of likely scenarios and make our choices. I buy into the rule of 3s, the “average of 3 rounds at 3 yards in three seconds” thing. I sometimes imagine situations where I’m taking cover and engaging in a defensive gunfight, like in a restaurant or mall kinda thing but when I consider the statistics, the fight that hopefully never comes will likely be an up close and dirty thing. I guess the ideal handgun load out would be a high cap semi for distance work and multiple assailants and a small revolver for up close stuff.

I have to admit that my attempts to plan a defensive load out to best suit daily situations gives me a bit of anxiety. There are times when I wish I could just stick to one gun to carry and methodically go to it every day and simply deal with its shortcomings.

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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#29

Post by surferdaddy »

I will say this, that the reliability of a revolver is extremely comforting to me. When I go to the range I always rent a private lane that allows drawing from concealment because I like to pull my carry gun from concealment and put rounds on target in its exact carry state that it’s been in.

One day I was carrying my Glock 27 and did the range “draw and fire in its carry state” thing. “CLICK”

Now I have put hundreds of rounds through that pistol before that “click” and after my shock cleared I tap racked the pistol and it has run many hundreds of rounds since then. Heck, I even reloaded the round it “clicked” on, which had a nice deep primer strike, and it fired it fine. BUT, that could have been the “click” that killed me or my family. This was my Glock!!! It is not supposed to happen. It was also very good defensive ammo. It may not ever malfunction again but I can never get the incident out of my mind.

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Re: Contact shot, blast damage?

#30

Post by ELB »

I just saw a post on Quora from someone who says they do or did autopsies that they once had a well-dressed white male pushing 50 that did not have any external signs indicating why he was dead lying along the interstate. When they opened him up, his heart, lungs, and all the rest of the organs in the abdomen were shredded and he was full of blood. X-ray showed what turned out to be birdshot in the (denser) muscles of his upper thighs. He had some contusions of the throat.

They concluded this was an organized crime execution where he had been forced to kneel and look up, then a shotgun, probably a .410, shoved down his throat, and ... boom. Author didn't state but I would guess a good percentage of the damage was simply from the powder combustion gasses.

Now that's a contact shot.

I don't have the link to Quora handy, but I'll try to add it later.
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