Neck Shot Placement

[GRV]

I heard an interesting remark recently from someone with a fair bit of professional experience in firearms application. On the topic of shot placement, they brought up the throat/neck as a viable target for immediate incapacitation. I got the sense that they might even prefer it over the bead.

Some points that were mentioned:
- Head is more unpredictable due to skull. Exemplified with a bunch of wacky stories, the likes of which have occasionally come up on PF.
- Neck has major arteries and CNS relatively unprotected.
- That a shot to the throat, though not necessarily as lethal as a CNS hit, is correlated to an involuntary reaction of dropping weapons and reaching for the throat.

In the past, I've heard Southnarc and others advocate for the neck as a very viable target for empty hand strikes, with possibly more knockout potential than the head; so the idea doesn't seem entirely crazy.

Of course, there are a bunch of issues with the suggestion too:
- Neck may arguably be a smaller target than head/eyebox
- CNS vitals are smaller than those exposed at eyebox
- Arteries and throat are not the biological "off switch" the eyebox exposes


I couldn't find anything by searching, so I'd be curious to hear what the anatomically educated and doorkickers among us have to say about it.

[BehindBlueI's]

... is correlated to an involuntary reaction of dropping weapons and reaching for the throat.

I'd say there is validity to that, based on security video footage showing exactly that.

[Leroy]

Some may laugh. But I use to play paintball and took a shot in the throat. Straight dropped my ass. Like a weird stunning effect, hurt like hell too.

[1slow]

I seem to remember that a spine hit cervical 8 and up makes the arms and hence hand held weapons not work.

[LSP552]

I can say brachial stuns are good stuff. As far as a deliberate firearms aiming point, I think you take what you can get. I'd have a hard time deliberately trying for the neck if the head was available.

[JHC]

I heard an interesting remark recently from someone with a fair bit of professional experience in firearms application. On the topic of shot placement, they brought up the throat/neck as a viable target for immediate incapacitation. I got the sense that they might even prefer it over the bead.

Some points that were mentioned:
- Head is more unpredictable due to skull. Exemplified with a bunch of wacky stories, the likes of which have occasionally come up on PF.
- Neck has major arteries and CNS relatively unprotected.
- That a shot to the throat, though not necessarily as lethal as a CNS hit, is correlated to an involuntary reaction of dropping weapons and reaching for the throat.

In the past, I've heard Southnarc and others advocate for the neck as a very viable target for empty hand strikes, with possibly more knockout potential than the head; so the idea doesn't seem entirely crazy.

Of course, there are a bunch of issues with the suggestion too:
- Neck may arguably be a smaller target than head/eyebox
- CNS vitals are smaller than those exposed at eyebox
- Arteries and throat are not the biological "off switch" the eyebox exposes


I couldn't find anything by searching, so I'd be curious to hear what the anatomically educated and doorkickers among us have to say about it.

I suspect you are correct and perhaps contextualized targets' A zone should include a center zone down the throat meeting up with the high chest as some I believe do have. I've heard FAMs use or used such. Not sure exactly.

[voodoo_man]

I have defaulted to a target of high thoracic, right about the middle of the clavicular notch. This gives a fairly certain area of targeting at all times and it provides for numerous timers and switches.

[GuanoLoco]

Some may laugh. But I use to play paintball and took a shot in the throat. Straight dropped my ass. Like a weird stunning effect, hurt like hell too.

I had the exact same thing happen once, completely involuntary.

[Sherman A. House DDS]

There's a lot going on in the neck...cervical spine/CNS running up to mission control, blood supply to the brain (coming and going), vagus nerves to the heart, brachial plexus (arms aren't going to work without them), trachea (conducts oxygen to the lungs).

I've worked a couple of GSW's to the neck in my residency and career. The anatomy in the neck is extremely dense, very packed in place, and thus doesn't lend itself well to a projectile flying through it at any speed. I've seen a .380 to the neck (self inflicted) and that wasn't lethal but it was instantly incapacitating, and another that was from a couple of 00 pellets that was incapacitating and eventually lethal.

Anecdotal accounts on my part, sure. But if you've got a clear shot, I wouldn't look a gift horse in the...neck.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[GRV]

The relative symmetry of the neck is interesting.

We've discussed 3D targeting on PF before and the issue that the eyebox stops being the "off switch" shot as soon as you're not squared up face to face with someone. From any other perspective, it seems like there are multiple competing factors to balance when discussing aiming points on the head: 1) the 3D position of the medulla and 2) the spot with the lowest skull density and greatest likelihood of penetration 3) glancing surfaces vs. flat surfaces facing the shooter. Surely, in practice you're not going through all that, and you just take what you get. But it seems that "what you get", assuming any perspective other than face-to-face, is unlikely to have the magic combination of effective properties that a square eyebox shot has. In which case, I imagine the result is significantly more unpredictable.

The neck on the other hand is extremely uniform and symmetric. The center of the neck is a target that remains in the same spot and equally unprotected regardless of what perspective you're shooting from...