Broken Bottle

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CWL

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Y'all,

I been wondering about the effectiveness of the broken bottle as an impromptu fight weapon. I think we've all seen plenty of movies where some guy will grab a beer bottle by the neck, break it on the edge of the bar in order to get a nasty slicing/stabbing weapon.

My question is whether it is really possible to break the bottle in a controlled manner like in the movies, or is it just as likely to completely shatter in your hand? I've seen bottles thrown and used as clubs, but never seen any broken bottles used in a real fight.

Can anyone share any personal or eyewitness experiences of seeing bottles used in this manner?
 
by breaking a bottle in the manner they show on TV and in the movies you stand an equally good chance of cutting your own hand with a shard. also bottles with labels tend to contain the broken bits and don't result in the hollywood prop effect you see. From people I know who like to get in trouble with the law it seems intact bottles do a good job. the best thing to do is not get into bar fights or go to bars that have troublemakers. back to the original question why break a bottle over an object that didn't do anything to you when it's already a good weapon to break over someones head?
 
Well I wouldnt call it a good weapon. But. Well back in my younger days I was a bit of a hell raiser. One night in a bar I got a fight started then had two guys on me one armed with a bottle he had used as a club and still had a piece of and the other had a beer mug. They got cut as bad as anybody else but me and my cousin came out of there with more scar tissue than we went in with.





one shot one kill
 
There was a convenience store robbery in Tallahassee back in the mid 90's that ended with the robber dead and almost decapitated. The man behind the counter, when prompted to stand and deliver, grabbed a large bottle (I’m to understand it was either a wine bottle or a big 32 oz beer bottle) and chased the assailant out of the building.

Instead of going back inside and calling the cops, the worker continued the chase and caught the robber behind the building where he stabbed him in the throat with the broken bottle. The robber was DOA.

So yes, in that instance, a bottle was quite effective.

The clerk was found guilty of murder however, because he chased the robber down and killed him when his life was no longer in immediate danger.

In another instance, I witnessed a big (probably 6’ 1” 200lbs of muscle) redneck knocked unconscious by a ~145lb female with a beer bottle. She used the base of the bottle, holding it by the neck and delivering a hammer blow to the guy’s nose. The bottle didn’t break.

Another time, I saw a fellow get smashed over the head on a dance floor, movie style with a beer bottle. That one broke, and blood went everywhere. As I recall, that fellow walked to the ambulance.

They can be quite nasty.
 
I used to work in a Main OR.

Edged Weapons do nasty nasty damage! Hard sometimes to actually see where a bullet entered, never a doubt about where someone got sliced!

One of the worst victims I saw was that of a victim a busted 40 oz beer bottle got ahold of. He died very quick once his cartotid was cut. We had him to remove his organs for donation.

Forget TV and Movies, that stuff will get you dead.

Defensive purposes do NOT require the bottle to be broken.
Repeat.


Defensive purposes do NOT require the bottle to be broken.

Hold bottle as if you normally would and use the top. Works with Plastic bottles as well.

Next time drinking from a glass or plastic bottle, with the cap onor off , gently touch that top to Adam's Apple, hollow of throat, think of eyes, and sharp thrust to sternum, and at the base of ribs, yeah that area just up and under, touch your kidneys...

If you just have to - use heavy gloves, get a big cardboard box to contain glass-

Hold bottle by the base, like you would be holding it to drink from, just lower. Pop the neck off, now you have a jagged edge, something to hold onto , and have strength of bottle base.

Start noticing how bottles are made, notice the strength of the bases.

Tobasco, or Louisana Hot Sauce bottles work.

Again use glove and be safe, take any of these bottles, glass, or plastic, coke, water, hot sauce...etc., and do not break it, just poke cardboard, scrap drywall, punch a fresh chicken or picnic ham.

I have seen some nasty defensive wounds made by un- broken bottles. The deal is to survive an immediate threat, if one stops a threat, and is able to run away, and report an incident - it is a win to me.

Survival is the goal. Not a thing wrong with poking and running to safety in my book.

Less likely to be a Problem 2 as well.
 
When I bounced, we had a large black lady get in a fight with the bartender over her being 86'd. She grabbed the bottle {johnny walker Black} and cracked it on the edge of the glasses rack and went after him. He got his leg opened up pretty bad but she fell on the bottle and pretty much took a core sample of her ample bosom. IT was freakin nasty to see how much she had done to her self.

