OT: arrow lethality

From: styopa004 <steve_at_...>
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 13:46:23 -0000

> << Realistically bowhunters get pretty good kill percentages
against
> large mammals such as deer but then deer are not smart enough to
> realise that a man with a bow 20 paces away is a deadly threat >>
>
> Is this true? I thought that stabbing wounds were not a very quick
way of
> killing someone

Keith is entirely correct. Where a bullet kills by hydrostatic shock, an arrow actually kills by the cut. In effect, it's like you reach into an engine and slice random wires and hoses. Yes, the engine will inevitably stop, but it is a major question of WHEN. (Inevitably it's in the most inaccessible, inconvenient place they can get to. Trust me.)
AFAIK, in most cases the target of a hunting arrow usually dies of oxygen starvation to the brain, as bloodflow hemmorhages internally. Large mammals frequently react as the arrow pierces their skin, but very commonly don't even try to get the arrow out after that, but stand around for a while and then lie down as if to sleep.

So to drag this back to the topic, I entirely agree that a human target of an arrow would in MOST circumstances be able to fight back quite effectively, at least for a short time. Sometimes longer. (It's definitely not like the movies where *thunk* the arrow hits a guy's chest and he flips onto his back, dead. Nope.)