Was watching Montel today and saw a troop who's front tooth stopped a colt .38 fired at close range. He was on point clearing a courtyard when an insurgent fired at him from just feet away. The round hit his front tooth and deflected up into his nose. He did not become unconscious and did not even realize he had been hit. Several minutes later he became drunk like and was bleeding from the mouth. He thought his lip and nose was bleeding from the concussion. Later at the aid station an x-ray showed that he had been shot and that the bullet was lodged behind his nose in the bone of his mouth (upper palate). The x-ray was done due to some shrapnel found in his kevlar liner. A doc numbed him up with a local and pulled out the bullet with forceps. One lucky soldier! Just shows that the real world can trump all ballistic data. A SSG standing in the street took some serious leg wounds from the same weapon after the lucky soldier went down.
Tooth stops .38 cal round.
- Thread starter MEDDAC19
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fisherman66
New member
So, it really hit his flack jacket first and deflected up into the mouth and was again deflected up his nose?
Lucky guy.
Lucky guy.
CobrayCommando
Moderator
Actually it was a captured Beretta he was shot at with, is what I heard, not a .38
Montel uses airguns in their reenactments of school shootings and Washington snipers and such so I wouldn't put too much faith in their reporting skills.
Montel uses airguns in their reenactments of school shootings and Washington snipers and such so I wouldn't put too much faith in their reporting skills.
I'm not saying it wasn't a .38 that struck the trooper, but just because he's the one that got hit doesn't mean he should know what it was. Neither is the Dentist guaranteed to know that. Now, if they recovered the weapon ... well that might be a different story. The average soldier, and cop for that matter, knows exactly what they've been taught and nothing more. They don't have our enthusiasm for firearms and don't make a hobby or passion of it. There are exceptions.
"I assume he knew what he was shot with." is a seemingly random assumption ... based on what?
"I assume he knew what he was shot with." is a seemingly random assumption ... based on what?
IIRC, the .38 and the 9mm is the same caliber .30. So, when extracted, it could be anything from a 9mm to a .357 mag. unless the weapon was captured and traced by a lab to say that was/is the gun that was used.
Teeth are actually stronger then you think. It is bone that is highly protected to exist outside of the body. Think about the way that a bullet will bounce off the bones in the body, basically playing "pinball" inside the body.
Again, lucky guy, most happy that he survived.
Wayne
Teeth are actually stronger then you think. It is bone that is highly protected to exist outside of the body. Think about the way that a bullet will bounce off the bones in the body, basically playing "pinball" inside the body.
Again, lucky guy, most happy that he survived.
Wayne
locked'n'cocked
New member
arn't .38's and 9mm's both .38 caliber bullets? this is a statement as well as a question. i always thought they were both .38's but i dont know for sure. correct me if i am wrong please.
fisherman66
New member
the 38 is actually a .357 or .358; very similar but ever so slightly larger than the 9mm.
I knew a guy who was rock climbing and held a rope in his mouth. He fell and his teeth were pulled 90 degrees out (pointing parallel to his tongue). He just shoved them back into place and continued the climb.
I knew a guy who was rock climbing and held a rope in his mouth. He fell and his teeth were pulled 90 degrees out (pointing parallel to his tongue). He just shoved them back into place and continued the climb.
If that bullet didn't expend energy hitting something else first, or wasn't fired from a long distance off, then it must have been a defective round. No way it would have been deflected and stopped that soon by a tooth and soft tissue otherwise.
An Angel was on that Soldier's shoulder that day for sure.
An Angel was on that Soldier's shoulder that day for sure.
Ben Swenson
New member
Bullets do the darndest things.