I saw a lot of guy who tried to do the same with beer bottles and almost all of them ended up with cut up hands, seems they don't break like you want them to unless they are pre-scored like the ones in the movies. I saw one guy at the state fair get hit in the head with a full beer bottle swung like a club, he dropped like a rock, and judging from the dent in his head, he was going to spend some time in the droolers club.

Unless you put on a pair of kevlar gloves first, I would leave this trick to the movies.
 
A friend of my once broke a glass on someones heads. He cuts himself in the process. But im sure if you take a bottle by the head you can breake it so only the middle breakes. Im pretty sure you will not cut yourself since the thin part is harder to breake and since you will be holding it, it will not touch the surface that will breake the bottle. Take some gloves and test it out. You have to do it fast so only the butt breaks. Im not sure but i think i broke tons of bottles with my hand that way. I just cant remember anymore :banghead:
 
Saw a drunk who'd been attacked by another drunk with a broken bottle one night in the ER. Based on what I saw, I would say that you can make very effective use of a bottle as a weapon.
 
When I first went in the Marines I had an NCO that told me if I ever saw a bar fight getting ready to start to order a Heinikin or similar imported beer. They are usually tougher and don't break as easy. The reasoning is now you have a blunt instrument, I'd rather crack the guy a good one than slice him open.
 
Bottles used that way in the movies are pre-weakened with a torch, so they break the right way. As mentioned, if you tried that for real, even money says you'd end up with sliced up hands, and only holding the neck of the bottle. A box cutter would be a more effective weapon, but if a busted bottle is all you got for whatever reason, then that's all you got.
 
A fully broken bottle is as likely to harm the user as badly or worse than the victim unless circumstances are perfect. It is also likely to be a one time weapon.

If forced into a barfight and only a beer bottle were available, I would try to use a full bottle and use it as a missle, aiming for the head if possible. An empty one would be first used as a missile.

Next choice would be to use an empty bottle it as a poker, holding the thick base and aiming for exposed tissue like throat. I suspect with a few pounds of pressure the lip of the bottle would become spearlike, especially if just the tip is tapped against a table to break the very tip.

Final choice would be to use the full or empty bottle as an overhand club to the head. I would expect to get cut badly at this last ditch attempt at defense, but hope that the blow is hard enough to give my attacker a concussion.

Slightly off topic, but if forced into a barfight there could be some decent weapons readily avialable including pool stick (reach), table or chair leg (club), pool balls (missiles), just for starters.

Not to mention the folding knife I always have with me and anything else I might have that offers significantly more stopping power!

Best advice, stay out of those bars.
 
Former co-worker of mine has a thick scar running from just behind his ear to his throat from a broken bottle. They can be very, very nasty.
 
I have seen thousands of people who had been in fights involving bottles, both broken and unbroken. Years ago, this was a several (or more) call a day incident. As society changed and things became much more violent these same people who hit each other with bottles turned to knives and later guns. I hardly ever see anyone hit with a bottle now. I used to half jokingly say, everytime the alarm went off: "Ok, where are we going for the guy hit with a beer bottle now" it was that common.
I personally never saw anyone killed. I saw a few people with fairly serious closed head injuries from the blunt force of being hit with a stout bottle that was intact. Most of the time with a broken bottle, the cuts are superficial. The weapon is used as a slashing weapon and not a stabbing weapon. Obviously this means that you normally not reaching the vital organs. As was mentioned, it is possible to cut a major blood vessel that is close to the skin like the carotid artery but I have never seen it. The main threat is being disfigured.
As was mentioned, if you were actually going to try this, break the bottle over your opponent's head if you are going to break it.

We had a guy on our department killed in a fight with bottles. The story goes that he was hit in the back of the head with a bottle, and fell to the ground. The word is that him hitting his head on the floor is what actually killed him but who knows. Either way, I went to the funeral.
 
Im sure a bottle can be very effective. But never use one. I think a bottle is only if your live is in danger. I would never use one on a bar fight. I prefer fists.
 
If you'll poke around the S&T forum, there's a discussion about a fellow thumping an armed robber pretty seriously with a jar of Mott's applesauce. A jar or bottle will work in a pinch, but it's not really a good weapon.

