Vern Humphrey
Member
Perfectly true that bone changes the parameters. Flack vests also change them -- mostly by turning fatal wounds into mere bruises.Vern:
I suspect a bullet that is likely to yaw or tumble would do so promptly after hitting bone, and or the stuff that's usually covering your chest in combat(Fackler does bring this up).
So, the .308 does deserve it's reputation. Also, most shots aren't going to be through the chest. I would guess most shots are taken at prone, concealed opponents in war.
In combat, a disproportionately large number of hits are in the head and neck area -- the only parts exposed when shooting. With full body exposure, most wounds are in non-lethal areas -- arms, legs, lower abdomin -- because these make up most of the body area.
That said, our interest (as civilians in a self-defense situation) is in stopping an opponent. That means an upper torso hit (CNS hits are too difficult to count on under great stress.)