Bullet Wounds in Westerns

[Robert E Lee Hyde]

I enjoyed the comments on Jolene Little's question about gun accuracy.  How about this one?

In nearly every one of the 30's & 40's Western movies the hero was always wounded in the shoulder, the upper arm, or perhaps, off-center in the lower belly.  Those .44 slugs would have done a lot more damage in those areas, damage that couldn't have been healed by a few days bed rest, wrapped up in a torn bed sheet, and tended by a beautiful, innocent and compassionate homesteader's daughter.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Will C. Knott, who was one of the original creators of Gunsmoke, once told me that it was a miracle Matt Dillon still had a left shoulder.  He'd been shot in it so many times it should have been destroyed & his left arm amputated.  Will also said when they sat down to develop Gunsmoke they made a list of all the B-Western cliches.  They decided none of them would ever appear in Gunsmoke.  That's why there were never any long horseback chases or anything of that sort in the show.

[Buck Grizzly]

At least shows like Bananza, Virginian, Laredo, Big Valley, etc... had alternate cast members to take a bullet or arrow for them. Of course Chester, Festus, Newly, etc.., took their fair share of abuse too while taking a bullet for Matt or in his absence.  lol

[Dave McGowan]

At the times depicted the .44s would have been made primarily of lead. There may have been some tin in them to harden them a bit, but there would have been no jacketed bullets. Therefore they probably would have hit the "target" at a size larger than .44 and expanded further on contact. If they hit a bone they would have taken a very serious chunk out of that bone.

During the Civil War most of the after battle work by surgeons was amputation. I can't remember the figures I've read a few times, but a very high percentage who made it off the field and to the knife died from shock. After that, a very high percentage (such a General Jackson) died from Pnemonia.

[Vito Fashoda]

How very true about the damage.  If that didn't kill them, and the bullet was not taken out, they would've died from lead poisoning.

[C. F. 'Charley' Eckhardt]

Not necessarily.  A lot of people carried bullets in their bodies until they were in their 80s.  Andrew Jackson was one of 'em.  In his famous duel his opponent lodged a slug w/in a half-inch of his heart.  It was never removed.  Jackson was well into his 70s when he died.  That was 40+ years after he was shot. He had that slug in him at the Battle of New Orleans & it never slowed him down.