The recent post about "bullistics" brought out some very well spoken and well founded observations. I'd like to stir the pot a bit and throw out some opinions, observations and questions from my own experiences. Read on....

Watching various bullet impacts etc on high speed, you cannot discredit 100% of the "shock" theory. Much like someone getting punched, there is force transfered in any impact. However, exactly what can that force do with regards to "killing" an impacted animal???

I have noticed in the field that when you shoot a deer in a given spot, lets say behind the shoulder,each deer will react very differently to that impact than others do, all things being equal but the individual animal. I will personally vouch that if I were shot in the chest with a well constructed, modern hunting round of any decent caliber, you would certainly not have to trail me AT ALL. I suppose it is the thought that wild animals do not feel sorry for themselves and process pain (and perhaps even death) much differently than humans do.

What I am stabbing at here is this: Could the impact of a bullet, nervous system disconnect not withstanding, acctually have enough of an "emotional" effect on an animal that it would not run after being hit? I use the word emotional in leiu of a better term for what I am tryingto say. I'll put it another way...

Say you were playing football and took a shoulder to the low chest and got the wind knocked out of you (arid deprevation). The only thing you can think about is "Oh crap, I can't breathe" and no matter how tough you are, your animal instict takes over and pretty much paralyses you until you can regain control of your breathing. Could this be why a deer will hit the deck but still kick and struggle, despite having the physical ability to run (meaning nerve connections, four legs etc etc)? Sort of like an injuredplayer rolls side to side on the ground? It's clearly not the "nerves" dying off like what happens with a head or spinal shot.

Or, if you do cause enough trauma to the lungs, could the deer lose enough blood in that one instant to sufficently lower its blood pressure enough to make it "pass out", and then quickly bleed out in turn? We have all seen the sort of bloodied up jelly (essentially massive internal bruising/bleeding) that is caused by a bullets path, is this trauma sufficient to lower the blood pressure enough to cause the animal to "faint"? Or could that instant expansion of the lungs, like we have seen ballistics gel do for just a split second, rupture enough blood vessels to do it? Is all of that "bloodied/bruised" tissue even caused by a trauma or "shockwave" or is it just accumulated cottorized blood seeping towards the leak? Is that trauma of sorts enough to cause nerve disconnects and essentially stop operation of the rest of the body, despite the spinal cord remaininly intact? What sort of damage can this so called "shockwave" really do?

There are a couple of different thoughts, opinons and observations above and hopefully everyone can understand enough of my babble to give some insight and thoughts based on your own experiences.