For my money, I'd rather go with a sturdy chair, a pool cue, or a sock/stocking full of 8-ball. Actually, for my money I'd rather visit the liquor store and drink at home with a few friends an an Xbox, but you get the idea.
 
Someone told me once that a if hit against something smartly, bottle has a tendency to break along the line of the liquid that remains in it.

He sounded and looked like someone who know what he was talking about, but I've never had the opportunity to test his advice.
 
in all the years i spent as a bouncer, i've seen a lot of bottles used as improvised weapons.

case 1: a guy got a bit too hands on with a woman about half his size. he wouldn't let up after she slapped him, so she thumped him in the left temple with a bottle of MGD. the bottle didn't break, but he went down like a sack of potatoes .

case 2: a bottle was smashed over the back of someone's head like in a john wayne movie. the bottle shattered, and both the attacker and the victim were bleeding, but that didn't stop the fight. the victim remained conscious.

case 3: an ornery young man tried to break a bottle over the edge of the bar when told he was being 86'd. he cut up his hand and got shards of glass embedded in his arm, chest, and face.

lesson learned: bottles rarely break the way they do in movies. if you need (keyword: NEED) to use a bottle as a weapon, aim for a weak point and swing it like a club.
 
If I was going to use a bottle as a weapon, I would use it as a projectile and throw it. Belive me, thrown things, be it a rock, bottle, pop can, or anything heavy enough, hurts.
 
Bottles

I bounced for many years in a pretty heavy duty club in Sydney. I saw lotsa bottles used. When I first started working there, the hard a$$es used to order a cheap bottle of spumante to use as ammo later on. The hoons (pimps) used to buy two, one for the girl to use as well. I dont know about throwing things, I've plenty of bottles bounce offa me with little effect. Beer bottles are pretty useless, it used to rain beer bottles as soon as a fight started, can't remember anyone getting seriously hurt by one. They are especially cheap nowadays and I saw a girl smash one in another's face a year or so ago and there wasn't a scratch. Pool ques are pretty useless unless you break the thin part off, still a bit light to be using on a real harda$$, probably just upset him more. Nothing beats a big solid punch, but we all ain't up to delivering them and you are just as likely to hurt your hand as well. Even if you don't break anything, you are bound to get scratched and if you get any spittle from the reveiver, your wound will fester badly.

Bottles used as a club is best, Don't break them, you might cut your hand and the cops will not be impressed, it is like adding premeditation to the deal. "Damn I didn't have time to do anything, I thought he was gonna kill me, I just grabbed the bottle and cold cocked him! It all happened in a second! I feared for my life officer!" If you think theres gonna be a fight, time to move on. Too pissed to move to another watering hole? Order a bottle of cheap bubbly or go and lock your self in the crapper.'

Useful weapons which are innocious are a rolled up newspaper, plastic bottle of Coke held by the base and thrust into the solar plexus. Step forward and drive it home as soon as he starts to telegraph the punch. If you look scared, he will probably be a bit cocky and relax, big mistake!

Probably easier to drink in classier places, leave the dives for the youngsters who have yet to experience such delights(?). Mick

PS, the worst damage I have ever seen was a big fat ugly lesbian who smashed a glass and thrust it directly into a guys face, cut his throat, chin and face and he nearly bled to death, bad scene. The fat ugly lezzo cut herself up pretty bad as well. She went for another glass to use on us and my boss punched her lights out. She had barely hit the floor and he picked the big marshmallow up and threw her down the stairs. She was well known and was just returning after being banned for three years. I had only been working there for a few nights at that stage, real eye opener!
 
lol. One time I had a boy bust a blender over my head and ended up being left with the complete handle of it with jagged glass sticking out both ends. He started trying to stab me and a friend with it till I got him subdued. Anything made of glass that is broken is dangerous and sharp as hell.

You can break a beer bottle to where just the bottom comes out the easiest by having a large metal nail or somthing and ramming straight down on the bottom of the bottle through the openig. I use to do this alot to get the bottoms to make arrowheads out of. You can also get the bottom to come off but with a lot of jagged glass attached to it by hitting the side of the glass near the bottom at an angle on the corner of somthing hard without it breaking all the way down to the neck of the bottle.
 
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