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Great American Outdoors

Ballistics

This Is Sure To Be Messy…A 12 Gauge ‘Slug Fest’ Versus A Human Torso

The shotgun has been around for quite some time, it serves multiple purposes and is a very versatile tool. People have been using shotguns to put meat on the table for centuries.

It also is a very effective weapon, shotguns (depending on the ammunition), can cause horrific wounds to the human body.

For instance, a saboted hollow point slug would destroy the shoulder, even from fairly long range. You’d be lucky to keep your arm at all. There would also likely be trauma throughout the upper torso from the catastrophic impact.

But, what would a shotgun slug do to a human? Although rare, shotgun slug injuries are severe, producing wounds comparable to those inflicted by high-velocity weapons with the potential for even more tissue destruction because of the slug’s size and mass.

Will a bulletproof vest stop a shotgun slug? Generally speaking, yes. Close range shots with slugs might penetrate soft body armor, but all forms of bird shot, or buck shot, should be stopped by Level IIIA soft body armor and higher rated armor.

The bottom line is, you really do not want to take a hit from a shotgun slug at all, especially if you are not wearing any kind of body armor.

But, all this is merely conjecture. Watch the video below, as the host has a ballistic dummy, which should show the severity of just what shotgun slug will do to a human body.

Keep in mind, that the bones that they use in these models, whether plastic or real (but dead) bone, does not produce a ‘realistic’ simulation of the movement of blades through live bone. Calibrated ballistic gelatin is made to simulate the resistance of the human body in general.

As for me, I think the wounds would be even more horrific on a real person.

So, if you are the squeamish type, you might not want to watch this.

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