blank bullets?

[PunkyD20391]

What happens when you get shot with a blank bullet close up? Does it hurt at all?

[madhat]

I'm guessing the air impact against a body hurts quite awful!

[andy hughes]

Just because a bullet is a blank does not lessen its potential clos-range impact. Famously, Brandon Lee, son of Bruce, was killed on set by a piece of shrapenl from a blank shot at clos range. The rule is, bullets are dangerous - that's it.

[jills]

wasn't there an actor a few years ago accidentally blew his brains out with a blank bullet while on set. oh, now I can't remember the name of the prog. one of these US glossy things....theme tune was 'Holding out for a hero'. Based around handsome actor guy and some woman (actress called Jennifer?) ....photography rings a bell......oooh, that's going to annoy nmenow. Might have to make it a question.

[jills]

that prog...was in the 80s sometime, even tho I said 'a few years ago'(yes, I'm old...)

[LeMarchand]

Blank bullets still contain gunpowder to create the "bang", and I'm pretty sure that they normally fire wadding as opposed to a metal slug. As well as the aforementioned Brandon Lee, actor Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally killed himself by firing a blank-firing gun at his own head.

[LeMarchand]

Started my last post before jills posted! J-E H is the guy she's referring to, the show was "Cover-Up", the actress was Jennifer O'Neill and the premise was that she was a photographer working for the government using her shoots as cover.

[honkytonkman]

A blank round has a crimped tip instead of the lead 'bullet'. Injuries could be caused at close range hence the reason that the military when on exercise fit their weapons with a disintegrator to prevent injury; this is usually painted yellow for identification purposes.

[bernardo]

The answers above explain why the debates about whether Derren Brown did or did not use real or blank bullets in his Russian Roulette programme are irrelevant - he could have killed himself with blank bullets anyway.

[jills]

THANK YOU LeMarchand!!! I was waiting and hoping that someone would know. Tacky programme, but I loved it (but then, I was a child, and also liked Airwolf and other such tat!!)

[PunkyD20391]

Thanks, for answering. I was afraid I wouldn't get any answers. I pretty much no nothing about blank bullets.

[GordonL]

A "blank bullet" is a bit of a misnomer, a "bullet" actually consists of four parts the bullet (the pointed metal bit that is expelled from the end of the barrell), the shell (which has the bullet fitted at the end) the charge (the explosive which propells the bullet out of the shell) and the firing cap (which when struck by the firing pin detonates the charge). All found together are called a "round". A blank round, as distinct from a live round, has no bullet in the end on the shell just a paper of wax cap over the end of the shell to keep the charge in place. A blank round is every bit as dangerous and deserves just as much respect as alive round.

[Greedyfly]

It can still kill you

[worder]

I can't tell you what happens with a blank bullet, but i know what happens when you're shot with a .38 caliber from 10 feet away. the force is huge,and the impact is so sudden that i can't remember if it hurts. what does hurt is the heat wave you feel from the powder and as the pieces spread in your body, specially because as it does, it's breaking your bones, ribs in my case. it's an excruciating pain, in a scale of 1 to 10, definitely a 10. i've had labor pains, but it does not even come close.

[johngammon]

In 1978 Terry Kath, guitarist from the funk band Chicago, shot himself in the head with a blank bullet. He was apparently under the misapprehension that it wouldn't hurt, and it did. In fact it killed him. Alas this fine site wasn't there then to put him off.