Author needing some assistance

[Author-DBM]

I have carried and tested bang sticks while diving shotgun for a friend and yacht owner who was spearfishing in sharky waters in Mexico — lots of sea lions and whiteies were prowling. Not much to tell. You hit something fairly big and it blows a hole about the size of a large fist. Hitting a smaller fish, like 24" long, didn't have enough resistance to trigger it, at least the ones I was using.

Thanks, this does help. I'm just trying to determine the amount of damage a coroner would see when doing an external examination of the body.

 

[lowwall]

Thanks, this does help. I'm just trying to determine the amount of damage a coroner would see when doing an external examination of the body.

Remember Jon-Erik Hexum? Jon-Erik Hexum - Wikipedia

He was an actor who shot himself in the head with a .44 Magnum blank cartridge while clowning around between takes on a TV shoot. The pertinent part of the Wikipedia article is "there was enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain, causing massive hemorrhaging." You can ignore the stuff about the wadding, it was the expanding gasses that caused the damage.

 

[Author-DBM]

Remember Jon-Erik Hexum? Jon-Erik Hexum - Wikipedia

He was an actor who shot himself in the head with a .44 Magnum blank cartridge while clowning around between takes on a TV shoot. The pertinent part of the Wikipedia article is "there was enough blunt force trauma to shatter a quarter-sized piece of his skull and propel the pieces into his brain, causing massive hemorrhaging." You can ignore the stuff about the wadding, it was the expanding gasses that caused the damage.

I don't remember this but it definitely gives me enough "ammunition" for setting my scene. Thanks!!!

 

[Storker]

I download my own bangstick ammo

Link? Please?

I'm fed up with cleaning used brass. Simply downloading my ammo would be great.

(Sorry. Just couldn't resist...)

 

[Akimbo]

I don't remember this but it definitely gives me enough "ammunition" for setting my scene. Thanks!!!

Our bangsticks used shotgun shells. A 44 wouldn't even slow down a white shark unless it was a very lucky shot.

 

[tarponchik]

The only good story involving scuba diving I've read was James Aldridge's "The Last Inch". But the story is not really about scuba, just like "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" is not really about hunting...

 

[lowwall]

Whoops. I was thinking these used blanks, so damage from the expanding gas only. Like I said, I've never seen one.

The Jon-Erik Hexum death is not applicable here. Just file it away for a future story when you need a murder without a bullet.

 

[Akimbo]

Whoops. I was thinking these used blanks, so damage from the expanding gas only.

That might be the case for some bang-sticks. There were quite a few different ones out there in the 1960s & 70s. Most were made in very small volumes and DIY. I remember a lot of tiny ads in the back of Skin Diver Magazine from companies nobody ever heard of.

On a related note, there was also a stick that was basically a huge compressed air hypodermic syringe... made by Tekna as I recall. It worked if you hit the shark in the right place. This is the result from injecting it around the area of the gills.

 

[greeniguana]

Link? Please?

I'm fed up with cleaning used brass. Simply downloading my ammo would be great.

(Sorry. Just couldn't resist...)

That would be great.

With no barrel to burn powder, the bullet is only going to go as fast as the initial charge allows. Anything more is just a bigger fireball....

 

[lowwall]

That might be the case for some bang-sticks. There were quite a few different ones out there in the 1960s & 70s. Most were made in very small volumes and DIY. I remember a lot of tiny ads in the back of Skin Diver Magazine from companies nobody ever heard of.

On a related note, there was also a stick that was basically a huge compressed air hypodermic syringe... made by Tekna as I recall. It worked if you hit the shark in the right place. This is the result from injecting it around the area of the gills.

View attachment 624323​

Yuck. Was that the Farallon Shark Dart?

SEALs vs. Sharks 2: Darts!

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