Effects of a gun shot.

Desert Author said:

I'm requesting help from someone with medical experience. My MC got shot with a high caliber (.308) rifle from a hundred yards. The round hit him in the lower left torso, about the waistline, below the rib cage. What would be damaged beside the descending colon and muscle tissue? How long would recovery be? And, to win the grand prize, what would be the first step of his recuperation, or physical therapy?
Thank you,
jeff

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That caliber will kill an elk at 100+ yards. Here's a discussion of the Remington 700 series rifle with a .308 load:
"[FONT=Arial, Verdana, Helvetica, san serif]In reference to the .308 and large game I would have no problem taking it hunting with confidence in it's abilities. If you should buy into the belief that deer sized game should be hit with at least 1000ft/lbs at impact and Elk sized game 1500ft/lbs you could easily use this cartridge out past 400yrds"

[/FONT]With that bullet and that hit, he's dead fast.

The forceful impact of the slug turned his spleen to mush. Even if the bullet missed the spleen, the shock wave hit it. That's a fast way to bleed to death. Depending on how he was turned and what stage of breathing, you might have blown a hole in the diaphragm too, which makes it impossible to breathe. The stomach, if damaged, leaks gastric juice into the abdominal cavity, and there's a kidney tucked up right under the diaphragm ... also a bleeder.

Then there's the exit wound. It's going to be big enough to stick your fist into.

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To make the plot happen, what kind of hospital and recovery time do you need? Work backwards from there to decide how to hurt him.

It would be "possible" to survive a .308 in the left lower quadrant, but with all the likely damage to the descending colon, multiple loops of small bowel, Iliac vessels, left ureter and the many layers of muscle outside the abdominal cavity and all the resultant bleeding make survival for more than even a couple hours unlikely.

A .22 short or long (not to be confused with a .222 or even a 22 magnum) will perforate without all the shock wave damage so they will most likely still need surgery or take a week or so to die from being gut shot. A .22 short to the back might realistically be stopped by the muscle and never penetrate into either the abdomen or retroperitoneum. In that scenario, a tight bandage and maybe some pain medicine would last a few days until medical help and might even heal on its own over a couple weeks if kept clean.

You could also have him not take the shot directly but catch shrapnel from a nearby object, say a rock or tree he happens to be standing next to. That way you might be able to be a little more selective about the level of damage he sustains and still sound plausible. Also that can make the injury appear quite gruesome without it actually being immediately life threatening too.

Desert Author said:

Thanks Tsu,

How about a .22 cal.? Could the person survive that, and if so, what would the damage be?

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Let's work backwards from what the plot timeline needs:

How long do you need MC out of action and recuperating and how bad do you want to make the MC suffer?

Once we know that, we can figure out what kind of injury is needed. Maybe he steps in a gopher hole and falls, making the shot miss, and spends the next 3 months recovering from a broken leg?

Does it have to be a .308?

Someone has already mentioned a .22, but there's also a .303 or a .30-06

Just a thought for you:
0.308 is about the Kalachnikov's caliber
0.22 is about M-16 caliber.

M-16 can do a lot of damage from a hundred yards. So, it also depends on what kind of rifle we are talking about.

Most high power hand guns are about 0.38 (9 mil), but they would do minimal damage from a hundred yards (disregarding the accuracy that would be abismal). So, the caliber isn't everything. Uzi, for example, has the same caliber as those hand guns, but the level of damage is incomparable (not to mention that a hund gun loaded with Uzi cartridge would most likely blow up in your hand).

tallus83 said:

Does it have to be a .308?

Someone has already mentioned a .22, but there's also a .303 or a .30-06

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Both would be just as deadly, if not more so.

Why more so?

The .303 British is actually .311 in diameter, and sometimes has a tendency to tumble.

.30-06 Springfield is usually loaded hotter than the .308.

All three would cause horrific wounds.

A .30-06 is a powerful round which can go through most bullet proof glass, it would practically blow him in half.

Any wound below the diaphragm is considered 'dirty' since any bowel perforation spreads feces, bacteria and whatnot through the entire abdomen creating massive sepsis and all sorts of secondary infections that will kill if the bullet doesn't.

If the MC gets grazed off the ribs, he could still move if necessary, bleed alot, & likely have fractures.