But seriously not all wounds are that obvious not by any stretch unless they are mechanically disabled by a broken bone etc a .45 hole is tiny going in a .355-.357 is really really small not very many will even bleed unless they hit an artery.
This is especially true because, even a person who has taken a mortal wound, such as an artery hit, will likely have some time of nearly-full functionality before their blood pressure drops to a level to prevent functioning. My understanding is that there are basically three ways that an attack is stopped:
- An organ or system vital to continuing functioning is damaged, such as the spine or certain parts of the brain. The person immediately becomes incapable of muscular control and simply drops like a rag doll.
- Sufficient damage is done to the cardiovascular system to cause blood loss to the point that blood pressure drops low enough that continuing function is impossible.
- Put simply, the person decides to stop fighting, even though they are physically capable of continuing to do so.
Point 1 is difficult to accomplish in a real fight. These targets are small. We have all heard a story where a lucky (or unlucky, depending on which side you're on) shot goes through a person's spine, but hitting someone in the spine or the right part of the brain on purpose is very hard.
Point 2, the problem is that it takes time. If you shoot a person directly in the heart with your first shot, they may have ten or twelve seconds of near-full functionality before they go down, especially with adrenaline in the mix. They may not even realize they have been hit.
That brings us to point 3. If you don't accomplish point 1, then only point 3 is going to stop an attack, at least up until you accomplish point 2. It pays to remember that the goal of a shooting is to stop the attack, not to put rounds into the assailant. The latter is just a means to the former. This is one reason why smaller rounds like .22 are less effective defense rounds. Of course, packing less energy and being physically smaller, they are less likely to accomplish points 1 and 2. But hitting with less impact and causing less trauma to the body, they are less likely to accomplish point 3, because they are less likely to send the message to the attacker's limbic system: "YOU ARE GETTING MESSED UP! STOP! RETREAT! SURRENDER!" But at the end of the day, you can't rely totally on point 3, because a determined attacker, hopped up on adrenaline, is just going to keep coming until points 1 or 2 shut them down. Go hunting for wild boar some day if you want to see what I mean. Some of those pigs get a head of steam and they are just going to keep trying to chew your leg off until the spark of life evacuates them.
In short, this is why one-shot and stop/wait/assess is a bad policy. It could have been the perfect shot (direct hit to the heart), and they could still have a very l o o o o ng ten seconds to shoot back at you, or stab you, or hit you with a bat, before they go down. You must keep shooting in hopes of accomplishing either 1 or 3.
