Human Targets

[Tom Givens]

Nephrology- Thanks for your input.

I left the Memphis area a few months ago, but for many years it was a perfect laboratory for me. There are 20 hospitals in the metropolitan area, but one of them is the regional trauma center. It does not get all of the gunshot wounds, but it does get most of them. In 2013, The Med treated 3,100 people for gunshot wounds. Less than a hundred of those presented alive died from their wounds. Eight of every ten were treated and released the same day. Most people have a grossly exaggerated idea of the trauma caused by a typical handgun bullet. Placement is the key.

[Tamara]

If it is true what is the real A-zone? 2inch wide by how tall? Where would you place it?
(My guess is that the target high in the USPSA A zone and about 4 inches long).

A friend illustrates it with an edge-on 2x4 behind the target...

[DocGKR]

During my career, I got to meet a lot of veterans who took 7.62x39 mm, 7.62x54 mm, 7.7 mm, 8 mm Mauser, etc... through the lungs and were quite alive and active 10, 20, 40, 60 years later...

I've also seen a lot of facial GSW in the ED and OR who also did not succumb to their injuries--including quite a few who walked into the ED after sustaining their injuries on the street several hours earlier.

This is a pretty good target:

[John Hearne]

There are a lot of non-vital structures at the edge of an 8" circle. My favorite easy chest target is to fold a piece of 8.5" x 11" notebook paper in half and orient it vertically. You end up with 5.5" wide x 8.5" tall target which contains a lot more important "stuff."

[nycnoob]

Sigh…. As often happens, a complex subject that was discussed at length, in several segments over the course of a three day class has been distilled to one sentence.

Sorry if I simplified it too much. That idea as new to me and stuck with me, as well as the notion I really gotta improve my accuracy.

[nycnoob]

A friend illustrates it with an edge-on 2x4 behind the target...

Thanks for that, I was thinking of some two inch transparent tape down the center of the targets.
I remember Farnam doing something similar with duct tape.

[BehindBlueI's]

I think this gets right to the heart (hurr hurr) of respecting the time pressure adversaries create - if we got really really strict on vital anatomical correctness in the zones represented on targets, they'd be small enough that a whole lot of people would be taking so long to shoot them that they'd run out of time when they aren't going to just stand there and let you shoot them. Hence the balance inherent to something like an 8" circle, lower A-zone, etc.

This. Also given that people aren't always nicely squared up 2 dimensional targets, they are beginning to turn and move so that a hit where the spine or heart aught to be is now off to the side, clothing obscures the "center", etc.

This is why multiple hits to a fairly small area in the upper torso are often required to force someone to stop. We try to get across to students that only quality hits count when faced with a determined aggressor, and multiple hits are vastly better than single hits. The human body has a lot of redundancy (two lungs, two kidneys, etc) and a lot of resiliency. If faced with a determined attacker, it may take a lot of accumulated damage to force incapacitation in a survivable time frame.

This as well. The good news is most attackers that haven't chosen you specifically (ie domestic, ambush of LEO) aren't that dedicated and a bullet through the chest will change their tune, or at least degrade their performance at trying to kill you back. A real dedicated shooter is still deadly even with a pistol bullet through his heart. Ptl. Rod Bradway took a non-survivable hit to the heart and still put effective rounds on his shooter.

I am still a believer in the failure drill. Get quick hits on target and transition to the brain box if required. Do not expect someone who's up to go down, so continue to shoot them until they do go down. Do not expect someone who is down to stay down, so prepare to shoot them again if they get back into the fight. Move if you can. Use cover if you can.

If you're a surgical shooter who can put one through the brain in under a second under life or death pressure at the distance you need to take the shot at, then do that. By all means do that.

[1slow]

For a body shot, I like the black of a B8 repair center target placed centered on the vital zone John Hearne showed.
For a head shot I like The eye nose triangle.

This is from a LAPD SWAT (D Qual I think) that nyeti introduced me to.

[Caballoflaco]

BehindblueI's: "given that people aren't always nicely squared up 2 dimensional targets, they are beginning to turn and move so that a hit where the spine or heart aught to be is now off to the side, clothing obscures the "center", etc.

It's been said that experience hunting correlates positively with success in gunfights. I wonder if this as much related to being able to visualize vital areas on mobile 3 dimensional targets than any "stress inoculation" involved in hunting. I've never been in a gunfight, but I've done my share of hunting and never felt a physiological fight or flight response (I've also never hunted dangerous game).

[Drang]

I really want to take one of these classes: Threat Anatomy Llc - Online